An electric worm from the gobi desert. The elusive worm of the Mongolian desert: reality or fiction

The hero of Mongolian folklore - giant worm- lives in the desert sandy regions of the Gobi. In its appearance, it most of all resembles the insides of an animal. On his body it is impossible to distinguish neither the head nor the eyes. The Mongols call him olgoi-khorkha, and more than anything else they are afraid of meeting him. Not a single scientist in the world has had a chance to see with his own eyes the mysterious inhabitant of the Mongolian deserts. And therefore, for many years, the olgoi-khorkhoy was considered an exclusively folklore character - a fictional monster.

However, at the beginning of the 20th century, researchers drew attention to the fact that the legends about the Olgoi-Khorkhoi are told everywhere in Mongolia, and in the most diverse and remote corners of the country, legends about giant worm repeated word for word and replete with the same details. And so scientists decided that the basis of ancient legends is true. It may very well be that he lives in the Gobi Desert unknown to science strange creature, perhaps - a miraculously surviving representative of the ancient, long-extinct "population" of the Earth.

Translated from the Mongolian, “olgoi” means “large intestine”, and “khorkhoi” means a worm. According to legend, a half-meter worm lives in inaccessible waterless areas of the Gobi Desert. Olgoy-Khorkhoy spends almost all the time in hibernation - he sleeps in holes made in the sands. The worm gets to the surface only in the hottest months of summer, and woe to the person who met him on the way: the olgoy-khorkhoy kills the victim at a distance, throwing out deadly poison, or strikes with an electric discharge upon contact. In a word, you won't get away from him alive….

The isolated position of Mongolia and the policy of its authorities made the fauna of this country practically inaccessible to foreign zoologists. That is why the scientific community knows practically nothing about the Olgoi-Khorkhoi. However, in 1926, the American paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews, in the book "In the Footsteps of an Ancient Man," spoke about his conversation with the Prime Minister of Mongolia. The latter asked the paleontologist to catch the Olgoi-Khorkhoi. At the same time, the minister pursued personal goals: desert worms once killed one of his family members. But, to the great regret of Andrews, he could not only catch, but even just see the mysterious worm. Many years later, in 1958, the Soviet science fiction writer, geologist and paleontologist Ivan Efremov returned to the theme of the olgoi-khorkhoi in the book The Road of the Winds. In it, he recounted all the information that he had collected on this subject during reconnaissance expeditions to the Gobi from 1946 to 1949.

In his book, among other testimonies, Ivan Efremov cites the story of an old Mongol man named Tseven from the village of Dalandzadgad, who claimed that the Olgoi-Khorkhoi lived 130 kilometers southeast of the Aimak agricultural region. “No one knows what they are, but olgoi-khorkhoy is a horror,” said the old Mongol. Efremov used these stories about the monster of the sands in his fantastic story, which was originally titled “Olgoi-khorkhoi”. It tells about the death of two Russian explorers who died from the poison of desert worms. The story was entirely fictional, but it was based solely on the folklore evidence of the Mongols.

Ivan Macarle, Czech writer and the journalist, the author of many works about the mysteries of the Earth, was the next to follow the trail of the mysterious inhabitant of the Asian desert. In the 1990s, Makarle, together with Dr. Jaroslav Prokopets, a specialist in tropical medicine, and cameraman Jiri Skupen, led two expeditions to the most remote corners of the Gobi Desert. Unfortunately, they also failed to catch a single specimen of the worm alive. However, they received evidence of its real existence. Moreover, these evidences were so numerous that they allowed Czech researchers to make and launch a program on television, which was called: "The Mysterious Monster of the Sands."

This was far from the last attempt to unravel the mystery of the existence of the Olgoi-Khorkhoi. In the summer of 1996, another group of researchers, also Czechs, led by Petr Gorky and Mirek Naplava, followed the worm's tracks across a good half of the Gobi Desert. Alas, also to no avail.

Today almost nothing is heard about the Olgoi-Khorkhoi. So far, this Mongolian cryptozoological puzzle is being solved by Mongolian researchers. One of them, the scientist Dondogizhin Tsevegmid, suggests that there is not one kind of worm, but at least two. Again, folk legends forced him to draw a similar conclusion: locals often they also talk about shar-khorkhoy - that is, a yellow worm.

