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There is a host of tales from people who came across similar _are large, round, "iron houses" standing on numerous lateral sup- constructions by accident, but without precise directions it is ports. They have neither windows nor doors, only a "spacious extremely difficult to find these again in the depressingly manhole" at the top of the dome. Some of them have sunk almost monotonous terrain. completely into the permafrost, with only a barely noticeable Once some old men said that flowing in the place called Tong —_arch-like protuberance remaining on the surface. Witnesses who Duurai is a stream called are strangers to each other describe Ottoamokh ("holes in the ground") and that around it there are incredi- this "resounding metal house" in the same way. Other objects scat- bly deep openings known as "the In the strange words of the tered across the area are the metal- aughing chasms". That same : . ic hemispherical lids that cover name also crops up in legends that legends, it consisted of something unknown. Yakut leg- ends say that the mysterious blaz- ing spheres are produced by "an orifice belching smoke and fire" state that this is the dwelling of a three tiers of "laughing chasms". fiery giant who destroys everything around. Roughly every six or Its depths supposedly contained seven centuries, a monstrous "fire- with a "banging steel lid". ball" bursts out from there and it an underground country This is also the source for the either flies off somewhere into the with its own sun that was, fiery whirlwinds that from the distance and (judging by the chron- however. "waning" descriptions sound very similar to 5 . icles and legends of other peoples) explodes there, or it explodes the effects of present-day atomic explosions. Roughly a century directly above its exit point—as a before each explosion or series of result of which, the area for hundreds explosions, a fast-flying fiery of kilometres around has been reduced to a scorched desert with sphere emerged from the "iron orifice" and, without causing great shattered rocks. damage, soared upwards in the form of a thin column of fire. At Yakut legends contain many references to explosions, fiery the top of this, a very large fireball appeared. Accompanied by whirlwinds and blazing spheres rising into the air. And all those four claps of thunder in succession, it soared to an even greater phenomena are somehow or other associated with the mysterious _ height and flew off, leaving behind a long "trail of smoke and metal constructions found in the Valley of Death. Some of them fire". Then a cannonade of its explosions sounded in the distance... In the 1950s, the Soviet military cast an eye over this area, evi- dently due to the exceptionally sparse population on its northern fringes, and conducted a series of atomic tests there. One of the explosions produced a great puzzle, and foreign specialists are still speculating about it. As the German radio station Deutsche Welle reported in September 1991 that, when a 10-kilogram nuclear device was being tested in 1954, for unknown reasons the size of the explosion exceeded the calculations by a factor of 2,000 to 3,000, reaching 20-30 megatons, as was registered by seismic laboratories around the world. The cause of such a signif- icant discrepancy in the power of the explosion remained unclear. The newsagency TASS put out an announcement that a compact hydrogen bomb had been tested in airburst conditions, but it later emerged that this was incorrect. After the tests, restricted zones were established in the area and secret work was carried out for In the strange words of the legends, it consisted of three tiers of "laughing chasms". Its depths supposedly contained an underground country Sab fal 28 some years. Myths and Legends Let us try to look into the distant past as it is reflected in epic poetry. As the legends passed on by word of mouth testify, in the remote period when everything began, the area was inhabited by a small number of Tungus nomads. Once upon a time, their distant neighbours saw that their land was suddenly wrapped in impene- trable darkness and the surroundings were shaken by a deafening roar. A hurricane of unseen force arose and the land was riven by mighty blows. Lightning crossed the sky in all directions. When everything calmed down and the darkness dispersed, an unprece- dented sight met the nomads' eyes. In the midst of the scorched land, glowing in the sun stood a tall vertical structure that was vis- ible at a distance of many days' journey. For a long time, the structure gave out unpleasant, ear-splitting noises and gradually diminished in height until it disappeared under the ground altogether. In place of the tall structure there was an immense, yawning, vertical "orifice". In the strange words 52 = NEXUS with its own sun that was, however, "waning". www.nexusmagazine.com DECEMBER 2003 — JANUARY 2004