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[ Home > Page 17: Villagers Find Fountain Of Youth, Part 1 ]
Page 17: Villagers Find Fountain Of Youth, Part 1![Page 17: Villagers Find Fountain Of Youth, Part 1]()
If you're searching for the secrets to a long life, you could do worse than visit the small town of Lerik in southern Azerbaijan. People here regularly live into their 80s and 90s, and local records claim the region has more centenarians than anywhere else in the world. Lerik, Azerbaijan; 28 October 2002 (RFE/RL) -- Come rain or come shine, Qyzyl Qulieva gets up at six every morning to feed the chickens. There's nothing particularly unusual about that, except that according to her pension book, Qyzyl is 131 years old. She doesn't hear as well as she used to, and she's recently started walking with a stick. But she says she's still as sharp as she was 80 years ago, when she was already a grandmother: "I had three sons and three daughters. As for grandchildren -- forgive me, but I can't remember how many I've got. The secret to a very long life? Well, I eat well and I work hard. There's nothing more to it than that." The lush hills of Lerik rise in the south of Azerbaijan near the border with Iran. To the east lies the Caspian Sea, to the west the Talysh mountain range. The heavy winter rains mean crops are plentiful, and every other house has an orchard garden. According to local records, Lerik has 21 centenarians out of a total population of 65,000. That's nearly four times the average number in Western countries. The veracity of the claims is questionable, however, since many of the town's older residents lack proper documentation. The "Guinness Book of World Records" doesn't recognize the claims of any Lerik resident. It lists the oldest person as Jeanne-Louise Calment of France, who lived to be 122 before dying in 1997. Nevertheless, there's no disputing the fact that Lerik is home to many very old people.
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