Nearly two percent of the Earth's surface is covered fresh water. It is not surprising that much of what the lakes hide in themselves began to be covered with a touch of mystery, from which legends and myths were born. Now we can easily remember, perhaps, only Nessie - the famous Loch Ness monster. But folklore has preserved tales of much more terrible creatures from the lakes. And this collection is just a few of them.

A terrible beast from the myths of the Mayan and Aztec peoples. It looks like a cross between a small dog and an otter. Auistol has two stripes on its head, small ears and a very long strong tail that ends in human hand. According to legend, ahuizotl hunts from ambush: he lies in wait for his prey, plunging into a lake or stream, and at the sight of a person begins to moan plaintively and cry like to a small child or a frightened girl. A passer-by hears screams and immediately rushes to the aid of the "victim". When approaching the water, the hand on the tail of the ahuizotl strangles the "savior", and he himself pulls out the victim's eyes, nails and teeth and eats them. Then he throws a lifeless body ashore and waits for the next traveler.

Mishipispis

In the mythology of the Indians of many of the Great Lakes and the northeastern Woodlands, the misipishu is one of the most important aquatic creatures. Mishipeshu translates as "great lynx". It has the head and legs of a giant cat and is covered in scales and spikes on its back and tail. More detailed sources describe him as having a head mountain lion or lynxes with deer or bison antlers; its spine to the tip of the tail is covered with scales, spikes and sometimes bird feathers. Being a spirit, mishipushu can enter the human body and control it. He can be both a protector and an avenger who will not stop until he achieves his goal. Typically, the mishipushu kills its victims by biting on the throat. The behavior of mishipu is generally reminiscent of a cat: so he licks his hands and laps the water with his tongue.

Emela-ntouka

From the Lingala language, the name of this creature is translated as "killer of elephants." According to legend, emela-ntouka lives in shallow marshes and lakes of the Congo Basin, especially in the marshes of Likuala and possibly Cameroon. It also presumably inhabits the Bangweulu Lakes in Zambia. They say that Emela-ntouka has a bay or gray color, dimensions big elephant, a tail like a crocodile and one but powerful horn on the nose. Traces of a strange beast are like elephants. Emela-ntouki has three thick clawed toes on each paw. The “elephant killer” lives in a swamp, can breathe underwater and has a habit of gutting any forest elephant that voluntarily or unwittingly crosses the boundaries of the territory “staken out” by a strange bloodthirsty creature. At the same time, the main food product of Emela-ntouki is malombo fruits and leaves of various plants. The archives of periodicals mention the only case of a man's victory over Emela-ntouka, but then, in 1934, the shot beast was not studied by scientists and ingloriously rotted in the forest.

El Cuero

From Spanish "el cuero" is translated as "cow's skin". This is a Chilean mythical monster that lives in the mountain lake Lakar in the Andes. They say that it looks like the skin of an animal without a backbone. Such a legend, most likely, could arise from observations of large freshwater electric stingrays, although, unlike stingrays, El Cuero has eyes on the "horns" and has claws. In the middle of the torso, El Cuero has a face with a retractable mouth, with which the monster sucks the blood of its victims - to the last drop.

Dobharchu

A kind of semi-aquatic predator, allegedly living in the rivers and lakes of Ireland. It is described as a large creature that looks like a half-wolf, half-fish. Dobhar-chu means "water dog" in Gaelic. The old people told about the beast that lives in the lake, and that a certain daredevil with his wolfhound once met such a beast; and after long struggle he ran away from the man and his dog; and then he was found dead and decomposing in a rocky cave, when the water in the lake subsided. Some researchers suggest that dobhar-chu is a distorted description of a giant river otter. And although otters do not attack humans, they can grow to a considerable size, which is why a person watching a fast-swimming otter may misunderstand its size and mistake it for a dog-like creature.

Faun

Reports of sightings in several US states tell of a strange hominid, which is most often observed in Louisiana, Maryland and Texas. He is described as a hybrid creature that has lower part the body of a goat and the upper part of the human body with ram's horns growing from the head. Some claim he is related to the vicious New Orleans Chupacabra. Urban legends about them often say that the monsters, on a whim, kill young couples in parked cars or kill pets in the neighborhood. They are also said to break into people's homes and tend to rape their victims. They usually live in forests with large lakes.

