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Mysterious Universe
Canada is a land full of vast natural beauty and thriving, unspoiled wilderness. Much of the wild landscape here is a world full of natural wonders that have managed to remain pristine and nearly untouched by human beings, with mountains, valleys, forests, whole swaths of land that have remained for the most part unexplored. It is from these unconquered northern lands that have long sprung various stories of mystery and strange phenomena. Surely one of the more bizarre mysteries from the Canadian wilderness comes from Nahanni National Park, a place also known ominously as “The Valley of Headless Men.” The name is not merely a spooky nickname for a remote, mysterious land, for the area is long known for having people disappear only to turn up without their heads.
Nahanni National Park is part of the Mackenzie Mountain region located in the Dehcho Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada, approximately 500 km (311 mi) west of Yellowknife. Nahanni is from the language of the indigenous Dene people that have inhabited the region for millennia, and means “The People Over There,” in reference to tribe of mountain dwelling people known as the Naha, who were once known to raid lowland settlements before mysteriously vanishing. The roughly 11,000 square mile park is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is undeniably full of breathtaking natural wonder and beauty. The park is surrounded by majestic peaks and dotted with geysers, sinkholes, deep canyons, caves, gorges, and pristine forests. Within these stunning vistas lies Virginia Falls, a magnificent giant of a waterfall that crashes down 96 meters (315 feet) into the roiling water below, twice as high as the more well-known Niagara Falls.
Meandering through the center of the valley is the South Nahanni River, which carves a scenic path through the park and has formed four dizzyingly high canyons that line its turbulent waters. The South Nahanni River’s course takes it over waterfalls, through deep gorges, and across natural hot springs, including an area of boiling whirlpools known as Hell’s Gate, before ending its journey in a thunderous crescendo down Virginia Falls. The South Nahanni River is a very rare example of what is called an antecedent river, meaning that it was powerful enough to maintain the same course it had before the mountains around it formed, which it carved as they slowly sprung up across the landscape. This results in the rather remarkable sight of mountains that seem to follow the flow of the river rather than the other way around.
Reposted with permission