What monster was found in the black sea. What legendary monsters live in the Black Sea

The Crimean peninsula is famous not only for the beauty of nature, unique historical and architectural buildings, sweet wines and juicy fruits, but also amazing riddles, for which no one has yet found an explanation. One of these secrets is the Karadag snake, a creature that lives in the waters of the Black Sea.

Monster egg weighing 12 kilograms

Even the “father of history” - Herodotus - mentioned in his writings that in the depths of the Black Sea, or, as the Greeks of those times called it, the Pontus Euxine, there lives a huge monster that overtakes the waves as it moves. The Karadag serpent repeatedly appeared to sailors. Thus, the Turks, who regularly sailed to the Crimea and Azov, wrote reports to the Sultan about the dragon.
According to eyewitnesses, the creature was about 30 m long, covered with black scales, and had a comb fluttering on its back, reminiscent of a horse's mane. Her movement was swift, she easily left behind the fastest ships, and the wave created by her was similar to the one that occurs during a storm. People who inhabited coastal zone, were also familiar with sea ​​reptile firsthand, which is reflected in fairy tales and myths. The image of the monster was even on the coat of arms of the Bakhchisarai Khan!

In 1828, the Evpatoria police officer reported to higher authorities about the appearance of a huge sea snake in the district. Emperor Nicholas I, who, like Peter I, was distinguished by his curiosity, learned about the Black Sea monster and ordered scientists to be sent to Crimea to find and catch it.
Since evidence of sightings of the monster came mainly from the Karadag region, scientists from the expedition decided to look for it there. They did not find a monster, but they found an egg weighing 12 kg, which contained an embryo resembling a fairy-tale dragon with a crest on its head. Nearby were found the remains of a rather impressive tail, which was characterized by a scaly-shell-like structure.

The Soviet writer saw a monster!

For several thousand years, residents and guests of the peninsula claim that they somehow met this incomprehensible and unknown resident. sea ​​waters. And it must be said that among the eyewitnesses there were famous and serious personalities whom there is no reason not to believe. Among them are the director of the reserve, geologists, a poet, an official of the local executive committee, and the military. It is clear that these people are educated and, most likely, are not prone to mystification and inventions.
In 1952, the monster was seen from a cliff in Carnelian Bay Soviet writer Vsevolod Ivanov. Perhaps, it was he who made one of the longest observations of the monster; he looked at it for about 40 minutes. According to him, the monster had impressive dimensions: “25-30 meters long, and as thick as a desk top, if you turn it sideways.” It had a snake-like head “the size of an arm span” with small eyes, and the upper part of the mysterious creature was dark brown in color.

After such a unique observation of the monster, Vsevolod Ivanov tried to find out if any of the local residents had seen this monster, and undertook a small investigation. M. S. Voloshina told him that in 1921, a small article flashed in the Feodosia newspaper, which reported that a “huge reptile” had appeared in the area of ​​Mount Karadag, and a company of Red Army soldiers was sent to catch it. As far as we know, the “reptile” was not caught then, but her husband, the famous Russian poet and artist M. A. Voloshin, sent this clipping about the “reptile” to M. Bulgakov, and it formed the basis of the story “Fatal Eggs.” Also, Vsevolod Ivanov, with the help of Voloshina, managed to find out about the fact of an encounter with a monster by one collective farmer, who came across a monster resting on the shore while collecting driftwood for firewood.

Real evidence? Please!

The Karadag snake leaves very real traces of its existence. A few years ago, Turkish fishermen pulled a dolphin from the sea, which had been bitten in half by some monster. The remains of the dolphin were rushed to Istanbul University, where scientists examined the find and confirmed that the marks on the dolphin were not wounds from a ship's propeller and, without a doubt, were left by the teeth of a large animal. The same dead dolphins with huge wounds and even traces of 16 large teeth were seen by Crimean fishermen in 1990 and 1991, and one of them was even taken to the Karadag Nature Reserve.

By the way, Crimean Alexander Paraskevidi has even more material evidence of the existence of the monster - his tooth. Six centimeters long, red brown, this tooth was discovered on the beach, near the village of Maly Mayak, sticking out in a small piece of wood. Turkish ichthyologist Arif Harim, who examined and analyzed the tooth, is confident that it belongs to an animal unknown to science.

Shocking encounters with the Karadag snake

In May 1961, a rather shocking encounter with a monster took place in Crimea. Local fisherman M.I. Kondratyev, director of the Crimean Primorye sanatorium A. Mozhaisky and chief accountant of this enterprise V. Vostokov went fishing one morning on a boat. They walked only three hundred meters from the pier of the Karadag biological station towards the Golden Gate, when suddenly, 60 meters away from them, they saw a brown spot under the water. They sent the boat towards it, and it suddenly began to move away from them.

