Labynkyr Devil

Lake Labynkyr lies at about 1,020 metres in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), in the Indigirka basin near the Oymyakon area, famed as the coldest inhabited place on Earth. The lake covers about 45 square kilometres and is up to some 75 metres deep. Unusually for the region it does not freeze solid in winter, and its water stays near 2 °C, which led scientists to suspect warm springs or a link to nearby Lake Vorota.

Yakut and Evenk legends describe a dark grey ‘devil’ that attacks reindeer, dogs and people and can come ashore. The earliest written account is from the geologist Viktor Tverdokhlebov in 1953, who discussed a giant pike, a relict reptile or an amphibian. Later visitors reported echo-sounder readings of large objects, odd trails on the water and crushed gulls on an island, but no specimen exists.

In early 2013 a Russian Geographical Society team led by Dmitry Shiller made a record dive under ice, setting a depth record of 59.6 metres. The team reported seeing only dogfish about 1.2 metres long; a news report that a scanner found jaws and a skeleton was never confirmed. A 2019 study of the lake’s diatoms found 123 taxa including three new species, a reminder that real discoveries here are small.

Geologist Sergei Karpukhin, who spent 35 days at the lake, argued that a handful of animals could not sustain a population. Biologist Yury Gerasimov questioned whether a pike could grow to the 7–8 metres claimed in the cold water.

Reported as a dark grey, long-bodied animal with a large head and teeth, 7–8 metres by some witnesses, that moves fast and submerges.

A deep, remote Siberian lake, accessible mainly in winter by tracked vehicle, with temperature extremes of +35 °C to −65 °C.

Part of the Oymyakon tourism story alongside the ‘Pole of Cold’; the legend is often compared with Nessie.