Grutslang

Grutslang, or "huge snake" in translation, is a mysterious water monster that supposedly lives in the flooded caves of the Richtersveld, a mountainous desert region in the northwestern part South Africa. In local mythology, Grutslang was a creature with the head and half of the body of an elephant, and with the other half of the body and the tail of a huge snake. According to legend, Grutslang possessed such strength and cunning that the gods - the creators of the Earth decided to separate him into two separate species - an elephant and a snake. But some Grutslang survived the transformation and hid in the deepest caves, where they have survived to this day. Reliable evidence of the existence of Grootslang has not yet been found. Although according to the natives, the monster reaches 20 meters in length. It is also believed that the cave where Grutslang lives is full of diamonds, but no one can get close to them, as the monster guards them day and night.

shell rock

original English title of this creature - Shellycoat in the literal translation "thin coat". In the Russian version, it is often called a shell rock. This is a harmful water bogle from the Lowlands that lives in streams and running water. He got his name from the fact that he often appears in a tattered cloak hung with shells that rattle with his every movement. There is a story that tells how late one night two people, having heard in the distance drawn-out plaintive cries: “Lost! Help!" - for a long time they walked towards the voice along the banks of the Ettrick River. And only at dawn did they understand who was calling them: a shell rock jumped out of the stream and galloped away along the hillside, bursting with laughter. The "thin coat" loves nothing more than to tease, deceive and amaze people without actually harming them, and then laughs out loud at his own jokes.

divers

This is the name given to these creatures, which were first seen in 1955 in Loveland, Ohio. There were three of them, and they looked like small (1 meter high) humanoid humanoids. Their skin was similar to that of frogs or lizards, and their hands and feet were webbed. The creatures lived in rivers and other small bodies of water, but they also moved well on land. Many eyewitnesses said that most likely they were aliens.

The Beast from Busco

Mysterious giant vulture turtle from Indiana. The first mention of this cryptid dates back to 1898, then the farmer Oscar Falk said that the giant tortoise lived in a lake not far from his farm. Half a century later, in 1948, two fishermen on Falk Lake in the area reported seeing a huge turtle 4.5 meters long and weighing over 200 kg. According to legend, after this turtle destroyed almost the entire livestock on neighboring farms, it still managed to be caught. True, as soon as the police turned away, the turtle broke the chains and disappeared in an unknown direction at an unthinkable speed.


For several hundred years in a row, the Mongols have been passing from mouth to mouth the legend of the "Olgoi-Khorkhoy" - a certain mysterious creature that lives in the lifeless sands of the Gobi Desert. This underground monster, resembling a giant worm, is supposedly capable of unexpectedly crawling out of cracks in the ground and instantly killing its unintentional prey from a distance.

The sandy killer would have remained the property folklore, if it had not attracted the attention of numerous scientific expeditions.

Despite the fact that not a single monster fell into the hands of researchers, there was a lot of evidence that a species unknown to science really exists even today, and not only in the sands of Mongolia ...

"Olgoi-Khorkhoy" - the horror of the Mongolian deserts

    Due to the fact that Mongolia has always been a country relatively isolated from outside world, its fauna could present many surprises to scientists. One of these surprises was the “olgoy-khorkhoy” (Mongolian for “intestinal worm”), a half-meter underground creature that looks like maroon entrails of animals.

    According to eyewitnesses, a strange worm is very insidious: it can suddenly crawl out from under your feet and “shoot” with deadly poison, and when you try to grab it, a person falls as if struck by lightning!

    According to the assumptions of the local researcher Dondogizhin Tsevegmid, there are several varieties of these underground creatures, among which there are very aggressive yellow-colored creatures that can pursue their prey.

    In 1926, the American scientist Roy Champen Andrews said that the Mongolian Prime Minister asked geologists to catch a monster called "allergohai-hohai", from the poison of which his relative died. According to some scientists, the worm kills with a poison that is similar in composition and action to hydrocyanic acid: a quite ordinary nodding centipede also uses a similar weapon. According to another, completely unbelievable hypothesis, an unusual worm has the properties of a generator of small ball lightning.