When we managed to get closer to the “spot,” it became clear that there was something very impressive and creepy under the water. The head was quite clearly visible 2-3 meters under water huge snake, about a meter in size. The surface of the monster's head was covered with brown hairs, reminiscent of algae. Behind the head, horny plates were visible on the monster’s body. At the top of the head and back, a characteristic mane swayed in the water. The monster's belly was lighter - gray, in contrast to the dark brown back.

When people saw the monster’s small eyes, they literally became numb with horror. Fortunately, Mikhail Kondratyev quickly managed to come to his senses, he turned the boat around and headed it towards the shore at full speed. Amazingly, the monster chased them! Its speed was quite high, but 100 meters from the coast it stopped the chase and headed out to the open sea. Seven years later, Mikhail Kondratyev again observed the Black Sea monster near the Karadag biological station under similar circumstances.

In the 80s 20th century vacationer Grigory Tabunov had a chance to meet the monster. This is what he recalls: “I lived in Nikita, quickly went down to the sea, undressed and fell into the water. He swam about two hundred meters away, lay on his back, rested, and was just about to swim back when he noticed something nearby in the waves. dark spot. Dolphin, probably, he thought. What a dolphin! A huge head appeared above the water. Out of fear, I screamed as loud as I could and rushed to the shore. All this lasted a few seconds, but I remembered what I saw for the rest of my life. The monster’s head was greenish and flat...”

On August 12, 1992, V.M. Belsky, an employee of the Feodosia City Council, encountered the monster. He swam in the sea, dived until, having emerged, he saw a huge snake head almost next to him... In horror, Belsky rushed to the shore with all his might, jumped out of the water and hid among the stones. Looking out from behind the stone, he saw that where he had just bathed, the head of a monster appeared, with water flowing from its mane. Belsky was able to even see the gray skin and horny plates on the head and neck. The monster's eyes were small, and its body was dark gray with a lighter lower part.

Relatively recently, our compatriot Vladimir Ternovsky even managed to ride on the back of a Black Sea monster! He was windsurfing 2-3 km from the shore, when suddenly someone from below threw the stern of his board. After this push, he fell into the water, however, to his amazement, he felt something solid under his feet. He was standing on something big, wide and alive, and it was moving! Fortunately, he managed to overcome his fear, jumping off the monster and quickly reaching the shore. The monster did not pursue him.

The servants of one of the monasteries once observed two monsters at once, which, clearly acting in coordination with each other, started a hunt for dolphins.
The Karadag monster was also seen by submariners. This happened during the dive of Benthos-300, a laboratory working at depth. Having reached a dive level of 100 meters, the hydronaut saw a vague shadow on the right side of the ship. A giant snake, slowly wriggling, swam up to the porthole, as if studying people with its small eyes. However, as soon as the scientists decided to photograph it, the monster, as if reading their thoughts, rushed into the depths.

So who swam into Crimean waters? They talked about a frilled shark with flat sides, resembling a huge eel; according to another version, it was the herring king - a belt fish up to nine meters in length, found in the North and Mediterranean seas... Maybe some kind of lizard has been preserved in the Black Sea since ancient times? After all, what do we know about Karadag, which was a nature reserve for decades? And why shouldn’t this majestic mountain be a haven for exotic species?
Karadag is the remnant of an ancient volcano, the underwater part of which has not been studied. Once upon a time, displacements of earth layers and volcanic clay led to complex layers, the formation of underwater caves, unknown passages and tunnels.

On at the moment there is no official confirmation that the Karadag snake is real creature, he seems to feel that they are looking for him, and goes into the depths of the sea at the slightest attempt to film him on video or with photographic equipment. Perhaps expeditions could clarify the situation, but such events require financial investments, which neither officials, nor scientists, nor individuals are in a hurry to make. The waters of our planet still firmly keep their secrets - the Loch Ness, Karadag, and other water monsters do not seek contact with people.
Official science is sure: if Karadag lives living creature, there should be several of them - mom, dad, grandfather, grandmother, etc. But neither the remains nor the clutch of eggs of these creatures have yet been discovered. In addition, Crimean hydronautics is completely destroyed today, deep-sea equipment has been sold for scrap.
It is known that North American zoologists successfully continue such research in their territories. In 1995, two Canadian oceanographers - Dr. Edward Busfield (Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto) and Professor Paul Le Blond (University of British Columbia, Vancouver) - in the April issue of the scientific journal Amphipha-Tsifika, described what was discovered in the fjords of British Columbia, on the Pacific coast Canada, a new large species of animal for science - Cadborosaurus.
They classified it as a plesiosaur, a group of highly specialized marine reptiles that went extinct in Mesozoic era. This “saurus” got its name from the Cadboro Bay, where it was most often observed.

The message caused a furore in the media. Newspapers immediately gave the creature the nickname Caddy, and local environmentalists demanded that the government immediately ensure the protection of such a rare and obviously vulnerable species.
If you believe eyewitness accounts, the Cadborosaurus, by the way, which has been mentioned in Indian folklore since ancient times, is exactly like the Black Sea serpent, but feeds on fish, sometimes trying to hunt seabirds.

