At the top of the Kelimutu volcano, in its very crater, there are three lakes, it would seem that so unusual, but it is unusual that they are all different in color. And they can even change their color from time to time, which is why these lakes are also considered mystical.
The Kelimutu volcano, located approximately in the middle of the Indonesian island of Flores, is considered one of the main attractions of the island. The volcano rises 1639 meters above sea level, which belongs to the Indonesian East Small Sunda Islands. Its last eruption was over forty years ago. After the eruption, kolder depressions were formed in the magma, in which water from atmospheric precipitation forms lakes, in this case as many as three.
Each of the three lakes has its own name, the local inhabitants of the Lio tribe endow them with the properties of absorbing the souls of dead people, and when the souls in the lakes are angry, they change their color. The "Lake of Older People" (Tiwu Ata Mbupu), located at the western point of the volcano and which is located separately from the others, is turquoise in color. And this is where the souls of the elderly, who led a pious lifestyle, enter. Two other lakes are located nearby and separated from each other by a crater wall, one of them is called "lake of boys and girls" (Tiwu Nuwa Muri Koo Fai), it is green and the souls of young people fall into it. And the third - "The Enchanted Lake" (Tiwu Ata Polo) is blood-red and according to popular beliefs the souls of sinners and murderers get here. The colors of the lakes change their color from black to turquoise, red or green.
But scientists have their own explanation for the color of the lakes, the variability is explained by the presence of dissolved minerals of various natures in the water. It all depends on the chemical reactions and elements found in each of the lakes, and it’s strange that each of the lakes, even those that are in close proximity to each other, contain different chemical elements and are therefore painted in different colors. Sulfuric and hydrochloric acids give the lake green color, red is the result of the reaction of hydrogen sulfide with iron, although in recent years the water of the red lake has darkened, and now it has already become almost black. There is also a second explanation for the change in the color of the lakes, that the incoming volcanic gases react with the minerals contained in the lakes and change their color.
The Kelimutu volcano on the Flores island is a miracle of nature, which, due to its remoteness, remains wild, but nevertheless, thanks to its unusual, colorful lakes, has become famous all over the world and has become a favorite place for tourists and travelers who every year become in this place. more.
In the morning, the lake is covered with fog and they are poorly visible, and therefore it is best to visit the lake in the afternoon, by this time the fog usually dissipates or at dawn, before the fog appears. Tourists who decide to see the lakes need to be prepared for a long route, and it is best to stay overnight in the nearby small farming village of Moli, which often serves as a stopover for tourists.
/ Population
The population of the island is about 1.5 million people.
These are peoples belonging to the transitional East Indonesian racial type: many inhabitants have curly hair and are darker-skinned than most Indonesians.
The most significant ethnic groups are: Ende - 850 thousand people (eastern regions of Flores), Manggarai, about 500 thousand people (west of Flores Island), and Sikka - 175 thousand people (on the isthmus of the central part of the island).
Small ethnic groups live in the interior regions - Ngade, Nage, Lio, Keo, Riung, Ndao, Rokka and others.
In the Middle Ages, the island was in the zone of political influence of the Javanese Hindu empire of Majapahit.
By the 17th century, the early state formations of Flores fell into dependence on the Macassar principality of Gova. From that moment on, the Islamization of the local population began, interrupted by the Portuguese and Dutch colonization.
Currently, 91% of the population due to the missionary activities of the Portuguese are Roman Catholic Christians. The islands were visited by Francisco Xaver himself.
And even after the transfer of the island of Flores (with the surrounding archipelagos) to Holland in 1859, the missionary activity of Catholics did not stop here. The Dutch administration, seeing the growing threat of Islamization of the island, in every possible way contributed to the strengthening of Catholicism here (at the same time, planting Protestantism on other islands).
Some of the islanders living in the interior of the island continue to adhere to traditional beliefs (ancestor cult, belief in spirits). In the center of the villages, an area with stone megalithic sculptures associated with the cult of ancestors is required.
The Highlanders' clothing consists of a loincloth or skirt. In cities and on the coast, kain, shirts or jackets are worn.
Mass festivities among the Manggarai (ritual dances of the battle of men in military attire), funeral rites of Sikko (burial in boats sent "overseas") are interesting.
A small part of the islanders (western Manggarai) adhere to Sunni Islam.