    The search for a mysterious monster began in the middle of the last century, when famous writer and scientist Ivan Efremov colorfully described the bloodthirsty Mongolian worms in one of his fantasy stories, based on his own adventures during expeditions to the Gobi desert in 1946-1949. According to old-timer Mongols, sand monsters live about 130 km southeast of the Aimak region. During the hottest months of the year, the worms quite often catch the eye of the locals, spending the rest of the time in hibernation.

    In 1954 in the sands Central Asia an expedition headed by the American A. Nisbet set off, but at the first attempt to search the desert in search of the mysterious “olgoi-khorkhoy”, the scientists simply ... disappeared. A few months later, in the remote area of ​​the Gobi, members of the rescue team found both American cars, and not far from them, the decayed corpses of six unfortunate travelers, whose cause of death could not be determined.


    Already in the 90s, the search for an unprecedented "beast" was continued by Czech researchers Ivan Markale and Yaroslav Prokopets, who found many "traces" of the existence of underground killers and filmed a unique video. According to the Czechs, the mysterious worms are more like reptiles that have lost limbs in the course of evolution, but how they generate electricity is still not clear.

creeping riddle

    Meanwhile, Mongolian monsters are not alone: ​​similar creatures were seen in North Vietnam, and they are also credited with the disappearance of an entire regiment of French soldiers without a trace in 1953. And during the French intervention in Indochina, General Jean de Lattre de Tassini was more than once interested in some "ingots" - mysterious blue-eyed worms with silvery bodies covered with down. However, later American researchers also searched for "ingots", but to no avail.

    And many years later, a trail of mysterious worms led scientists to... Ukraine. So, in 1988 in Lugansk, one of the diggers was hospitalized with a very unusual burn: despite complete absence in a section of underground electrical cables, a snake-like mark on the hand of a worker testified to an electric shock!

    Two months later, a first-grader died from an “underground” electric discharge, and in 1989-1990 several more cases of defeat were recorded. electric shock during earthworks. At the same time, one of the victims even heard “sobbing” sounds coming from under the ground. The source of the strange sounds turned out to be… a fat half-meter lilac worm caught by builders while digging a heating main. Biologists who studied the strange creature in the laboratory considered it a mutant of unknown origin.


    And in the village of Podosinki, near Chernobyl nuclear power plant Strange things have been happening recently. So, the rubber boots left to “spend the night” on the porch in the morning turned out to be torn to shreds, and the sheets hung out to dry turned into a pile of tattered rags. On the body of domestic animals, as if by themselves, bleeding wounds arose, chickens were torn to pieces right in closed chicken coops, and garden beds were full of longitudinal furrows, as if someone was diligently crawling along them.

    A terrible solution was not long in coming: one night, the local watchman had to fight with ... meter-long red-eyed white worms covered with mucus! According to the victim, he accidentally discovered a whole flock of sinister creatures in the bushes. The monsters immediately pounced on the involuntary witness, and one of them even pulled out a piece of meat from the watchman's hand... The wound received in the night battle became covered with blue spots and began to fester, and the veins burst, exuding a strange brown liquid. When the victim got to the hospital, the doctors threw up their hands: the proximity of the ill-fated Chernobyl nuclear power plant led them to think about mutant worms.

    Scientists still argue about the nature of such creatures. Some consider them worms, which, as a result of mutation, acquired strong skin and learned to spray poison, others see them as legless lizards or snakes capable of generating electricity, and some even called them huge helminths ... Which of them is right remains a mystery .

Polina Karavaeva
"Amazing is near", No. 8/2010

Each metropolis has its own legends, and some of them are connected with city dungeons. Of course, Moscow also has such legends. If you believe them, in the capital's dungeons you can meet not only giant mutant rats, but also other even more mysterious monsters.

