J is for Jungle Woman of Cambodia

In 1988, two girls, one eight-years old, the other six, disappeared from their village of Oyadao near Phnom Penh on the Vietnam/Cambodia border. They'd been tending the family's water buffalo herd. Villagers searched the jungle, attempting to follow footprints, but never finding any other sign of the two little girls. Terrified of jungle spirits and tigers, villagers finally gave up, assuming the girls lost forever.

 The Preah Khan temple (in Angkor, Cambodia) is taken over by the jungle.
Author Helt, January 2008, Wikimedia Commons.

But in January 2007, tired of being robbed of food, Ratanakiri province villagers set a trap to find the culprit. What they witnessed in the middle of the night chilled them to their bones. A young woman emerged from the woods, naked, traveling on all fours, hunched like a monkey, her eyes glowing red (or so it has been reported). Behind her stood a disheveled man, hair on end, holding a sword. When the girl was captured, the man fled into the woods. Believing the man was an evil jungle spirit, the villagers did not give chase.

A village police officer claimed she was his long lost daughter, Rochom Phoeung, now 28 years old. She showed absolutely no recognition of the family, did not respond to physical touch, and didn't speak any language they were familiar with. However, she had a scar on her arm that matched one the missing eight-year old had possessed.

Villagers came to visit, bringing food and gifts, some donating money to her care into a container the father passed around. A water buffalo was, sacrificed as thanks to the jungle spirits for protecting her and returning her. The press nicknamed her Mowglina, after Mowgli in the Jungle Book.

But the Jungle Woman kept trying to rip her clothes off, to flee back into the forest. She didn't understand the hot water she was handed, the DVD player the family owned (though she was entranced by the films). She was unable to communicate what had happened to herself or her cousin, and had no understanding of their language.

They found scars around her wrist and ankle that indicated she had been bound, probably kept prisoner for some time. She was thin, emaciated even. Perhaps the girls had been kidnapped and kept tied up for years.

A reporter from the UK said she was able to say three words when he visited, as well as knowing how to use a spoon. Her hair was also trimmed short, and her feet were said to be in good shape. He didn't feel she could have been missing since she was 8 years old. Instead, he felt she had been kidnapped as an adult and kept prisoner, probably assaulted over a period of time. He felt this trauma was the cause for her lack of communication and behavior.

The family initially agreed to have DNA tests, but went back on this, kicking the sight seers and visitors out, blocking the press from talking to them anymore.

In 2010, reports say she escaped into the jungle again at some point, but came back within a few days. Later reports say she disappeared for eleven days, only to be discovered in a latrine hole that she had somehow worked herself into.

The last reports in 2011 said she was being schooled, was learning the language, and was now "a normal girl." The family never took the DNA tests to prove they were her family.

Note: Because this mystery is so recent, none of the photos of the girl were free to be used. You can go to the following links if you'd like to see photos of the girl:

Sydney Morning Herald, January 22, 2007
Phnom Penh Post, May 24, 2011

Do you believe this was the girl who'd disappeared twenty years earlier?  Were she and her cousin lured into the woods and kept captive? What happened to her cousin? Who is this crazed man she was found with? Was he human or a jungle spirit? Or was she kidnapped as a grown woman and so badly traumatized that she began acting like a wild animal, losing her understanding of language and rudimentary tools?

May you find your Muse.

I is for Iron Pillar of Delhi, Plus [M]WW & Links

For [Mostly] Wordless Wednesday, I've got the Indigo sky of Colorado (taken at the Will Rogers Shrine on Cheyenne Mountain).

***

is for Iron Pillar of Delhi.


The Delhi iron pillar stands at Quwwat-ul-Islam Masjid, in Delhi, directly next to the Qutab Minar. It is about seven meters tall, and dates to the 4th century A.D. It is known to be from the Gupta Dynasty, and has writing carved into it.

This is what is known about the pillar.

What is not know is which Gupta this pillar represents, how it was made, how it came to this mosque, the first in Delhi, what the words actually say, and how in the world this iron pillar has hardly rusted at all after more than 1600 years of standing in a harsh environment.

Pillar of Delhi.
By Aiwok (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

There were several Guptas this pillar might represent, but they lived in Madhya Pradesh, quite a distance away. It is most widely felt that it's representative of Chandragupta II, leader of the Golden Age, a time of great prosperity and art. However, it has also been claimed to have been created under his son Kumaragupta, and to have been part of a Hindu temple built by him. Its placement in the mosque seems to have been as a trophy of some sort, so it is likely there was an attack, and that this pillar was kept and brought across the land as a memory of a victory. This would have been no easy feat, as the pillar weighs more than six tons.

