There are no ghosts in the world.
In fact, the name "devil valley" has existed since ancient times, and the Narengrad Gorge in Xinjiang is called "devil valley" by the locals.
Nalenggele Gorge is located in Kunlun Mountain of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, starting from Buluntai in Qinghai in the east and reaching Shashan in the west, with a total length of 105 km, a width of about 33 dry meters and an altitude of 3,200-4,000 meters. Devil valley is located at the eastern end of Altun Mountain Nature Reserve, which is a relatively wide valley between Qimantage Mountain and Kunlun Mountain.
Narengrad Gorge was formed 654.38+0.5 billion years ago, which is a closed mountain basin due to crustal changes in the Late Tertiary. The Kunlun Mountain in the south of the canyon goes straight into the sky, and the Qilian Mountain Snow Mountain in the north blocks the cold wind in the north. The whole basin is located in the middle and upper reaches of Nalenggele River.
Around the canyon, there is also a medium-high mountain barrier composed of purple sandstone. The snow-capped mountains are magnificent, and the lakes, rivers and swamps are rippling. In summer, the valley is rich in water plants, birds and flowers, and the scenery is very beautiful and spectacular.
However, there has been a local legend:
As long as people or livestock enter the "devil valley", they will never get out. There is a huge beast in the valley that eats people or all kinds of animals.
If it were just a legend, Devil's Valley wouldn't be so famous. In fact, this valley does have many mysteries:
According to the herdsmen who have lived here for a long time, every summer and autumn, when the weather is sunny, the wind will suddenly blow in the blink of an eye, flying sand and stones. Then, "devil valley" was covered with dark clouds, and the thunder was rolling and deafening. The heavy rain poured down like a flash flood.
After the rainstorm, a strange phenomenon happened. Hillsides and ravines are littered with the corpses of antelopes, wild donkeys, wild yaks and birds, accompanied by some yellow hay and scorched earth. Therefore, although "devil valley" has fertile land and abundant aquatic plants, local herders never dare to graze here.
How can such a big river and mountain be related to the devil?
0 1
In May, 1998, Team 3 of Regional Geological Survey of Xinjiang Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources organized a multidisciplinary investigation to Nalengrad Gorge, which finally unveiled the mystery of "devil valley".
The expedition team traveled westward from Buluntai on the western edge of Qaidam Basin in Qinghai, and reached the Nalenggele River Valley, which originated from Kunlun Mountain over 6000 meters high. The legendary "devil valley" is located in the middle and upper reaches of the Narengrad River.
According to the investigation by researchers, there are not only strong magnetic basalts formed by Triassic volcanic eruption, but also more than 30 magnetite veins and quartzites in the stratum of "devil valley", resulting in geomagnetic anomaly zones.
Geomagnetic anomalies lead to high magnetic field intensity in devil valley, with the peak value as high as 1000~3000 gauss. The huge magnetic force will cause the compass to fail and the measuring instrument to be inaccurate.
In summer, due to the blocking of the main ridge of Kunlun Mountain, clouds distributed along the east and west of the valley gather here in the Lenggele Canyon under the action of humid air.
The charges generated in the clouds are usually negatively charged at the bottom and positively charged at the top, which will also induce the ground to be positively charged and make it move with the clouds.
Under the influence of devil valley's super-strong magnetic field, a rare lightning strike zone has been formed in this area.
Because the movement of clouds in a strong magnetic field generates voltage, and the positive charges on the ground will gather on hills, trees, and even animals and people. When the voltage between the accumulated positive charge and the cloud with negative charge is large enough, it will break through the insulated air, resulting in the phenomenon of "lightning strike", causing instant death of people and animals.
The investigation team also found the reason for another strange phenomenon in devil valley, that is, why the bones of dead people and animals could not be found.
It turns out that Narengrad Canyon is also one of the permafrost distribution areas in China. The thickness of frozen soil is often as high as tens or hundreds of meters, thus forming a huge underground solid ice bank.
When summer comes, the upper frozen soil near the surface melts, which will form underground diving and even underground rivers. However, the surface is still covered by a piece of green grass, which is not easy to be found at all. People and animals go astray. Once the grassland collapses, the underground river will soon pull people and animals in and let them drift away with the rapids, resulting in no bones left.
In the past, people could not explain these magical natural phenomena at all. They all thought it was the "devil" at work, so they had to avoid it and dared not set foot here again easily.
02
However, there is one person who does not believe in this evil. His name is Cao County, Shandong Province geologist and former senior engineer of Xinjiang Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources.
Zhao Ziyun knows the geography, landforms and climate of Xinjiang like the back of his hand, and has rich experience in field survival. He not only discovered many mineral deposits and ancient sites in the western regions, but also always saved the day with rich experience when the expedition team encountered difficulties. Therefore, he is called the king of the desert, the living map of Lop Nur, the compass of life, the desperate Saburo and the crazy professor.
In the early winter of June 5438 +065438+2003 10, Zhao Ziyun, who was nearly seventy years old, walked through devil valley, which was about 90 kilometers long, and obtained the first-hand proof of devil valley's geography, landforms and historical legends through scientific investigation.