Rats the size of dogs

The underground environment is a completely different world, especially if it is located under such a metropolis as Moscow. Here, special temperature and humidity, and various effluents, including industrial ones, create an incredible chemical cocktail in its underground waters. Add to this strong electromagnetic fields, and in some places increased radiation. In such an environment, normal creatures simply cannot live or survive, so stories about various monsters found in Moscow dungeons may well have a real basis.

Huge mutant rats are considered the main monsters of the Moscow dungeons. They were first mentioned in 1989. Persistent rumors circulated around the city that these creatures tried to attack the fitters serving the gas communications. Of course, there were many skeptics who reacted to such conversations with undisguised irony, but reports soon appeared that rats almost a meter long and about 60 cm high were observed in the area of ​​landfills and meat processing plants. It was said that even the most desperate watchdogs were afraid of them.

Later, machinists of the Moscow metro allegedly told reporters about giant rats. According to their stories, sometimes in the far sections of the tunnels, the headlights of trains snatched out of the darkness huge rats that were no smaller than a dog. They ran across the tracks, angrily flashing their red eyes at the drivers.

True, skeptics lacked hard evidence - a corpse, or at least a video or a good photograph of an animal. They believed that eyewitnesses could mistake a stray bull terrier hanging around one of the Moscow metro stations for a huge rat, because many people in the USSR did not know this breed.

Perhaps, over time, all sorts of tales about monstrous rodents would have bothered the people, and this topic would have come to naught. However, Vadim Mikhailov, the head of Moscow diggers, added "heat to the fire". The following story appeared in the media: “The first time we met with rats in the tunnels located under the zoo. We have never seen such large animals! Then they seemed to me just huge, the rodents reached 65 cm in length and 30 cm at the withers. At first, we even thought that we had nutria in front of us, but then we looked closely and realized that they were rats after all. They moved through the tunnels that stretched towards the zoo, the White House and further, towards the American embassy.

Then Mikhailov continued: “Having got out of the ground, we“ rang all the bells ”- they called the riot police, television, called the mayor's office. However, they blocked the tunnels only 4 days after the incident, and of course, the rats did not wait for journalists for so long ... ”After the hype in the press about this incident, the former military men anonymously contacted the diggers. They said that there are several radioactive sedimentation tanks underground, and it is near them that the appearance of huge rats and other mutants is noted.

More recently, the possibility of the existence of giant rodents has been confirmed by several facts. Scientists have discovered very large fossil rats in East Timor (they weighed up to 6 kg!), Which died out quite recently - only 2 thousand years ago. Maybe they didn't die? Another curious fact: found in the jungles of Papua New Guinea the new kind giant rats about 82 cm long. Finally, in London, 46-year-old gas technician Tony Smith discovered a dead giant rat the size of an average dog and weighing more than 10 kg. Tony's friend took a picture of him with the find, the photo turned out to be impressive and caused a lot of controversy.

After Vadim Mikhailov's statement, some scientists nevertheless recognized the possibility of the existence of giant rats in the Moscow subway, but made the assumption that these were Indonesian rats - those found in the jungles of Papua New Guinea. Like, someone brought them to Moscow, and they either fled or were specially released. This is, of course, an explanation, but with a big stretch. Firstly, these rats have been discovered quite recently; secondly, they are very peaceful, and the diggers had to throw crowbars at them in order to fight off their Moscow relatives.

According to Rospotrebnadzor, the rat "army" is 40 times larger than the number of Muscovites, but, fortunately, the vast majority of these rats are of normal size. However, if suddenly ordinary rats begin to be replaced by giant ones, people will definitely not be in trouble. Imagine, in India, at least 10,000 people, mostly children, die every year from the attacks of the most ordinary rats, but what will happen if the rats increase dramatically in size?

