Mirage 's nothing...

Else that an optical illusion... Or an electric guitar manufactured by Cort®

On June 23, 1744, a phantom army appeared floating above a mountain in Scotland. Twenty seven people, who later gave sworn testimony to what they'd seen, watched the strange vision for two hours till it ended with darkness.

In the summer of 1897 in Alaska, an expedition to the wilderness near Mount St. Elias saw a "Silent City" over a glacier. A member of the expedition, C. W. Thornton, wrote, "It required no effort of the imagination to liken it to a city, but was so distinct that it required, instead, faith to believe that it was not in reality a city." Another witness reported, "We could plainly see houses, well-defined streets, and trees. Here and there rose tall spires over huge buildings..."

The above incidents are examples of a startling optical atmospheric effect known as a mirage. Though we associate mirages with the illusion of distant water in a desert, the phantom oasis is actually just the simplest example of this bizarre effect...

For more information, please see http://www.unmuseum.org/mirage.htm