Sometimes it seems that modern man is no longer afraid of anything. We almost calmly watch even the most bloodthirsty horror movies, read out mystical novels, and in computer games sometimes involved a variety of monsters in the world, both real earthly and fictional. All this does not surprise anyone. Even teenagers and young children relate to all these creatures with mild irony and skepticism.
And what do you say to someone who will claim that monsters and monsters are found in our world today? Will you smile? Turn your finger at the temple? Start proving the opposite? Do not hurry. Why? The thing is that from time to time unprecedented creatures still appear to people now.
For example, rummaging in your memory, you will surely recall that someone from your relatives, friends or just acquaintances once met a terrible monster or some inexplicable creature under various circumstances. Truth?
But what if it is not just a figment of an unhealthy imagination or a consequence of a sleepless night? Suddenly mythological ancient Greek monsters actually existed and continue to dwell somewhere in our world? The truth is from such thoughts even the most daring of us are covered with goosebumps and begin to listen to the surrounding rustlings and sounds.
All this will be discussed in this article. However, in addition to the story of where the monsters live, we will touch on other equally interesting topics. For example, we will dwell in more detail on epics and beliefs, as well as 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 of good and love, but also of terrible and disgusting creatures. We will not be unfounded and give some of the most characteristic examples.
So in Jewish folklore lives a certain dibbuki, the spirit of a deceased sinful person who can inhabit the living people who have committed a serious offense and torment them. Only a very skilled rabbi will be able to drive out dibbuki from the body.
Islamic culture, in turn, as a mythical evil creature, offers genies - an evil winged people created from smoke and fire, living in parallel reality and serving the devil. By the way, according to local religion, the devil was also once a genie named 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 kinds of abominations.
You must admit that such mythical monsters inspire fear, even if you just read their description, and really I really would not want to meet with them.
Section 2. What are people afraid of today?
Nowadays, people also believe in different otherworldly beings. For example, in Malay (Indonesian) folklore, there is a certain pontianak, a vampire woman with long hair. What does this scary creature do? It attacks pregnant women and eats all of their insides.
Russian monsters also do not lag behind in their bloodthirstiness and unpredictability. So, among the Slavs, the evil spirit is presented in the form of a water spirit, the embodiment of a dangerous and negative element of water. Sneaking up quietly, he drags his victim to the bottom, and then he preserves the souls of people in special vessels.
Let's try to imagine some kind of monster of the seas. In this case, it is impossible not to mention one of the countries of South America. Probably, many have already heard that in Brazilian folklore there is an encantado, a snake or a river dolphin that turns into a person, loves sex and has a musical ear. He steals the thoughts and desires of people, after which a person loses his mind and eventually dies.
Another mythical creature that belongs to the category of "Monsters of the World" is a goblin. He has a human appearance - very tall, shaggy with strong arms and luminous eyes. Lives in the forest, as a rule, in dense and inaccessible. The goblin ride trees, are constantly fooling around, and at the sight of a man they beat in the hands and laugh. By the way, they drag women towards them.
Section 3. The Monster of Lohness. 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, back in the last ice age in Europe.
Rumor has it that a mysterious beast lives in the lake, which was first mentioned in writing in 565. However, the Scots from ancient times mentioned water monsters in their folklore, calling them the prefabricated name "kelpie".
The modern Loch Ness monster is called Nessie, and its history began almost 100 years ago. In 1933, a married couple, resting nearby, personally saw something unusual, which was reported to a special service. However, despite the testimony of 3,000 witnesses claiming to have seen the monster, scientists still unravel this mystery.
To date, many locals have agreed that a creature lives two meters wide in the lake and moves at a speed of 10 miles per hour. Modern eyewitnesses claim that Nessie looks like a giant snail with a very long neck.
Section 4. Headless Valley Monsters
The secret of the so-called Valley of the Headless is that no matter who goes to this area and no matter how armed, it is still worth saying goodbye to him in advance. Why? The thing is that no one has returned from there yet.
The phenomenon of disappearance of people is still not solved. Whether all the monsters of the world gather there, or whether people disappear due to some other circumstances, is not known for certain.
Sometimes only human heads were found at the scene, and the Indians living in that area claim that this is done by a bigfoot living in the valley. 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 mystery of the Valley of the Headless is that in this place is the entrance to a parallel world.