Giant cockroaches and alien monkey

Not only huge rats live in Moscow dungeons, there is a whole set of mutants here ... Vadim Mikhailov told the following in an interview with Vechernaya Moskva correspondent: “I met such strange traces underground - obviously an insect, but only these traces are 15 centimeters in size . Once I personally caught such a mutant. It seems to be a simple grasshopper, but only the size of a good saucer. At a depth, in warm plums, centipedes live. So, we saw a centipede one and a half meters long and with a diameter of a sausage. A huge frog, larger than the Surinamese, was seen in Bitsa. We met the most original underground creature under Tishinka. One of our rescuers even got bitten through his boot. And it turned out to be… a piranha! True, I can reassure you: they live in our drains for 3-4 days. On that day, you see, someone was wooled for the presence of animals prohibited for import, so the piranhas were lowered into the sewer ... "

The metro management, of course, denies the presence of both giant rats and other monsters hiding in the subway. The train drivers, who are checked almost like cosmonauts, do not talk about this either: for “glitches” they can even lose their jobs. They share their impressions only with their wives and friends, and this is how unofficial information appears, which can only be called rumors. So, according to these rumors, on the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line, on the stretch "Kurskaya" - "Ploshchad Revolyutsii", the machinists more than once observed an eerie dark-colored creature about 1.5 meters long. It looked like a fat snake with a forked tail, along its body one could see something like clawed paws with fins.

And the route between the stations "Tulskaya" and "Nagatinskaya" "became famous" strange creature, similar to a monkey about 1.5 meters tall. According to some data, it is covered with whitish-gray wool; according to others - pale gray skin. Somehow this mysterious "monkey" was a little bit hooked by the train, and some blood was found. Some believe that this is actually a runaway large monkey, others see in this creature a completely feral bum, others - an alien ...

Of course, rumors do not inspire much confidence, so let's return to the testimony of an eyewitness, who undoubtedly tells the truth. Here is another story of the leader of the Moscow diggers, Vadim Mikhailov: “I saw that an incomprehensible animal was sitting in a dry side branch of the dungeon and crunching unpleasantly with something. His terrible half-naked tail resembled a huge rat's tail overgrown with stiff bristles. There was a very pungent smell of musk here. We called this creature "corpse eater". He goes on to say, “This monster has had to be called the ‘large scalpendroid’, although there is little resemblance to the latter. It looks more like a large earwig - a peculiar creature in a chitinous shell, which, apparently, feeds on insects. An overpopulation of a colony of giant cockroaches is developing in Moscow undergrounds. Their length is about 12 centimeters ... "

giant worm

If you believe old legend, during the construction of the foundation of the Nikolskaya Church, an ancient underground passage was discovered behind the Yauza Gates. The place was considered bad, so only the local fool dared to go underground. He was gone for a long time, everyone decided that he was dead, but the next day he returned, and dragged with him on a rope some kind of dead creature, like a huge fish or seal. According to the holy fool, underground passage he reached the underground sea, which literally teemed with all sorts of incredible monsters. He took one of the creatures with him as proof of his words. By order of the priests, the "godless creature" was burned, and the holy fool was ordered to be silent so as not to embarrass people's minds.

This legend can be completely considered a fairy tale, however, firstly, they say that there really is an underground sea near Moscow, and secondly, there is a curious testimony of Vadim Mikhailov and his team published in the press. 200 meters underground, not far from the Kurchatov Institute, they heard and even observed unknown monsters.

“The old mine was as dark as a grave. Suddenly there was a wild roar and the tread of an approaching unknown beast. The creature suddenly rushed into the depths of the mine, leaving behind a terrible smell. A second later, where the monster had just been seen, another inhabitant of the dungeon appeared - a giant worm! Behind him, he left a sticky trail from a dozen tentacles covered with vile bristles. Flickering, the monster disappeared ... "

The diggers saw a lot of other monsters in the dungeons: for example, flying cockroaches the size of a turtle; as Mikhailov says: "Clouds of such flying monsters are not a sight for the faint of heart." They also talked about 50-centimeter white worms that hunted fish, wrapping their body around them and sticking to the gills. Met in the dungeons and mushrooms over a meter high. In general, it is quite possible to state that there is a completely different world underground with its own specific flora and fauna.

Ghosts of the Moscow Metro

Once a detachment of diggers explored underground structures right under SKLIF. And the culmination of that campaign was the appearance of a real ghost! In a small chamber, to which the tunnel led, a ghostly female silhouette appeared directly from the concrete vault, which immediately, as if by someone, was sharply drawn back into the wall. According to Vadim Mikhailov, the story with the appearance of the ghost had a literally fantastic continuation.

