Case file · High strangeness
The flames of the Chimaera
On the mountainside at Yanartaş in Lycia, dozens of flames burn from cracks in the rock; Pliny (c. 77 AD) wrote that the fire on Mount Chimaera burned day and night.
77 CE · 36.43, 30.46 · status: explained
The account
Ancient Lycians linked the flames to the fire-breathing Chimera killed by Bellerophon. Sailors used them as a landmark.
The sceptical view
The gas is mainly methane from serpentinite rocks, studied by geologists; it is one of the best-understood 'eternal flames'.
Connections in the atlas
- The fire-breathing Chimera slain by Bellerophon