This pillar is the largest piece of forged iron work that exists from this time period. It is ornate, with a tapered and designed top, and a bulb-shaped bottom firmly implanted in the ground. How did they put together such a large piece of iron?

There are several inscriptions in different languages, which for some reason have not been widely studied. It is felt that the oldest inscription is in sanskrit, and the translation is what led to the understanding that the pillar was part of a Hindu temple honoring Vishnu, and that it was built under the reign of a Gupta. The rest vary widely, and have not been fully documented, or so it would seem.

Top of Pillar of Delhi.
By Dennis Jarvis from Halifax, Canada (India-0349  Uploaded by Ekabhishek) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The biggest mystery, and the most debated (other than, possibly, which Gupta is being referred to), is why there is very little rust on a 98% iron pillar. The area it stands now is relatively dry, but there is plenty of rain, and humidity does get above 70% and 80% for short periods of the year. Yet after 1600 years, it still stands. There are other works of iron around India which have not fared as well, but are the same age or even younger. How is this?

Metallurgists have discovered a thin compound that appears to coat the pillar. They have theorized that it formed over the years due to high amounts of phosphorous in the iron. This is because the iron was treated with charcoal, rather than limestone used in modern times, which instantly turned it to steel instead of delaying the process. The longer it stands, the thicker this compound becomes, protecting it that much more. Scientists hope to use this method to create safer storage for nuclear waste. But does this explain it entirely?

Perhaps Vishnu, preserver of the universe, took a special liking to this pillar, erected in Vishnu's honor. What better proof of existence than this seemingly miraculous preservation?

What do you think? Does Vishnu protect the pillar or is it simply a different way of forging iron that fell by the wayside in modern times? Who was the original owner of the pillar, Chandra or his son Kumara? How did they transport such a heavy piece of iron so far in those long ago days? And why?

***

Links

Accepting Submissions:

Fireside Magazine is taking submissions of flash fiction. 1000 words or less. Paying market. Deadline May 1. Any genre, as long as storytelling ability is strong.

Whortleberry Press has a series of anthologies they're taking submissions for. A Tribute to Ray Bradbury deadline is May 1. Strange Halloween deadline is July 31. Strange Christmas deadline is October 1. All genres sci-fi, fantasy, horror. $10 payment. 4000 word maximum for all.

Meadowbrook Press is open for submissions at any time. They specialize in pregnancy, child care, baby care, humorous poetry, party planning, children's activities, and baby name books.

Romance Flash is open for submissions at any time. Pays $3 per story. Under 1000 words.

Contests:

Kazka Press holds a monthly flash fiction contest, entitled 713 Flash. This month's theme is The Missing Piece. Deadline is April 20. Genre: Sci-fi, fantasy, horror or related. 713-1000 words. $10 payment.

Other:

The Short Story Imposium blog introduces readers to fiction in short form by putting up a new short story and author in each post, along with an excerpt. Great resource to find a short story or to have your short story found.

Anything to add?

May you find your Muse.

Letter I courtesy of OCAL, clker.com.

H is for Helike, A Lost City Found?

is for the Lost City of Helike.



Helike was a city in Greece, off the Gulf of Corinth. During the heyday of Greece, when they were at their highest point, a massive earthquake and resulting tsunami destroyed the city, burying it under the sea. Or so it was thought. In 373 B.C., Helike disappeared, along with the people, and their cultural riches and architecture.

Helike possessed a temple to the god Poseidon, who ruled over both the sea and earthquakes. Did they anger him? They were also one of the twelve cities of the Achaean League, and was in fact claimed to be the capital of these twelve cities.

Rescue attempts were made, but by the time people from neighboring villages arrived, the city was submerged, the people dead.

Helike Coin. Moneda d'Hèlike,
imatge editada de la
"revista d'arqueologia" {{PD}};
user Jolla; Wikimedia Commons 

The city was written about for ages, parts of it still visible in the sea until the silt overcame it, and the shifting earth took it from sight. Aelian claimed that the people watched creatures flee the land for four days before the earthquake hit, as if they'd known it was coming. Stravo and Ovid spoke of it, and Homer said they were represented under Agamemnon. These are but a few examples.

Tales of it were passed along for so long that it has been hypothesized that Helike is actually the lost city of Atlantis. A place of riches and happiness. A thriving city on the coast. Important in government and trade. In short, quite like descriptions of Atlantis.