Scientists have no doubt that the depths of the World Ocean hold many unexplored secrets. But they need facts. However, not a single one has been done so far high-quality photo- neither ours nor theirs.
This is persistently explained by the fact that mysterious creatures appear and disappear suddenly, as if only to remind: living earth It was not born yesterday, but it must be studied and protected in all its manifestations, especially in unique ones.

Ancient documents tell of black sea dragon, nicknamed Blackie - either because he lives in the Black Sea, or because of the blackness of his skin (black in English is “black”). In the 20th century, it began to be called the Black Sea Nessie for its resemblance to a similar monster in Loch Ness.

We called him Porfiry

This huge sea animal was already described by the ancient Greeks, Romans and Byzantines. Back in the 5th century BC, the ancient Greek historian Herodotus spoke about a monster living in the Pontus Euxine (as the Black Sea was then called).

The monster was black in color, with a gigantic wriggling body about 30 meters long, with clawed paws and an incredibly large mouth with two rows of teeth of a terrifying size. It is reported that the monster moved at tremendous speed, easily overtaking the fastest ships of the time.

And here is a quote from the surviving records of the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea, who lived in the 6th century: “A vile monster was captured, which we called Porphyry. This beast tyrannized Byzantium and its environs for more than half a century. The monster, with its unexpected attack, sank many ships and the people on them. Emperor Justinian ordered to catch the monster, but no one succeeded...

I’ll tell you how I finally managed to catch the beast. It happened that on that day the sea was absolutely calm, without waves. A large school of dolphins swam near the mouth of the Euxsinian Pontus, but when they saw the monster, they scattered into different sides. Having caught some, the monster immediately swallowed them, and then continued to pursue the rest until, in excitement, it swam too close to the shore. Having gotten stuck in deep mud near the shore, the animal began to fight to get away, but could not budge. When the fishermen saw this, they gathered all the local residents and began to beat the monster with whatever they could, after which he, already dead, with the help of ropes they pulled him ashore. Having placed the beast on the carts, they determined that its length was thirty cubits and its width ten (one cubit is approximately 45 centimeters)... With death sea ​​beast the coastal population was delivered from many of the troubles they had caused.”

Parallel course

Later, Turkish sailors repeatedly informed the Sultan about attacks on ships by the Black Sea monster. Russian sailors from the squadron of Admiral Ushakov also saw it, which was later reported to Emperor Nicholas I. He was very surprised and even sent a special expedition to the Crimea to catch and study the unknown beast. The team of scientists never found the monster itself, but they did find its huge egg, which weighed a little less than a pound.

A moving embryo, resembling a lizard, was visible through the shell. The scientific discussions and research that had begun were stopped when it hit the peninsula. Crimean War. Nobody knows where the egg went.

The next few decades boiled down to rare stories from random eyewitnesses, individual testimonies of fishermen and sailors about the monster, and a huge number of implausible stories. They decided that the thundering iron steamships that appeared in the waters simply frightened the beast and it hid.

However, it was during the fighting of the First World War that the monster appeared again. This was reported by the captain of a German submarine, who saw a huge animal moving almost silently under water parallel to their course. It was a full moon, and the officer clearly saw the monster through binoculars. The idea arose to shoot him from the bow gun, but he, fearing a collision with this hulk, ordered an urgent retreat to the depths...

During the Great Patriotic War The captain of another German submarine named Max Hegen also saw the monster, but already during the day. Naval officer was so amazed that he immediately reported this to Admiral Karl Dönitz.

Dog head!

About availability in the Black Sea giant monster poet Maximilian Voloshin mentioned in his memoirs. He reported the meeting to Mikhail Bulgakov, who used this strange plot in his science fiction story “Fatal Eggs.”

IN Soviet era Many stories were told when a sea serpent attacked holidaymakers and even sank small ships, after which local fishermen for a long time they were afraid to go to sea. In the end, the authorities, tired of numerous requests and complaints, sent a company of Red Army soldiers to the Karadag area to find and destroy the monster, but by that time it had literally disappeared into thin air. Despite the fact that targeted searches for the creature yielded nothing, it continued to terrorize and frighten the local population from time to time, appearing from the water at the most unexpected moments.

In 1938, a Tatar fisherman from the village of Kuchuk-Lambat (now Kiparisnoye) encountered a monster head-on among the rocks near the shore. The monster did not touch him, but the fisherman suffered from apoplexy from fear. When the poor fellow was found, he repeated: “Dog's head! Dog's head! Two months later the fisherman died.

