Zhigulyovsk and the Mirages of the Samara Bend
The bend of the Volga at the Zhiguli hills is among the longest-described anomalous places in Russia. Local tradition speaks of mirages — a city that is not there, seen above the hills — and of lights that go into the mountain. In Soviet years amateur expeditions came here, and from the 1980s the Samara Bend was a fixture on lists of such places alongside Molyobka. Geography explains a good deal: temperature inversions over the bend are frequent and produce genuine mirages, and the limestone hills are riddled with adits and karst. The national park that contains all of it takes a restrained view and runs its trails without promising anything.
Manises and the Unscheduled Landing
On the evening of 11 November 1979 a TAE Supercaravelle from Mallorca to Tenerife was over the Mediterranean when the crew saw red lights closing on them. Captain Javier Lerdo de Tejada judged the approach dangerous, altered course twice, and finally put the aircraft down at Manises airport near Valencia — with 109 passengers aboard. The Spanish Air Force scrambled a Mirage; the pilot reported seeing the lights and that his radar would not hold the target. The ground radar at Valencia did record a return. Spain declassified the file in the 1990s. The official explanation is the flare of an oil refinery combined with an optical illusion; the crew did not accept it.
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