Scottish folklore replete with centuries-old legends about the monster that lives in the dark depths of Loch ness. Even now studies with the use of sophisticated modern technology can not reliably determine whether such a monster as Nessie and similar creatures from North America, reality or fiction.

The existence of Nessie, friendly giants that live in the waters of Loch ness, was officially announced in 1933. But the legends about it have reached our days from the remote past.

Deep, dark and mysterious Loch ness is a gigantic depression in the earth's crust in the heart of Scotland, in the place which today is considered inaccessible and unattractive for man.

This lake with a depth of 300 meters and a length of 24 miles with black as pitch black water was formed ten thousand years ago, at the end of the last ice age.

How many centuries legends about mysterious monsters that live in its waters, nobody knows.

"Stop, and don't touch..."

The first written mention of a mysterious creature that live in the waters of Loch ness, dates back to the year 565 ad. In the life of St. Columba, Abbot Jonah told about the triumph over the Holy "water beast" in the river ness. The rector of Columbus was then engaged in the conversion of the Gentiles of the Picts and Scott in his new monastery near the West coast of Scotland.

One day he went to Loch ness and saw that the locals bury one of their people. He was mauled and killed when he swam in the lake. He fell victim to niseag (Gaelic name of the monster).

Locals armed with hooks to drive away the monster, pulled the body of the victim to shore.

One of the disciples of St. thoughtlessly threw himself into the water and swam across the narrow channel to bring the boat. When he sailed to the coast, "out of the water rose strange looking beast, like a giant frog but it was not a frog".

As described by the Abbot of Saint Columba turned towards the beast and ordered: "Stop, and don't touch this man". Monster obediently turned around and disappeared under the water.

This is the beginning of the legend of the Loch ness monster. Ancient Scottish folklore is replete with stories about kelpe - similar to the horse terrible water monsters that await the shore of people.

Local people living in Loch ness, still remember, how in the childhood were forbidden to swim in this lake because of kelpe.

Evidence:

In the spring of 1933 the newspaper "Inverness courier" for the first time published a detailed story of a married couple McKay, who encountered Nessie. In the same year, on the Northern shore of lake paved the way and cut down trees and bushes for a better overview the largest freshwater pond in Britain.

Fifty years later, in an interview with the newspaper "daily mail" Mrs. McKay said: "I am one saw it. Was March 1933, and we came back after the sale of real estate in Inverness. Suddenly seven-mile mark... I didn't believe my eyes. Never seen such a huge creature.

This was a huge black body, which then rose above the waves, then again went under water. It cannot even be compared with anything. Not the elephant, not the kit.

I yelled to John stopped, I do not recall the exact words, but he thought I was scared of bees on the windshield. You see, the road was old and very narrow, and as he paused..."

"It just wave", said the husband. He persuaded Mrs. McKay to be silent about it. "Nobody would believe. Say, should drink less".

But Mrs McKay could not resist. She recalls: "I spoke to someone in confidence, that someone else, and so came to the inspector of navigation Alex Campbell, and he was a local reporter "Courier".

The editor has published an article under the title "Strange vision on the Loch ness", where for the first time described Nessie as prehistoric monster. The article caused a sensation and caused a flood curious on the lake.

The Loch Ness fever:

Over the next fifty years, more than three thousand witnesses solemnly testified that he saw Nessie that she is alive and well. Could they all be wrong?

Literally two months after the case of spouses McKay group of road builders watched as Nessie surfaced in the middle of the lake behind the passing vessel. According to them, it was huge head and a very large and massive torso.

In August of the same year three eyewitnesses noticed on the usually tranquil Loch ness. Then, floating on the surface, again leaving the water began to appear a few humps arranged in a row. They moved in waves, like a caterpillar.

Over time the message began to come more often. In 1938, the captain of the tug and his assistant was surprised to see how from the water column surfaced and were accompanied by their vessel huge black "beast", resembling humpback whales.

This creature was clearly visible two hump. Briefly disappeared, it reappeared and at great speed passed by the tug, leaving a large waves.

13 August 1960 monk UL Dobb with family, vacationing on the beach, had just finished dinner, when the lake suddenly went wavelength. After a few seconds all saw on the surface of the great black hump. He quickly disappeared, then reappeared two hump.