Among Muslims and noble adherents of traditional cults, polygyny is allowed. Cross-cousin marriages are preferred. Often, before the payment of the marriage ransom, the wife and children live in the family of her parents.
A number of peoples are still divided into caste-class groups. There are large-family communities in the mountains.
In addition to rice, Flores also grows corn, coffee and sugar cane.
Livestock raising is well developed: breeding buffaloes, horses, pigs, poultry.
V. MUZHCHINKIN, candidate of biological sciences.
In the fall of 2004, the preliminary results of the excavations of the Australo-Indonesian expedition on the island of Flores were published. This Indonesian island is located between Java and Timor, south of Sulawesi, where the Asian block of the earth's crust borders the Australian-New Guinean block. The finds made by the expedition in the Liang Bua grotto became a scientific sensation.
Reconstruction of the pygmy camp from Flores Island.
The stone tools found on the island may have belonged to the Floresian "hobbits". So the world press, remembering the heroes of Tolkien's epic, immediately christened the ancient inhabitants of the island.
This is what the forest dwarfs looked like, stories about which have been passed down by the modern inhabitants of the island of Flores by word of mouth for many generations.
Comparison of the skulls (from left to right) of Floresian man, Neanderthal man and modern Homo sapiens.
The dwarf stegodon, which could be hunted by pygmies, is now an extinct relative of the elephant (one and a half meters at the withers).
The Indonesian region is remembered for one of the first anthropological sensations. In 1891, the Dutch explorer E. Dubois found fragments of the skeleton of a monkey-man - Pithecanthropus in Java. The commotion generated then in the press was gradually replaced by the obligatory presence in all school textbooks of a detailed story about the Javanese find. It was found that creatures like Pithecanthropus - erect, about 170 cm tall, with a kilogram brain, capable of using fire (the oldest fireplaces are more than a million years old) and making a variety of stone (and, probably, bone and wood) implements - were common in the vastness of Eurasia and Africa. Now they are referred to as "Homo erectus".
The island itself was discovered in the 16th century by the Portuguese, who gave it the name Flores - the Island of Flowers. Archaeologists have been digging in Flores since 1952, and even then it became clear that people lived here in the early Pleistocene. Dutch priest and amateur archaeologist Theodor Verhoeven discovered human stone tools along with the bones of giant Komodo monitor lizards and small stegodons (distant relatives of modern elephants). And now, in a karst depression 40 meters deep, filled with sediment and located 25 kilometers from the sea coast, at an altitude of 500 meters above its current level, an almost complete skeleton of a woman and the remains of several more similar individuals were found.
The skeleton belonged to a normally built adult woman measuring only one meter and weighing, apparently, 20-30 kilograms. These diminutive dimensions confuse anthropologists very much. Of the three currently identified species of the genus Homo (Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Homo erectus, and Homo sapiens), the creature found in all characteristics, except for size, fits within the species "Homo erectus", which includes the Javanese Pithecanthropus. But so far a separate species has been created for him (more precisely, for her) - the Floresian man, Homo floresiensis.
The small size of the Floresian person and especially the small size of his brain inevitably lead to a continuation of the discussion, which has been going on for almost two centuries, about the importance of such indicators as the size of the brain and the whole body for assessing a person's capabilities.
A Floresian man possessed a four-hundred-gram brain (judging by the volume of the cranium), as much as the brain of an adult chimpanzee and a newborn modern man. The intellectual capabilities of a newborn infant are still difficult to assess. Every year we learn something new about the capabilities of the chimpanzee brain: this brain allows us to operate with two hundred words of sign language, use improvised objects as tools, adopt the skills of the members of our social group ... So the four-hundred-gram brain of "hobbits" conceals more possibilities than it seems at first sight. But is it possible that the stone scrapers, cutters and punches found in the same layer with the skeleton can be considered the products of these pygmies, and not other members of our genus Homo? And the next inevitable and still unanswered question: how do the capabilities of the four-hundred-gram brain of Floresians differ from the capabilities of the one-kilogram brain of their closest relatives and supposed progenitors - Pithecanthropus? After all, those, in turn, are in the size of the brain at the lower limit of the normal weight of this organ in a modern person. Everyone remembers the school example with the kilogram brain of Anatole France and the two kilogram brain of Turgenev, writers equally successful in their work.