In one of his books, Dondogizhin Tsevegmid mentions the story of a camel driver who met face to face with such shar-khorkhoys in the mountains. At one far from perfect moment, the driver noticed that yellow worms were climbing out of holes in the ground and crawling towards him. Mad with fear, he rushed to run, and then found that almost fifty of these disgusting creatures were trying to surround him. The poor fellow was lucky: he still managed to escape ...

So, today, researchers of the Mongolian phenomenon are inclined to believe that we are talking about a living being, completely unknown to science. However, the zoologist John L. Claudsey-Thompson, one of the most famous specialists in the desert fauna, suspected a species of snake in the Olgoi-Khorkhoi, which the scientific community has yet to get acquainted with. Claudsy-Thompson himself is sure that the unknown desert worm is related to the Oceanian viper. The latter is distinguished by no less "attractive" appearance. In addition, like the olgoy-khorkhoy, the viper is capable of destroying its victims at a distance, splashing poison.

A completely different version is held by the French cryptozoologist Michel Raynal and the Czech Jaroslav Mares. Scientists attribute the Mongolian desert dweller to two-way reptiles that lost their paws during evolution. These reptiles, like desert worms, can be red or brown in color. In addition, it is extremely difficult to distinguish between their head and neck. Opponents of this version, however, rightly point out that no one has heard that these reptiles were poisonous or had an organ capable of producing an electric current.

According to the third version, the olgoi-khorkhoi is an annelids that acquired a special protective skin in desert conditions. It is known that some of these earthworms able to squirt poison in self-defense.

Be that as it may, the Olgoi-Khorkhoy remains a mystery to zoologists, which has not yet received a single satisfactory explanation.

The researcher Nikolai Nepomniachtchi wrote the following about him: “What else do they have there,” the driver Grigory said with annoyance, but suddenly he braked sharply and shouted to me: “Look quickly! What?"

The cockpit window was blocked by a radio operator who had jumped down from above. With a gun in his hand, he rushed towards a large dune. Something alive was moving across its surface. This creature had no visible legs, not even a mouth or eyes. Most of all, it looked like a stump of a thick sausage about a meter long. A large and fat worm, an unknown inhabitant of the desert, wriggled on the purple sand. Not being a connoisseur of zoology, I nevertheless immediately realized that we were facing an unknown animal. There were two of them."

This is a fragment from the story of the famous paleontologist and writer I.A. Efremov, written by him after an expedition to the Gobi desert. Further, Efremov talks about how people ran up to mysterious creatures that looked like worms. Suddenly, each worm curled into a ring. Their coloration turned from yellow-gray to violet-blue, and at the ends - bright blue. Suddenly, the radio operator collapsed face down on the sand and remained motionless. The driver ran up to the radio operator, who was lying four meters from the worms, and suddenly, strangely twisted, fell on his side ... The worms disappeared somewhere.

The explanation of the mysterious death of his comrades, which the hero of the story received from the guide and all other experts in Mongolia, was that an animal called the olgoi-khorkha lives in the lifeless deserts. It has never fallen into the hands of any person, partly because it lives in waterless sands, partly because of the fear that the Mongols feel before it. This fear is quite understandable: the animal kills at a distance. What is this mysterious power possessed by the olgoy-khorkhoy, no one knows. Maybe it is a huge electric discharge or poison sprayed by an animal.

Stories about a mysterious creature living in the waterless deserts of Central Asia have been around for a long time. It is mentioned, in particular, by the famous Russian researcher and traveler N.M. Przhevalsky. In the 1950s, the American A. Nisbet went in search of the Olgoi-Khorkhoi to Inner Mongolia. For a long time the authorities of the Mongolian People's Republic did not give him permission to enter, believing that the American might have other interests besides zoological ones.

In 1954, having received permission, the expedition on two Land Rovers left the village of Sainshand and disappeared. A few months later, at the request of the US government, the authorities of the Mongolian People's Republic organized a search for her. The vehicles were found in a remote area of ​​the desert in perfect working order, not far from them lay the bodies of five members of the expedition and a little further away - the sixth. The bodies of the Americans lay in the sun for a long time, and the cause of death could not be determined.

