Lochness where. The most famous pictures of the Loch Ness monster. Does the Loch Ness monster exist?

Researchers and enthusiasts from all over the world have long been tormented by the question: does the Loch Ness monster exist? Even sophisticated modern technology cannot give an exact answer. The existence of Nessie, living in the waters of Loch Ness, was officially announced in 1933. The British newspaper The Telegraph has collected the most famous photographs of the legendary monster.

At the end of 2013, two residents of the UK on satellite maps from Apple, a mysterious silhouette about 30 meters long on the surface of Loch Ness. For six months, experts studied the image and came to the conclusion that the object could well belong to the legendary monster.

In the summer of 2009, a resident of the UK said that while viewing satellite photographs on the Google Earth website, he saw the creature he was looking for. The photograph of the service really shows something that vaguely resembles a large marine animal with two pairs of flippers and a tail. However, it is possible that the satellite could capture an ordinary boat leaving a foam trail.

In May 2007, 55-year-old Englishman Gordon Holmes claimed he had strong evidence for the existence of the Loch Ness monster. The researcher decided to place microphones in the lake and study the sound signals coming from the depths. Near the western shore, he noticed movement in the water and immediately turned on the video camera, which recorded the movement of a long dark object under water, heading towards the northern part of the lake. The creature's body remained mostly underwater, but its head popped up from time to time, leaving a trail of foam in its wake.

Experts who examined the film confirmed its authenticity and concluded that a creature about 15 meters long was moving at a speed of 10 kilometers per hour. However, Holmes' footage is not considered conclusive evidence for the existence of a prehistoric monster in the lake. There were opinions that it could be a giant snake or a worm, a light illusion or a log set in motion by an internal current.

A photograph of the alleged monster taken in 2005.

And this photo of 1977 turned out to be an ordinary fake. One Anthony Shiels claimed to have taken the photograph while walking near Yorkhart Castle.

In this underwater photograph taken in 1972 by members of the expedition led by Dr. Robert Reines, a creature resembling a plesiosaur is shown.

In this image, also taken in 1972, the monster seems to be moving to the right, showing a wide-open mouth and a powerful back.

Former Army Captain Frank Searle arrived at Loch Ness in the early 1970s. Going to find a mysterious creature, he took a huge number of photographs of Nessie, many of which were widely disseminated by the media. However, they all turned out to be fakes.

In July 1955, Erscher banker Peter McNab photographed what appeared to be a huge, dark creature in the bay at Yorkhart Castle, cutting through the surface of the lake.

In 1951, Lachlan Stewart photographed some strange elevations above the water. Later it turns out that these hills were actually tufts of grass floating on the surface of the lake.

And this is perhaps the most famous picture of Nessie. London colonel and physician Robert Wilson took this photograph in April 1934. The author claimed to have photographed the monster by accident while traveling around the area birdwatching. Only in 1994 was it established that this picture was a fake made by Wilson and three accomplices.

The first known photograph of the Loch Ness Monster was taken on November 12, 1933 by Hugh Gray.

Loch Ness (literally Nose-lake) is located in the north-east of Scotland in the county of Inverness. The area of the lake is about 60 square kilometers, and the maximum depth reaches 230 meters. The water in the lake, curiously, does not freeze even in the coldest winter. And the living creatures that live in its depths are striking in their abundance and diversity. Scottish folklore is replete with centuries-old legends about the monster that lives in the lake.

Loch Ness - lake name, which is associated among people with a monster that, according to rumors, lives in the depths of this reservoir. The lake is interesting not only for the legendary monster.

Scotland is an amazing country with wonderful nature. It is famous for ancient castles, UFO visits, deep and cold lakes.

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Loch Ness lake

Loch Ness is the most deep freshwater lake throughout the UK, clearly visible on the map, it connects the west and east coasts, stretches 37 kilometers, and a depth of up to 230 meters.

The reservoir, if we discard all the legends and myths about the monster, is unique in itself. Most lakes eventually turn into swamps, with the exception of Baikal and Loch Ness.