It seemed that Nessie is playing hide-and-seek, teasing scientists just curious guests the people.

The photograph:

In addition to eyewitness accounts, the existence of a mysterious monster confirmed by photographs.

Some time after the message spouses McKay lake began to appear photographers to take pictures of Nessie. In November 1933 the monk N. Dundas wife saw Nessie and tried to capture it on film. But when the film was demonstrated, it had nothing.

Yet in 1933 there was a first photo of Nessie. It managed Hugh gray. He made five shots. Four frame was broken, on the fifth it was obvious what a strange creature. Once the picture was printed in several Newspapers, the firm Kodak" officially confirmed the authenticity of negativity.

In 1934, he created the famous "photography surgeon". Gynecologist from London Robert Wilson other went on vacation. They were on the road by car in Inverness and had stopped to rest at the lake.

Suddenly the doctor noticed some commotion on the surface of the water, and "in fifty or sixty meters from the shore of the water there was a head unusual animal". Before being submerged, he managed to film four frame.

More than three thousand eyewitnesses said that they saw Nessie. Could they all be wrong?

But skeptics believe that the pictures Nessie any clever forgery, or they depict anything but Nessie. Logs floating in the water, Burun astern passing vessel, change of the strength and direction of wind, squall - all this can make semblance of Nessie, they argue.

But is it possible to dismiss such mass eyewitness? Could it be that they all lied, or simply were mistaken?

Some witnesses believe that Nessie can live both in water and on land. Margaret Cameron remembers how in her childhood, during the first world war, she had once heard a crash on the shore in the forest, and then saw in the water slid being, "the huge bulk of which was moving like a caterpillar".

He had shiny skin, like an elephant, and two round feet ahead. In water it went, awkwardly moving from foot to foot.

Like "the terrible picture" appeared before the couple Speiserei in 1933. The creature looked like a giant snail with a long neck. In the mouth it was pulling something like a dead lamb.

Some experts cite evidence of people who saw Nessie on land, as arguments, proving that the beast is not that other, as the otter, and witnesses misleading the play of light.

Loch ness due to its location really is the ideal for the existence of the mysteries of nature.

Unlike the sea, this large water body is often quite calm, his high shore cast a deep shadow. Wonderful effect create reflections of clouds, especially if through them the sun shines through. Here often there mirages.

On Loch ness comes modern equipment:

Local residents, as a true Scots, never miss the chance to earn an extra shilling. They always contributed to the development of tourism in their region and belonged to the scientific quest monsters extremely suspicious.

Scientific and technical progress, however, put the hunt for the truth about Nessie on solid scientific basis. David James of the Bureau of research Loch ness presented at the joint center aerial two film shot on the lake, which is much more difficult it would be to forge than the photos.

In the first film Tim om Dinsdale shown hump, slowly walked away from the camera. He then picks up speed and is immersed perpendicular to the direction of the camera.

Analysts have concluded that "it was a living object". By their definition, the width of the object was 5 feet 6 inches and he moved with a speed of 10 miles per hour.

In 1970, for research purposes was first used underwater photography. But the photographers are having difficulty with Cprozrachnosti saturated peat water and imperfection of equipment.

Photo expedition was headed by Dr. Robert Ryan, President of the Academy of applied Sciences in Belmont, Massachusetts. Installing the equipment, Ryan left. Two years later received the photos is not the fin, not the membrane.

The result of his second coming in 1975 Robert Ryan image of the upper trunk, neck, and head of the living creature. But considering the circumstances of the shooting gave reason to doubt the authenticity of these pictures.

But that was enough for naturalist sir Peter Scott, who helped in 1962 to organize the Bureau for the study of phenomena of Loch ness. He said, "They probably from twenty to fifty pieces. I think they are plesiosaurs".

But plesiosaurs disappeared from the face of the earth 70 million years ago. It happened before the last ice age.

However, hunters monster this statement is not confused. They concluded that Nessie and her ancestors were cut off from the sea, when the lake was formed. And it happened just at the end of the last ice age. Other experts argue that the plesiosaurus would not be able to survive in the conditions of Loch ness or, at least, be preserved in its original form and had to undergo significant mutations.

Relative Nessie:

Nessie, certainly, the most famous of their relatives. But she is not alone. In the seas and lakes of the world live and other aquatic monsters.

