[Sound propagation over large distances. On the history of the phenomenon]

Reports of cases of extremely wide-ranging sound propagation can be traced to the 17th century. It was noticed that a "zone of silence" exists between the zone of direct audibility near the source of the sound and a zone more than 150 km distant from it, where the sound can be heard again. Numerous scientists offered explanations for this astonishing phenomenon; it turned out that the solution of the problem required an interdisciplinary approach. In this paper, the author describes the path of arguments leading to the explanation accepted nowadays.