Skeleton Lake · Hundreds Lying Under the Ice

Roopkund lies at five thousand metres. Each year, as the ice melts, several hundred sets of human bones can be seen scattered on the lake bed, and the bones fall into several periods, the earliest more than a thousand years old.

Local tradition says a goddess struck down a king and his attendants with hail for trespassing; others say it was a pilgrimage party caught in a storm.

There is no village at the lake. Guides have one rule: take nothing away, and do not speak loudly by the water — locals call it Skeleton Lake, and that is how it should be treated.

Natural Mysteries / Uttarakhand · India / 9th century