Loch Ness is not closed, unlike most lakes. The water surface of this reservoir shimmers in the sun like a diamond, located near the town of Inverness, replenished by the waters of the Moriston River. The lake gives rise to the Ness River, the reservoir has remained in its original form for more than 300 million years and is surrounded by picturesque mountains and forests.

The lake is part of the Caledonian Canal connecting the two coasts of Scotland. This feature of the lake allows us to put forward a version that the legendary monster can migrate and is not always in the lake itself. There are versions that several historical animals sail at once to reproduce offspring. Some of the opinions deserve attention and are checked by experts.

Geologists say that Loch Ness was formed during the Ice Age. The reservoir, along with medieval castles, is the most visited place in Scotland. Every year more than half a million tourists come from all over the world.

Most of the people are attracted by "Nessie", as the monster was affectionately called, but not everyone believes in legends and visits the reservoir for the sake of magnificent landscapes and virgin nature. It has been observed that tourists who do not look at a dinosaur in the water often become witnesses his appearance.

Mystery of the Loch Ness Monster

As already noted, it is the Loch Ness monster attracts travelers and many research groups with the most respected geologists, paleontologists and ichthyologists. In 565, the first written mention of the Loch Ness monster. In those days, the monster was attributed to the appearance of evil spells. People sent a fisherman on a boat on their last journey, on which the monster attacked.

Saint Columbus asked the people: "For what reason are you burying such a young man?" He was told that a monster jumped out of the water and killed the fisherman. The boat with the body has already left the shore. Columbus was sure that the demon committed murder and asked the student to return the boat to inspect the body. The guy, without hesitation, rushed into the water after the boat, but the face of the monster appeared from the water and wanted to have a bite to eat the daredevil. Saint Columbus offered up a prayer and ordered the monster to return to the abyss. The words of the saint worked.

The legend was found in the chronicles of Abbot Ion, who described the exploits of St. Columbus. Of course, the authenticity of this legend cannot be verified, but the fact that the monster was mentioned so long ago deserves attention. But there is still an early written mention of "Nessie". In search of habitable land, the ancient Romans found a wonderful lake. On the stones depicted all the animals that lived in this area, even the mouse. Only one drawing does not fit into the "big picture" - the image of a monster with a long neck that resembles a plesiosaur.

Until the early 19th century, there is no further mention of the Loch Ness Monster. As soon as a road was built near the lake, the monster began to appear regularly. He was often seen by locals and tourists, workers. From 1933 to the present, the monster was noticed about 5,000 times! There was a rumor that a baby "Nessie" was surfacing.

As soon as stories about the appearance of the monster began to flicker on the pages of newspapers, the Scottish government in 1934 considered monster capture question. But the question was dismissed as irrelevant and non-existent.

Loch Ness monster - myths and legends

In 1943, information appeared that a pilot flying over the lake saw a prehistoric monster that slowly cut through the quiet expanse of the lake. In those days, no one began to do research because of the height of the Second World War.

The monster is described as:

huge body,
big flippers,
button head on a long neck.

One famous paleontologist who to the existence of a monster treats with skepticism, claims that such a description has spread along with a book called "It's more than a legend!", written by Constance White.

Is there a monster? Or is it a legend to lure tourists? The answer to this question has not yet been decided by any of the experts. But there is footage taken by Tim Dinsdale that supposedly proves the existence of a huge creature in the lake.

Proof of the monster's existence:

Tim Dinsdale photography
filming Gordon Holmes
ultrasound research.

Does Nessie exist? The search for this plesiosaur then subsides, then begins with renewed vigor. This is a mythical creature that supposedly lives in a huge lake in Scotland. He is also affectionately called "Nessie". “You will never see Nessie in this weather,” the taxi driver tells me with a confident shake of his head. We are driving along a narrow road along the Scottish Loch Ness. It's too hot for him right now. He will sit in the depths, where it is cooler.

Maybe so, but I still gaze long and hard into the still waters of the lake. Others say that it is on such days that the smooth surface of the water begins to move and a creature (he or she) - huge, with a curved back like an upturned boat - rises briefly, and again dives into the depths: this is Nessie, the world's most famous underwater monster. At the moment, more than a thousand witnesses claim to have seen it - or at least the waves that it left behind as it plunged into the dark depths ...