Body size is easier to figure out than brain size. Growth values among representatives of modern tribes range from less than one and a half meters for the Zairian Mbuti (and, possibly, for some groups of Andamans and Filipinos) to almost two meters for the Central African Watussi-Tutsi, that is, they differ by one and a half times. Within our own species, we can also find populations in which short stature combined with a small head size. Then the last reasons are removed to isolate the Floresian pygmies from other local variants of Homo erectus.
It turns out quite a similar picture for the species Homo sapiens and the species Homo erectus: double variation in the volume of the cranium and one and a half - in height. In this case, the Floresian find prolongs the presence of Homo erectus on the historical stage up to one and a half million years, from the beginning of the Pleistocene to almost the end. Our own species, appearing in the geological record only in the last third of the Pleistocene, almost immediately, judging by the latest data from genetic studies, split into two long coexisting trunks: the so-called Neanderthals and all the rest. Moreover, almost throughout its history, our species, Homo sapiens, coexisted with the widespread Homo erectus.
Here we move on to the field of folklore. Stories about the presence in the district of certain humanoid creatures (large, small, fierce, peaceful, avoiding contact with people or walking towards them), inhabiting mountains, forests or swamps, are common throughout the Old and New Worlds. And what is curious: their descriptions are similar to reconstructions of fossil anthropological finds, with which local residents who talked with folklorists are usually unfamiliar with.
So, Bigfoot in the descriptions of eyewitnesses resembles Australopithecus or Gigantopithecus. There are also "forest people" in Indonesia. The modern inhabitants of the island of Flores tell in detail about the "ebu-gogo". The name translates as "omnivorous grandmothers". These are forest dwellers about a meter tall, long-haired, with rounded bellies, long arms and fingers. They converse among themselves in their own language in quiet voices and are able, like parrots, to repeat the words of the person addressing them. They never noticed stone or other tools or weapons in their hands. They ate everything raw - vegetables, fruits, meat (including human meat), hence the epithet "omnivorous" (you can also translate "gluttonous"). When people offered food to newcomers from the forest, they ate the treat along with bowls made of pumpkin. Ebu-gogo sometimes ravaged the fields of local residents, people endured these antics, but when the forest men stole and ate the baby, they decided to drive them away from their homes. They fled, by the way, in the direction of the Liang Bua grotto, where the present finds have been made. Flores residents claim that in last time gluttonous "grandmothers" were seen a hundred years ago. Three hundred years ago, when colonists from Holland first landed on the island, voracious forest dwarfs were, they say, quite common, and now it is not possible to meet them in the forest. Perhaps these were the "hobbits" who have survived almost to this day?
But let's go back 18 thousand years ago, at the height of the last ice age, when a significant part of the waters of the World Ocean was pulled into the polar ice sheets. The ocean level was more than a hundred meters below the current level, the shelves were exposed, the Mediterranean water barrier between Africa and Eurasia was shallow, Beringia connected Eurasia with the Americas, and the southeastern edge of Eurasia almost merged with the Australian-New Guinean continent. The island of Flores, which has increased in size due to the shallowing of the ocean, almost adjoins Eurasia by its western edge, and is pushed far into the strait, separating the shallow Banda Sea from the Australian-New Guinean mainland, by the eastern edge. In the middle of this strait is Timor, which has increased in size, so if not on dry land, then on primitive rafts and boats it was possible to move from Eurasia to the present New Guinea and Australia, which, according to current finds, was inhabited by humans about 60 thousand years ago. It turns out that for at least 50 thousand years the Floresian pygmies lived in a "courtyard" environment, when waves of future Australian aborigines rolled through them.
With the end of the Ice Age and the rise in ocean level, the outskirts of the continents disintegrated into many islands, and the populations of Homo sapiens that had taken root here for a long time had to move to dry places. The end of the history of the newly discovered species of our genus is hidden, apparently, in the deposits of the last ten thousand years for south edge the current Malay Archipelago.
Illustration captions
Fig. 1. The outlines of the Flores Island in our time and 18 thousand years ago, when masses of water were collected in huge circumpolar ice caps, and the ocean level dropped by more than 100 meters. The dotted line shows the modern outlines of the land, the solid line - the coast during the period of low ocean level, when dry land could pass from Asia to America, and on primitive rafts to sail to Australia.
