Knowledge | Posted by Zarni Kyaw
The world is filled with strange and mysterious phenomena. Some mysteries have been solved, but others remain beyond the reach of science.
One such enigma is the village of Kalachi in Kazakhstan, where people suddenly fall asleep while walking.
In Kalachi, residents can fall asleep without warning, sometimes for several hours or even days.
They can even sleep while engaged in activities like walking or working. Upon waking, they have no recollection of when or where they fell asleep.
This unusual condition has drawn global attention and puzzled scientists for years. Despite extensive research, the cause of this phenomenon remains unknown.
The mystery of the 'Village of the Damned' where a sleeping sickness causes people to fall unconscious for days, mild-mannered pensioners swear and men have unusually-high sex drives has been solved.
For three years people in the Kazakhstan village Kalachi – nicknamed 'Sleepy Hollow' – have been puzzled as they fall asleep for two days at a time.
Bizarre hallucinations, especially children, led one girl to see an elephant trunk on her mother and a boy imagine horses and light bulbs flying around his head.
(For three years, carbon monoxide gas has been seeping out of an abandoned uranium mine in Kazakhstan and poisoning the villagers of Kalachi )
(Photographer Vera Salnitskaya spent a night in the village earlier this year and was told of the bizarre symptoms that the residents suffered over the last few years)
(Some have suffered severe headaches and memory loss as a result of the gas leak from the mines (pictured) - which has affected 160 villagers since 2012)
(When carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon levels rose in the disused mine in the mining town of Krasnogorsk, oxygen levels fell in the village of Kalachi)
Men there wake up after between 12 hours and six days' sleep craving sex, walking around with erections – and causing nurses to 'blush'. This constant state of arousal can last for up to a month.
'The doctors laugh, and the nurses are embarrassed when they see our men in this state,' said one woman whose husband was a 'victim' of the condition.
(Side effects of the gas, which caused people to fall unconscious for days (pictured), included headaches and memory loss)
(Now the mystery has finally been solved, residents of Kalachi (pictured) and neighbouring Krasnogorsk are being evacuated)
(68 of the 223 families in Kalachi (pictured) have already been moved and the plan is to relocate the rest of them by the end of the year)
(Women have told how their boyfriends and husbands come round from the deep slumber - which lasts beween 12 hours and six days - craving sex)
Ref: This Is World's Strangest Village: People Fall Asleep Suddenly, Even While Walking; Know Why Photo Credit-dailymail