From the notebook of Vsevolod Ivanov

In 1952, while near Feodosia, the Black Sea Blackie was observed by the famous Soviet prose writer Vsevolod Ivanov for more than half an hour. While admiring the frolicking dolphins, he suddenly noticed not far from them what seemed to him a strange stone, more than 10 meters in circumference, all covered with algae. He had never seen anything like this here before. Surprised by the find, he continued observing, but the stone suddenly moved, turning into a disgusting monster gigantic size. This is what he noted later in his notebook: “This creature swam in wave-like movements to the place where the dolphins were, that is, to the left side of the bay. It was large, very large, 25-30 meters, and as thick as a desk top if you turned it sideways. It was under water for half a meter or a meter, and it seems to me that it was flat. The lower part of it was apparently white, as far as the depth of the water allowed it to be understood, and the upper part was dark brown, which allowed me to take it for algae. The monster, wriggling in the same way as swimming snakes, slowly swam towards the dolphins. They immediately fled. Not having caught up with the dolphins, and perhaps not even thinking of chasing them, the monster curled up into a ball, and the current carried it again to the right. It began to look like again brown stone overgrown with algae.

Carried to the middle of the bay, just to the place or approximately to the place where I saw it for the first time, the monster turned around again and, turning towards the dolphins, suddenly raised its head above the water. The head, the size of the armspan, looked like a snake's. For some reason I couldn’t see the eyes, from which we can conclude that they were small. After holding its head above the water for about two minutes—large drops of water were dripping from it—the monster turned sharply, lowered its head into the water and quickly swam away behind the rocks enclosing Carnelian Bay...”

In the 90s of the last century, local fishermen several times discovered dead dolphin carcasses with strange injuries in their nets. So, for example, the belly of one dolphin seemed to be torn out entirely, and the width of the injury was at least one meter, and traces of huge teeth were clearly visible along the edge. None of the known ones sea ​​predators, including sharks that could have swam from Mediterranean Sea, was not able to do it...

However, more accurate information regarding this sea monster has not yet been received, as a result of which the very existence of Blackie, despite numerous testimonies eyewitnesses and scientists are questioned. The only video recording of the creature, where you can supposedly see something gigantic floating on the waves of the Black Sea, is an amateur video recording made by the Gusarenko couple in the fall of 2009.

For thousands of years, an animal unknown to science has been encountered in the Black Sea, resembling prehistoric dinosaur. Some call it Blackie, others call it the Black Sea Nessie or the Karadag Serpent. Hundreds of years before our era, Herodotus wrote about a mysterious monster that lived in the waters of the Pontus Euxine, which is what the ancient Greeks called the Black Sea. In Crimea, every year more and more evidence about the Karadag snake appears. There have been cases of attacks by the Karadag monster on people. For example, in 2011, a tragic incident occurred: “In the small town of Ordzhonikidze, in Crimea, there was a commotion - an unknown animal bit off the side of a girl who decided to swim in the sea in the evening. According to local residents, the tourist was dragged ashore dead - without internal organs. They say that the girl is from Kharkov, she came to visit her boyfriend, who went to summer time to Crimea to work as a cook. He is also from Kharkov. The tragedy took place around 9 pm, when it was already dark outside, says Dmitry. – Two girls decided to swim and at first swam peacefully near the shore. Suddenly one of them sank like a stone. Her friend managed to grab the victim by the hair and pull her ashore before the creature managed to drown its prey. Already on the beach it became clear that the victim was severely injured. The creature tore out a large piece of meat right next to her spleen. The unconscious girl was taken to the first City Hospital of Feodosia, where she died a few hours later." AFTER THIS NOBODY WILL GO TO THE CRIMEA. THE KARADAG MONSTER IN THE CRIMEA. THE KARADAG SNAKE MONSTER https://youtu.be/NEpLQHkTX9w The Karadag serpent. The Karadag monster. Legends and secrets of the Black Sea - https://youtu.be/NEpLQHkTX9w Even the “father of history” - Herodotus - mentioned in his writings that in the depths of the Black Sea, or, as the Greeks of those times called it, Pontus Euxine, there lives a huge monster, the Karadag snake repeatedly appeared to sailors as it moved. Thus, the Turks, who regularly sailed to the Crimea and Azov, wrote reports to the Sultan about the dragon. According to eyewitnesses, the creature was about 30 m long, covered with black scales, and fluttered on its back. a crest resembling the mane of a horse. Its movement was swift, it easily left behind the fastest ships, and the wave created by it was similar to the one that occurs during a storm. The people who inhabited the coastal zone were also familiar with the sea reptile firsthand. reflected in fairy tales and myths. The image of the monster was even on the coat of arms of the Bakhchisarai Khan! In 1828, the Evpatoria police officer reported to higher authorities about the appearance of a huge sea snake in the district. Emperor Nicholas I, who, like Peter I, was distinguished by his curiosity, learned about the Black Sea monster and ordered scientists to be sent to Crimea to find and catch it. Since evidence of sightings of the monster came mainly from the Karadag region, scientists from the expedition decided to look for it there. They did not find a monster, but they found an egg weighing 12 kg, which contained an embryo resembling a fairy-tale dragon with a crest on its head. Nearby were found the remains of a rather impressive tail, which was characterized by a scaly-shell-like structure. ➊ SUBSCRIBE TO NEW ISSUE