Some scientists, analyzing reports of olgoe-horhoi, are inclined to the hypothesis that it kills with a potent poison, such as hydrocyanic acid. Creatures are known in nature, in particular the centipede kiwisyak, which kills its victims at a distance with a stream of hydrocyanic acid. However, there is a more exotic hypothesis: the Olgoi-Khorkhoy kills with the help of small ball lightning, which is formed during a powerful electric discharge.

In the summer of 1988, the newspapers "Semilukskaya Zhizn" and "Left Bank" reported on strange events that took place in the city of Lugansk. On May 16, during earthworks in the area of ​​​​the town of the plant. The October Revolution suffered one of the workers. He was taken to the hospital unconscious, with a snake-shaped burn on his left arm. Waking up, the victim explained that he felt an electric shock, although there were no electric cables nearby.

Two months later, six-year-old Dima G. died. The cause of death was an electric shock from an unknown source. Several more similar cases were recorded in 1989 and 1990. All cases are associated with earthworks or with fresh earth delivered from another place. One of the victims said that before losing consciousness, he heard a strange sound, similar to the sobbing of a child.

Finally, in winter, when digging a hole on the territory of an estate in the Artyomovsky district of Luhansk, near a heating main, a strange creature was caught that made a similar sound when attacked. Fortunately for himself, the man who dug the hole was wearing thick gloves and was not injured. He grabbed the creature, put it in a plastic bag and took it to show to a neighbor who worked in a biological laboratory.

So an animal unknown to science ended up in a metal box in a laboratory behind thick armored glass. It looks like a thick lilac worm about half a meter long. Head of the Laboratory Candidate of Biological Sciences V.M. Kulikov claims that this is most likely an unknown mutant. But a certain resemblance to the mysterious Olgoi-Khorkhoi is undoubted.

Not only forests and undersea world conceal mysteries and hide unusual creatures. It turns out that hot deserts have also become a haven for unusual inhabitants.

The hero of Mongolian legends and legends - olgoy-khorkhoy - a giant terrible worm will be the topic of today's article.

For the first time, the public heard the name of this monster thanks to the story of I. Efremov with the same name. But, despite the fact that many years have passed, the Olgoi-Khorkhoy remains just a character in a fantastic story: it has not yet been possible to prove his existence.

Appearance

Why was the worm given such an unusual name - olgoy-khorhoy?

If these words are translated from Mongolian, then everything becomes extremely clear: “olgoy” is a large intestine, “khorkhoi” is a worm. This name is quite consistent with the appearance of the monster.

A few eyewitness accounts say that he is a stump of intestine or sausage.

The body has a dark red color, and its length is from 50 cm to 1.5 meters. There is no visible difference between the ends of the body: the head and tail parts look approximately the same, and have small processes or spikes.

The worm has no eyes or teeth. However, it is considered extremely dangerous even without these organs. The inhabitants of Mongolia are sure that the Olgoi-Khorkhoy is capable of killing at a distance. But how does he do it?

There are 2 versions:

1. Poison. The monster releases a jet of potent substance, hitting its victims.
2. Electric current discharge.

It is possible that the killer worm is able to use both options, alternating them or using them simultaneously, enhancing the effect.

The mysterious creature lives in the sand dunes, appearing on the surface only in the hottest months after the rain, when the ground becomes wet.

Obviously, he spends the rest of the time in hibernation.

Expeditions

The broad masses were able to learn about olgoi-khorkhoi only in the second half of the 19th century after the famous traveler and scientist N. M. Przhevalsky mentioned the worm in his works.

But inquisitive scientists and researchers from different countries could not pass by an unusual creature. Therefore, several expeditions were undertaken, not all of which ended successfully.

Roy Andrews

In 1922, Andrews led an excellently equipped numerous expedition, which worked for 3 years in Mongolia, devoting much time to exploring the Gobi Desert.

Roy's memoir tells how the Prime Minister of Mongolia once approached him with an unusual request. He wanted Andrews to catch the killer worm, giving it to the government of the country.

Later it turned out that the prime minister had his own motives: a monster from the desert once killed one of his family members.

And, despite the fact that it is not possible to prove the reality of this underground inhabitant, almost the entire country unquestioningly believes in its existence.

