Medieval necropolises, or cities of the dead - a phenomenon characteristic of North Caucasus... The most famous of them are Tsoi-Pede in Chechnya and Dargavs in North Ossetia. The largest burial ground, preserved on the territory of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, is located near the village of Eltyubu.
Eltyubu: the legacy of ancient times
The mysterious village of Eltyubu is often called the focus of Balkar history. Sheltered from the outside world in scenic spots in the upper reaches of the Chegem, among the majestic and inaccessible mountains, it has been giving shelter to man for more than one millennium. The oldest site was discovered here, whose age, according to scientists, may be more than ten thousand years. In the same area there is the ancient settlement of Lygyt, whose origin is attributed by historians to the eighth century of our era. On the territory of the settlement there is a miracle of medieval thought - an underground wooden water supply system.
Everything in Eltyubu is permeated with the spirit of antiquity: these are stone houses built several centuries ago, and the Tower of Love erected in the seventeenth century by Svan craftsmen and covered with legends, and the sacred stone of Bayram-tashi, and defensive stairs, and the remains of Greek Christian cave temples. Of course, there are more modern monuments in Eltyubu. Since Kaisyn Kuliev was born here, the center of the village is decorated with a bust of the famous Balkar poet.
And yet the main treasure of the Verkhnechegemskaya depression, attracting many travelers here, is the ancient cemetery, the City of the Dead.
The rise of the City of the Dead
The origin of the burial ground near Eltyubu is explained in different ways. According to one version, the inhabitants of the village had to erect crypts and tombs because of the peculiarities of the terrain: it was rather difficult to bury them in the ground here. Another hypothesis suggests that such structures are the heritage of the early Middle Ages, at that time followers of Zoroastrianism appeared among the Alans. This religion excluded the desecration of the sacred elements of earth and fire, so the dead could neither be buried nor burned. Zoroastrianism in the Caucasus was quickly supplanted by other beliefs, but the custom of placing the dead in crypts remained. Different types of burial grounds indicate that they were all built in different time under the influence of the dominant religion at one time or another.
According to the results of archaeological excavations, scientists attribute the burials on the territory of the Kabardino-Balkarian City of the Dead to the X-XVII centuries. And the burials discovered by the researchers were for the most part performed according to Muslim customs.
Variety of tombs of the Eltyubu burial ground
In the only well-preserved City of the Dead on the territory of Kabardino-Balkaria, there are still only eight undisturbed graves, although there were more of them here in the 30s of the last century. One of the researchers of the area then identified several types of tombs:
earthen embankments surrounded by stones;
embankments built directly from stones;
stone boxes of two types, with cobblestones smoothly fitted to each other and cemented;
a grave-box with a small window on the eastern wall; tetrahedral keshene with a gable roof and a window (as in the previous case, located on the east side);
crypts are octagonal in shape with a pyramidal roof.
Well-preserved to this day, the mausoleums are divided into two types: earlier rectangular and octahedral attributed by scientists to the 17th-18th centuries. Their original austere silhouettes against the backdrop of the harsh mountain nature create a unique landscape.
But not only love for ancient monuments attracts tourists here. Rumor has it that the Kabardino-Balkarian City of the Dead is a so-called place of power. The presence of an anomalous zone here allegedly confirms the legends about the remains of people found here, whose height was several meters, and the legends about longevity local population... However, this is a completely different story.
Chegem gorge- a unique natural site known for waterfalls, gorge and historical monuments, in particular, ancient villages. In addition, an important section of the Great Silk Road once passed here, connecting Kabardino-Balkaria with other regions of the world. Near the Chegem River is the village of Verkhniy Chegem, which is divided into two parts by the Dzhilgi-Su gorge. Earlier on the site of the village there was a settlement of the ancestors of the Balkars, which was called El-Tyubu... Literally from the Turkic language, it is translated as a village at the bottom of the valley, which indicated its geographical location. A necropolis was opened near the settlement - this city of the dead constantly attracts the attention of guests of the republic and local residents.
The first settlers in El-Tyubu
Archaeologists have found here the sites of a man, which is about 15 thousand years old. Traces of life activity found in the grotto Cala-Tyubu, which became a haven for the first inhabitants of this area. Later - in the VI -X centuries - a wooden city with a water supply was built here. After centuries, wooden buildings were replaced by stone ones. There was no special city planning in El-Tyubu, which was due to the proximity of the mountains and the need to defend against the attacks of neighbors. For this purpose, towers were erected in which the nobility lived. Such structures were a characteristic feature of many Caucasian villages, but only a few of them have survived to this day.
Necropolis city
The features of the area did not allow burying dead people in the ground, therefore, not far from El-Tyubu crypts and tombs were built, which gradually turned into a separate city. They were built during the X-XVII centuries next to an older cemetery. Only eight mausoleums have survived to this day: six of them are very well preserved, the other two are in a dilapidated state. The crypts have a unique shape - rectangular and octagonal cones. They are made of stone. The masonry technique was used ancient - the stones were hewn and fastened together with lime. Outside and inside, they are whitewashed and plastered.
According to their type, the graves can be divided into embankments (earthen and stone), boxes (stone), graves with square windows in the east, crypts of two types. The first includes keshene crypts with a high roof and a window on the east side. The second type of crypts is represented by octagons, which have a stepped high roof. Keshene was built much earlier than the octagonal crypts.
Graves and crypts have a height of about six meters, a thin cornice, a false vault. The walls are irregular, convex, with curved edges. There are stone cones on the roofs. Burials in graves and crypts were performed according to Muslim customs. In the city of the dead, archaeologists have found the remains of vessels, metal objects of the XI-XII centuries, silver jewelry, and pottery.
Why mountains?