In the Okanagan lake, near americanacademy border, according to rumors, lives monster named Big Ogopogo. He was seen long before Nessie is well-known.

The first information about this miracle-Jude came from Indians in the XVII century. They told about the huge creature dark color with a long neck and a hump on his back.

The name of this monster means "repentant", because, according to Indian legend, it's a killer, in punishment transformed into a water snake.

More often reports of Large Ogopogo come from the seventies of the last century.

Recorded testimony Susan Allison. She saw what seemed to her a log, suddenly swam against the wind.

In July 1890 the captain Thomas Sorts led steamer "Birthday" on the lake and on the beam of Skoulli point saw the animal length of 15 feet with molotovski head. In his fins played the sun.

But more recent data. Work sawmill Arthur Golden Sunny day in August 1968 was driving with his wife in a car home. Suddenly they saw something very massive moving quickly in the calm waters of the lake. Golden stopped the car and got my camera. For a full minute he shot the object sailing to sixty-seventy metres from the shore. Fear of ridicule, he is a year no one has seen the exposed tape, until finally relatives urged him to show the movie to numerous spectators.

In 1976, new photos. Ed Fletcher sailed on a boat on the lake, suddenly some moving object cut his way. He recalled: "If I hadn't stopped the engine, I would hit him or jumped on his back, because the boat was only thirty feet".

Fletcher and his daughter Diana swam ashore for the camera. When they returned to the old place, Ogopogo re-emerged from the depths. Fletcher, his daughter and another passenger, which they took on Board, when he returned with the camera, watched the beast for one hour. "He sunk, swam under water distance in a couple of city blocks, then re-emerged, and we all the time and swam after him" - told ed.

According to his calculations, monster pop up more than ten times. First, the serpent floated curled into a ball, then stretched out at full length. Fletcher did five shots.

According to his daughter, skin the monster was smooth and brown, like China, with a small bumps on the back. He swam wriggling in the form of the spin. Eyewitnesses said that "over his head he was sticking the two tabs as the ears Doberman-Pincher".

Other monsters:

In two canadian lakes - Manitoba and Winnipegosis lives, according to eyewitnesses, another monster named Manipogo - presumably kinsman of Ogopogo. It is also the first discovered the Indians. Most of the witnesses told that the monster flat torso, snake head, dark skin and three hump. According to some reports, Manipogo has a girlfriend and calf.

The lake Champlain canal, stretching along the Canada-U.S. border, is also seen the beast. This lake is the first discovered in 1609 Samuel Champlain canal, after whom it is named. According to him, the monster looked like a twenty-foot snake with a horse's head.

In 1977 Sandra Mansi did an amazing photo, supposedly mysterious creatures that live in the lake Champlain canal. Some skeptics claim that its head and neck are actually fin small whale lying on its side. Others believe that under the surface of the water was sandbar and turned out to be an optical illusion.

Specialists from the Center of optical Sciences at Arizona University examined the picture and identified its authenticity. But this did not prevent Professor Paul curtco from the state University of new York state that monster of the Champlain canal as real as the fairy-tale.

In Ireland, too, has its lake monsters. Three priests swore that he saw an unfamiliar animal on Lough REE. may 18, 1960 Daniel Murray, Matthew Burke and Richard Quigley was fishing at the mouth of the river Shannon, on the lake, Lough REE. The silence was suddenly broken huge leaf being approached him. It was about thirty meters from where they were sitting. All three of them quite clearly seen him.

The mystery remains:

While the message of witnesses continue to come from all over the world, even outstanding achievements of science cannot bring humanity to solving the mystery.

In 1933, the Director of the aquarium at London zoo E. G. Boulenger said that reports of Nessie are "amazing example of mass hallucinations". He indicated that once Nessie saw a few people, but now it will be to inform all new and new people. According to him, people see what they want to see.

Scientists prove that they do not know the fish, reptiles, mammals or amphibians, which would correspond to the descriptions lake monsters.

We know that giant lizards that lived on land, died out, as could not adapt to the new conditions.

But we don't know what happened with those whose habitat was water. Perhaps the answer to this question lazily predlagaetsya in the black depths of Loch ness and the other great lakes around the world.