According to the most common version, mythical monsters, snake-dragons, owe their origin to the remains of dinosaurs that our ancestors found from time to time. However, myths about monsters live in the memory of all peoples of the planet, and easily accessible remains of dinosaurs were found only in desert areas Central Asia. At the same time, the bones found are very different from each other, and the fairytale gorynych snakes are similar, like twin brothers. So, maybe it’s not about ancient bones at all and fairy tales were born after real encounters between people and living monsters, surviving to this day?

Crimean legends and tales of giant snakes were born in time immemorial...

In 1921, a Feodosia newspaper reported that a huge reptile appeared in the sea near Kara-Dag. A company of Red Army soldiers was sent to capture him. But the soldiers, having arrived in Koktebel, did not find anyone, they saw only a footprint in the sand left by a monster that had crawled into the sea. The poet Maximilian Voloshin sent a newspaper clipping with this message to the writer Bulgakov. Mikhail Afanasyevich, after reading the note, wrote the story “Fatal Eggs”. In the thirties, a fisherman from Kuchuk-Lambat (Small Lighthouse) saw a huge monster on the shore among the rocks. He screamed in horror, but when people came running, he could only whisper: “Dog's head” - and he was paralyzed. A month later the poor fellow died.

Are these all fairy tales or incredible, but quite real events, it's up to everyone to decide. But it is worth remembering that the most incredible and inexplicable things eventually find a simple explanation and even become commonplace. And it’s also worth taking into account that all the informants are in no way connected with each other. In Crimea, a thirty-meter snake and an eight-meter monster were most often encountered in the area of ​​​​Kara-Dag and Cape Meganom. In September 1952, V.K. Zozulya was collecting brushwood in the area of ​​Frog Bay. Returning home, not far from the shore she saw something that she initially mistook for a fallen tree. Suddenly this something moved, began to turn around, stood on its hind legs and hissed. The total length of the green-brown creature was eight meters. Horny plates similar to snake scales covered the upper part of the body. The paws have large claws. The head is like a snake. Eyes green. From their gaze, the frightened woman became even more frightened, and she backed away. And the monster sank onto all four paws, turned around, walked rather quickly towards the sea and disappeared under the water.

In 1967, many residents of the villages of Koktebel and Ordzhonikidze saw a similar monster. On May 14, 1952, the writer Vsevolod Ivanov was sitting on the shore of the Carnelian Bay of Kara-Dag. About fifty meters from the shore he noticed something that looked like a ball of algae. Suddenly this ball began to unfold and lengthen and turned into a huge snake about thirty meters long. The head is about a meter in diameter, the lower part of the body white, the upper one is dark brown. The monster, wriggling in the same way as all swimming snakes, slowly swam towards the playing dolphins, who immediately began to quickly move away into the open sea. After swimming a little, the monster curled up into a ball again, and the current carried it to the left. In the center of the bay it turned around and raised its head, like a snake. Small eyes were clearly visible. For about two minutes the snake swam with its head raised, then it turned sharply, lowered its head into the water and quickly swam behind the rocks of Carnelian Bay. The writer watched him for more than forty minutes.

In May 1961, local fisherman Mikhail Kondratyev and his guests (director of the Crimean Primorye sanatorium A. Mozhaisky and chief accountant V. Vostokov) went fishing on a boat early in the morning. Moving away from the pier of the Karadag biological station, they turned to the Golden Gate area. Suddenly, 300 meters from the shore, we saw a brown spot under the water. They decided to approach it, but the strange object began to move away from them into the sea. The fishermen pressed on. And when the distance between the boat and the object was reduced to about fifty meters, something huge and terrible appeared above the water! The head of a giant snake, a meter in diameter, is covered with brown hairs similar to algae. The horny plates were clearly visible on the body. The belly is light gray. Small eyes sparkled through the mane at the top of the head. The fishermen were horrified. Kondratiev gave full speed to the shore. The monster rushed after the boat. The race continued for several minutes. About a hundred meters from the shore the snake stopped and turned into the open sea. After this unexpected meeting, none of the fishermen went to sea for several days...

And Kondratiev had to meet the same monster in 1968. The company was returning from fishing. Having approached the nets placed near the Karadag biological station on our felucca, we saw a large brown spot under the water. We approached him about fifteen meters. Suddenly the water foamed, a back with a mane appeared, and in the same place a whirlpool with a funnel more than ten meters in diameter formed. The frightened company rushed to the pier.

