Skeletons Roopkund Lake in India

HIMALAYA • MOUNTAIN • RESERVE • INDIA • LAKE • SKELETONS

Roopkund - a glacial lake, situated at an altitude of about 5029 m in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. When the ice melts, hundreds of human skeletons can be seen under the water surface or floating on the water. Lake found in 1942 forester local nature reserve. They say some bones lie here with the XIX century. Initially, it was assumed that the remains belong to the Japanese soldiers who entered the area, and then died as a result of "inhospitality" territory. Since the discovery came in the Second World War, the British immediately sent a detachment to see if they stumbled upon some secret passage of the enemy. However, after investigation, it became clear that the skeletons could not belong to the Japanese soldiers.

 1. Some researchers and scholars have suggested that the bones belong to General Zorawar Singh Kashmir and its people who have lost and died in the Himalayas on the way back after the Battle of Tibet in 1841. However, analyzes of radioactive carbon, conducted in the 1960s refuted this theory.

 2. The analysis showed that the skeletons could lie here in the period from the XII to the XV century. This has led historians to believe that the remains are somehow connected with an unsuccessful attack on Mohammed Tughlaka Himalayas. Yet other scholars believe that the bones belong to the victims of unknown people who died from the epidemic. Some anthropologists argue that it is - a victim of ritual suicide.

 3. It was only in 2004, when a team of European and Indian scientists arrived in the area on the initiative of the channel National Geographic, the terrible truth of the mystery began to emerge.

 4. DNA studies have led to the fact that the dead were divided into two categories: some were small, others - much higher. Even the body belonged to which the earlier period of time than previously assumed. It turned out that the bones lie here somewhere from 850 AD

 5. Cracks at the back saying that they had died from a fatal blow to the head, but this was not a landslide or avalanche. Blows were inflicted by blunt round object about the size of a cricket ball. The absence of any other wounds on the body suggests that the blow was struck from above.

 6. The only plausible explanation for the fact that so many people got injured at the same time like boils down to this: they are something fell from the sky ... like ... degrees.

 7. There is no historical evidence that in this area were some trade routes, but Roopkund lake is at an important pilgrimage route of Nanda Devi cult, and festivals were held about once every 12 years. This group of 500-600 people was likely pilgrims. They were all from one place and hired a group of porters who knew the local area.

 8. Approaching the lake, they are likely to have gone down the slope to collect fresh water when hovering over their heads in clouds. In the Himalayas, there was no shelter, so many, and perhaps all of them died. The icy waters of the lake have kept their bodies for hundreds of years. Some skeletons were even hair and nails, as well as pristine pieces of clothing.

9. Perhaps someone from the pilgrims escaped this fate, he returned to the village and told about it, because in the local villages, there is an interesting legend. In the folk song describes the goddess Himalayan women that is so very angry with the people who invaded her mountain abode that send down upon them a deadly rain from the sky in the form of stones, "hard as iron."