Long a place that has lived in the imagination of Gulf locals, many have tried to find it, searching in the sea for any sign of the lost city. It wasn't until 1988 that two people took it on as a determined mission and had a breakthrough that would lead them to not only Helike, but another, older, city as well. Dora Katsonopoulou, a local, and Steven Soter began their search, determined that they would be the ones to close this mystery.

In studying the earth in this seismically active region (there is, in fact, a fault line now called the Helike Fault), it was discovered that beach-side houses had now moved inland. In addition, it was hypothesized that instead of sinking into the sea, the city may actually have been buried under an inland lagoon, created by ground liquefaction during the quake, as well as the influx of sea water from the tsunami. They began searching inland, rather than below the water's surface.

In 2001, these theories paid off. They discovered walls of buildings, cobbled roads, gold coins, pottery (some of which actually had organic remains in them of the produce that had been stored there), idols, and more. As rarely happens with ruins, they found a well-preserved example of life from this time. These ruins had been instantly buried, so they were never looted, as so many historical places have been. The archaeologists can actually study exactly how things were. The only other example I'm aware of that has such well-preserved remains is Pompeii, as it was buried under ash, then built over repeatedly in coming years.

The excavation of Helike. By Drekis (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Before they found Helike, they also found a far more ancient city, as well as a Roman city built nearby which was made in honor of Helike years later. Thanks to the seismic activity in the area, and the influx of waters, three different time periods are available for study.

The mystery here is not what happened to this city, as that question has now been answered (though it WAS a mystery for centuries). No, the question that remains to be answers is whether this city was, in fact, the inspiration for tales of Atlantis. If so, two mysteries have now been solved, and there is much to learn from these discoveries.

As far as Atlantis, Plato first spoke of it in 360 B.C., thirteen years after Helike sunk into the earth. He claimed it was an island and a military power (which Helike certainly was, but it was not an island). At this time, Helike's remains lie between two rivers. Is it possible it was similarly arranged, therefore appearing like an island, of sorts? One thing that contradicts Helike being Atlantis is that Plato claimed it existed in 9600 B.C., or thereabouts. However, he was the only one to take its existence seriously during his lifetime, while Helike was a known entity. Many made fun of him. Could he have misheard or twisted the tale of Helike?

Do you think this city may have been Atlantis, or do you feel there is still another city out there, yet to be discovered?

May you find your Muse.

Letter H courtesy of Dan, clker.com.

G is for Green Children of Woolpit Village

Yes, this is what I look like right now.
Gruesome, isn't it?

G is for grasping at straws! I promised I'd keep up my normal posts along with the A-to-Z ones, but I was so intent on my research that my mind went blank when I thought about what to write today. You know what else G is for? Gearing up for insanity! Let's see, this month I have the A-to-Z (of course!), Pikes Peak Writers Conference, which I am staff at (pitch desk, moderator, ballroom, so on and so forth), as well as an attendee, and I have an advance job that takes a bit of time and coordination with lots of different people. Plus, I'm still the managing editor at the PPW blog, which I was lucky to be able to pre-schedule most of the month's posts for. AND I'm still director of non-conference events for PPW, which means I'm trying to schedule out workshops/speakers for May forward. AND I'm the flash fiction chair for a flash fiction contest for a different writer's group (Pen Women), which happens to have a deadline of May 1. Not to mention (but I am), two events I'm attending and working at, one of those (Mountain of Authors) I'm attending as a representative for BOTH my writer's groups! ACK! Plus, this is the last full month of school for my kids, and my daughter has her first field trip the day before the conference starts, and I'm trying to be sure I attend as a chaperone so I can be part of it with her.

Did I also mention that there's a book release this month (the 15th) for my first publication (a flash piece in an anthology, Sunday Snaps on the right) and I've signed up for a fitness challenge with some friends? When exactly is it I figure I have time to workout? WHEN, I ASK YOU!?

~sheepish grin~

So...what all have you got going on this month? Do share! Shame me for starting to feel overwhelmed, will ya'?? I need a kick in the pants. Or maybe I don't. Maybe I just need a good night's sleep and a milk shake. Eh?

***









is for Green Children of Woolpit Village




It is said that in the twelfth century, a small town by the name of Woolpit, Suffolk, England, became the home of two quite strange little children. You see, they were found in a wolf pit, so named because they were said to be holes dug in the ground to trap wolves. But the strangest thing of all was that they were green and spoke an unknown language. Other than that, they looked like any other child might.

