The Mongolian Death Worm: The Most Terrifying Cryptid Of Mongolia
Wikimedia CommonsThe Mongolian death worm is said to have multiple horrifying ways of attacking both humans and animals.
In the Gobi Desert, there are stories told of a massive worm with venom strong enough to corrode metal and the ability to deliver electric shocks powerful enough to kill a man. This creature is the Mongolian death worm.
The legend of the monstrous Mongolian death worm has been passed down for generations by Mongolia’s nomadic tribes and later by adventurous visitors who sought to track down the worm themselves. To the Mongolian tribes, the creature is known as allghoi khorkhoi, meaning “intestine worm,” because it is said to resemble the insides of a cow. Its skin is believed to be blood red, and it can reportedly grow up to five feet in length.
British biologist Karl Shuker once wrote that the Mongolian death worm is said to possess “spike-like projections at both ends” of its body, as well as the ability to shock its victims or spit corrosive venom at them.
Tom Dale/RedditAn artist’s interpretation of the Mongolian death worm, one of the most memorable cryptids on this list.
These creatures supposedly live beneath the sandy dunes of the Gobi Desert, surfacing during June and July when there is more moisture.
Although it sounds like a purely fictional animal — similar to the sand worm in Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel Dune — there have been numerous expeditions by researchers to try to find the creature. One researcher, a Czech cryptozoologist named Ivan Mackerle, ventured to Mongolia not once, but three times in search of the worm, in 1990, 1992, and 2004.
Still, to this day, no one has been able to find any concrete evidence of the Mongolian death worm in the Gobi Desert or anywhere else.