But Nessie is just one of many water monsters. From the misty shores of Scandinavia to the dense forests of the Congo and the North American prairies, almost every culture has its own Loch Ness monster. And in many cases, the prototypes of the legendary monsters are real fossils of marine reptiles that lived in the seas from two hundred and fifty to sixty-five million years ago.
Several times Nessie, presumably, managed to be photographed or spotted by sonar, she most of all resembles a plesiosaur - a marine reptile with a long neck, which became extinct at the same time as land dinosaurs about sixty-five million years ago.

Scotland began to attract the attention of the public, especially people involved in unusual natural phenomena, as early as the sixth century AD. Having brought up in the minds of its citizens a wondrous legend about an unprecedented beast that lives at the bottom of the lake, the country has secured a huge flow of researchers and ordinary tourists who want to touch or at least look at this miracle of nature. Until now, it is not known for certain whether the monster actually exists.

The abbot of the Scottish monastery of Iona told the world about the terrible murder of a man. If you believe his "life", then the unfortunate river monster Nisag killed the unfortunate (as the Celts call their monster). Abbot Columba noticed that his students were interested in the incident, and decided to go down the river in a boat to see if the killer was Nisag. The boat sailed away from the shore, and a few moments later a beast swam out in front of the students, which brought them into a stupor and made everyone who sees it horrified.

For the beast to disappear into the abyss of water, Columba read a prayer and thereby saved everyone. Then the unprecedented creation was remembered in 1932. This is the official documentation. “A creature that looks like a crocodile, with a very small head and a long neck,” a certain Miss MacDonald described Nessie in this way, thereby starting an unofficial cycle of observations of the lake. After the publication of this material, more and more eyewitnesses almost instantly appeared, who described the creature in almost the same way as Miss MacDonald. The news, which instantly spread not only in Scotland, but also in other countries, led to a real stir and a mass pilgrimage of tourists to the conditional place of residence of the monster .

Scientists approached this issue from a different angle, and in 1975 a group of enthusiasts, using sonar and photographic devices, explored the bottom. As a result of the latter, scientists received a picture in which there is something that looks like the fin of a huge fish. And already in 2003, the researchers of the international roughness BBC with the help of sound sonar explored the bottom of the lake (600 instruments), but did not find anything. Research in 2016 also found nothing. Of course, the scientific world is full of mysteries, but many believe that all the data was simply classified, and in fact, Nessie, an amazing monster with a small head and a huge body, exists.

The first mention of this monster dates back to the era of the Roman legionnaires. On paper, the case of a meeting with a creature is described as early as the 6th century AD. In his writings, the Irish monk described a strange creature that attacked the locals. After that, people for several centuries met with a monster. That animal, whose head looks like a horse, lured lonely travelers into the abyss, then a giant salamander overturned a ship with people in the lake ...

The peak of Nessie's popularity came in the last century. In the 30s, the newspaper published a story of eyewitnesses who allegedly saw in the waters of the lake a huge black something with two humps and a small head. For several years, the editorial office was simply bombarded with messages about meetings with Nessie. In 1933 alone, dozens of tourists and locals allegedly saw it. It is noteworthy that none of them encountered the creature “face to face”, no one saw it up close.

The essence of the testimony can be reduced to the following: someone from the shore observed movement on the lake, saw a head or humps, heard loud splashes. And one married couple even saw how a sluggish animal of gigantic size crawled from the nearest undergrowth to the water (this was almost the only meeting with Nessie on the shore, no one else noticed that he was leaving the lake).

In 33, the very first known photograph of the strange animal was also taken. The quality of the picture left much to be desired: everything was “smeared” and fuzzy. In the water was a large figure in the form of the Latin letter "S". The picture was recognized by experts as genuine. However, it is impossible to say with certainty whether the captured object is alive, or whether it is just a big snag.

In 1934, the idea of capturing Nessie literally captured the naturalists. The parliament was then even asked for subsidies for research, but the request was rejected. And in the 60s, a certain Mr. Dinsdale filmed the movement of an unusually large object on the surface of the lake. For comparison, he also took a footprint on the water from his boat - these were two completely different tracks. In subsequent years, this video was considered the only material evidence of the existence of the Loch Ness monster. But already in the 20s, a group of experts found that a certain boat still left waves on the water (possibly different in size from the Dinsdale ship).