The necropolis is shrouded in secrets and legends. The local population believes that titans who lived thousands of years ago were buried here. The place for their burial was not chosen by chance. It is believed that the mountains are located on the border of immortality and health, so the ancient settlers lived for a very long time and practically did not get sick. Such legends are supported by real facts: some descendants of the Alans celebrated their 200th (!) Birthday. But the inhabitants of the modern village of Verkhniy Chegem try not to go to the necropolis, fearing the spirits of their deceased ancestors. According to another legend, near the crypts, human remains were dug up, which had a ten-meter skeletal structure, but this has not been confirmed by archaeological research.
How to get to the El-Tyubu burial grounds
The Caucasus Mountains have many hiking trails, but the mountainous terrain will not allow walking to the burial grounds. Therefore, it is worth going from Nalchik to the Chegem gorge only by car. Further, the road passes through the mountains - it is better to walk here. Although there is a bus from Nalchik to the mountain village of Bulungu. Settlement Verkhniy Chegem or El-Tyubu is very close - at a distance of five kilometers. It is recommended to visit the necropolis during the warm season, as landslides and glaciers often occur in the mountains. In winter, the temperature is not too low (reaches -12 degrees), but there is a serious icing of the paths and roads - this not only greatly complicates the hike to the graves, but also creates danger for the visitors themselves!
[: RU] The Balkar people have formed over the centuries in the valleys and gorges of the high-mountainous part of Kabardino-Balkaria. The history of the Balkar people is the history of the struggle with the harsh nature and with the conquerors. Highlanders skillfully used natural conditions and often created defensive structures that made their villages and estates impregnable.
The valley of the Chegem River is one such place. The greatest historical and architectural interest of the Chegem villages is Eltyubu(El-Tyubu) - "The village at the bottom of the valley." Here are preserved monuments of folk architecture for various purposes, belonging to different stages of the development of architecture. One of the monuments of this interesting village is the “City of the Dead” located a little to the south on the slopes, unique in terms of the variety of burial structures dating back to different times.
Chegem gorge. At the entrance to the necropolis.
City of dead 
The entire necropolis is dominated by several well-preserved monumental tombs - "keshene". They belong to different periods and are divided into 2 types in terms of plan and appearance: rectangular in plan and octagonal.
Rectangular: 
The octagonal ones are more recent. 
These small stone tombs with one window and a thin cornice, five to six meters high, are irregular convex octahedral pyramidal volumes with smoothly curved edges and edges, ending on top with a cone made of solid stone.
The old Chegem builders did not know the real vault, arch, dome, and in all cases they used only a false vault, that is, such a system when each stone hangs slightly over the lower one, gradually reducing the distance between the opposite walls.
In addition, the walls of irregularly shaped stones were made thicker downwards than upwards. All this creates the peculiarity of the silhouette that distinguishes keshene.
Multifaceted mausoleums with conical or pyramidal finishes are found in the architecture of Central Asia, Azerbaijan, and the North Caucasus (in particular, in the Chechen regions, almost similar, but, unlike the Chegem regions, not plastered), and in the Kabardian regions. All these monuments belong to the monuments of "Muslim" architecture. This gives grounds to see the monuments of the Muslim period in Keshen Eltyubu and to date them no earlier than the end of the 17th - the beginning of the 18th century.
Constructed with the help of a false vault, the side walls thinning upwards of which, gradually closing in, end with a sharp ridge, rectangular keshenes look extremely monumental and are perceived to be much larger than their absolute dimensions.
The relatively small structure of Baimurza-keshene, which has a height of 8 m 60 cm and a volume of about 160 cubic meters, dominates the surrounding landscape with its monumentality, so it seems as if it was not created by man, but by nature itself.
It should be noted that the aesthetic impact of all burial structures is determined not by the pile-up of details, but by the composition of the volume, the contrast of the opening spot with the light plastered field of the wall, and the skillful setting of the structure among the landscape. Only one keshene has a decorative decoration in the form of several prints on a fresh solution of either the neck or the bottom of the jug.
The entire territory of such necropolises is covered with wildly blooming mountain grass interspersed with bright barberry bushes.
In the hunt for gophers and other animals, birds of prey are circling 
The mountains and valleys of Kabardino-Balkaria hide many mysteries, many legends are associated with the peak of the Caucasus - the fabulous Mount Elbrus. The mountains and valleys of the North Caucasus are full of secrets. Not a year goes by without local amateur local lore experts making some interesting discovery.
Unfortunately, not everything that has been found can be preserved until the appearance of professional researchers. Something is taken away for souvenirs, somewhere on top of the ancient inscriptions they display “There was…”, and they do not attach any importance to something. But another find in the vicinity of the village of Zayukovo may overshadow all previous sensations. By the way, this very settlement of Kabardino-Balkaria is located as if in the center of some mysterious anomalous zone.
Frozen battalion - Elbrus region
Recently, on the slope of one of the peaks of the Elbrus region, local residents discovered a strange and terrible burial. German soldiers and the officers - just around the battalion - lie in a narrow gorge under a layer of compressed snow that has turned into ice. There are no visible wounds or injuries on them, nor any signs of violence or struggle whatsoever. They lie in dense groups and one by one, some on their backs, some on their sides. Some were nailed to the spot by an unknown force while they were busy doing something. One clutches a map, the other a flask, the third rummages in a duffel bag. Many have open eyes that look up to the sky the same way they did 70 years ago. None of the dead did not take their weapons at the ready, apparently, no one was even going to join the battle. Through the thickness of the ice, you can distinguish facial features and the smallest details of equipment. From it it becomes clear - this is a division of gamekeepers.
The first thing that came to the mind of the locals was death due to an avalanche. But an avalanche would surely have taken away the corpses, scattered and mixed up weapons and equipment. And the view of those perishing under the snow blockage is unlikely to be as serene as in our case. And by the dead huntsmen it is immediately clear that they died suddenly, without even having time to realize what had happened.
