Roopkund: The Secret Behind India's 'Skeleton Lake,' With Over 800 Human Remains!

In Himalayas India, a remote Roopkund lake lodged in a snowy valley is found littered with hundreds of human skeletons. The lake is sited 5,029 metres (16,500feet) above sea level underneath a hilly slope on the Trisul mountains, one of the highest mountains in India, Uttarakhand state.

The Frozen Lake

The remains are littered around and under the ice at the skeletons lake, which was founded in 1942 by a British ranger patrolling in the forest.

The lake remains frozen for the most part of the year, expanding and shrinking depending on the season and weather. The skeleton can be seen only when the snow thaws, at times flesh, are attached and they are well preserved.

Till now, the fossil remains of over 800 people have been discovered here. The local government labels it as a strange lake in promotion of tourism. Over half of the century anthropologists and researchers have looked into the skeletal remains and baffled over a lot of questions.

Wondering which people they were and when they died, how they died, and from where they came from? An ancient theory relates the skeletal remains to that of an Indian king, his queen, and their slaves, all of whom passed away 870 years ago in a blast.

Also Read: Fossils of Oldest Known Titanosaur That Lived 140 Million Years Ago Unearthed in Argentina

Skeletons are Remains of the Indian Soldiers 

Another ancient theory advocates that most of the skeletons are remains of the 1,841 Indian soldiers who attempted to conquer Tibet, but they end up being defeated. Over 70 of these soldiers were then compelled to look for a way home past the Himalayas but they died on the way home. 

While another theory suggests that this place where the remains were found could have been a cemetery where epidemic victims were laid to rest

There is a trending folk song in the areas of the village that speaks about how Goddess Nanda Devi founded a hail storm that is as hard as iron and it killed people finding their way past the skeleton lake.

The Nanda Devi mountain, which is India's second-highest mountain is indicated as a goddess.
Recent studies of skeleton have shown that many of the people who died were tall because their stature is more than average.

Nearly all of them were middle-aged between the ages of 35 to 40. No babies or children were found and a few of them were elderly women with good health.

Disastrous Event in 19th Century 

Moreover, there is a general assumption that the remains were of a group of people who were laid to rest altogether in one disastrous event in the 19th Century.

The recent five-year research which includes 28 co-authors from 16 different institutions located in India, Germany, and the United States, discovered that all these assumptions may be false.

Researchers genetically investigate the skeletal remains of 38 bodies discovered at the lake.
No weapons or arms were seen at the place and the lake is not sited on a trade way. Genetic studies discovered no proof that there's a presence of old bacteria that could explain the cause of their death. 

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