12. Ceasing to be an island entirely in the 1990s due to depleting water levels in the Aral Sea, Barsa-Kelme was the center of a deliberate hoax by local journalists to manufacture an iconic backstory for the inhospitable spit of land
A former island in the Aral Sea, Barsa-Kelmes – literally meaning “the place of no return” in the Kazakh language – was once the largest island in the gradually diminishing Aral Sea. Rapidly decreasing in water capacity due to Soviet diversion via irrigation canals, the island grew from its former size of 133 square kilometers until it joined the mainland in the 1990s. Originally surveyed in 1848, salt deposits on Barsa-Kelmes render dust storms highly hazardous and potentially lethal. This natural feature of Barsa-Kelme, creating an undeniable aura of mystery, provided the background to a remarkable compilation of urban legends.
Starting during the second half of the 20th century, rumors and stories concerning paranormal and supernatural occurrences on the island began to surface. Reaching peak attention in the 1990s, appearing frequently in popular magazines, stories concerning Barsa-Kelme ranged from UFO visitations, to variable temporal anomalies, and the alleged disappearances of expeditions. Despite an ever-increasing absurdity to these stories, major Soviet publications continued to report on them and the site became a hub of paranormal investigations until, in the post-Soviet era, it was finally revealed to have been a longstanding hoax perpetrated by science-fiction author Sergey Lukyanenko.