It is even more surprising that such a large unit remained in the place of its death. Usually punctual Germans pulled out even single corpses from the gorges and from the battlefield - at least in the first three years of the war. And then 200 bodies were forgotten and abandoned. Some of them, by the way, clearly have intact nominal medallions.
So the funeral teams didn't find the whole missing battalion? Or were you not looking? It is likely that the part that died in the gorge was carrying out a secret mission, and the local German command did not suspect anything about it.
This can be found in the stories of old people who found the war. They said that a strange German unit entered Zayukovo immediately after the occupation. These Germans did not contact the local population and did not participate in the battles at all. Every morning they loaded some boxes and packages onto trucks and drove off in an unknown direction. In the evening they came, changed the guard, and so every day. Once none of those who had left returned. The next day, the officer gathered those who remained on guard and departed in an unknown direction.
sacred mountain Elbrus 
A village with history
It's time to note that Zayukovo was always surrounded by all sorts of oddities. People settled here several thousand years before our era. This is evidenced by the traces of rock paintings in the surrounding caves, ancient villages and the remains of archaeological sites.
In the 17th century, the residence of the supreme rulers of Kabarda was moved here. Neighbors said that the princely family of the Shogemokovs subjugated other clans for a reason, as they possessed a certain secret. The secret itself was allegedly expressed in a mysterious artifact that gave the soldiers strength, and the rulers - the gift to foresee the future. Then the aul had a different name. In 1810, Russian troops appeared there, participating in the conquest of the North Caucasus. After a fierce battle, the entire village was turned upside down, as if the aliens were looking for something. Finding nothing, the Russian officer ordered everything to be destroyed and set on fire.
Conquerors have visited the vicinity of Zayukovo before. In the 14th century, Tamerlane himself came here. Local residents supported his rival, Tokhtamysh, in that war. It was decided to meet the formidable conqueror in one of the mountain gorges. However, it was not possible to stop Tamerlane - he scattered the opponents, but did not pursue the fleeing army, but remained in place.
Small detachments with secret missions flew to all ends. They were looking for a Byzantine catacomb monastery, which had functioned somewhere near since the beginning of the second millennium AD. Remains of cells and wells have survived to this day, mostly half-filled up. Then, having learned about the approach of the hordes of Tamerlane, the monks collected sacred books, poor utensils, a few relics and walled it all up in one of the rooms. They watched the battle from a high slope, and seeing the defeat of the local army, they left and never returned to their monastery. According to legend, they either took with them or walled up some relic of great value.
They were looking for something in the gorges near Zayukovo and the princes Atazhukins, who got these lands in 1830. The neighbors believed that they were interested in the Shogemokovs' treasure. Over time, the Atazhukins' passion for searches turned into an obsession.
The famous Russian mystic Georgy Gurdjieff visited Zayukovo. He traveled around the world, studying the so-called centers of power. Preparing an expedition to Kabardino-Balkaria and Soviet occultists - Barchenko and company. Since the beginning of the 1920s, the Chekists tortured Zayukov's old-timers with questions about the surrounding caves and gorges. But the big expedition never took place - the "mystical" department of the NKVD was dispersed.
After the establishment of friendly relations between the USSR and Germany, Germans became frequent in the Elbrus region: climbers, archaeologists, ordinary tourists. In the end, an order came from Moscow to close a fairly large area, including Zayukovo, to those curious.
"Ahnenerbe" in search of the Grail
The Germans returned to these places in 1942. Hitler attached particular importance to the seizure of the Caucasus, having thrown into this direction a powerful army grouping, which was so needed at Stalingrad. Almost ahead of the Wehrmacht were employees of the Ahnenerbe occult institute under the strict guard of the SS.
All areas of the Elbrus region accessible to the Germans literally swarmed with all sorts of expeditions from Berlin, SS special detachments, mysterious delegations of Buddhist monks, accompanied by high army officials. The research was carried out systematically, with German pedantry. The Baksan gorge, for example, has been traversed along and across several times, as evidenced by the numerous images of the swastika carved by the Nazis on the stones at those points that attracted their attention.
According to one of the versions, in the Caucasus they were looking for the Holy Grail, which, according to some researchers, could have ended up there after the defeat of the Templar Order. German "archaeologists in uniform" believed that the Grail was hidden in some kind of cave. They collected all the legends in the local villages, shoveled a lot of information during the short period of the occupation of the North Caucasus and climbed all the slopes.
Quite a bit they did not get to one amazing object not far from Zayukovo. This is a cave that goes down to a depth of 80 meters and consists of several chambers that merge into one another. A ventilation shaft, consisting of parallel stone slabs and sidewalls, neatly folded of small stones, goes out.
The walls and vaults of the huge 36-meter hall were polished in an unknown way - the slabs have no seams at all and seem to flow into one another. The mountain itself is also remarkable. It is a pyramid of almost regular shape, as if made of tuff blocks. Some of them have perfectly straight edges.
Narts cemetery
The existence of the final resting place of the epic heroes of the North Caucasus (Narts) is mentioned in the legends of almost all the peoples of the region. For a long time this was considered a fairy tale, but not so long ago an ancient necropolis was actually discovered in the vicinity of Zayukovo.
This is an almost flat area on the top of the rocks overhanging Zayukovo. The plateau is impregnable on three sides, and a view of a very significant area opens up from the north. The basis of the complex of burials is the Cimmerian necropolis, which is evident from the finds. But even after the legendary Cimmerians migrated to an unknown destination, the cemetery was regularly replenished with new burials.
But the most amazing thing on this plateau is the stone observatory, as the researchers called it. Stone balls are scattered over a fairly large area (it is obvious that there were more of them earlier). If you examine their location from above, you get the impression that they form the outlines of some constellation. A stone chair is hollowed out in a huge boulder. The one sitting in it sees Elbrus and can observe the movement of the Sun across the entire plateau.
