Cities and the island in the sky

“In 1840, residents of Sandy Island, included in the Orkney archipelago, seen in the image of the sky, which was” like a picture of a distant country with beautiful white buildings. ” In 1857 it appeared again and it can be seen for about three hours. EW Marwick, who described it in his book “Folklore of Orkney and Shetland,” pointed out that in the north the phenomenon is not uncommon. Locals believed that it was a ghost town crystal fairy people fin, which is sometimes mortal eyes opened, and it was a flickering image of the island hetero-Bleter, who was as real to the west of the existing sacred island Eynhallou. Although Marwick believed that it was a mirage, he could not explain what it reflects. In 1684 Roderick O’Flaherty described phantom island often appears near the western coast of Ireland. According to his assumptions, it could have been appearing and disappearing little island O-Brasil, known only cartographers; paradise on earth, which is hidden by a special divine command; the machinations of evil forces or merely an illusion created by the clouds. According to O’Flaherty, “powerless human judgment to determine” which of these explanations is correct. In 1902, William G. Wood, Martin noted the repeated appearance of O-Brasil. He was seen off the coast of the Irish county Sligo in 1885. One of the witnesses who observed it even before this incident, wrote: “In the second half of the XIX century, I personally witnessed the amazing mirage, which has recently been seen, as it was informed, on the coast Tireraf (County Sligo ). If I looked at the bay for the first time, nothing would have convinced me that this is not a real city -.. A large, beautiful, green, with houses, spiers, fortifications and so on. ” Wood-Martin believed that these cities are a reflection of real cities, located somewhere far away. As an analogy, he brought stories of sailors who sailed in Dublin Bay and claimed that sometimes they saw Mount Snowdon, the outlines of which loomed in the distance of a hundred miles. However, the only known city to the west from the coast of Ireland, the silhouette of which can be seen is New York, and the characteristics of its architecture has never been mentioned in the description of the city of mirages, visible from the western Irish coast. July 18, 1820, after considering the telescope unexplored coast of the western part of Greenland, Captain Scoresby, who commanded the ship “Baffin” noticed “a huge ancient city, abounding ruins of castles, obelisks, temples, monuments and imposing and impressive facilities”, he partially sketched. David Brewster combined these pictures into a panorama published in the book “The Magic of Nature”, but Captain Scoresby found that the engraving houses and temples have become like wild cliffs. Characteristically, in the skies over Alaska often appears the image of the city, like the Bristol is located in England. In the book “The New Land” Fort cites several reports of the appearance of the image over Alaska and notes that it usually appear between June 21 and July 10. They said that before the arrival of white settlers to Alaska this image or something similar to it regularly watched the Indians. In 1887, a well-known pioneer Willoughby took his picture, but the city in pictures was so similar to the Bristol, that many began to doubt the authenticity of the picture. Nevertheless, there is ample evidence that from time to time in the Alaskan sky appears the image of a city and other visions. October 31, 1889 the newspaper “New York Times” put a message LB French’s, who saw in the sky around Mount Fairweather in Alaska “at home, clear silhouettes and street trees. That here and there rose tall spiers over huge buildings like ancient mosques or cathedrals … It was like in a modern American and an old European city. ” Fort also referred to another author from the Yukon, which in June 1897 had seen in the sky a huge city. His companions argued that it resembled more – Toronto, Montreal and Beijing, but came to the conclusion that most likely it was “some kind of a city of the past.” The element of antiquity and beauty, often inherent in the “air city”, combines them with perfect cities that appear in mystical visions, such as the pearl city of Jerusalem, the vision of John the Theologian. About this city is also reported in the book Flammarion “Atmosphere”. “Huge beautiful city, decorated with monuments, domes, bell towers”, the traveler Grellua observed in North Africa between Gelma and Bonn. It was like no one known at the time the city. Our contemporaries, watching “Air City”, often try to explain them as a reflection of any other nearby cities. Fort results in the case described in the “New York Sun” March 6, 1890, when at four o’clock in the afternoon of Ashland, Ohio, there was a big unknown city. Some argued that it was a reflection of the New Jerusalem, others felt that it was either Mansfield or Sandusky, who were from Ashland, respectively thirty and sixty miles. About how often appear aerial city can be judged according to Fort results in the book “New Land”. So, September 27, 1846 over Liverpool appeared the image of the city, similar to the Edinburgh; October 10, 1881 snow-covered village was visible above Pomerania, which, as noted, was similar to the village, located a hundred miles away, on the island of Bornholm; in 1881 – 1888 gg. Sweden experienced a number of ghost towns, islands and other images appear. Here is an example from Ireland – the classic ghost towns of the country: in June 1801 over Youghal, County Cork, it was possible to see the city, consisting of villas immersed in greenery, peeping from behind white palisades as well as a double image walled city that I observed earlier in the same place in 1776 and 1797 .; August 2, 1908 in Bellikonneli on the west coast for three hours it was possible to observe a ghost town, consisting of houses designed in a variety of architectural styles. “

“Cities and the island in the sky” J. R. Michel Ricard

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