Frightened, the diggers hurried to the surface. In a hurry, one of them hit his head hard and, with a wound, ended up in the emergency department of SKLIF. The injured digger was lying on a couch in one of the wards, there was also a gurney with a corpse under a sheet. What horror the guy experienced when, under the sheet lifted by the orderly, he saw a woman whose ghost the diggers saw underground! As it turned out, she died exactly at the time when the detachment was watching a ghost ...

It is worth noting that in the dungeons you can stumble upon the corpses of both recently deceased or murdered people, as well as human remains from ancient cemeteries, because Moscow is literally built on bones. Of course, this sometimes creates extremely negative energy. Many diggers say that they often feel like someone is being watched, although there are no strangers nearby. It is curious that the employees of the Moscow Metro are also talking about the appearance of various ghosts in the tunnels of the subway. There are among them, for example, a lineman who has worked underground for more than 40 years. He died at the age of 82, but he could not part with his beloved metro, now the lineman is wandering, scaring former colleagues and diggers.

And in the subway you can meet the ghost of a "terrible hard worker." According to legend, in the 1950s, while tunneling, a certain man died from an explosion of liquefied gas. working B-n. The restless soul of the hard worker allegedly still wanders the subway lines and pushes passengers to commit suicide. Some victims say that a “terrible hard worker” suddenly appeared and pushed them onto the rails or threw them off the escalator. Why is he "terrible"? Yes, they say, he looks very creepy and repulsive.

Speleologists discovered a crystal coffin with a mummified creature from an alien world

Strange finds that regularly appear in various places on our planet force scientists to reconsider their views on the evolution and origin of life on Earth over and over again. More and more supporters are gaining the theory of panspermia, which claims that life was brought to Earth from space. An absolutely fantastic discovery was recently made by speleologists from Turkey. Underground explorers stumbled upon a crystal coffin. Or rather, on an object that looked like a coffin, since something clearly not from our world lay in it. The mummified creature outward signs resembled a man, except for the color of his skin, which was light green, and two transparent wings, the same as those of insects. At the same time, male genital organs were observed in the alien, and his feet, lips, ears, nose, hands and nails were no different from human ones.

Monsters of the underworld


But the eyes were huge, colorless, exactly like those of reptiles. The field of how the monster was sent to scientific laboratory, followed by a shocking conclusion. Both doctors and biologists said they were not sure that the monster was dead.


It is likely that it is simply in a state of suspended animation and may soon come out of it. Upon careful analysis of the crystal coffin, it turned out that the substance from which it was made was not crystal at all, but only looked like it. This is a crystalline material that is not known to science.


VIDEO: 5 underground monsters caught on camera

Sometimes it seems that modern man nothing to be afraid of. We almost calmly watch even the most bloodthirsty horror films, read mystical novels, and in computer games sometimes a variety of monsters of the world are involved, both real earthly and fictional. All this no longer surprises anyone. Even teenagers and young children treat all these creatures with a touch of irony and skepticism.

And what will you answer to someone who will argue that monsters and monsters are also found in our world today? Will you smile? Twist your finger at your temple? Will you start proving otherwise? Do not hurry. Why? The thing is that from time to time unprecedented creatures still appear to people even now.

For example, having delved into your memory, you will surely remember that one of your relatives, friends or just acquaintances once various circumstances met a terrible monster or some inexplicable creature. Is it true?

But what if this is not just the fruit of an unhealthy imagination or the consequence of a sleepless night? What if the mythological ancient Greek monsters actually existed and continue to live somewhere in our world? To tell the truth, from such thoughts, even the most daring of us get goosebumps and begin to listen to the surrounding rustles and sounds.

All this will be discussed in this article. However, in addition to the story about where the monsters live, we will touch on other equally interesting topics. For example, we will dwell on epics and beliefs in more detail, and also introduce readers to modern beliefs and hypotheses.

Section 1. Mythical monsters from fairy tales and legends

Each spiritual culture and religion has its own myths and parables, and they are composed, as a rule, not only about goodness and love, but also about terrible and disgusting creatures. Let's not be unfounded and give some of the most typical examples.

