Dragon or Dinosaur?

My mother says that her aunt in Iran swore that she had seen a dragon in her village. This happened during my mother's aunts childhood days, and the dragon was seen by everyone in the village. I'm just going to tell you briefly what my mother told me.


When her aunt was younger, she lived in a farm house in a tiny village of Iran. Near their house was a large pit that was always full of snakes. Every afternoon, the sound of snakes whispers in the field were all that you could hear. There were snakes climbing all over walls, on the stairs, and on the fruit trees that had to be picked.

One day, in the pit, they found that a dragon was lying motionless at the bottom. People observed for days, but no one was brave enough to go near it, in fear that the dragon may actually be sleeping and not dead. A few men finally mustered up enough courage to start hitting it with long sticks and rocks, but there was no reaction from the dragon. When they were certain that it was indeed dead, the dragon was carried onto a carriage and transfered to another location through the village to be buried. She said that it gave off an awful stench, ever from far.

Women and children looked from atop of their houses in amazement, while the men walked along side the carriage. She described the dragon as very large in size and that it had two horns on its head. I asked my mom if her aunt said anything about the dragon having wings, but she could not recall whether her aunt ever spoke of wings on the supposed dragon.


Anyway, my mom said that if we do ever go back to Iran (if those stupid mullahs would just leave), she can take me to her aunts house to see the pit. The house now belongs to her aunt, and she still lives in it. I really find this story fascinating because my mom had spoken to many people in that village, and they all shared that same story with her.



So what do you think it may have been? Dragon or dinosaur? Perhaps some sort of reptilian? lol

[edit on 20-5-2008 by Impreza]

I suppose there were no pictures taken of said dragon/dinosaur?

I don't think that they even knew there were such things as camera. We're talking about a tiny village in the mountains of Iran during the 1930s (somewhere around that time).

Hmm, well who knows what it could have been. Weird. Maybe the guys/gals in the mythical beasts / crypto zoology board might be able to help further. Try posting your story there as well.

I just wanted to share the story with you guys. I know that there's no way to prove any of this, but it's really quite fascinating to think that something like that could be roaming the earth right now and we've yet to discover it.

surely more people must know about it then, or even remembered where it was buried, i think finding a dragon skeleton could be convincing

can you post location, or approx location, for posterity sake.

It's around north-western Iran, but I don't know the exact location. My mother lived in a city called Mahabad, so I'm sure her aunts village is probably somewhere around that city.

If I ever do go back, I'd like to go to the place where it was buried and maybe do some digging. Although I'm not sure if the people in that village will like that.

A really good book to read is Flying Serpents And Dragons by Boulay. There are some pretty compelling historical accounts of people encountering dragons. A Roman historian reported about how during the 1st Punic war the Roman legion couldn't cross a river because a dragon was guarding it and they had to kill it. Apparently the death stench was awful and the blood was highly toxic.

Despite the (apparent) lack of physical evidence for dragons I find it very hard to believe that all these tales of dragons would just appear in peoples imaginations all over the world for no apparent reason. Why is the dragon the only non-existent creature in the Chinese year calendar? The dragon is highly anomalous.

I think it is possible that dragons were an extremely intelligent native or extraterrestrial race. There is a tale of one man talking to a dragon who explained to him that a star dropped from the sky and killed all of the dragons family. This could very easily be some form of weapon. Dragons were also supposedly telepathic which is a common feature amongst highly developed extraterrestrial races.

[edit on 21-5-2008 by Space_Ed]

[edit on 21-5-2008 by Space_Ed]

The idea of large reptiles shouldn’t surprise anyone, the fossil record clearly shows that they existed in enormous numbers and sizes in the past, and of course very large reptiles still exist today. This is the bit that surprised me the most:

When her aunt was younger, she lived in a farm house in a tiny village of Iran. Near their house was a large pit that was always full of snakes. Every afternoon, the sound of snakes whispers in the field were all that you could hear. There were snakes climbing all over walls, on the stairs, and on the fruit trees that had to be picked.

Who would live in such a place? A large pit full of vipers wouldn’t be surprising during the mating season, but to have them all over the place including the houses and the trees? And to the point that their hissing was all you could hear? Sounds like a much embellished upon legend to me.

Seems to me that very large reptiles did indeed exist concurrent with modern man, and that the tales of such animals (exaggerated or not) have been passed down through the generations.

This "dragon" was obviously small enough for men to carry and to put in a carriage. Not typical of the size we associate with dragons. So I wonder if this was not just a large, but mundane animal.

While in the modern-day, thanks to a steady-diet of fantasy literature, roleplaying games and movies, we think of dragons as four-legged, winged-monsters. However, ancient art depicts dragons as serpent-like creatures. A large sand-viper, which sport a boney, horn-like appendage on their snout and above their eyes may have looked exactly what these villagers expected a dragon to look like.

Or perhaps it was an escaped pet, a non-native species that locals were unfamiliar with would certainly appear supernatural to them. The mountain horned dragon and water dragons can grow to a meter in length, and both have a ridge of spines that locals could mistake for horns. Or it could have been an escaped water monitor (though it wouldn't explain the horns). Being outside of their native environment, and without their owners to take care of them, it could explain the condition the locals found the animal in.

Originally posted by resistorWho would live in such a place? A large pit full of vipers wouldn’t be surprising during the mating season, but to have them all over the place including the houses and the trees? And to the point that their hissing was all you could hear? Sounds like a much embellished upon legend to me.

This is something that most Westerners could never understand, but in certain parts of the world people live alongside of snakes. For example, if you travel to India, you'll see many homes that allow snakes in their homes and even allow their infants to touch them.