Labynkyr

The lake was formed on the site of the central moraine amphitheater on the Sordonokh plateau of the upper course of the Indigirka as a result of springing the river with a terminal moraine. The lake is located at an altitude of 1020 m above sea level, has the shape of a rectangle elongated from north to south with a length of 14.3 and a width of about four kilometers. The maximum width reaches 4.14 km. The average depth of the lake is up to 52.6 m. At the same time, there is an anomalous crack at the bottom of the lake, which increases the depth to 75–80 m ^[6] . Water transparency - up to 10 m (in the northern part). The water temperature does not exceed 9 ° C even on the hottest summer days, the bottom temperature is from 1.3 to 2 ° C. It should also be noted that the water in the lake, despite large frosts in winter (up to −50 degrees), freezes very slowly, which remains a mystery to scientists. The shores of the northern part of the lake are bouldery - pebbled , the central part is rocky, and the southern part is flat, composed of coarse clove material. The lake is located in one of the coldest places in the Northern Hemisphere .

The river Labynkyr (tributary of Tuora-Yuryakh and Indigirka ) flows into the lake and flows through an ice non-melting dam. There are three islands on the lake, one of which, about 30 m in diameter, 5-6 m high, located exactly in the center of the lake, according to the stories of local residents, has the strange property of disappearing under water from time to time. However, the water level in the lake is practically unchanged and this behavior of the island is probably an optical phenomenon like a mirage .

Local residents, Yakuts, believe that a huge animal lives in the lake - the “Labynkyr devil”, as they call it. According to the descriptions of the Yakuts, this is something of a dark gray color with a huge mouth. The distance between the eyes of the “ devil ” is equal to the width of the raft of ten logs. According to legend, the “ devil ” is very aggressive and dangerous, attacks people and animals, is able to go ashore.

Scientists became interested in the Labynkyrsky monster after the report of the geologist V. I. Tverdokhlebov, who observed a large moving object in the lake. A number of expeditions, however, did not bring any convincing results.

From the records of the expedition of V. Tverdokhlebov July 30, 1953:

After the scientific interest in Labynkyr and its mysterious inhabitant faded in the 70s, the only resident of those places was a certain Trotskyist fisherman named Alams who was exiled to Yakutia during the repressions and did not want to return. It was his incredible tales of the sacrifices that he supposedly brought to the devil that rekindled curiosity in the late 80s. In 1993, Alams became seriously ill and was taken to the nearest hospital. In delirium, he said that Labynkyr would not forgive him for separation and would kill him. The fisherman was returned to the lake, where he suddenly died.

Cryptozoologists put forward various hypotheses regarding the nature of the “trait”: giant pike, relict reptile or amphibian .

Local residents also reported the appearance of the “devil” in the nearby Lake Gate, but the expedition to this lake was able to prove that there are no monsters in it ^[8] .

• In 2005, the television program " Searchers " organized an expedition to the lake, during which it conducted a number of studies and measurements. In particular, with the help of an echo sounder , an abnormal crack was detected at the bottom of the lake, and with the help of a deep-sea tele-sonder, it was possible to detect the remains of the jaws and vertebrae of animals at the bottom.
• In February 2013, a dive was made to the bottom of the lake, the air temperature at the surface was −46 ° C, and the water temperature was +2 ° C. The organizer was the Russian Underwater Federation and the Russian Geographical Society , the expedition was called the "Pole of Cold ^[9] ". The main objective of the project was to study the flora and fauna of Labynkyr, as well as testing the capabilities of the human body in extreme conditions. Researchers took water samples from different depths of Labynkyr, as well as soil samples from the bottom of the lake.

From February 26 to March 14, 2014 the second stage of the expedition was carried out ^[10] .

• In 2016, an employee of the Russian Geographical Society , an extreme traveler from Voronezh, Andrey Solovyov spent more than 100 days on the lake, collected the testimonies of local residents and a helicopter pilot who saw from the air a reptile about 5-7 m long ^[11] . Andrei Solovyov also noted damage to networks (multi-meter holes), the origin of which is difficult to explain if we exclude the effects of a very large animal ^{[12] [13]} .

• The expedition to Labynkyr through the eyes of the photographer Vladimir Medvedev (neopr.) . medvedevphoto.livejournal.com . Date of treatment April 29, 2019.
• The television project "Searchers." The film "Yakut Devil" (Russian) . www.civilization-tv.ru . Date of treatment April 29, 2019.
• "Searchers" in Labynkyr. In search of a “water line” and not only (Russian) . www.molodejka.ru . Date of treatment April 29, 2019.
• In a quiet pool (Russian) . www.itogi.ru . Date of treatment April 29, 2019.
• Lake Labynkyr on the site of protected areas of Russia (rus.) . oopt.aari.ru. Date of treatment April 29, 2019.