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All stones are involved in the play of light and shadow, and one of them has a stone "cut" - that is, it acts as an astronomical sight (sight) to determine the relative position of the Sun and the stars. Apparently, the exact dates of the autumn and spring equinox were recorded here, other significant for economic activity were calculated. ancient man astronomical events. The role of the "distant" sight was played by the summit of Elbrus. Apparently, the Zayukov observatory is on a par with Stonehenge and Arkaim.
It is very likely that the necropolis, observatory and the central amphitheater carved into the rock form a single ritual complex. Who, when and for what purpose built it is still unknown. But there is no smoke without fire. It’s not without reason that so many mysterious things were found at once around Zayukovo. So it may turn out that we are dealing with an even more exciting and ancient mystery than the whereabouts of the Holy Grail.
MOUNTAIN BESH-TAU - ANOMALOUS ZONE
The zones of the North Caucasus are considered anomalous, where there are inexplicable, in terms of modern science, phenomenon. In a number of places (neighboring regions) there are anti-slopes (Kabardino-Balkaria), where the force of gravity seems to work in the opposite direction, forcing water to flow up the slope. In several caves of Gelendzhik, strange metamorphoses take place with people, hormonal changes in the body (euphoria, excitement) are almost instantly observed. In our case, the anomalous zone near Beshtau is rather paranormal.
The strangeness of human behavior in this sector near Maly Tau is described extremely poorly, mainly information was collected orally. Twice the employees of KMV-Tourism checked the impact of the anomalous zone personally on themselves, fundamentally at different times of the year (winter and summer). And twice with observers-testers there were similar inexplicable phenomena.
In the past few years, as the country has developed instant notifications of various incidents on social networks, there have been several cases of disappeared people. With enviable regularity, once every 1-3 years, people were lost here. Rather, they were found (2 out of 3 recorded deaths - a boy from an orienteering club and a woman who took a walk died, getting lost) in completely different places, but their path passed through this "black sector". Another person of retirement age (a man) is still listed as missing.
Anomalous zone of Mount Beshtau: details and coordinates
The anomalous zone is located on Beshtau immediately behind the ring road on the site, to the right of the Eagle Rocks. The unusualness of the place is not immediately apparent if you look at this shallow ravine from the ring road. There is nothing special here at first glance. The bed of a dry stream, a pile of stones, several fallen trees. But there are interesting details that will be discussed below.
Coordinates on the map:
Latitude
44 ° 6'29 ″ N (44.108044)
Longitude
43 ° 0'33 ″ E (43.009077)
What is the manifestation of the anomalous zone? If it was by chance, coincidence, or caused by a state of intoxication, then the conversation could be reduced to jokes. But this is not a joke at all, pay attention: here disorientation begins almost instantly, as soon as a person takes a couple of steps from the roundabout down to the bottom of a gentle ravine. Moreover, this state occurs even among experienced local mushroom pickers, who inadvertently entered the sector in a relatively warm season, when there is still a lot of foliage on the trees, and it reliably hides the exact position of the sun. The anomalous zone becomes especially dangerous after 16:00 pm, when the sunlight is scattered, and the luminary itself (outgoing rays) is difficult to detect.
Individuals who first entered the anomalous zone Beshtau (as happened with one of our employees) may even have a panic attack. As a result of disorientation, a person begins to rush and go towards Zheleznovodsk, going deeper into the forest. In general, the state of those who fell into the anomalous zone can be schematically described as follows: a person in the first minutes is well aware that he is in this place and in the given time, but this is where to return, in a strange way, he cannot realize. Consciousness stubbornly leads a person to a completely different side, opposite from the ring road.
The phenomenon of anomalous place Beshtau, hypothesis
There are places in the world where anomalous phenomena, centuries later, had a completely scientific explanation. For example, with a certain vibration of sea waves in the open sea in a number of places on the planet, people may experience visual hallucinations (it is typical that these are the so-called "black places" where they see supposedly monsters), the state of health may deteriorate sharply. Infrasound resonating in some caves, reflected from the walls many times, can cause, on the contrary, quite pleasant sensations (Gelendzhik caves). But here, at the foot of Beshtau, the anomalous zone is still waiting for its scientific research.
The likelihood of the presence in ancient times here of a certain sacred place... Note the radial arc treatment of the stone fragment found here.
Such patterns are unlikely to belong to buildings for domestic purposes. Maybe this is even a part of the dolmen culture, Beshtau has always attracted peoples and ethnic groups. The hypothesis of light and sound effects is very logical: after all, the activity of the anomaly is noted (most clearly) between 16:00 and twilight. Perhaps part of the sunlight, scattering in the crowns of trees, creates a kind of visual ephemeral illusion, which our brain interprets in its own way, misleading us. What is typical for the anomalous zone: you never hear birds here, although on both sides of 300 meters you can always hear and see tits, woodpeckers, blackbirds or even a woodcock.
You should not go to this place without taking a tourist's emergency kit with you: from a compass to a navigator, from a flashlight to matches. After all, even very experienced people with the onset of dusk here lost their spatial orientation, and went somewhere to Zheleznovodsk, several kilometers away. These are those who were lucky enough to find their way ...
THE RIDDLE OF THE CAUCASIAN LONG-LIVERS
Living water, secrets of the magnetic field, or a unique climate?
What saves from disease and what is a person who has lived for more than a hundred years afraid of? In the south-west of Kabardino-Balkaria, the village of Eltyubu knows the secrets of longevity.
Her morning begins with a bean guess. Predicts himself sadness or cheerfulness. Zukhra Mirzoeva rarely goes out to neighboring yards. After the death of her husband, Khamzat died at the age of 116, neither the air nor the mountains of her native Eltyubu pleases her. And only great-grandchildren are a joy. They are preparing for the 105th birthday of Zukhra's grandmother. And they themselves bring water from the spring, like from a fairy tale - living and miraculous, the secret of the longevity of the Upper Chegemians.