In December 1990, fishermen discovered a dolphin in torn nets. Having pulled him ashore, they saw that the poor fellow’s stomach had been bitten out to the spine in one bite. The width of the bite in an arc is about a meter. Along the edge of the arc on the skin of the unfortunate animal, traces of huge teeth were clearly visible. Sixteen such tracks were counted. The dolphin's head was severely deformed, as if they had tried to drag it through a narrow hole. The fishermen cut off the tattered net, threw it away along with what was left of the dolphin, and hastened to leave the area. And in the spring they found another dolphin with similar teeth marks. They brought it to the village, put it in the refrigerator, but a few days later the refrigerator defrosted due to an accident, and the “material evidence” had to be thrown away. () Based on the teeth marks on the bodies of the dead animals, they estimated the size of the predator - thirty meters in length. During one of the dives of the Benetos-300 submarine in the northwestern part of the Black Sea, our hydronauts in the eighties of the last century saw a strange animal at a depth of 80 meters. It crossed the course of the PLB and was clearly visible simultaneously through all the windows (the width of the laboratory is 6 meters). An animal more than 20 meters long passed along the nose of the PLB. Unfortunately, it was not possible to photograph it. Ichthyologists were never able to determine the type and genus of the unknown creature.

For local fishermen, the Black Sea monster is as real as all the inhabitants of the sea. Having observed monsters for many years, they found out that snakes, as a rule, appear after strong storms and during the spring and autumn migration of dolphins. Most often they were seen in areas from the New World to Cape Kiik-Atlama. On Kara-Dag and Cape Meganom there are several underwater caves in which these monsters may live.

In 1994, two employees of the Karadag biological station dived with scuba gear in the Golden Gate area. At a depth of 20 meters they saw an animal more than 15 meters long, similar to a giant fur seal. They observed it for several moments, then it disappeared into the abyss. In 2006, boat passengers saw a snake in the Feodosiya Bay that was chasing a school of dolphins. Three rings and a head covered with armor plates and algae were clearly visible.

The old people who lived in Crimea before the war told many more interesting things. Long before the war, near the hydrogen sulfide spring Kukurli-Su, which is located near Sudak, lived unusual snake. Its length was 5-6 meters, its body color was red-brown, and on its head, similar to a dog, growths resembling horns or ears were visible. The underbelly is green-gray. On the back there is a mane similar to a horse's. The diameter of the body is about 40 centimeters. The mother of one of the old-timers lived next to the spring and often watched the snake. That's what she said. “He usually crawled out to the source at 10 o’clock in the morning and lay on the shore all day. healing water a lot of people came. People got used to the snake, no one was afraid of it. At about 4 pm he crawled into his cave. During the war, the monster was scared off by shots and explosions and disappeared. After some time it appeared near the village of Kutlak (Veseloye). And after 1944, no one saw the snake anywhere else."

The Sevastopol artist Vladimir Dovgan managed to sketch one of the monsters. (I couldn’t find the drawing..) He was returning with friends from a hike. Near a forest lake, not far from the village of Reservnoye, we saw a gray snake more than a meter long hanging on the branches. On the body, at a distance of ten centimeters from the head, two legs were clearly visible. The artists looked at it for a full minute until the monster disappeared among the branches.

Before the war, the banks of all Crimean rivers were covered with impenetrable thickets of thorns, rose hips, wild cherries, and dogwoods. Forests and steppes were not as densely populated and plowed as they are now. So relict species reptiles and animals, hitherto unknown to our scientists, could well have survived. Author: A. Tavrichesky

A huge snake-like creature has been repeatedly seen off the coast of Crimea. The monster resembles a huge sea serpent. According to eyewitnesses, it is hunting black sea dolphins. It can only be observed from the high shore when the sea is clear and calm, then the entire bay is visible to the bottom. According to researchers, this is the famous Karadag snake, which for centuries rare eyewitnesses have seen on Black Sea coast. It is believed that this is a reptile that lived in the Black Sea back in the time of dinosaurs. Off the coast of the peninsula there are many underwater caves, not only near the coastal cliffs, but also in the underwater rocks. Researchers believe that huge prehistoric animals may have survived in them since ancient times. Eyewitnesses managed not only to photograph, but also to film under water monster on video. The length of the kite is at least 40 meters. The monster was seen off the coast of Yalta and in the South-West. It was even possible to observe two snakes at the same time, which were hunting in an organized manner, surrounding a school of dolphins.

Karadag snake(Karadag monster or Opuk serpent) is a water monster, according to legend, living off the coast of Crimea in the Black Sea.

Story

About the terrible sea ​​monster Herodotus also mentioned it. According to his description, it is a black snake, with a mane, a huge mouth, large teeth and clawed paws. He sailed at cruising speed - faster than the fastest Greek ships. In the 16th-18th centuries, Turkish sailors who sailed on ships between Istanbul, Crimea and Azov constantly reported to the Sultan about the Black Sea dragon. And they called it Karadag because, according to legend, the monster lives in the area of ​​the Karadag massif, in one of the underwater caves, of which there are many.

