View source for Barsa-Kelmes

[[Image:Arel Sea.jpg|thumb|300px|Detail of 1853 map of the Aral Sea (from the ''Journal of the Royal Geographical Society'', Vol. 23, 1853, to accompany "Survey of the Sea of Aral by Commander A. Butakoff, Imperial Russian Navy, 1848 & 1849")]]
[[Image:Taras Shevchenko Barsa Kelmes Island.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Taras Shevchenko]]: Tent of the expedition on the island of Barsa-Kelmes, 1848]]

'''Barsa-Kelmes''' (from [[Kazakh language|Kazakh]]: "the land of no return") is a former island, the largest in the [[Aral Sea]]. Its area was 133&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> in the 1980s, but as the sea became more shallow it steadily grew, until in the 1990s it ceased to be an island. Its highest altitude is 113&nbsp;m. 

It encompasses the [[Barsa-Kelmes Nature Reserve]]. Because of the native [[salt]] deposits, visitors are recommended to close their eyes during [[dust storm]]s and strong winds.

==History==
The first recorded survey of Barsa-Kelmes was made in August 1848, when Geographer A. Maksheyev and [[topography|topographer]] A. Akishev made a topographical survey of the island and described its landscape. The first sketches of the local flora and fauna were made by [[Taras Shevchenko]].

A [[jumping spider]], ''[[Sitticus barsakelmes]]'', was named after the island in 1998.

===Urban legend===
During the second half of the 20th century, there was a persistent [[urban legend]] about [[paranormal phenomena]] occurring on the island. The legend reached its peak in the early 1990s, when popular science magazine ''[[Tekhnika Molodyozhi]]'' published a large article about these phenomena, listing local medical student [[Sergey Lukyanenko]] as their chief source.<ref name="TM1">''Tekhnika Molodyozhi'' (''Техника молодежи''), 1991, No. 3;</ref><ref>''Tekhnika Molodyozhi'' 1993, No. 4.</ref> It told an engaging story of variable flow of time on the island and possible [[UFO]] visitation, and featured letters and stories from local fishermen about strange temporal variations, disappearing expeditions, and other mysteries.<ref name="TM1"/>

It was later revealed, however, that the legends were a series of elaborate [[hoax]]es perpetrated by successive generations of local writers and journalists, which central publications in the [[USSR]] had believed and picked up to boost public interest.<ref name="NTBK">{{cite web |url= http://www.rusf.ru/fanzins/klf_mgu/klf_mgu09.htm|title= The 'real' mystery of Barsa-Kelmes island, or how it was in fact (an attempt in investigation), Informational Bulletin|publisher=[[MGU]] SciFi fan club, Issue 9}}</ref><ref name="KBBK">{{cite web|url=http://anomalia.kulichki.net/text2/773.htm |title=Koblandy-batyr and Barsa-Kelmes |publisher=[[Sergey Lukyanenko]] |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723173700/http://anomalia.kulichki.net/text2/773.htm |archivedate=2011-07-23 |df= }}</ref> The hoax had in fact been first perpetrated and then revealed by Lukyanenko<ref name="KBBK" /> and Grigory Neverov, then president of KLF MGU (KLF = ''kluba lyubiteley fantastiki'', club of fantasy fans), whose involvement started it all.<ref name="NTBK"/> As the story went, when Neverov asked his colleagues throughout the Soviet Union whether they recalled any stories about paranormal phenomena in their regions, Lukyanenko, then an active member of the [[Alma-Ata]] KLF, remembered some rumors about mysterious doings on Barsa-Kelmes and decided to play a practical joke on the Muscovite. He found the origin of the rumors, an old story in a local newspaper, together with his friends fabricated the evidences like the letters from fishermen, and even invented a local version of a Kazakh epic about the hero {{Interlanguage link multi|Koblandy Batyr|kk|3=Қобыланды батыр (жыр)}}.<ref name="NTBK"/> Neverov bought into a story and reported it to the ''TM'' editorial staff, who published the article. Later, when Lukyanenko admitted the hoax to Neverov, they tried to trace the origin of the article that had inspired the joke, and found that it itself was a joke by a local journalist.<ref name="NTBK"/>

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
* [http://slovari.yandex.ru/art.xml?art=bse/00006/76400.htm&encpage=bse&mrkp=http%3A//hghltd.yandex.com/yandbtm%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A//encycl.yandex.ru/texts/bse/00006/76400.htm%26text%3D%25C1%25E0%25F0%25F1%25E0%25EA%25E5%25EB%25FC%25EC%25E5%25F1%26reqtext%3D%25C1%25E0%25F0%25F1%25E0%25EA%25E5%25EB%25FC%25EC%25E5%25F1%253A%253A1819103916%26%26isu%3D2 Entry from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia]
* [http://mag.org.ua/libtxt/18-1.html Чернобров В. А. Остров Барсакельмес]

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{{UFOs}}




[[Category:Lake islands of Kazakhstan]]
[[Category:Islands of the Aral Sea]]
[[Category:Paranormal places in Kazakhstan]]
[[Category:Former islands]]