They were taken into a local home of one Sir Richard de Calne, where they would initially only eat beans. However, after some time they began eating regular food and their skin changed to a normal "flesh-toned" color. They were baptized and treated as one of the family.

The actual sign for Woolpit Village. By Rod Bacon (http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1161413)
[CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Sadly, the little boy died, having never been brought back to complete health. The sister, Agnes, went on to learn English, take gainful employment, and eventually marry. They do say she had loose morals, was wanton and impudent, during her time as a maid, though none explain how this is so.

Once she learned to speak English, she claimed she and her brother had come from the Land of St. Martin. It's noted that there was a nearby town called Fornham St. Martin. However, she made her home sound like a foreign, if not mystical place. She said there was no sun, that it was always dark, and that everyone who lived there was green. She and her brother had become lost while tending livestock, and had followed a loud sound into a cave, where they ultimately came out here, in Woolpit.

This tale is often thought to be true, and some have tried to trace down a line leading to Agnes, with no luck. Were these children real? Some say they came from space, most say they came from underground somewhere, another world or dimension beneath the Earth. Others say they were young and assigned strange details to their nearby village, and that their skin was green due to malnourishment or arsenic poisoning, which would also explain the boy dying.

What is your take? Did these children in fact exist? Were they from a strange dimension/world, or were they simply lost from a nearby village, possibly abandoned, neglected or abused?

May you find your Muse.

Letter G courtesy of abaverman, clker.com

F is for Flying Dutchman

Another popular mystery.

 is for Flying Dutchman.





Spectral ships are a popular tale. I'll be talking about another famous one later on in the alphabet (bet you can guess which one!).

The Flying Dutchman has long been said to be a portent of death to any ship who sights her. Sailors speak of her in hushed voices. Tales have been told through the centuries of an old tattered ship pulling abreast of another ship. Some say they try to pass letters to the modern ship, hoping that they will be passed on to loved ones in real life.

Whether you believe in the Flying Dutchman or not, she has been sighted by sailors and beach-goers alike, as well as those working lighthouses. Sightings have been recorded in ship's logs. George V, while still a Prince of Wales, sighted her in 1881, along with crew members. The next day, one of their crew died. In 1923 a British Navy crew saw her for fifteen minutes and turned in documentation, which included a drawing.

Funnily enough, though sightings are numerous, there are no reports of a ship actually being sunk after seeing the Flying Dutchman. Who knows? Maybe she's just warning people away from something bad. Some of the reports said the ships had to change course, as the Flying Dutchman was heading straight for them. Why hasn't anyone thought of that possibility before?

The Flying Dutchman. By Creator:Charles Temple Dix ([1])
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Often, she disappears as people watch, sometimes into a mist, sometimes just into thin air.

The thing about the Flying Dutchman is that it's been told so many different ways that there is no one origin story, so I'll tell you the main one.

Captain Van D (many Dutch names have been assigned, so I'm just going with a nickname) and his crew were rounding the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa when they ran into a storm. He was sailing for the Dutch East India Company, and was determined to get his shipment to its destination in time. Faced with a massive storm, he forged ahead, ordering his crew to keep going. Some say they perished at sea, and for his behavior toward his crew, he is forced to sail the seas forever. Other say he challenged the heavens, or possibly Satan, and they were all cursed to stay on the ship forever.

Our mystery here is why groups of people have reported seeing this ship for centuries. Is she really a ghost ship? Is it a real ship that's been sailing all these years? A mass hallucination? How about an optical illusion, as has been suggested?

What do you think? Is she real? If not, how do you explain Naval officers, lighthouse keepers, and sunbathers seeing her at the same time?

May you find your Muse.

Letter F courtesy of Mohammed Ibrahim, clker.com

E is for Easter Island

Yes, this is one of those ones that most will have probably heard of, but E is a hard letter, okay!?!?

 is for Easter Island.




This is the first one I've researched where the first links that come up are tourism sites for those Easter Island bound. The Carnac Stones can be visited, but from behind a fence, and it is not a huge tourist destination except locally.

Easter Island is part of the Polynesian island chain. It was named by its discoverer, Admiral Roggeveen, who discovered it on Easter, but it is locally known as Rapa Nui. It is populated, but the population has gone up and down in the past due to overpopulation resulting in deforestation, colonialism introducing disease, new colonial population, civil war, cannibalism, etc.