One of the Tatar legends of Crimea - the "Otuz Legend" - "Chershamba" tells about snake place near the village Otuzy (modern Shchebetovka) on the Otuzka river, where reeds grow - Yulanchik. The literal translation of the word Yulanchik is a snake's nest.
“Here... in the reeds lived a snake, which, curled up, seemed like a shock of hay, and when it walked through the field, it made ten knees or more. True, the Janissaries killed it. Akmaliz Khan sent them out of Istanbul, But only its cubs remained.. ""

Descriptions

According to V.X. Kondaraki, in 1828, the Evpatoria police officer filed a report, where he wrote about the appearance in the district of a huge snake with a hare’s head and the semblance of a mane, which attacked sheep and sucked blood.

S. Slavich, from the words of eyewitnesses, talks about meeting a huge snake on Kazantip (Kerch Peninsula).

M. Bykova mentions in her book the story of Maria Stepanovna Voloshina that “in 1921, a local Feodosia newspaper published a note that said that a “huge reptile” had appeared in the area of ​​Mount Karadag and a company of Red Army soldiers was sent to catch it.” There was no further information in the newspapers. M. Voloshin sent a clipping about the “reptile” to M. Bulgakov, and it formed the basis of the story “Fatal Eggs.” Gad was allegedly seen in the village (Koktebel).

The same book provides another description of a meeting with a huge snake on Karadag with reference to Natalia Lesina. The story happened in September 1952 with Varvara Kuzminichnaya Zozulya on Karadag near Cape Boy. In a quiet, heated place near the cape, Varvara Kuzminichna was collecting brushwood and mistook the monster for a pile of brushwood and almost stepped on it. According to the description of the stunned woman, the animal has a small head, a thin neck, and a back as thick as a pillar. When she began to wave the rope, the animal began to unwind like a ball. The lower and upper limbs were visible, and it squeaked. The summary is purely everyday: “As long as I’ve been living, I haven’t seen anything like this.”

Eyewitnesses

Geologist Promtov saw a huge snake on Karadag near the Lagorio wall.

During these same years, Vsevolod Ivanov observed the “most fantastic of the most fantastic” snake. Quote from his story:

“The spring of 1952 in Koktebel was cold and rainy. April was back and forth, and May was rainy and cold...

On May 14, after prolonged cold weather there was no wind. warm weather. Assuming that during storms the sea had thrown a lot of colored pebbles ashore, I walked again past the Devil’s Finger, along the Gyaur-Bakh gorge, and then, so as not to waste a lot of time on the difficult descent to the seashore into Carnelian Bay on a rock, near a tree, from where you can see the entire bay, the width of which is 200-250 m, I tied a rope and easily went down with its help...

The sea, I repeat, was calm. Near the shore, among small stones overgrown with algae, a mullet was playing. Further away, about 100 meters from the shore, dolphins swam.

A school of dolphins moved along the bay to the left. The mullet must have moved there. I turned my eyes to the right and just in the middle of the bay, about 50 meters from the shore, I noticed a large stone, 10-12 meters in circumference, overgrown with brown algae. I have visited Koktebel many times in my life, and on each visit I visited Carnelian Bay several times. The bay is not shallow, the depth begins about ten steps from the shore, but I don’t remember this stone in the middle of the bay. It was about 200 meters from me to this stone. I didn’t have binoculars with me. I couldn't see the stone. And is it a stone? I leaned back, placed my “eye” against a tree knot and noticed that the stone was noticeably leaning to the right. This means that it was not a stone, but a large ball of algae. Torn out by storms, where did they come here from? Maybe they will be washed to the rocks by the current and I should look at them? I forgot the dolphins.

While smoking my pipe, I began to observe a tangle of algae. The current seemed to be intensifying. The algae began to lose their round shape. The ball lengthened. Tears appeared in the middle of it.

And then... Then I trembled all over, rose to my feet and sat down, as if afraid that I might scare “it” if I stood on my feet. I looked at my watch. It was 12.15 pm. There was complete silence. Behind me, in the Gyaur-Bakh valley, the birds were chirping, and my pipe was smoking intensely. The "tangle" was unfolding. Turned around. Stretched out. I was still counting and not counting "it" as seaweed until "it" moved upstream.

This creature swam with wave-like movements to the place where the dolphins were, that is, to the left side of the bay.

Everything was still quiet. Naturally, what immediately came to mind was: is this a hallucination? I took out my watch. It was 12:18.

The reality of what I saw was hampered by the distance and the shine of the sun on the water, but the water was transparent, and that’s why I saw the bodies of dolphins, which were twice as far from me as the monster. It was large, very large, 25-30 meters, and as thick as a desk top if you turned it sideways. It was half a meter to a meter under water and, it seems to me, it was flat. The lower part of it was apparently white, as far as the blueness of the water made it clear, and the upper part was dark brown, which allowed me to take it for algae.