Zukhra Mirzoeva says: "This water is gold, it comes from the mountains."
Four children, years of eviction and work as a milkmaid from the age of 13. Today, at 105, grandmother Zukhra recalls her youth. And she herself does not believe that she has survived to deep gray hairs, having retained her health and strength. She gave birth to her last, youngest son at almost 69 years old.
Rumors began to spread about the power of an almost mystical place - Verkhniy Chegem. And the truth is, either from conviction, or from the magic of the climate, miracles began: the water did not freeze in the cold, and in the dishes it could stand for years without losing its pure spring taste. The professorship of the Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism still gave a scientific substantiation to the secrets of these places. The village stands on the site of a natural pyramid of magnetic waves, hence the wonders. 98-year-old Sakinat Teberdieva believes in science, but more in the sign of the Almighty.
Sakinat Teberdieva says: "I eat bread, I eat cheese. As a child, I was ill 5 times, that's all. I have never taken a pill in my life. I'm afraid for what? That I will live the same length of time."
Here people believe in the magic of climate, and scientists of the world Whole dissertations are defended at the Verkhniy Chegem miracle, the object of which is longevity, which has settled in the houses of Eltyubu.
waterfalls in the Chegem gorge 
PLATO KUMTUBE (Anomalous zone "Alpha") -
a high-mountainous region near the Chegen River in the Chegen Gorge and the Side Ridge in Kabardino-Balkaria, where there is a lot of UFO flights. The anomalous zone (AZ) is located in a volcanic massif composed of granites, mostly highly weathered. Absolute heights: 3500-3600 m.
On the border of AZ "Alpha" - a large crater ancient volcano, which contains 2 lakes. The area is covered with numerous small glaciers and snowfields, which persist in summer. Vegetation - stunted, single plants of the upper alpine zone. Typical representatives are saxifrage, mosses, lichens. With regard to the appearance of UFOs, for example, you can list several observations made by qualified specialists:
On September 9, 1988, between 20 and 21 o'clock, the staff of the SevKavGidromet glaciological expedition observed 5 luminous balls, elongated in a chain, near the volcanic massif. The distances between the balls were the same. The diameter of each is 2-3 meters.
On September 9, 1988, at about 24.00, several vacationers of the high-mountain camp site saw 5 balls above the volcanic massif, "built" in two rows - 3 in the upper, 2 in the lower.
On September 6, 1989, from 20.25 to 20.34 in the area of the volcanic massif, an expeditionary detachment of glaciologists observed and photographed a white luminous ball.
On March 27, 1990, at about 24.00, an airship-shaped UFO was observed over the volcanic massif, glowing with a yellow-orange light. The UFO shot down a thin blue beam, then disappeared behind the ridge.
On June 3, 1990 at 23.53 a dome-shaped glow was noticed over the volcanic massif. The color is bright yellow, along the edge of the red border. The duration of the phenomenon is about 30 minutes.
Based on these and other observations, it was decided to conduct a reconnaissance expedition to the proposed AZ. The expedition of the Rostov section to study the AY of 7 people, including E. Podmogilny, took place in August 1990, base camp was at an altitude of 3600 m, 4 km from the helicopter landing site of the detachment. In the lines from the reading of the Podmogilny:
"At the beginning of the work it was cloudy, the wind cleared up. Bright stars were burning over the camp. Look closely, you saw a gigantic cap above you, looking like a crystal sphere, gleaming from the twinkling of stars. Its dimensions are 0.8-1 km in diameter and about 300 m in height.After 30 minutes, in the area of the crater, luminous columns appeared, going to the stars.
Color - silvery blue. A faint silvery-flickering glow was observed several times in the direction of the crater. Attempts to use biolocation to isolate AZ have yielded nothing. The frame rotated in the hands of the operator at a constant speed, without highlighting individual objects. At 3.00 am, two hundred meters from the tents, lights began to light up along the bottom of the valley: greenish-emerald, sparkling balls with a diameter of no more than 20-30 cm.
Flashed at equal distance: 8-10 m and equal time: 3-5 seconds. When a garland of 20-22 lights lit up, after 15 seconds everything instantly disappeared. Over the next 2 days, we examined the surrounding mountains and spurs, descended into a crater, which in its external impression does not look like a volcanic one. Water samples were taken from the lakes.
On the 3rd day, on a wide terrace, located on a ridge, strewn with fragments of granite and partly soddy, several rounded spots with a diameter of about 5-7 m were found, in which all vegetation died. From one of these spots, 3 dark stripes, 70-100 m long, 3-3.5 m wide, fanned out. Light granite on these stripes was covered with a dark brown bloom. These strips did not in any way resemble watercourses, even temporary ones.
Small stones were completely covered with bloom, large ones only on top, the lower part - ordinary light granite. Radiation of "burnt" granite 18 mkr, light (ordinary) 12 mkr.
The expedition ended there. After returning, it turned out that both the clean and the exposed photographic films that had been in the AZ were partially overexposed. On unexposed, after development, dotted traces of white and black are noticeable. On another film, in the first frame, taken 1.5 km below the AZ, a white ball is visible, which was not visually observed ... "
According to the head of the North Caucasian branch of the International UFO Association (Caucasian UFO Center), Viktor Petrovich Utenkov, the samples brought by the expedition were soon checked at the Central North Caucasus Scientific Research Laboratory of Forensic Science.
For research in order to establish chemical composition surface deposits of black matter on rock samples were presented by rocky samples taken from the site of the alleged UFO landing in this anomalous zone. The research was carried out by the head of the department of CSK NILSE, candidate of chemical sciences Bessonov V.V., who has special training in the forensic investigation of materials, substances by a complex of instrumental methods, and has experience of expert work over 16 years. The conducted research has established: "...
1) Samples are fragments of minerals of irregular shape, on a fracture of yellowish color with shiny inclusions, on the surface they have layers of black substance; the samples taken from the surface were examined in comparison with the samples taken in the bulk of the sample (the rock itself).