Thus, we can conclude that at the moment there is not a single photo-video or audio material that clearly demonstrates the existence of Nessie. All images are blurry, fuzzy, or unreliable (take, for example, the very first picture of the creature - it just shows a black hook made of water, which may be a simple driftwood).

Scientists give several arguments according to which the Loch Ness monster simply cannot exist:

The bottom of the lake was scanned several times. According to supporters of the existence of Nessie, there may be a huge crevice at the bottom of the lake, and maybe even a whole network of caves, where the creature is hiding to this day. But this year (2016), with the help of the most modern equipment, experts fully studied the relief of the reservoir and refuted the existence of caves or crevices - the bottom of the lake is flat. The waters themselves were also studied repeatedly, but nothing was found. That is, Nessie has absolutely nowhere to hide;
The reservoir is of glacial origin and for a long time was completely covered with ice. Until a living creature of sufficient size has been found that can survive without oxygen for several years;
The lake does not have the necessary biomass to feed such a large animal as the Loch Ness monster (regardless of whether it is herbivorous or carnivorous). Nessie, according to eyewitnesses, reaches a length of more than 15 meters. At the same time, it should weigh more than 20 tons, and food in the lake would be enough only for someone weighing no more than 2000 kg. Thus, the unfortunate monster would simply starve to death;
By the way, not a single fragment of the creature's body was found - no teeth, no remains, no scales, no claws;
Loch Ness is one of the favorite tourist places: there are a dozen hotels and campsites on its shore, and the reservoir is also navigable. For such a huge period of time, at least someone should have captured a rare curiosity (after all, the monster needs to emerge to take in air). And animals in general are not attracted by places busy with people. (with the exception of small animals that eat up food thrown out by a person, but Nessie is unlikely to be able to get out onto land to feast on an apple core forgotten by a careless tourist);
An interesting fact is that in the 30s of the last century a circus group was actively touring in Scotland. It included several elephants who love to bathe. When an elephant swims, only its trunk, head and back (the neck with a head and two humps of Nessie captured in her first picture, respectively) are visible above the water;
The first mention of the lake curiosity dates back to the end of the last millennium. The monster could very well be an ancient marine dinosaur. That's just according to the calculations of scientists, such people lived especially on average up to a maximum of 300 years. And Nessie has already exceeded 2000 (provided that the animal in the waters of the lake was the same, although, as already indicated above, even one creature cannot feed there, not to mention a possible group);

Despite all the above points, there are still quite a lot of supporters of the existence of the Loch Ness monster in the world. But really, any technique is capable of malfunctioning, any experts are mistaken ...

And at the bottom of the reservoir there may be caves and crevices. Perhaps even leading to the ocean. And Nessie managed to get out of the hungry and cold captivity of the lake. It is likely that the monster might not have lived permanently in Scotland, but only swam there for some purpose.

The video is about Nessie.

First, it is probably worth saying about what kind of lake it really is. It is 230 meters deep and covers an area of 65 square kilometers. So Nessie is where to get lost. In addition, the lake is part of a canal that links the two coasts of Scotland. The channel is called the Caledonian and there is even a theory that the Loch Ness Monster swims from the lake to the channel, which is why it is so hard to catch it.

Loch Ness has a constant supply of water from the Moriston River, so the water in it is not stagnant. A river also flows out of it, which is symbolically called Ness (maybe monsters also live in it?). The nearest city near the reservoir is the Scottish Inverness, located 40 kilometers away.

The lake itself could well become the habitat of a prehistoric monster, like dinosaurs. After all, it has been in existence for a very long time. Scientists say that Loch Ness was already here during the Ice Age. It was formed due to the displacement of rocks. Given this age, the lake is, in fact, unique, because, like the Russian Baikal, it was able to resist waterlogging and did not become a swamp after 20 thousand years of its existence.

Fiction?