The draw to this volcanic island (though the three volcanoes that make it up are extinct) are the "heads," properly known as moai or mo'ai. Though the heads are the largest and most graphic part, they do actually have small bodies beneath them. They are all different sizes, but the average is about 13 feet tall and 14 tons in weight.

By Rivi (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

There are 887 mo'ai on Easter Island or in museums. Quite a few were found still in the Rano Raraku quarry inside one of the extinct volcanoes, along with the stone tools used to create them. The ones still in the quarry were incomplete. Indications are that this is where the Mo'ai were formed.

They also built stone platforms called ahu, which appear to have been for the mo'ai to stand on. One has 15 mo'ai on it. Some are empty or have only one.

Most of the mo'ai not in the quarry are on the coast, facing inland, rather than out to sea. One set of mo'ai are located farther inland, and they face outward toward the sea. Would more have been placed inland had they completed whatever their mission was?

By Paul Kempeneers (Personal collection of Paul
Kempeneers)  [CC-BY-SA-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)],
via Wikimedia Commons

The mystery inherent here is why they formed these mo'ai and how they got them from one quarry (though about 5% may have been made elsewhere) to points around the island. It has been suggested that they were meant to represent past rulers or family ancestries. If this is the case, why are they so similar and just...why? Scientists think it would have taken a significant amount of people and time to have not only moved them, but to have carved them in the first place.

Of course, aliens always come into play, as well. Were these tributes to aliens? Protection from them?

Was it to appease their gods? It was a volcanic island, and the statues are made of volcanic rock taken from directly in one of the volcanic craters. Were they trying to keep the gods from destroying the population and their island?

Were they meant to frighten away invaders? This might explain why they were moved so far to the coastlines. However, why were they facing inland then?

At one point, the people of Rapa Nui began tearing the statues down. This time period is known as huri mo'ai, or statue toppling. Why they tore them down is as unknown as why and how they put them up in the first place.


If you've ever wanted to visit Easter Island, you should do it soon. Sadly, the volcanic rock is being weathered significantly, removing the features from these statues and turning them into plain old rocks.

What theory do you think is correct? Were they glorified busts of their ancestors, tributes tot he gods, or guards?

May you find your Muse.

Letter E courtesy of Ted Gehring, clker.com

D is for the Dyatlov Pass Incident

is for...Dyatlov Pass Incident/Accident


In the winter of 1959, a group set out on a ski-trek into the Ural Mountains, led by Igor Dyatlov. There were ten people in the party, two of them women. Most were students in their twenties, but one man was in his thirties.

One of the members of the party left early due to being sick. He was the only survivor of what was to occur on the night of February 1.

By Group of ski hikers led by Igor Dyatlov
 ("Mysterious Deaths of 9 Skiers Still Unresolved")
 [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
This photo was found on a roll of film in their tent.

That night, the group set up camp on Kholat Syakhl, a mountain six miles from their intended final destination of the mountain Otorten. They were at 3600 feet, and about a mile from a forested area. Many question why they camped on the exposed slope, but the member who left early said it was likely practice for slope camping or in order not to lose a mile's worth of distance claimed.

From journal entries and photos left behind, it is thought they settled here at about 5 PM to set up camp. At about 7 PM it is thought they had dinner. Some settled down for bed afterwards. It's unknown if all did.

At about 10:30 PM, the group burst from their tent, tearing it from the inside out. They fled toward the forest, wearing varying degrees of clothing in the -18 degree weather. Some socks, some bare feet, some one shoe.

None survived.

It's what happened in those final hours that intrigues people all these years later. When they failed to show up, rescue missions were sent out. They did come upon the campsite, finding the tent partially covered in snow, torn in multiple places from the inside out, and footprints leading away from the tent. It has been disputed whether there were 8 sets of footprints or 9, leading experts to wonder if anyone was wounded at the time of exiting the tent.

By Soviet investigators ("Mysterious Deaths of 9 Skiers Still Unresolved")
 [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
This was the tent as found by rescuers.

The bodies were found scattered, far from the tent, during two different missions. Footprint evidence seems to indicate they scattered at first, then met up near the woods, then scattered again after a time period of being together. Their gathering point was a tall cedar tree a little over a mile from the tent, where two of the bodies were found, as well as evidence they had built a fire. The bodies found here were Georgyi K. and Yuri D. Both were found in socks and underwear only. It appears they had tried to climb the tree, as branches were broken going up a certain distance, and skin and nails were left on the bark of the tree. One man's hands were burned. These two died of hypothermia.