The Portuguese brought their faith to Flores back in the middle of the 16th century. Catholic missionaries told the local animist residents about the sufferings of Jesus and won a grateful flock throughout the western part of the island. The Muslim East centered on the city of Ende (Ende) resisted for a long time, which resulted in bloody clashes in 1907, after which Christianity was established as the main island religion. In local performance, it is densely mixed with animistic rituals; silent witnesses are the cult altars scattered throughout Flores.
The island is very elongated for a distance of 670 km, pierced by a winding mountain road, completely washed away during the rainy season. It runs from the capital Labuanbajo (Labuhanbajo) through the mountain town of Ruteng (Ruteng) with a cool climate, the capital of eastern Flores, Ende (Ende) and ends in the former Portuguese colony of Larantuca (Larantuke) on the most remote coast. From here you can cross by boats to the completely wild and not visited by tourists - and therefore interesting - islands of the Solor archipelagos (Solor) and Alor (Alor).
This road is long and arduous: it winds like a serpentine along the mountain slopes, splashing out the contents of passenger stomachs, then it goes down to the coast, then it amazes with the beauty of the landscapes, then it turns into a liquid mess of impassable puddles. In the dry season, from April to October, the journey will require at least two days, while in other months the journey may take a week.
“All covered with greenery, absolutely all, there is a wild island of Flores in the ocean,” Semyon Semyonich Gorbunkov would have sung if he had returned from an Asian campaign. Wildness is manifested in the absence of ATMs (you can't do without cash), and the name directly speaks of vegetable origin: The Portuguese named it Cabo das Flores, which means “cape of flowers”. For 500 years, little has changed, and the riot of colors of nature is still one of Flores' magnets for tourists. The only super attraction of the island is Kelimutu volcano (Gunung Kelimutu) with three colorful lakes is also an impressive natural spectacle that deserves a separate trip. Interest in the life of the islanders and their culture can be shown by visiting the traditional villages in the vicinity of Ruteng (e.g. Compang Ruteng, Golo Sigi).
Only relative transport inaccessibility has taken away tourist rivers from Flores. There are few people who want to shake in buses for days on end in Lombok - Sumbawa and flop on ferries in order to get then into the vomiting embrace of the Flores trans-island highway. Many of them make their way to Labuanbajo with only one purpose - to swim to reverse direction to the islands of Komodo and Rincha to witness the legendary Komodo dragons in their natural habitat. Ferries from the Sumbawa port of Sape dock in the capital of Flores in 9 hours, after which you need to change to the ferry to Komodo (3 hours)... There is no pier on Komodo, ships stop one kilometer from the coast, after which, for an additional fee, those who wish are ferried by boat. They also organize flights to Rinchi. (3 hours).
Flights from Flores to the mainland are organized by Merpati Airlines in the form of 4 flights a week from Denpasar to Labuanbajo, 8 flights from Denpasar to Ende and daily flights to Maumere (cost $ 100)... The Trigana company supports this noble initiative with regular air raids of its "corn workers" to the capital of the island, but it should be borne in mind that this regularity is far from regular. Flights are very often canceled and rescheduled for various reasons - from unloaded to supposedly bad weather conditions... In any case, you need to keep one extra day for possible connections.
In the south of the Indonesian archipelago, there is the mysterious flower island of Flores, which looks like a long-tailed fish. Until recently, it was unknown to tourists. But today they poured into him in the hundreds in search of adventure.
The island, discovered by chance in the sixteenth century, owes its beautiful name to the Portuguese colonialists, who were delighted with the lush bloom of vegetation on it.
The nature of the island of Flores today, five hundred years after its discovery, delights with its virginity. It is the main attraction of the volcanic formation.
Exotic plants cover its surface. Places untouched by civilization allow you to touch the world of fairy tales. Most of the flowers and animals inhabiting the island of Flores remember the times when dinosaurs still lived on Earth.
Fauna and flora turn it into a paradise, lost on earth, where many tourists are in a hurry to visit.
The colorful Indonesian island is the only place in the country where Catholicism is preached. The foundation of the Christian mission falls on the period when the island of Flores was handed over to Holland. Local residents Catholics converted to their faith, and the new owners were not interested in the sacrament of baptism: this was the main condition when the colony was transferred.