And now it is worth moving on to the details about the monster itself. For the first time it is mentioned in the chronicles of abbot Jon. He described the exploits of St. Columbus (not the one who discovered America) and told about an incident that happened to him on Loch Ness in 565. Columbus passed by the lake and saw the villagers, who, putting the body of a fisherman in a boat, sent him on his last journey. The boat had already left when Columbus asked what happened. The locals told him that the fisherman had been attacked by a monster that had jumped out of the water. Saint Columbus decided to check if the young fisherman had been possessed by evil forces, so he asked his student to jump into the water and moor the boat back to the shore. As soon as the student jumped into the water, the head of a monster appeared from it, which was waiting for the moment to pounce on him. But at that moment, Saint Columbus offered up prayers to heaven and ordered the monster to hide in the depths of the lake, which it was forced to do.

This is the first story about Nessie. Although researchers believe that there are earlier references. For example, even before our era, the ancient Romans lived here. Having explored the lake, they left drawings of local animals on the stone, from the largest to the smallest. All of them correspond to the fauna of the lake and coastal areas, but among them there is also a strange pattern that resembles a plesiosaur with a long neck.

From then until the 19th century, Nessie was forgotten, but since 1933 the monster has been seen in these parts more than 5 thousand times. Somehow it became more active in the 20th and 21st centuries, but most of the storytellers, of course, cannot be trusted. However, there is evidence that may well be true. One of them is a shot by Tim Dinsdale, who captured a huge living creature moving along the surface of the lake at a speed of 16 km / h. This film was recognized as real after numerous examinations. Another authentically truthful shooting belongs to Gordon Holmes. This video shows a monster with a long neck and a small head, which reaches a length of 15 meters. Holmes filmed how it dived, swam at a speed of about 10 km / h and turned its head.

In general, there is evidence, but, nevertheless, so far they are indirect. After all, clear films depicting Nessie never appeared, so it’s hard to say if there is a prehistoric monster in the lake. Moreover, skeptics say that if he lived here, he simply could not feed himself, because there is not enough food for him here. Moreover, an animal cannot live alone, there must be at least a few individuals here, who, all the more, could not get their own food.

But while scientists are trying to establish the truth, tourists can simply come to Loch Ness, go to the museum located on the shore, inspect documents, photos and videos of eyewitnesses, see fakes of Nessie and try to make out that same monster among the water surface. And if not, then you can just enjoy nature and admire the lake, which is quite interesting even without Nessie.

Loch Ness monster, or Nessie is an amazing aquatic creature that, according to legends and eyewitness observations, lives in the large deep lake Lochness, located in Scotland.

The mystery of the Loch Ness monster has been worrying the world for hundreds of years

The name "Loch Ness Monster" was coined by Evan Barron, the paper's local editor. If you believe the most common theory, then this monster is a Plesiosaurus marine reptile that existed in the era of dinosaurs and has survived to this day. Most scientists believe that a single creature cannot live at the bottom of the lake, a whole family must live there, otherwise it will die over time. Some argue that the Loch Ness monster is only a figment of people's imagination.

Lake Lochness- This is a huge deep depression in the earth's crust, located in the highlands of Scotland and surrounded by steep cliffs 610 meters high. Since ancient times, this lake has been considered gloomy and mysterious. It is located in an unattractive and hard-to-reach place for a person.

The picturesque Loch Ness is a paradise for Nessie

Loch Ness was formed at the end of the ice age, ten thousand years ago. Its depth is 300 meters, the length is more than 38.5 kilometers, and the water in it is pitch black. The bottom of the lake has an area of about 57 square kilometers. This lake is one of the three large lakes that feed the Great Valley. A huge rift in the Valley separates Northern Scotland from the rest of the British Isle. Loch Ness is Britain's largest source of fresh water and the third largest in Europe.

The legend of the mysterious Loch Ness monster Nessie
The history of the Loch Ness monster Nessie dates back to the birth of Christianity. According to legend, the Roman legionnaires were the first to tell the world about the mysterious creature that lives in the Scottish lake. It was they who, at the beginning of the Christian era, mastered the Celtic expanses with a sword in their hands. All representatives of the Scottish fauna from the mouse to the deer were immortalized by the locals on stone. The only image that the Romans failed to recognize was a strange representation of a seal with a long neck and enormous size.

