Case file · Sighting
Roerich's shining oval over the Kukunor
On 5 August 1927, camped near the Humboldt Range in the Kukunor region, Nicholas Roerich's caravan watched through field glasses a shiny oval body cross the sky from north to south.
1927 CE · 38.30, 97.80 · status: account
The account
Roerich recorded it in his travel diary Altai-Himalaya. Later UFO writers made it one of the classic pre-1947 sightings, often wrongly dated to 1926. The coordinates are approximate.
The sceptical view
There is only Roerich's account; a balloon or a sunlit high-altitude object fits the description, and the Theosophist Roerich read it as a sign of Shambhala.