2) By the method of emission spectral analysis, it was shown that the elemental chemical composition of samples with deposits of a black substance is characterized by a pronounced increased content of the element manganese.
3) The increased content of manganese on the surface of rocks may be due to ingress of them from the outside, decomposition of various manganese-containing compounds. Many manganese compounds have oxidizing properties: potassium permangate; manganese oxides. Of these, two are strong - on contact with them, flammable substances ignite. CSK NILSE, 21.12.92. "
The mystery of the "Alpha" zone on the Kumtyube plateau attracted many experts, however, for financial reasons, many planned experiments in this place did not take place.
GRAVITATIONAL ANOMALY
It looks like an ordinary road, but in fact it is an anomalous zone, where the laws of physics do not seem to apply. Objects are rolled up the hill, and not vice versa. Local scientists have many theories, one more outlandish than the other.
Report by Ivan Prozorov.
Angela takes us along the usual road in the suburbs of Nalchik. On one of the slopes, she suddenly stops the car, turns off the engine and declares that now the car itself will begin to climb the hill.
The bias, however, is small. But if you step back a hundred meters, you can see the slide. The first thing you think about is inconspicuous cables, hidden mechanisms or the driver hiding in the cabin. But then dozens of different people begin to come here with the same purpose - to show someone an anomaly. By various means of transport, even public transport. The driver Rodion arrived by minibus straight from work. Doubts about the purity of the experiment disappear.
Rodion Kushkhabiev, minibus taxi driver: "When we go down this hill, it turns out that the car goes with difficulty, with resistance. But when back, it accelerates itself very quickly and flies straight up!"
The hardest part is to show the unusual effect on the screen. But local residents have a whole arsenal of proof.
For the most convincing demonstration, it is not just complicated mechanisms that are used, but the simplest objects. For example, an ordinary wheel or a bottle of ordinary water. That is, something that, according to the laws of physics, cannot climb a mountain in any way. This strange natural special effect has long been of interest to local scientists.
They say that such phenomena are sometimes found in the mountains. Nontraditional scientists have already found an explanation for this. The metal frames prompted Vladimir Lozovoy that there is a break in the earth's crust here deep underground, from where the energy of the magnetic field is released.
Vladimir Lozovoy, full member of the Russian Geographical Society: "Disturbance of magnetic perception. The greatest concentration of these radiations occurs at the fault sites, with a release of up to a hundred meters and more."
To prove his hypothesis, Professor Khashbala Kalov needs only a blackboard, chalk and formulas from the school physics course. The scientist of the High Mountain Geophysical Institute explained: even though you break the entire earth's crust, no one has canceled the laws of nature. Even if the force of gravity did not act in a single place on earth, humanity would have long had an inexhaustible source of energy.
Khashbara Kalov, deputy director for scientific work of the High Mountain Geophysical Institute: "If it were possible, of course, it could be used in various technical solutions. Perpetuum mobile, which is said to be impossible, would become possible."
Surveyors have put everything in its place. True, there were some oddities, after all. The devices recorded that the place that seems to be lower is in fact higher, and vice versa. Moreover, the height difference is as much as 2 meters 80 centimeters. It turns out an optical illusion.
Dmitry Makagonov, surveyor: "Due to the relief, trees, closed area, along the road. Due to this, we have a distortion, that is, visual deception. If there was a completely open area, we would see everything."
Local travel agencies are still interested in the mysterious zone and plan to include it in the sightseeing itinerary. For vacationers, after all, what's the difference: magnetic or optical, the main thing is an anomaly.
The tourist infrastructure here is still at zero, but benefits are already being made in full from the mysterious zone. Knowledgeable locals win anything on a bet.
UFO DISASTER IN KABARDINO-BALKARIA
Now there is more and more information that the powerful air defense of the Soviet Union has repeatedly reacted to the invasion of the country's airspace by unidentified aerial objects, which in some cases were lost by the calculations of anti-aircraft missile systems or fighter pilots. One such case, which occurred in 1985 over the North Caucasus, is described by the researcher of anomalous phenomena N. Nepomnyashchiy in his book "100 Great Secrets of UFOs".
And from what he writes there: "1985, July 11, 13.50 Moscow time - radar at an altitude of 8 - 9 km, azimuth 120 degrees, a distance of 90 km from the Mineralnye Vody airport (in the area of Prokhladny village) 7 anomalous marks were recorded , converging and diverging in the SDTs and "Passive" modes. Along the line of the military sector of the Mineralvodskiy RC of the EU ATC, the tags did not respond to the signal of the state identification system, they were observed steadily by all radio-technical means.
At about 14.00, a MiG-25 was raised from the Rostov-Yuzhny airfield to intercept for the destruction of targets. No targets were observed visually. Fighters were also raised from the airfield of the Armavir Air Defense School and another MiG-25 from the jump airfield. When they tried to intercept the UFO and force it to land, he went on a head-on collision course towards one of the MiGs, which forced the pilot to use his weapon. At 14.20, two R-40RD missiles were fired at targets, one of which hit the target.
The planes were ordered to circle over the place where the target fell before the arrival of the PSS, while the SRZO-2 sensor was triggered on the plane, which indicated strong electromagnetic radiation from the crash site. UFO wreckage was found by two mushroom pickers, both died from radiation. A commission arrived at the scene, collected the wreckage, photographed the scene of the incident, took a nondisclosure agreement and took out the materials ...
The bodies of three biological creatures were also found among the wreckage, one of them was still alive, the other two were dead. The object fell about 30 - 40 seconds after the missile hit, in the mountains near the Arik ridge on the territory of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, between the settlements of Arik, Novoye Khamidiye and Nizhniy Kurp. Two Mi-8s arrived from Beslan and Nalchik; upon impact, the object was damaged and crumpled - a silvery disc with a diameter of 5.8 m and a height of 4.8 m, with a black dome, which flew off on impact, the weight of the disc - 1750 kg (including the weight of the engine - 350 kg). The bodies of the three creatures were taken by a special plane to Moscow, to the Institute of Biomedical Problems.
