The ancient mystery of the Himalayan 'Skeleton Lake'

[Nevilledog]

https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p08mqncs/the-ancient-mystery-of-the-himalayan-skeleton-lake-

In 1942, an Indian forest ranger discovered a remote lake, high in the Himalayas, with something strange visible in its clear water. The lake was full of human skeletons.

Since its discovery, the now infamous Lake Roopkund has attracted huge intrigue over who the roughly 500 skeletons once were, and how they all came to rest there. Like all great murder mysteries, the more people have investigated the deeper and stranger this mystery has become.

*video at link *

[Brother Buzz]

1. I read of this in Smithsonian a couple of years ago and they pitched the hailstorm theory

I remember riffing on David Letterman, "Hail the size of canned hams".

At the time, it appeared to be one event, not spread over centuries, so that eliminates hail

[McCamy Taylor]

2. Simplest answer is they were dumped there after being

murdered. And that they were pilgrims who were killed for their belongings. The fact that Europeans from the 19th and 20th century were found makes this quite likely.

If we found a body in Hudson Bay with a crushed skull we would assume that it was homicide.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/20/science/skeleton-lake-archaeology-roopkund.html

[SWBTATTReg]

3. Perhaps the Mongols killed them, after all, the great tomb of Genghis Khan has never been found ...

Since his death (Genghis Khan (born Temüjin Borjigin, c.?1155 – c.?April 16, 1162 – August 18, 1227), also officially Genghis Emperor, was the founder and first Great Khan and Emperor of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death.). They killed all so all evidence of where the tomb was located at, would be hidden to all.

Another possible cause is perhaps volcanic gases from a source not yet ID'ed, of course it doesn't explain why the bodies are all in the water vs. just laying around had they just dropped dead.