Roopkund Lake is a glacial lake in the Uttarakhand state of India is also known as Skeleton Lake. In 1942 a Indian forest ranger discovered the lake and reported skeletons in the water. Authorities, at the time, thought they might be Japanese invasion soldiers but was later ruled out.
The lake is at an altitude of 16,470 feet, 130 feet wide, an average of 6.7 feet deep and frozen the majority of the year. On some warmer days it melts enough to reveal the hundreds of skeletons strewn about in the water.
There are sandals, jewelry and even skin on some of the bodies. There has been many explanations attempted, with the most convincing was that an 830-850 AD pilgrimage was at the lake when struck down by a monstrous hail storm.
A recent genetic analysis identified 23 males and 15 females of both adult and children while showing none related. 23 of them were from India, 1 Southeast Asia and 14 from surprisingly far away, Eastern Mediterranean.
Radiocarbon dating concluded that the age of the bones were from 800 BC to 1800 BC. No one knows why all the bodies either died here or were buried in the water here over a millennium and this may never be known. The bones have been disturbed, as far as we know, from 1942 until present day, with tourists taking away large quantities.
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