Local aborigines are extremely hospitable, which is immediately felt by travelers who come here. They have kept their traditional way of life. There are approximately 1.8 million inhabitants here.
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Floras island on googol map
They live at a considerable distance, which provides a striking contrast that exists between nationalities. For the first time, the natives saw buses and cars only 20 years ago, when the main highway was laid.
On the island of Flores, there are many Aboriginal people who live in ancient villages and look like they just stepped out of archive photos. Therefore, when referring to an untouched civilization, they mean both nature and animals, and the way of life of the islanders.
There are three unusual crater lakes on the island of Flores, the water in which changes color over time. The reason for the unprecedented phenomenon is still not known to scientists. Long ago, three depressions were formed as a result of volcanic eruptions, which later turned into magical lakes.
The natives believe that the souls of the dead dwell in them, and the changing color is associated with their anger. The souls of the ancestors who lived a righteous life live in the lake, which is at a considerable distance from the rest.
In the other two, known all over the world, filled with wonderful water and located next to each other, the souls of the young dead and those who brought a lot of evil rest. The water in them turns from green to black-burgundy, and then, to blood-red.
One group of scientists suggests that a unique a natural phenomenon caused by the abundance of soluble minerals in lakes and chemical reactions that occur in the water.
Another connects this with the presence of volcanic gases in them.
The island of Flores, which not so long ago became known to the world, was created by nature, and is a real miracle. Tourists love to meet the dawn, climbing to the highest point of Kelimutu, from where you can see the magic play of the sun's rays on the water surface of the lakes.
Batu Cermin cave
Another attraction is the mirror cave - the underground kingdom located on a rock mass. A unique sight is represented by the fossilized remains of unseen fish and huge turtles, together with a fantastic view of stalagmites, on which at certain moments the sun's rays are reflected by millions of mirrors, which come here through a gap in the vault.
Guests from all over the world come here to see this marvelous picture with their own eyes.
Labuan Bajo village
Small village located in the west amazing island... Diving tourists love it beautiful place beckoning clear water and magical beaches.
When a relaxing holiday is boring, you can visit a pearl farm or go for a walk through the mysterious caves, which are numerous in the country. Those who are tired of the city bustle strive here to be alone with nature.
Pagan rituals of Bajawa city
The island of Flores attracts with its traditional rituals, which, despite the active work of missionaries, continue to be strictly observed here. The center of religion is Ngadha - a city with an interesting mix of ancestor cult and Catholicism. There are still preserved places where the spirit is worshiped - megaliths, and the area amazes with mysticism.
Scientific sensation
The popularity of the wonderful island of Flores began with the fact that experts published the results of the excavations carried out. Truly, the discovery of human bones in the Liang Bua cave is considered a scientific sensation.
At first, they were mistaken for the skeleton of a child, since they belonged to a small (up to a meter) person of miniature build. However, in reality they are the remains of hominoids. The ancient floresians (Homo floresiensis) had a surprisingly small brain (about 400 grams), which made us think about their intellectual capabilities. Homo sapiens aside, the last surviving human species are the "hobbits" to whom the bones belonged.
Scientists are interested in where the pygmy hominid appeared on the wonderful island, which is the result of volcanic activity, and what place it belongs to in the genealogical human tree.
The skeletons found suggested that, drifting in the sea, 950 years ago, the hobbits came to the island of Indonesia.
Surprised archaeologists small island and other anomalies. It was possible to find out that hominids coexisted with huge birds twice their size. Flying giants hunted short hobbits 500 years ago.
These birds from the stork family differed from their relatives:
- weighing (up to 15 kilograms);
- growth (up to two meters).
Scientists came to this conclusion after examining the skeleton of a giant bird found on the island.
The mystery of the disappearance of dwarfs and giant birds
There are several versions that allow us to understand this: they died due to volcanic activity, since the remains were covered with ash (main). If not for this, they could exist today, as on neighboring island Komodo, where you can find huge specimens.
There are others, but one thing is indisputable - relics with the most ancient genealogy, five hundred centuries ago lived here, as if in Noah's ark.
What makes a vacation in Flores attractive?
The recently opened island of Flores will provide a wonderful pastime for those who love leisure and who wishes to retire. Its picturesque landscapes, where there is no large influx of travelers, make your vacation unforgettable.