At present, this disk, on which a full range of restoration engineering works, refinement and adjustment work for flight use has been carried out, is one of the most tested and efficient of all captured UFOs. In May 1996, this and another disc were shown in the bunker to Russian President BN Yeltsin, Deputy Defense Minister AA Kokoshin, Air Force Commander Deinekin and other accompanying persons who visited Kapustin Yar and Akhtubinsk. "
It is possible that the main reason for the concealment by the authorities of information about official studies of the UFO phenomenon is not at all related to concern about "preventing panic among the population", but to attempts to master new technologies that ensure the technological progress of modern science or even to ensure the interests of the richest clans and families of the Earth, not those who want to lose the super-profits of TNCs belonging to them, which are "tied" to traditional technologies and hydrocarbon energy.
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SNOW MAN IN THE CHEGEM GORGE
A sensational incident took place in the Chegem Gorge in the North Caucasus - researchers found unexpected evidence of the existence of a "Bigfoot" there. Local residents admitted that the female Yetti - here such wild creatures are called Almasty - not only went out to people, but also tried to have sexual intercourse.
In the vicinity of the village of Elbrus, according to local residents, this autumn and winter we have seen such mysterious creatures more than once. “There are many abandoned sheds left,” says Adelgeriy Tilov, “there are boulders and a forest around them. - Most often, Almasty is seen there. From there they come to the village.
In Elbrus, surrounded on all sides by mountains and forest, Bigfoot at least once was seen by each of the local residents. Moreover, local women secretly name the names of men who communicate with Almasty. More precisely, with their females.
Of course, in her real appearance, a wild woman looks more like a big monkey, but she can seduce a man, - says one of the old-timers Kazi Khadzhiev. - Almasts know how to put a haze on a person.
They say that a man who is seduced by the Wild Woman sees not her, but the one he wants to see. It turns out something like hypnosis ... Wherever the forest comes close to a human dwelling, no one is immune from a meeting with the "snow woman". Therefore, the Balkars “sacredly” observe the tradition of their ancestors. Every evening after supper, some food and drink from the master's table is taken out into the backyard.
This is a treat for Almasta. - A wild man is also a man, so we try to be friends with him, - says Adilgeriy Tilov. “I know from my grandfather's stories that Almasty has always lived here. But they became especially numerous when, after the eviction of the Balkars, our villages became empty. Even then, they here felt themselves to be full-fledged owners.
This is probably why people began to show themselves more often.
Several months ago, the pensioner was convinced of the proximity of Almasta personally. Fire Even from the stories of his grandfather, Adilgeriy knows that wild people are very drawn to fire. And most contact with them takes place around the fire. So it happened with him. - In the summer I went to a neighboring village to water the garden. And I had to spend the night there. I settled down in an abandoned barn on the outskirts. I lit a fire next to him and went to bed. In the morning I open my eyes and see She is sitting by the fire a meter away from me. And he looks at the fire somehow thoughtfully. A little over a meter tall. Black, shaggy.
Only on the face the hair is shorter than on the body. And the hair lies hair to hair, as if combed. I was, of course, scared. I lie, waiting for what will happen. She sat for another ten minutes. Then she went towards the forest. I immediately jumped out after. And not a minute had passed, but she seemed to have sunk into the ground ...
None of the local residents ever seeks a special meeting with Almasty. Everyone knows it's not safe. - A wild man does not like to be disturbed. And if someone happens to offend Almasty, even unintentionally, expect trouble, ”says one of the old residents of the Tegenekli village, Kazi Khadzhiev. -
Once in our village, children were playing on the street. And it so happened that a wild woman sat and basked in the sun nearby. One of the boys, having played a part, ran up to her and pulled at her long hair. She did not even move, but only looked at him piercingly. A few days later, this boy died of an incomprehensible illness.
The ability of Bigfoot without words to influence people and become invisible to our eyes, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor of the Russian State Hydrometeorological University Valentin Sapunov explains the extrasensory abilities of a creature, which he calls a troglodyte ("caveman").
Being next to us, he manages not only to remain invisible, but is also able to somehow cause primitive fear in everyone around him - even without seeing him, people who are nearby experience panic, '' says Valentin Borisovich. - I myself experienced it when I was literally three steps away from it ... Scientists have registered cases of diseases that developed after meeting with troglodyte. And the troglodyte very well "reads" our thoughts, feeling the aggression directed against him.
Almost every generation of inhabitants of the Elbrus region replenishes the collection of legends associated with the constant neighborhood of Almasta with their own experience. Nafisat Etezova-Bozieva is one of those who were touched by the curse of a wild man.
I knew this story from childhood, but I could not even think that it would turn out to be true, - says the pensioner. - They say it started before the revolution. One of the ancestors of the Boziev family, met a wild woman in the forest and struck up a friendship between them. Then he even brought her to the village as a wife. For people, of course, it came as a shock. Many women openly laughed at this savage. And one day she cursed them. Among the offenders of Almasta were women from the Boziev family. And since then, in the family of my husband, as if loneliness is inherited by women. Many did not manage to create their own families. The rest either get married very late or are unhappy in their marriage. Nafisat herself has five adult daughters.
Three of them are still unable to start a family.
But there are other stories in Kabardino-Balkaria: - My brother Abil was a man of few words, all the more, he did not tell anyone from outsiders about this. Although why was there any reason to speak, if everyone saw it and knew it. Abil met a wild woman in Kazakhstan.