There are many legends about Nessie. But there is also documentary evidence of eyewitnesses

For the first time, a written mention of a mysterious monster that lives in the Scottish lake Lochness was made in the 6th century AD. The abbot of the Iona monastery in Scotland, in the biography of St. Columba, spoke of the saint's triumph over the "water beast" in the River Ness. At that time, the abbot of Columbus, in his new monastery, located off the west coast of Scotland, was engaged in an appeal to the faith of the pagan Scots and Picts. As the life says, one day Columba went to the lake and saw the funeral. It was the locals who buried one of their people, maimed and killed while swimming in the lake. It was believed that Nisag, the Celtic name for the mysterious monster, killed him. Armed with hooks to scare away the creature, the locals dragged the body of the deceased to the shore. To bring the boat in, one of the saint's pupils jumped into the water without hesitation. When he sailed from the shore of the lake towards the narrow strait, “a strange-looking beast rose out of the water, like a giant frog, only it was not a frog.” With the help of a prayer, Columba drove away the mysterious monster.

After that, the Loch Ness monster calmed down for a long time, but unexpectedly in 1880, with a clear sky and complete calm, a small sailboat capsized on the lake, after which it sank together with people. There were eyewitnesses who allegedly saw the Loch Ness monster.

Such was the beginning of the legend of the Loch Ness Monster. In those days, this mysterious monster was represented as an evil water or hellish creature with a horse's head, a water serpent. These creatures, according to legend, lived in the coastal waters and lakes of Scotland and Scandinavia.

Ancient Scottish folklore is replete with tales of fearsome horse-like water monsters attacking people near the shore, called kelpies. Local residents living today near Lochness Lake still remember how they were forbidden to swim in this lake because of kelpies in childhood.

Ten years later, after the remains of a mysterious marine reptile were discovered in England in 1719, Nessie began to attribute the image of the Plesiosaurus.

Origin theories for the Loch Ness monster

An unknown Loch Ness monster is a dinosaur that became extinct millions of years ago - a plesiosaur. This is the most common version of the origin of the mysterious monster Nessie. According to supporters of this theory, the plesiosaurus fell into the trap after the land rose as a result of tectonic movement, and part of the prehistoric sea formed into a lake. However, the probability that one individual can live at least a few centuries is rather small. In this regard, the population of the mysterious monster must number several dozen individuals in order to be able to reproduce. In addition, such a population needed a large amount of food for subsistence, Loch Ness is small for such purposes, and it is unlikely that it can feed so many plesiosaurs.

The mysterious Loch Ness monster is a species of giant fish, long-necked seal or mollusk unknown to science.

The Loch Ness monster Nessie is a bathing elephant. This hypothesis was put forward in 2005 by Neil Clark, a British doctor and curator of the Glasgow University Museum. For two years, Clark studied materials related to the mysterious monster. His research showed that the number of encounters with the monster increased dramatically when tent circuses stopped near the lake. Part of the back and the high trunk of a floating elephant were perceived by the locals as the Loch Ness monster.

The mysterious monster Nessie is nothing more than visions that occur under the influence of a hallucinogenic gas. This theory belongs to a seismologist from Italy, Luigi Piccardi. The scientist specializes in looking for connections between mythical creatures and geological phenomena. According to him, Loch Ness is not accidentally located on a huge crack in the earth's crust that crosses the British Isles. This fault contributes to the formation of small but frequent earthquakes. A characteristic feature of these tremors is the release of gases from the bowels of the earth that can cause hallucinations in people. However, the theory cannot explain why all eyewitnesses describe the mysterious monsters in the same way.

It is possible that the Loch Ness monster Nessie is an example of a fairly long-term and very competent marketing campaign. Thousands of tourists visit the vicinity of Loch Ness every year, which in turn brings a lot of money to local authorities. It is possible that all the information about the Loch Ness creature is falsified materials that are being made so that the hype does not disappear and people continue to come.

There are other theories that are more like science fiction.