So in Jewish folklore lives a certain dybbuki, the spirit of a deceased sinful person who can inhabit living people who have committed a serious offense and torment them. Only a very qualified rabbi can drive a dybbuk out of the body.

Islamic culture, in turn, as a mythical evil creature, offers genies - an evil winged people created from smoke and fire, living in a parallel reality and serving the devil. By the way, according to the local religion, the devil was also once a genie under the name of Iblis.

In the religion of Western states, there are Rakshasas, that is, terrible demons that inhabit the bodies of living people and manipulate them, thereby forcing the victim to do all sorts of abominations.

Agree, such mythical monsters inspire fear, even if you just read their description, and you really wouldn’t want to meet them.

Section 2. What are people afraid of today?

Nowadays, people also believe in various otherworldly beings. For example, in Malay (Indonesian) folklore, there is a Pontianak, a female vampire with long hair. What makes it scary creature? Attacks pregnant women and eats all their insides.

Russian monsters are also not far behind in their bloodthirstiness and unpredictability. So, among the Slavs, the evil spirit is represented in the form of a water spirit, the embodiment of the dangerous and negative principle of the element of water. Creeping up unnoticed, he drags his victim to the bottom, and then preserves the souls of people in special vessels.

Let's try to imagine something. In this case, it is impossible not to mention one of the countries South America. Probably, many have already heard that in Brazilian folklore there is an encantado, a snake or river dolphin, who turns into a man, loves sex and has an ear for music. He steals the thoughts and desires of people, after which the person loses his mind and eventually dies.

Another belonging to the category "Monsters of the world" is the goblin. He has human species- very tall, shaggy with strong arms and luminous eyes. Lives in the forest, as a rule, in dense and hard-to-reach. Goblin rides on trees, constantly fooling around, and at the sight of a person they clap their hands and laugh. By the way, women are attracted to them.

Section 3. Lochness monster. Scotland

The lake with the same name and a depth of 230 m is the largest reservoir of water in the UK. It is believed that this reservoir, which, by the way, is the second largest in Scotland, was formed quite a long time ago, during the last ice age in Europe.

Rumor has it that a mysterious beast lives in the lake, which was first mentioned in writing back in 565. However, the Scots from ancient times mentioned water monsters in their folklore, calling them the collective name "kelpies".

Contemporary Loch Ness monster called Nessie, and its history began almost 100 years ago. In 1933, one married couple, resting nearby, saw with their own eyes something unusual, which they reported in special service. However, despite the testimony of 3,000 witnesses who claim they saw the monster, scientists are still unraveling the mystery.

To date, many locals it was agreed that a creature two meters wide and moving at a speed of 10 miles per hour lived in the lake. Modern eyewitnesses claim that Nessie looks like giant snail having a very long neck.

Section 4. Monsters from the Valley of the Headless

The secret of the so-called is that whoever goes to this area and no matter how armed he is, it is still worth saying goodbye to him in advance. Why? The thing is, no one has ever returned from there.

The phenomenon of the disappearance of people has not yet been solved. Whether all the monsters of the world gather there or people disappear due to some other circumstances, it is not known for certain.

Sometimes only human heads were found at the scene, and the Indians living in that area claim that Bigfoot, who lives in the valley, does all this. Eyewitnesses of the events claim that they saw a creature in the valley that looked like a giant furry man.

Perhaps the most fantastic version of the secret of the Valley of the Headless is that in this place there is an entrance to a certain parallel world.

Section 5. Who is the Yeti and why is he dangerous?

In 1921, on Mount Everest, whose height is more than 6 km, a footprint was discovered in the snow, left by a huge bare foot. It was discovered by an expedition led by Colonel Howard-Bury, a very famous and respected climber. Then the team reported that the print belongs to Bigfoot.

Previously, the mountains of Tibet and the Himalayas were considered places of residence for the Yeti. Now scientists believe that Bigfoot can live in the Pamirs, Central Africa, in the lower reaches of the Ob, in some regions of Chukotka and Yakutia, and in the 70s of the twentieth century, Yeti was also met in America, as evidenced by numerous documentary evidence.

