Add to favorite
 
123
Subscribe to our Newsletters Subscribe to our Newsletters Get Daily Updates RSS
russian visa


Optical Miracles of Lake Baikal
January 21, 2008 17:28


Lake Baikal has perfect conditions for mirages formation: streams of warm air above cool water in summer, transparent atmosphere and strong frosts with still air masses in winter. The number of days with mirages at Baikal normally varies from 2 to 16; while seeing them is a great luck for tourists, the local fishermen often tell about ancient castles, old ships and trains, and even UFO witnessed above Baikal.

Mirages are regularly registered near the north-eastern part of Olkhon Island, the Sunny cape and Bolshoi Ushkanij Island. The Baikal fishermen call this phenomenon “golomenitsa” – when remote objects appear closer and become distinctly visible, although in normal conditions they are almost impossible to see. The most common type of mirages here is remote capes floating above the lake waters. They mainly occur when the wind direction is changing.

Dwellers of the local villages Bolshie Koty and Bolshoe Goloustnoe have also witnessed unusual mirages when they could distinctly see a village located on the opposite coast and could even count the houses, although the distance between the coasts exceeds 40 kilometres and in normal conditions the village is not available for being seen by the human eye even with the help of a binocular.

Booking.com

In the water area of Baikal it is also possible to see turned upside-down mirror silhouettes of ships that are perceived as some big mysterious and unexplained objects floating above water. Sometimes one can see a reflection of the remote Baikal capes and islands lifted high above water. The local newspapers regularly publish notes about mirages. Thus, once one of the Irkutsk newspapers has reported about witnessing a mirage in the village Bolshie Koty when a fairy village consisting of small orange houses hanged above water. The witnesses claimed they could distinctly see the lights in the houses windows. That mirage was similar to those famous ones in Greenland and England when people could see big unknown cities with castles and temples hanging in the sky for up to 3 hours.

In 1957 one of the Baikal researchers V.V. Lamakin described a rare night mirage that he witnessed not far from the village Bolshoe Goloustnoe. “The day before strong south-western wind was blowing but when we were on our way back, the weather was quite still. The night happened to be very dark. When I came out to the deck I could see a stunning sight. In front of me, somewhere one kilometre away, a passenger train was flowing in the sky. In reality the train was on the opposite coast of Baikal 50 kilometres away. The ghost train was moving soundlessly; it was not possible to hear any train sounds from such a distance. In fact the carriages were not distinctly seen but we could see its lit windows and silhouettes of the passengers. The train stopped for a few minutes and then went on moving…”

READ MORE ARTICLES ABOUT LAKE BAIKAL...

 

Source:
    babr.ru

Translated by Lavrentyeva Natalya


Tags: Baikal Ecotourism    

Next Previous

You might also find interesting:

World Heritage lands sold out at contractual price Attitude towards foreigners in Russia How to Pretend a Muscovite in Moscow Principal "Green Zones" of St. Petersburg Steam engine excursions









Comment on our site


RSS   twitter      submit


Ïàðòåð


TAGS:
Russian Cinema  Photo Exhibitions  Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia  Viking  Sergei Chekhonin  Golden Ring  telecommunications  Kremlin  Valentin Kataev  Russian women  Chegemskie Waterfalls  Moscow Stock Exchange  Igor Moiseyev   Russian tourism  Yakov Zeldovich  visa-free regime  Moscow buildings  Sochi 2014  Republic of Tatarstan  Russian scientists  Underground  Science Festivals  Uzdunrobita  book hotels in Russia  Izmailovo   Books  IT  Leningrad Region  Exhibitions in Moscow  hostels in Moscow  Punk  Darwin Museum  Moscow scyscrapers  Mikhail Prokhorov  Losiny Ostrov   Circus  Yandex  Russian business  Russian space exploration  Russian festivals  Astrakhan Region  Russian science  Moscow  St. Petersburg  Exhibitions in Novosibirsk  accident  Stavropol Territory  Russian economy  human rights  Khabarovsk 


Travel Blogs
Top Traveling Sites