Scientific description of the Loch Ness monster

The monster has a neck of three meters in length, which rises to a height of two meters above the water. Its body is six and a half meters, and its tail is three meters. While the Loch Ness Monster swims, its neck is tilted 30 degrees. The exact number of humps is unknown, as opinions differ on their number. Half of the witnesses claim that the creature has three humps, of which the middle hump is the largest and is a meter high. According to a quarter of witnesses, the back of the animal is smooth. Skin color also does not have an exact description. According to various opinions, the skin varies from brown to light gray, like an elephant. From observations, it can be noted that a mysterious creature rises to the surface of the water most often in the morning.

It is also assumed that the Nessie monster feeds exclusively on aquatic vegetation and fish, and therefore it does not need to go ashore often. The vision of the mysterious monster is poorly developed, but this deficiency is compensated by a well-developed sense of smell. The monster's respiratory organ is the gills. That is why the version that the monster comes to land is practically excluded.

According to the descriptions of eyewitnesses and the assumptions of scientific archaeologists, the Loch Ness monster can be attributed to a detachment of reptiles that existed from the Triassic to the Cretaceous era. This is approximately 199.6 - 65.5 million years ago. Such animals felt pretty good in the water and were perfectly adapted to living in such conditions. However, the mysterious monster, like all mammals, had to come to the surface to replenish oxygen.

Testimonies of real eyewitnesses who observed the Loch Ness monster

In the spring of 1933, correspondent Alex Campbell published an article in the Inverness Courier newspaper, “A sensational phenomenon on Loch Ness. What could it be?”, in which he described in detail the story of John McKay and his wife. The article was about how the McKays, while walking along the lake, noticed a strange animal, which they called a monster. Readers were excited by this case, and Alex Campbell began a systematic observation of the lake. He saw the monster 18 times. Most clearly, Campbell managed to see the Loch Ness monster in 1934, when the neck, head and hump of the mysterious creature were two hundred meters from the shore. In the same year, they began to create a road along the northern shore of the lake. For a better view of the largest freshwater reservoir in Britain, bushes and trees were cut down. A large number of people and cars appeared on the deserted shores, and the roar of engines pierced the neighborhood. After that, the creature was noticed especially often, perhaps this was due to his curiosity, and maybe irritation. Mr. E. Mounter organized a network of observation posts around Loch Ness. Within five weeks, the monster was seen 15 times.

Two months after the incident with the McKay couple, the Loch Ness monster was spotted by a road construction team. According to them, the monster surfaced behind the stern of a passing ship in the middle of the lake. According to the descriptions, the strange monster has a rather massive and large body and a huge head.

In August of the same year, three eyewitnesses were confused by the presence of waves on a usually quiet lake. After that, several humps arranged in a row began to rise to the surface of the water and again go under the water. Their movement was undulating and was like a caterpillar.

The question of the existence of the Loch Ness monster was put on the agenda of the Scottish Parliament. It was proposed to catch the animal. However, this idea was rejected, and more and more scientists began to repeat about the lack of evidence for the existence of such a mysterious animal.

In 1943, military pilot B. Farrell reported to the leadership that during the flight at an altitude of 230 meters above the lake, he clearly saw Nessie. But the British in those years were not up to monsters.

At the end of July in 1935, the Spencer couple were surprised when they saw a mysterious creature across the road heading towards the lake while driving a car along the road between the villages of Foyers Dores. According to Mr. Spencer and his wife, the creature waddled rapidly towards the water, its neck was thin and long, and its body was heavy and shapeless.

This case suggests that the Loch Ness monster lives not only in water, but also comes out on land. This is also evidenced by 7 recorded cases when the monster was seen on land.

One of the local residents once heard a crack in the forest thicket on the shore, after which she saw a creature crawling into the water. According to her, it was a huge carcass that moved like a caterpillar. His skin was shiny like an elephant's, and he had two round-shaped feet in front of him. It entered the water clumsily, waddling from one foot to the other.

In 1951, the Loch Ness monster was observed by a local forester with a friend, and the next year after that, local residents saw a mysterious creature in the water near the shore.