The monster, wriggling, just like swimming snakes, did not quickly swim towards the dolphins. They immediately fled.

Having driven away the dolphins and, perhaps, not even thinking about chasing them, the monster curled up into a ball, and the current carried it again to the right. It again began to look like a brown stone overgrown with algae.

Carried to the middle of the bay, just to the place or approximately where I saw it for the first time, the monster turned around again and, turning towards the dolphins, suddenly raised its head above the water. The head, the size of the arm span, looked like a snake's. I still couldn’t see the eyes, from which I could conclude that they were small. After holding its head above the water for about two minutes - large drops of water were dripping from it - the monster turned sharply, lowered its head into the water and quickly swam away behind the rocks that closed Carnelian Bay.

I looked at my watch. It was three minutes to one. I watched the monster for a little over forty minutes."

1967 Lyudmila Szegeda stepped over a log on an autumn evening while walking in the Armatluk Valley. Hearing a splash from behind, she saw a huge snake, as thick as a log, crawling from one body of water to another. The log she had stepped over was not there.

Semenkov's article

From an article by the director of the Karadag Nature Reserve P.G. Semenkova:

“On December 7, 1990, a team of fishermen from the Karadag branch of the Institute of Biomedicine of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, consisting of A. A. Tsabanov, Y. M. Nuykin, M. M. Sych and N. V. Gerasimov, went out to sea to check the nets set for catching Black Sea stingrays. The network is a canvas 2.5 m wide and 200 m long with a mesh size of 200 mm. It was installed at a depth of 50 m with coordinates at a distance of 3 miles in the direction southeast of Lyagushachya Bay and 7 miles south of the village of Ordzhonikidze. They arrived at about 12 o'clock in the afternoon and began reassembling the net from the southern end. After one hundred and fifty meters, the net appeared torn, and the fishermen decided that when setting up they had thrown their net on top of someone else's, and the owner of the lower net was forced to cut off the upper one in order to remove it. to check theirs, they logged in from the other end of the network and continued checking.

When we went to the ragged edge, we pulled a dolphin to the surface - a Black Sea bottlenose dolphin about 230 cm in size, whose tail was entangled in a net. Having pulled the dolphin to the nose of the mothfish, the fishermen discovered that the dolphin's belly had been bitten out in one bite. The width of the bite along the arc was about 1 m. Along the edge of the arc, teeth marks were clearly visible on the dolphin’s skin. The size of the tooth mark is about 40 mm. The distance between the teeth marks is about 15-20 mm. In total there were about 16 tooth marks along the arc. The dolphin's belly was bitten out with its ribs, so that the spine was clearly visible. In the area of ​​the head dangled the remains of the lungs, from which blood flowed as we rose. The marks of teeth were clearly visible on the sides of the frames, and were located symmetrically.

The dolphin's head was severely deformed, evenly compressed on all sides, as if they were trying to drag it through a narrow hole. No eyes were visible, and the deformed part had a whitish color, reminiscent of the color of a fish taken from the stomach of another fish.

The examination of the dolphin lasted no more than three minutes. The sight of the dolphin and the flowing blood caused severe panic among the fishermen. One of them cut the net, the dolphin fell into the sea, and the fishermen left the area at full speed for home.

I saw the fishermen immediately upon their return from the sea, asked them in detail about what had happened, and based on their story, the artist made a sketch of the dolphin they saw.

A dolphin bite mark from an unknown creature.

A dolphin bite mark from an unknown creature. (According to P.G. Semenkov. Geological journal No. 1, 1994)

In the spring of 1991, fishermen brought back a second dolphin with similar teeth marks on its body. It was an Azovka one and a half meters in size.

They pulled him out of the network, which was installed in approximately the same place as on December 7, 1990.

This time the net was not torn, and almost the entire dolphin was very entangled in the net, wrapped like a doll, so that only one head was sticking out. The marks of three teeth were clearly visible on the dolphin's head. By appearance they looked exactly like the teeth marks on the body of a bottlenose dolphin.

The brought dolphin was placed in a cold chamber and in May 1991, while in Leningrad, I went to the Institute of Zoology, talked with a number of employees, and invited the Azov fish to come and examine it. Unfortunately, none of the employees were able to go, but I received the address of specialists based on the marks found on the body marine mammals fished in the ocean. These were YugNIRO employees working in Kerch and Odessa. I managed to contact one of them by phone. I described in detail the marks found on the bodies of the dolphins entangled in our nets, and invited him to examine the Azov fish stored in our cold chamber. I was promised that he would try to find time to come to our institution. However, neither in May, nor in June, nor in July, no one came to us.

At the end of August there was an accident, and everything that was in the cold chamber was lost, including the dolphin.

This is an accurate description of the events that occurred in December 1990 and April 1991.