Link to article: SCP-8353.
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[[>]] [[module rate]] [[/>]] [[include component:image-block |name=https://scp-sandbox-3.wdfiles.com/local--files/mekhanite/Ruins_in_Algerian_Desert.jpg |caption=Fragment of SCP-8353 ruins. |width=WIDTH-GOES-HERE |align=right]] **Item #:** SCP-8353 **Containment Class:** Troy **Special Containment Procedures:** As the United States Armed Forces have withdrawn from the Republic of the Niger, the containment procedures of SCP-8353 have been suspended. Due to the recent developments surrounding the anomaly, chances of rediscovery are considered low. **Description:** First brought into the attention of the SCP Foundation in 2018 after reports of urban legends picked up from a local translator by US personnel stationed in the Republic of the Niger as part of Operation Juniper Shield. SCP-8353 was contained on the 21st of February, 2019 by Investigative Team-2 of the SCP Paranormal Activity Response Corps following a month-long investigation. The description of the location was provided by Sadiq Gado, the source of the urban legend. > My Mother taught that even The Almighty has a blind spot. He gave us free will, and He allowed us to do bad, if we chose so. In the same way, God allowed there to be places outside of His domain, by His choice. That place, the //Hakaran// [[footnote]] Name used by locals for SCP-8353. Its etymology is unknown.[[/footnote]]? It's such place. A place where, without Allah, all the Shaitans have made their home. They live in houses, more ancient than any other, and pray at a temple. A temple to what only they know, covered in icons and writing that hurt to even look at. I've heard stories of people who stepped in it, who emerged with their minds broken and their eyes fixed at the skies, screaming heresies I won't repeat. Me? I never thought about going there, not once in my life. I don't know where it is, and you should not look for it. SCP-8353 are the ruins of a settlement dated to ~1550 BC located east of the town of Inates, Niger. The majority of the architecture in SCP-8353 is utilitarian in nature and bears resemblance to other ruins discovered in the region, although traces of Greek influence have been noted. The ruins consist of multiple minor structures, presumed to be housing, surrounding a singular circular building containing highly damaged wall carvings, accompanied by an unknown script, provisionally named "Hakaranian". A pedestal was present in the middle of the structure. Although no anomalous phenomena have been provably recorded to take place within SCP-8353, the object has come into the purview of The Foundation due to the number of paranormal experiences reported in its vicinity by both civillian and military personnel over the years. **Addenum 8353.1:** Selected paranormal experience reports > **Name:** Usman Ibrahim > > We went near Hakaran all the time as kids. We never told our parents, we knew they would hate it. They told us it was infested with Djinn, that children go missing there, all sorts of stories. But we loved playing in it. We'd pretend the carvings, the one with many eyes especially, were monsters and we would fight them with stones and sticks. But we never went in the middle. To us, we were perfectly safe everywhere there, except the center. That was where all the Djinns and Shaitans were, of course. Everywhere else was safe to us. Whenever anyone got close to it, they would just feel this...I can't really find the word. It was like a sand storm was coming your direction, or like a wild animal was chasing you. We always thought there was an oasis there, that's what the carvings showed. I fell in there once when we were playing and all I saw was sand and some rock in the center. But I got so scared, I couldn't get up and just yelled for the other kids to come help me while staring at the ground. They did run up to me and just as they were helping me out, one of them looked up. They all scattered, scared. No one told me what they saw, and we never played there again. > > ----- > **Name:** Awa Soloké > > My husband was a good man, whenever the store ran out of sachets[[footnote]] Plastic pouches containing alcohol, popular in West Africa.[[/footnote]]. But when he had them, he turned into a whole different man. He would break down into these rants and stories, told me how that rubble east of the town "took" his brother. I only heard him talk about his brother when he was drunk. About how bright and sweet and dumb he was. He told me how he could "still see him stretch", whatever that meant, and would scream at the sky as if it insulted him! One night, one night he drank too much. Way too much. He grabbed, sorry, stole our neighbors hammer and he started running. Much too fast for me to catch up. He was yelling about how he was "going to deface Karan" and that he was doing it for his brother. He never came back home. > > ----- > **Name:** Johnatan Watson > > Think it was the second day they told me to guard that pile of rubble. Still have no idea why, even that shitty village next to it would have more tactical use. Whatever, I know that place...I know it gave me the chills. It felt like I was going to get ambushed every second I was there, even jumped when I heard the wind blow slightly faster. The sky from it, the sky there looked weird, I tell you. You'd look at a star, and it started drifting, like it was a [EXPLETIVE REMOVED] plane. I thought I was seeing things, but then I looked up and nah, they all suddenly moved, like, all at once! I reported it to command but they thought I was making it up. Oh, and the [EXPLETIVE REMOVED] kept yelling something at us whenever they walked near. No idea what, but they were real angry. Maybe they were worshipping this... whatever is there? Dunno. > > ----- > **Name:** Richard Owens > > Being deployed there was a strange experience. It was the first time I was at a mission where nothing that weird happened, no monsters running around and jumping into asses, no phantom planes. Still, I constantly felt this pressure there, I don't mean physical pressure. Mental pressure, as if I was expected to do something I knew nothing about. It made me lose control over myself once. I can tell Jeremy felt it too, but he swears he didn't. It was drawing me to that pedestal in the middle. It was constant, but it got worse whenever I looked at the sky. I even did step on it once and then... I don't remember what happened. Anything between me stepping on it and falling face first in the sand is blank, but I know my heart was racing and I felt like a sheep getting chased by a predator. I'm glad they rotated me out the next day. In addition, various minor phenomena have been alleged to occur by Foundation personnel stationed in SCP-8353. These include: * Unexplainable feeling of being watched. * Unexplainable feeling of dread. * Sightings of Aerial Anomalous Phenomena, in particular, slow-moving, bright objects in the night sky. * Sightings of short-term changes in celestial constellations * Sudden onset of astrophobia. * Sudden desire to gaze upwards. * Sudden sensation of being pulled upwards, without any movement actually occurring. Described as being similar to an out of body experience. * Minor changes in height. * Intrusive thoughts relating to gazing upwards **Addendum 8353.2:** Current status After the withdrawal of US assets from Republic of the Niger and the capture of multiple weapons caches left behind by the US troops, a jihadist offensive in the region has led SCP-8353 to be captured by local militias. Aerial photographs suggest extensive damage has been sustained by at least half of SCP-8353, including the central structure. Recovery of significant parts of SCP-8353 is considered unlikely. [[div class="footer-wikiwalk-nav"]] [[=]] << [[[SCP-9335]]] | [[[Series 0]]] | [[[SCP-9337]]] >> [[/=]] [[/div]] [[include :scp-wiki:component:license-box]] ===== > **Filename:** Ruins_in_Algerian_Desert.jpg > **Name:** Ruins_in_Algerian_Desert.jpg > **Author:** Mehdi Bouchtout > **Source:** https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ruins_in_Algerian_Desert.jpg > **License:** CC BY-SA 4.0 ===== [[include :scp-wiki:component:license-box-end]]