How they can be dangerous for a modern person remains a mystery to this day. There were known cases of the theft of food, sports equipment, but the people themselves of these creatures seem to be of little interest, so you should not be afraid of them, and even less afraid of panic.

Section 6. The monster of the seas. Sea serpent: myth or reality?

Many ancient myths and legends tell about and about the big sea serpent. Both sailors and scientists once believed in the existence of such a monster.

All opinions agreed that there are at least two large species unknown to science. Scientists suggest that a giant eel or an unknown species of cryptozoology acts as a sea monster.

In 1964, sea travelers crossing the Australian Stonehaven Bay on a yacht saw a huge black tadpole, about 25 m long, at a depth of two meters.

The monster had a huge snake head about 1.2 m wide and high, a thin flexible body about 60 cm in diameter and 20 m long, and a whip-like tail.

Section 7. Megalodon shark. Does it exist now?

In principle, according to several documents that have survived to this day, such a fish, which could easily be classified as the “Monsters of the World”, existed in antiquity and resembled a great white shark.

Megalodon was supposedly about 25 meters long, and it is this size that turns it into the most large predator ever existed on the planet.

Far from one fact proves the existence of megallodon in our time. For example, in 1918, when crayfish fishermen worked at great depths, they saw giant shark 92 m long. Most likely, it was this particular fish.

Modern scientists are also in no hurry to deny this assumption. They argue that such animals could easily survive in the unexplored ocean depths to this day.

Section 8. Do you believe in ghosts?

Myths about spirits have existed since pagan times. The Christian faith also prevails with spirits, telling about the existence of special creatures, for example, angels who control the elements, and the so-called "unclean", which include the goblin, brownie, water, etc.

It just so happens that good and evil spirits constantly interact with a person. Christianity distinguishes even some companions of a person: a good guardian angel and an evil demon-tempter.

A ghost, in turn, is considered a vision, a ghost, a spirit, something invisible and intangible. These substances appear, as a rule, at night in sparsely populated places. There is no consensus on the nature of the appearance of ghosts, and the ghosts themselves are often radically different from each other.

Section 9. Giant cephalopods

From a scientific point of view, cephalopods are creatures without a spine, whose body was formed like a bag. They have a small head with a clearly defined physiognomy and one leg, which is a tentacle with suction cups. Impressive appearance, right? By the way, not everyone knows that these creatures have a fairly developed and highly organized brain and live on sea ​​depths from 300 to 3000 m.

Very often, all over the world, the bodies of dead cephalopods are thrown onto the shores of the oceans. The longest discarded cephalopod was over 18 m long and weighed 1 ton.

Scientists who explored the depths saw these animals more than 30 m long. But in general, it is believed that such monsters of the world can be more than 50 m long.

Section 10. Mysteries of bottomless lakes

In the Solnechnogorsk district of the Moscow region there is a lake called Bezdonnoye. Locals constantly tell legends about the connection of the lake with the ocean and about the wreckage of sunken ships thrown onto its sandy shores.

This body of water is considered a true natural phenomenon, with its small size, only 30 m in diameter, it has an immeasurable depth.

In the same area there is another strange object - which was formed more than half a million years ago at the site of a large meteorite fall. The pond has a diameter of about 100 m, but no one knows the size of its depth. There are almost no fish in it, and living creatures do not live on the shores. In summer, a large circulation is observed in the middle of the lake, resembling a large pool on the river, and in winter, when it freezes, the circulation forms a bizarre pattern on the ice. Not so long ago, local residents began to observe the following picture: on serene days, certain creatures began to crawl ashore to bask in the sun, according to the description, they resemble either a huge snail or a lizard.

Section 11. Beliefs of Buryatia

Another lake of unknown depth is Sobolkho, in Buryatia. In the lake area, both people and animals constantly disappear. It is very interesting that the missing animals were later found in completely different lakes. Scientists suggest that the reservoir is connected with other underground channels, amateur divers in 1995 confirmed the existence of karst caves and tunnels in the lake, but local residents believe that it is unlikely to do without terrible monsters.