The closest bodies found to the tent appear to have been crawling back toward it from the tree, possibly hoping to retrieve their clothing and shelter in their desperation to defeat the cold. The closest to the tent, Zinaida K., made it 630 meters from the tree in the direction of the tent. The other two, Rustem S. and Igor D., made it 300 and 480 meters before also perishing of hypothermia. Interesting to note is that Igor was found with a branch in one hand and the other protecting his face. He was laying on his back. He sustained no injuries, nor did any of the others who died of hypothermia, save Rustem, who had a minor skull fracture that was not thought to be fatal. The state of undress of these three was not documented, for some reason.

The final four members of the expedition were not discovered until the spring thaw occurred. They were huddled together in a ravine 75 meters into the forest from the cedar tree. These are the only members who were seriously injured, three of them fatally. Nicolas T. suffered a severely crushed skull. Alexander Z. had broken ribs. Lyudmila D. had broken ribs, one of which had punctured her heart, and her tongue had been pulled out by the root, possibly accompanied by part of the lining of her oral cavity. She was lying backward, head pulled back, mouth wide open. Likely the last to die, Alexander K. died of hypothermia, and had no other injuries. Trace radiation was found on Lyudmila's and Alexander's clothing, though some stories reported that they all had high levels of radiation.

The three with fatal injuries had more clothing on than the others, including a fur coat. It is thought they took clothing from their dead counterparts under the tree, but it is unknown whether they just happened to have grabbed those items of clothing in the tent as they ran, or if they were pulled off the others. Some showed cuts that would indicate they were cut off the dead bodies of the others.

The kicker is that even those with severe internal injuries had no external injuries. There was no bruising, no major scratches, nothing. A medical examiner said the force required to cause the head and rib injuries would have been that of a collision with a car. Some relatives reported that their loved ones had grey hair at their funerals, and that they had a deep brown or orange tan.

One of the officials in charge of the investigation came out decades later to say that he was told to close the case, and that all files were stored as Top Secret until recently.

Theories as to what happened are numerous, but each raises further questions:

1. A small avalanche hit the tent and they dug their way out and ran. This might explain the injuries, though at least two of them wouldn't have made it alive to the cedar tree after those injuries were received, let alone into the ravine after the others had already perished. Questions raised by this are why they wouldn't try to pull the tent out to get their clothing and make new shelter, as well as why there wasn't obvious evidence of an avalanche.

2. They feared an avalanche was coming, possibly because they heard rumbling, and ran for their lives. But why wouldn't they have realized in a shorter time that it hadn't happened and gone back to the tent?

3. Yeti/Abominable Snowman. There are tons of reports in the Ural Mountains of Yeti. However, there were no animal tracks found.

4. Mansi Warriors. There were tribal peoples in the region, and it was considered that they may have attacked the trekkers for being on sacred land. However, this area was not considered sacred, none of them had injuries that would be received in a fight, and there were no additional footprints. Plus, the Mansi assisted in the search mission.

5. Strange orange lights were seen that night by others camping nearby, as well as people in a village. Two theories have come from these lights. The first is that they were extraterrestrial in nature. Aliens.

6. The second theory concerning the lights is that the Soviets were conducting military testing of some sort, and that these people had stumbled onto it and been made to pay. Scrap metal was found in the region years later, possibly validating this. But, again, most of the group died of hypothermia and ran from something in fear; they suffered no external injuries. One suggestion is that the testing was on a sonic weapon, which would have put out a sound at such a frequency as to cause panic and paranoia.

7. Hypothermia in the tent caused them to strip and suffer paranoia. One of the symptoms of hypothermia is paradoxical undressing. But then what happened to their injured counterparts? If they were hurt falling into the ravine, why were there no external injuries, and how did they find each other again? I just threw this out there, but I didn't see it in any reports or articles.

8. A curse. There's said to be a Mansi myth that nine of their tribesmen had been killed by supernatural forces in that same spot. This has not been confirmed.

9. I'm curious why no one considered it might be a winged creature...?

The campers saying goodbye to their sick friend the day he left.
By Group of ski hikers led by Igor Dyatlov ("Mysterious Deaths of 9 Skiers Still Unresolved") [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

The questions that need to be answered are: What made them leave the tent in the first place? Why were they at all unclothed in the first place? Why did they not go back to the tent? Why did they separate again? What caused the injuries on those found in the ravine (minus the one)? Why did the government cover up the investigation for several decades?

What theory do you favor? Or can you think of a different reason for all of this?

May you find your Muse.