Turkish Divers Searching For Lake Monster Uncover A 3, 000-Year-Old Mystery

Explorers

When people in history explored new lands, they had no idea what they were going to find. Christopher Columbus set out in search of a new world, not knowing that the Earth wasn’t flat. He had no idea what was in store for him. The same is true with the prospectors who headed to California in search of gold. Even today, people are out searching for things and then end up finding something completely different.

Lake Van

Lake Van is the largest body of water in all of Turkey. It is located over 5,000-feet below sea level, and it never freezes. This is because the lake’s high salinity keeps the water flowing all year long. This strange phenomenon has come at the price of Lake Van’s biodiversity.

Under the Sea

Due to the high levels of salt in the water, there is only one type of fish in the waters, the Pearl Mullet. According to legend, these mackerel-sized fish aren’t the only creatures the lurk beneath the water. For over 100 years, there have been sightings of a monster that lives in the lake. While the claims had never been proven for years, in 1997, a man named Unal Kozak managed to capture the creature on film.

The Video

The video that he captured showed a large monster that resembled a squid coming up from the water before it slowly disappeared in the waves. Even though he caught the whole thing on video, there are still some scholars who aren’t sure if this creature really does exist.

Lake Exploration

Although it may have been proven that this creature does exist and is living under the waters in Lake Van, archaeologists are still heading out and exploring the lake. Recently, an expedition led divers to the bottom of the lake and what they found like something they had never seen before. Turkish divers searching for lake monster uncover a 3, 000-year-old mystery.

The Reason

The search was performed by a group of researchers assembled by Van Yuzunci Yil University. They were there to debunk another age-old myth. They wanted to prove that the lost city of Atlantis wasn’t under the waters of Lake Van. The reason they thought this was because the land surrounding the lake was once home to the Urartians, which was an ancient civilization that flourished in Turney during the Iron Age over 3,000 years ago. Today, very few remnants of these people and the city remain.

Tahsin Ceylan

Tahsin Ceylan was asked to lead the expedition due to his years of diving experience. He also had extensive knowledge of Lake Van. The people funding the expedition were sure that he was their best bet in locating the lost city or debunking its existence.

Weary

When it came time for Tahsin to get into the water, he was a bit weary. He had been in these waters many times, and each time, he wondered it would be the day that he came face-to-face with the terrifying monster. His team was also a bit nervous. The water was large and murky, and nobody knew exactly what lied below the surface.

Combing the Lake’s Bottom

When the team got to the bottom of the lake, they began combing the sand for signs of Uratian artifacts. Almost immediately, the divers saw a large shadow. It caused panic in the entire group. As the divers tried to gather their courage, they swam toward the shadow. They were shocked when they found out that what they were seeing wasn’t the monster. It was a castle. It was in remarkable condition, but they weren’t sure if the castle actually was from the Urartian empire. As the team continued to explore, they found etchings of a lion on the wall. They knew that the ancient civilization used symptoms like these for centuries. The team started taking photos, sure that they found what they were looking for.

Still No Answers

Despite their find, scholars are still skeptical regarding Tahsin’s team’s discovery. They believed that the lion symbol was from the Middle Ages and not the Iron Age. The archaeological community remains split about the find beneath Lake Van. The scholars who do believe that the castle was from the ancient civilization believe this because they say that the stones used to build it were a mix of both Unitarian and medieval. With the archaeological community split in their belief, there are no definitive answers. This could be the remnants of the lost civilization, or it could be what is leftover from another. Either way, it was an incredibly amazing find. Tahsin says that he is thrilled to have found the castle and he is even more excited that this wasn’t the day that he and the sea monster came face-to-face.