Section 5. Who is the Yeti and what is it dangerous?
In 1921, on Mount Everest, whose height is more than 6 km, a trace was left on the snow left by a bare foot of enormous size. He was discovered by an expedition under the command of Colonel Howard-Bury, a very famous and respected climber. Then the team reported that the footprint belongs to the Bigfoot.
Previously, the Yeti mountains were considered the mountains of Tibet and the Himalayas. Now scientists believe that snowmen can live in the Pamirs, Central Africa, in the lower Ob, in some areas of Chukotka and Yakutia, and in the 70s of the twentieth century Yeti were also encountered in America, as evidenced by numerous documentary evidence.
How they can be dangerous to modern man, to this day remains a mystery. Cases of the abduction of food, sports equipment were known, but the people of these creatures themselves seem to be of little interest, so there is no need to be afraid of them, and especially panic fear.
Section 6. The monster of the seas. Sea serpent: myth or reality?
Many ancient myths and legends tell about sea monsters and the big sea snake. At the time, both sailors and scientists believed in the existence of such a monster.
All opinions agreed that, nevertheless, there are at least two species of large marine inhabitants unknown to science . Scientists suggest that the role of a sea monster is a giant eel or an unknown form of cryptozoology.
In 1964, sea travelers who crossed the Australian Stoneheng Bay on a yacht saw a huge black tadpole about 25 meters 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 with a diameter of about 60 cm and a length of 20 m and a whip-like tail.
Section 7. Shark megalodon. 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 ancient times and resembled a great white shark.
Megalodon was supposedly about 25 meters long, and it is precisely this size that turns it into the largest predator that has ever existed on the planet.
Not one fact proves the existence of megallodone in our time. For example, in 1918, when fishermen of sea crayfish worked at great depths, they saw a giant shark 92 meters long. Most likely, this was this fish.
Modern scientists are also in no hurry to deny this assumption. They argue that such animals could easily survive in unexplored oceanic depths to this day.
Section 8. Do you believe in ghosts?
Myths about spirits have existed since pagan times. The Christian faith also prevails in spirits, talking about the existence of special beings, for example, angels who control the elements, and the so-called "unclean", which include goblin, brownie, water, etc.
It so happens that good and evil spirits constantly interact with a person. Christianity distinguishes even certain companions of man: the good guardian angel and the evil demon tempter.
Ghost, in turn, is considered an anomalous phenomenon, vision, ghost, 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 ghosts themselves often radically differ from each other.
Section 9. Giant Cephalopods
From a scientific point of view, cephalopods are creatures without a spine whose body has formed like a sack. They have a small head with a clearly defined physiognomy and one leg, which is a tentacle with suction cups. Impressive looks, right? By the way, not everyone knows that these creatures have a sufficiently developed and highly organized brain and live at sea depths from 300 to 3000 m.
Very often around the world on the shores of the oceans throws the bodies of dead cephalopods. The longest discarded cephalopod was more than 18 m long and weighed 1 ton.
Scientists who studied 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. Riddles of bottomless lakes
In the Solnechnogorsk district of the Moscow Region there is a lake called Endless. Local residents constantly tell legends about the connection of the lake with the ocean and the wreckage of sunken ships thrown onto its sandy shores.
This pond is considered a real phenomenon of nature, with its small size, only 30 m in diameter, it has an immeasurable depth.
In the same area is another strange object - Lake Krugloye, which was formed more than half a million years ago at the site of the impact of a large meteorite. The pond has a diameter of about 100 m, but no one knows the size of its depth. There is almost no fish in it, and living creatures do not live on the banks. In the summer in the middle of the lake there is a large cycle, resembling a large whirlpool on the river, and in winter, freezing, the cycle forms a fanciful pattern on ice. Not so long ago, local residents began to observe the following picture: on nice days, some creatures crawling out onto the beach to bask in the sun, which, according to the description, resembled either a huge snail or a lizard.
Section 11. Beliefs of Buryatia
Another lake of unknown depth is Sobolkho, in Buryatia. In the area of the lake, both people and animals are constantly disappearing. It is very interesting that the missing animals were later found in completely different lakes. Scientists suggest that the pond 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 hardly possible to do without scary monsters.