Lake Tarnița is situated around
30 kilometers west of Cluj-Napoca
in Romania.. It was created in 1974 when a dam was built on the
River Someșul Cald for the purpose of harnessing electricity. It is 9.7
kilometers long and its depth reaches up to 70 meters. It also provides water
for the inhabitants of Cluj-Napoca and many other small towns in the
surrounding area. The deep, dark water has inspired many urban legends about monsters
inhabiting the bottom of the lake. One of them has it that a descendant of the
Loch Ness monster lives in Tarnița. Another that the lake is teeming with fish
three metres long, which attack swimmers and boats. There are stories
of people who drowned in the lake, their
bodies never being recovered.
Another story is about a lorry that fell into the lake
about 15 years ago and the team of scuba
divers that was brought in to pull out
the truck and the lifeless driver. When the divers came out of the water, they
were so terrified of something they had seen down there that they refused to go
back without protective metal cages. Allegedly, what had spooked them were incredible monsters they had seen in the
lake. Experts to explain
this off as an optical illusion created by the shadows on the bottom of the
lake or as tricks played by the glass of the helmet, which might have enlarged
everything out of proportion. (Reminds me
of the story about the diver in Loch Ness who claimed to have seen a giant frog
and refused to dive again)
A German researcher,
Erich von Munchhausen dove to the depths of the lake in 2010 to investigate. His
opinion was that there is a whale living in Tarnița, a new species discovered by him and those that have
disappeared were eaten.
Then there is this article:
Monster of the Romanian Lake Tarnitsa
The Loch Ness monster also has a Romanian
“fellow” who lives in Lake Tarniţa, in the Western Carpathians. In Romania, a
few years ago became a popular photograph of the “Tarnitsky Monster”, which was
accidentally made by local tourists in the surrounding mountains.
“At first it seemed to us a big tree,
nailed to the shore,” one of the eyewitnesses said. – We calmly continued
descending along a rather steep slope. When there was very little water left, I
cast a casual glance towards the “log” and froze; It turned out to be the size
of a whale.
A huge head and part of the body were
clearly visible, small waves from the movements of the tail along the water.
The maw of the monster resembled a car hood, it could easily absorb a person or
an animal, and eyes, the size of a car’s headlights, seemed to phosphoresce in
the water column. The silent scene lasted a few seconds, then I snatched out my
Canon and managed to take some pictures until the monster disappeared in the
depths of the lake. ”
The lucky man who captured the “monster”
was the 15-year-old Cluj Victor Borogine. Because of the rush, only two
successful shots were obtained, but on one of them the monster is still
captured in the way that his schoolchildren saw, in all its glory and strength.
Unfortunately, the network of these images
could not be found. Lake Tarnitsa is located 50 kilometers west of the Romanian
city of Cluj. It is very deep – “bottomless,” as the old people say, and
stretched for 5 km in length and 1 km in width.
According to its topographic data, the
reservoir is very similar to the Scottish lake of Loch Ness, famous for its
either a serpent, or a relic dinosaur that survived all times and epochs, and
adapted to modern conditions.
The local fishermen have preserved an
almost pagan custom. After a successful fishing they always return a few fish
from the catch back into the water. As they say, as a sacrifice to the Dragon,
so that next time he does not interfere with good biting.In the summer, when
young people come to the nearby villages, superstitious old people will not
fail to warn their grandchildren and grandchildren that swimming in the lake is
unsafe, you can “disturb” the water snake.
As
this is a man made lake it seems unlikely that a prehistoric relic exists
there. However it is not the first man made lake with such claims. What do you
think urban legend or monster ?
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