- DELINGHA, Qinghai (Xinhua)
- A group of nine Chinese scientists will go to Northwest China's Qinghai
Province later this month to closely examine relics thought by some to
have been left by extraterrestrial beings (ET).
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- It will be the first time scientists seriously study
the mysterious site near the city of Delingha in the depths of the Qaidam
Basin, according to government sources with the Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan
Autonomous Prefecture, where Delingha is located.
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- The site, known by local people as "the ET relics,"
is on Mount Baigong, about 40 kilometres to the southwest of Delingha.
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- On the north of the mountain are twin lakes dubbed the
"Lover Lakes," one with fresh water and the other with salty
water.
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- The so-called ET relics structure is located on the south
bank of the salty lake. It looks like a pyramid and is between 50 to 60
metres high.
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- At the front of the pyramid are three caves with triangular
openings. The cave in the middle is the biggest, with its floor standing
2 metres above the ground and its top 8 metres above the ground.
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- This cave is about 6 metres in depth and inside there
is a half-pipe about 40 centimetres in diameter tilting from the top to
the inner end of the cave.
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- Another pipe of the same diameter goes into the earth
with only its top visible above the ground.
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- Above the cave are a dozen pipes of various diameters
which run into the mountain.
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- All the pipes are red brownish, the same colour as that
of surrounding rocks.
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- The two smaller caves have collapsed and are inaccessible.
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- Scattered about the caves and on the bank of the salty
lake are a large number of rusty scraps, pipes of various diameters and
strangely shaped stones. Some of the pipes run into the lake.
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- According to Qin Jianwen, head of the publicity department
of the Delingha government, the scraps were once taken to a local smeltery
for analysis.
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- The result shows that they are made up of 30 per cent
ferric oxide with a large amount of silicon dioxide and calcium oxide.
Eight per cent of the content could not be identified.
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- "The large content of silicon dioxide and calcium
oxide is a result of long interaction between iron and sandstone, which
means the pipes must be very old," said Liu Shaolin, the engineer
who did the analysis.
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- "This result has made the site even more mysterious,"
Qin said. "Nature is harsh here. There are no residents, let alone
modern industry, in the area, only a few migrant herdsmen to the north
of the mountain."
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- Someone has suggested that the site might have been a
launch tower left by ET.
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- The area is high in altitude, with thin and transparent
air. It is an ideal place to practise astronomy, Qin said.
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- In fact, the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese
Academy of Sciences has a large radio telescope just 70 kilometres from
the site.
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- Yang Ji, a research fellow at the observatory, said the
hypothesis of ET relics is understandable and worth investigating.
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- "But scientific means must be employed to prove
whether or not it is true," he added.
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