Location: A cliff near the village of GevaΕ, Van Province, Turkey (2005) πΉπ·
The Story: In the rugged, high plains of eastern Turkey, shepherds tended their flocks as they had for centuries. But on a single day in July 2005, one flock's instinctual behavior turned into a catastrophic spectacle. As the sheep moved along a familiar route near a 15-meter (50-foot) cliff, something spooked the leaders. Driven by an unthinking, collective impulse, the front sheep broke into a run and plunged over the edge. In a horrifying, unstoppable chain reaction, the roughly 1,500 sheep in the tightly packed flock blindly followed their leaders, pouring over the precipice in a tidal wave of wool and flesh. π
The Twist: The grim salvation lay in the horrifying physics of the event itself. The first 450 sheep to go over died instantly on the rocky ground below. However, their bodies created a morbid, softening cushion. The thousand or so sheep that followed landed on this growing pile of their dead and dying flockmates, which absorbed the impact and saved their lives. The tragedy was a stark, almost biblical demonstration of "herd mentality" taken to its literal, lethal extreme. The surviving sheep, battered but alive, stood on a mountain of their own kin,a living metaphor for how blind following can lead to collective destruction, where the only thing that saves the latter followers is the crushed bodies of those who led the way. β