Unfortunately, the expedition was not successful: Andrews did not manage to catch or see the worm.

Ivan Efremov and Tseven's story

The Soviet geologist and writer, I. Efremov, also published some information about the Olgoi-Khorkhoi in the book “The Road of the Winds”, collected during expeditions to the Gobi Desert in 1946-1949.

In addition to standard descriptions and attempts to prove the existence of an underground monster, Efremov cites the story of the Mongolian old man Tseven, who lived in the village of Dalandzadgad.

Tseven argued that such creatures are real, and you can find them by heading 130 km southeast of the Aimak region.

Talking about the Horkhoi, the old man described them as the most disgusting and creepy creatures.

It was these stories that formed the basis of a fantastic story, originally called "Olgoi-Khorkhoi", about Russian explorers who died from the poison of giant worms.

The work is a fiction from beginning to end, and it is based only on Mongolian folklore.

Ivan Makarle

The next researcher who wanted to find the monster of the Gobi Desert was Ivan Makarle, a Czech journalist, writer, author of works about the mysteries of the Earth.

In the early 90s of the 20th century, together with Dr. J. Prokopets, a specialist in tropical medicine, and cameraman I. Skupen, he made 2 research expeditions to remote corners of the desert.

Oddly enough, they failed to catch the worm, like previous scientists, but Makarla was lucky enough to get solid evidence of the monster's existence.

There was so much data that Czech scientists launched a television program, calling it "The Mysterious Monster of the Mongolian Sands."

Describing the appearance of the olgoi-khorkhoi, I. Makarle said that the worm looked like a sausage or an intestine. The body length is 0.5 m, and the thickness is about the size of a human hand. It is difficult to determine where the head is and where the tail is due to the lack of eyes and mouth.

The monster moved in an unusual way: rolled around its axis or wriggled from side to side, while moving forward.

It is amazing how the legends and myths of the peoples of Mongolia coincided with the description of Czech researchers!

Expedition of Pyotr Gorky and Mirek Naplava

In 1996, another attempt was made to unravel the mystery of the Olgoi-Khorkhoi. Czech researchers led by Petr Gorky and Mirek Naplava followed the trail of the mysterious desert dweller, but, alas, to no avail.

The disappearance of the American research team

A. Nisbet, an American scientist, like his colleague R. Andrews, set himself the goal of finding the killer worm at all costs.

In 1954, he nevertheless received permission from the Mongolian government to conduct the expedition. Two jeeps with team members who went to the desert disappeared.

Illustration for Ivan Efremov's story "Olgoi-khorkhoi"

Later they were discovered in one of the remote and little explored regions of the country. All employees, including Nisbet, were dead.

But the mystery of their death still worries the compatriots of the team. The fact is that 6 people were lying next to the cars. And no, the cars weren't broken, they were in perfect working order.

All belongings of the group members were intact, there were also no injuries or any injuries on the body.

But due to the fact that the bodies were in the sun for a long time, unfortunately, it was not possible to establish the true cause of death.

So what happened to scientists? Versions with poisoning, illness or lack of water are excluded, and no notes were found.

Some experts believe that the entire team died almost instantly.

Could the Nisbet expedition have been able to find the Olgoi-Khorkhoi who had killed them? This question will remain unanswered.

Versions of scientists

Of course, the scientific community around the world has been studying this phenomenon. But scientists have not been able to come to a consensus on what kind of creature this is.

There are several versions of who the Olgoy-Khorkhoy is.

• mythical animal
• John L. Cloudsey-Thompson, a zoologist, believes that the killer worm is a type of snake that can infect its victims with poison.
• Michel Raynal, a French cryptozoologist, and Jaroslav Mares, a Czech scientist, believe that a surviving two-legged reptile is hiding in the desert, which, in the course of evolution, has lost its legs.
• Dondogizhin Tsevegmid, Mongolian explorer, there are 2 varieties of the sand monster. He came to such conclusions because of the stories of some eyewitnesses who claimed that they had seen a yellow worm - a shar-khorkhoy.

To date, the Olgoi-Khorkhoy remains a mystical creature, the existence of which has not been proven. Therefore, all these theories will remain theories until the researchers manage to get a photo or the sandworm itself from the Gobi Desert.