Having lived most of her life on the lakeshore, Mrs. Constance White published a book in 1957 called "It's more than a legend." In it, she collected about 120 eyewitness accounts of the Loch Ness monster. The appearance of the monster in all the stories was described in much the same way: a long neck, a massive thick body and a small head.

Over the next fifty years, more than three thousand eyewitnesses quite seriously claimed to have seen the Loch Ness monster. It is unlikely that so many people could be wrong.

Photo evidence of the Loch Ness monster

Some time after the McKay story, photographers began to appear at the lake. The first photograph of the Loch Ness monster appeared in 1933. It was made by Hugh Gray, who, returning home from the church along the lake, witnessed "some massive object" floating to the surface. Four frames that Gray took were corrupted, but on the fifth one, some mysterious creature was clearly visible. The authenticity of the negative was officially confirmed by Kodak.

In 1937, Robert Wilson, a London surgeon, also managed to capture the monster on film, the picture from which was published in all the newspapers of the world. His photograph amazed everyone: a small head on a thin neck, resembling a snake's head, rose above the surface of the water. The picture also showed the monster's fin.

A reward was assigned for the capture of the monster, after which researchers began to push the search for the mysterious monster with a material incentive, and not just scientific interest.

Throughout the summer, Frank Searle, who is a demobilized soldier, spent twenty hours a day by the lake with a camera in his hands. He conducted continuous monitoring of the lake from an uninhabited shore and a rubber boat. And on December 21, 1972, the Loch Ness monster finally showed up two hundred and thirty meters from the boat. On its supple neck, the monster lifted its head and for twenty seconds examined Searle's rubber boat with intense interest. After that, the monster, having plunged into the water, swam under the boat, and surfaced on the other side of it. The observer had another thirty seconds to photograph the animal.

In the summer of 2009, a British resident claimed to have seen the mysterious creature while browsing through satellite photographs on the internet. The photo really shows something that vaguely resembles a large marine animal with a tail and two paws. Professor Adrian Schein even called the photographs "really intriguing" and noted that they merited further study. However, as was later reported, the picture shows only a boat that regularly tours the lake.

A scientific approach to finding the Loch Ness monster

Scientists who were interested in such an unusual phenomenon plowed the lake far and wide, using sonar, radar and echo sounders. The researchers believed that if the monster was scared away, it would come to the surface. To this end, they carried out explosions on the lake. Even a small submarine was lowered into the lake. However, the rather low light permeability of the dark waters of the lake hampered her work.

A little later, special underwater searchlights equipped with cameras and microphones were installed in the lake. The idea behind this was the following. If the microphones pick up the noise of an animal moving under water, then the searchlights are instantly turned on, in the light of which the passing monster is captured by cameras.

In this way, in 1972, the first photographs were taken, which did not cause delight, since a rather fuzzy and indefinite body was recorded on the film.

Scientists, after analyzing this fact, came to the conclusion that the Loch Ness monster moves in the water, making a minimum of noise, and therefore, the microphone could not turn on the recording device in time. Therefore, the filming plan was changed. Every 75 seconds, automatic photographs began to be taken, while fixing everything that fell into the frame. It was in this way that sensational pictures of the monster's head and body were obtained. These two photographs became the basis for convening a symposium on the Loch Ness phenomenon. The photographs were presented to specialists and the public on December 10, 1975, which clearly showed that the body of the monster had a puffy shape, its head had two horn-like thickenings on a long neck, and the rear right fin was diamond-shaped.

Scottish folklore is filled with centuries-old legends of monsters that dwell in the dark depths of Loch Ness. However, even now, research using modern sophisticated technology is not able to determine whether Nessie and similar creatures are fiction or reality.

Despite this, eyewitness reports do not stop coming from all over the world, and over the years the mystery of the Loch Ness monster has acquired an incredible amount of details. A lot of documentary evidence, underwater video footage, echo sounder recordings, photographs of varying reliability have been presented over the decades. However, at the same time, there are a huge number of fakes. Research will continue further, and perhaps the mystery of the strange creature will soon be solved.

A very interesting scientific documentary film about the Loch Ness monster, shot by Philip Cousteau, is posted below - watch this fascinating and informative video about Nessie from Loch Ness.