Shiprock rock in USA – photo, description, legends, map

Despite the fact that centuries have passed since America ceased to be the homeland of the Indians, there are still many places in it connected with the life of the ancient tribes of the natives. All of them are shrouded in legends, full of mysteries and mysticism, passed from one generation to another, although the origin of each of them (places) has a completely prosaic, scientifically confirmed explanation. But this does not lose the romantic and inexplicably mysterious charm of curiosities formed as a result of some natural anomalies.

History of appearance

An example of this is the extraordinary Shiprock Rock, which in translation sounds like a “winged rock”, rising alone in the middle of the Navajo Desert in New Mexico, in the USA. A huge rocky monolith, according to seismologists, remained on the surface after the strongest earthquake that occurred more than 30 million years ago. As a result, solid rocks were exposed, and powerful lava flows that rushed from the mouth of the volcano, spilling around their foot, froze into a continuous cover of intricately outlined magma deposits.

Spreading over the surface, it filled cracks and depressions, forming six peculiar thresholds during cooling, the mass of which is not subject to any erosion and the influence of precipitation. Since then, Shiprock has been standing like a formidable sentry, reminding of the mighty forces of the earth's interior. The dimensions of the rock are impressive: its height reaches 600 meters, the width in diameter is half a kilometer.

There is another point of view on the origin of the unique elevation: according to geologists, it was the crater “neck” of a huge volcano, over which wind erosion and climatic temperature fluctuations worked, leaving the most durable monolithic part, which made people believe about it.

Legends of Shiprock

Around the stone monolith, by the pagan superstition of the Indians, many legends have developed that continue to live among the people. According to one of them, the inhabitants of the peaceful Navajo Indian settlements, subjected to constant raids by warring tribes, prayed to their Spirits for salvation. Those, having heard the prayers and spells of the shamans, parted the earth and erected a stone shelter along with the people, for which the rock was called winged. So the Navajo lived all the time upstairs, only the men sometimes went downstairs to stock up on food.

Another already modern legend is connected with highway number 666, passing by the cliff, which was called the devilish one not only because of the symbolic number, but because of the frequent accidents in which many people died. Mystery stories told of a ghostly killer driver who provoked car accidents, who was allegedly seen by survivors of accidents.

The highway became notorious, people were afraid to drive on it, rumors about strange luminous balls on it discouraged car owners from appearing on a terrible road. The authorities were forced to decide to replace the fatal number with the numbers of the devil with “491” because this freeway connected three large states. It seems that since 2003, after its change, the accidents stopped, but the “devil's road” has become very “popular” for filmmakers of feature, documentary and animated films.

Until now, modern Indians deify the mountain, considering it sacred, and worship it. They do not approve of those who try to climb the rock, as was the first time in 1939, when several Californian daredevils – members of the Sierra climbing club – climbed to the top. Their ascent was sharply condemned by the Navajo, and the district administration, knowing how they (the Indians) sacredly honor the rock, officially forbade climbing so as not to aggravate interethnic relations.

However, despite the ban, extreme people continue to engage in rock climbing, often ending in a tragic outcome – the death of climbers, which is warned by an inscription on a memorial plate installed at the foot. There is a belief that Shiprok herself controls the fate of those who climbed it and determines their fate.

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landscape and landscape

Depending on the time of day, the appearance of the rock takes on a different color, and this creates a feeling of its many faces: it looks either like a gloomy heap of stone blocks, or as a huge ancient castle nobly rushing up. Against the backdrop of a bright blue sky, illuminated from all sides by generous rays, Shiprock looks festive and friendly, it seems not dangerous and accessible. A completely different picture appears on a gloomy rainy day: under a gray sky covered with heavy clouds, the mountain is the embodiment of mystical horror; looking at her at such moments, everyone involuntarily recalls the dead climbers and Indian myths.

But the rock can also be a beautiful sight, when everything turns crimson in the evening sunset rays, it resembles a luxurious padishah's palace, made of baroque reddish-brown granite. In the pre-dawn haze, everything around the “winged rock” acquires silvery hues, and then its bluish ledges seem to be some kind of Martian object, full of cosmic mystery and captivating charm.

The view of the surroundings of Shiprock in winter is beautiful, when the whiteness of the snow contrasts with the blue-violet incredibly fantastic outlines of the mountain. In autumn, the brown-rusty stone monolith merges in color with the brown bushes of stunted vegetation and, as it were, is lost against their background, merging into one autumn landscape. From above, from a bird's eye view, the legendary rock seems like a small harmless island among the yellow desert expanses.

It rises proudly and majestically, attracting the attention of rock climbers; who, despite prohibitions and unkind rumors, continue to conquer its uneven peaks, hoping to see with their own eyes something unusual, exciting the imagination and making the heart beat faster and throw out adrenaline. Not only residents of the States, but also foreigners come here on purpose to admire the sacred mountain of the indigenous people of America.