It was an unforgettable day for Zhao Ziyun who went to devil valley. Although the temperature is more than 20 degrees below zero, the towering snow peaks on Altun Mountain shine like beautiful jade.
Before entering the valley, Zhao Ziyun said to two temporary hired camel workers:
"This time I entered the Devil's Valley, and I didn't intend to go back alive. You must think about it. It's not too late to turn back. "
Camel worker Liu Jiangdong and his son Liu Xinwen were born and raised in Altun Mountain. Maybe they used to walk on the line of life and death all the year round, and they casually said:
"Zhao Gong, aren't you afraid at your age? What are we afraid of? "
So, a group of three of them, each riding a camel, set out from Subas and headed for "devil valley".
In the Altun Mountain in early winter, the vegetation is dry and cold. From an altitude of 6,000 meters downstream to an altitude of 4,000 meters, there are still no trees, only short bushes and withered grass. Occasionally, there will be groups of Tibetan wild donkeys, argali and Qingyang standing on the distant cape.
The farther you go into the valley, the harder it is to walk. There are thorns, red willows and sharp-toothed rocks everywhere, which makes people and camels feel scared at every step, but this is exactly what Zhao Ziyun wants to see.
Because he has worked in the field for many years, his greatest fear is not danger, but loneliness.
On the first day in devil valley, 66-year-old Zhao Ziyun walked seven or eight kilometers and fell down more than 20 times. When camping at night, Zhao Ziyun took off his clothes and baked them. Camel workers took one look and shouted:
"Zhao Gong, you are bleeding."
"This is just the beginning." Zhao Ziyun smiled and said to the camel worker, "The most terrible thing is yet to come!"
On the third day, when crossing the river, the camel suddenly got lost and fell. Zhao Ziyun was also thrown into the rushing river and almost drowned by the cold river!
At this time, because the road conditions were no longer suitable for camels to walk, the three left the camels in an open field with water and grass and began a more difficult trek.
On the second day of hiking, Zhao Ziyun suddenly found many huge footprints arranged radially on the ground, as well as huge frozen manure pools.
According to years of field investigation experience in the west, Zhao Ziyun judged that this was a bear's mark.
Although bears are extremely dangerous beasts, the purpose of Zhao Ziyun's visit to devil valley this time is not just exploration, but scientific investigation.
They followed footprints and feces, climbed a loess cliff, and found a cave where bears hibernated under a yellow reed.
It seems that the legend of "devil valley" being a man-eater did not come out of thin air.
The next morning, just after breakfast, they suddenly found a spotted snow leopard chasing a argali on a nearby hillside.
The three men were too scared to take a breath in the atmosphere, because wild animals such as tigers and leopards have the habit of protecting food.
When going deep into the valley, Zhao Ziyun witnessed several Tibetan foxes with red backs and snow bellies chasing a snow-white animal. When the animal was killed, Zhao Ziyun drove away the Tibetan fox and found that the dead animals in the ground were actually "sweeping snow".
"Sweeping snow", also known as stone marten, is slender as a marten, generally about 45~50 cm, with a tail length of about 30 cm. The ears are short, wide and round, the limbs are slightly longer than ferrets, and the fluff is rich and white.
Sable and Tibetan fox are both national second-class protected animals and carnivores. This mink was probably killed by a Tibetan fox because of illness or injury.
On the eighth day after entering the "devil valley", they climbed a cliff with a waterfall 100 meters high along a path trodden by antelopes. Zhao Ziyun proudly said:
"Without this rope, we might have died several times earlier!"
When Zhao Ziyun finally climbed to the top of the cliff, he saw a magnificent stone city in front of him.
The walls around Shicheng are made of big stones. Although they were broken, you can imagine the spectacular scene at that time. Zhao Ziyun measured that the city is 300 meters long, and the remaining walls are 3 meters high and 2 meters thick, and there is a gate. There are brick houses (caves) in the city, and piles of stone pieces and pottery pieces (red and black sand pottery) are scattered on the ground, as well as the residue of smelting iron and copper.
"This is a military camp." Zhao Ziyun said firmly.
Standing on this stone city at an altitude of 2000 meters, the farthest place I can see is Ruoqiang County, and the surrounding area is an abyss except Antelope Trail.
"It's true, one person is above ten thousand people!"
Zhao Ziyun couldn't help admiring the architecture of ancient military facilities.
After returning to Urumqi, after consulting relevant experts, they learned that this stone town has a historical record and was 1000 years ago the "stone town" of 36 countries in the western regions.
After 17 days of trekking, Zhao Ziyun finally walked out of the "devil valley". This expedition, Zhao Ziyun also unveiled the legend that once you enter the "devil valley", you can't walk out:
This is an area ravaged by wild animals.
In addition, there is a bigger discovery in Zhao Ziyun, that is, devil valley is rich in treasures, including not only red granite, but also precious stones, jade, mica, copper, zinc and lead.
The 70-year-old man told us with his own actions that only by forgetting life and death can we uncover the mystery of myths and legends between heaven and earth.
# Zero Zero Plan #