Our family lived there during the deportation. There was a mill in our village. And the man who worked there warned everyone that Almasty comes there at night. Therefore, with the onset of darkness, people tried to stay away from this place. And my brother had to come there one evening. While he was busy with business, his horse left. Abil began to look for her. I entered the dark shed and immediately felt something warm and hairy.
According to his brother, the creature laughed and spoke to him "without a voice." Her words reached Abile as thoughts. Then the young veterinarian repeatedly confessed to his family that if he was alone in the yard or on the street at dusk, a wild woman would definitely come out to meet him and talk to him. But the most surprising thing happened when the Khadzhiev family was finally able to return to their native Caucasus. Riddle Abil Khadzhiev managed to build a house in his native Tegenekli.
He got married and had children. But one evening in the courtyard of my house I saw the same wild woman with whom I talked in Kazakhstan. - How could she find him after so many years? Allah alone knows how she covered such a distance, says Kazi Khadzhiev. “She must have had a strong love for my brother. Another meeting with Almasty completely turned Abil's life. He was soon widowed and lost his only son. The daughters got married and he was left in the house completely alone.
But the whole village noticed that the veterinarian began to behave strangely. - He often began to go into the forest at night. And he could not return home for several days. And he always went to haymaking alone, but at the same time he always took a pitchfork with him for two. People said it was all because of the wild woman. But Abil did not discuss Almasty with anyone.
And in 1982 he once again went into the forest and disappeared. He was only 63 years old and did not complain about his health. A few days later he was found dead in the forest. But from what he died they could not understand. According to scientists, from the point of view of physiology, sexual contacts between "Bigfoot" and homo sapiens are possible. To attract male Yetties, the researchers used female menstrual rags - and successfully.
However, such monkeys' secretions are also attractive to them.
An ancient underground city discovered in Kabardino-Balkaria
We are used to thinking that the main megaliths of the planet are concentrated in Egypt, South America, China. Our dolmens, which are conventionally referred to as megalithic structures, look like dwarfs against the background of pyramids and “great walls”.
But quite recently, a system of mysterious underground structures was discovered in the North Caucasus. So, in Kabardino-Balkaria, near the village of Zayukovo, mysterious multi-kilometer tunnels have been opened. Researchers assume that they connected ancient settlements that existed on our planet thousands of years ago. Curiously, all the tunnels are concentrated around a huge underground structure in the shape of an overturned pyramid ...
“For many years we have been searching, went to the places of the alleged dungeons, listened to old-timers,” says Vadim Chernobrov, head of the All-Russian public research association “Kosmopoisk”. - And in the fall of last year we moved to the place where, according to the stories of the aksakals, is Old city... This is not an allegory, but a literal translation from the local dialect. Old-timers say that it was built by people who lived here before them. Who lived here, what kind of people, no one knows for certain. "
The object is located at an altitude of about one kilometer above sea level. Locals showed the researchers one small hole in the mountain. The entrance is very narrow - about 30 centimeters in diameter. The guide told that the local population has a legend: if you climb there, you will find yourself in a huge city, where there are squares, streets and houses, but no people. Indeed, the searchers found themselves in a vast dungeon, which, gradually expanding, stretches into the depths for tens, and possibly hundreds of meters.
When the researchers began to examine the area around the manhole, they found a wide crevice. Maybe this the main entrance in the dungeon, because if we assume the very fact of the existence of an underground settlement, it is unlikely that its inhabitants made their way through a narrow gap. Perhaps, going down the manhole, it will be possible to get to the "main street".
Last year, due to the weather, this was not done, the researchers postponed the descent until the next summer. However, there was a second find - not far from the Old City, another hole was found. Local historians Maria and Viktor Kotlyarovs were brought here by the climber and speleologist Artur Zhemukhov, who trained in the mountains and noticed a strange depression.
An ancient underground city was discovered in the North Caucasus (Kabardino-Balkaria). Stones are piled on top, bushes grow, and it looks like an ordinary hole, which is apparently invisible in the ground. But Arthur noticed that there was a lot of leakage from the hole. This means that there is a large cavity in the ground. He began to widen the hole and fell into a huge shaft, which led somewhere into the darkness. One did not dare to climb there, summoned a detachment of cavers. They went down into the mine and realized that the end-edge of the dungeon was not visible.
“The first thing that caught their eye was that the main walls in the mine were clearly artificial,” says Vadim Chernobrov. “They are made of flat stone blocks of about the same dimensions as in the Egyptian pyramids, and stacked according to similar technologies - one on top of the other. Each weighing 50-100 tons, well processed, although over time, chips and cracks appeared. "
What is this mysterious masonry? There are no traces of concrete or other mortar, as in the Egyptian pyramids. It is not clear how the ancient builders fastened the blocks together, but it is clear that they have been standing for more than one thousand years and not even a needle can penetrate the seam.
When the cavers went deeper into the cave, they found a strange column. It seems to hang in the air, but at the same time it is firmly attached to the wall. Apparently, the dungeon is colossal in size, and people managed to explore only a small part of it. They advanced 100 meters deep. And ran into narrow passages.
The fact that the dungeon was not intended for human habitation became obvious to the search engines when they explored the entire accessible part of the cave. It turned out that it is crammed with narrow passages where even a child cannot squeeze, and tiny holes where a human hand can hardly get through. Each such mini-cavity goes deep into the depths: the light from the flashlights does not reach the bottom. What is this structure?
The researchers got the impression that the underground pyramid has a technological, and not a sacred purpose. It looks like a kind of machine, an engineering structure of unknown purpose.
“It looks like a kind of resonator, a device for seismological research, exploration, mining, or an energy generator,” says Chernobrov. - It is impossible to say exactly yet - no analogues have been found in the world. "
Many people think of an analogy with the mysterious cavities inside the Egyptian pyramids, which are also not intended for the movement of people. A person, in principle, cannot get there, but the ancient builders made them conscientiously. These narrow manholes also lead tens of meters deep, but why and where is a big question. Sometimes they end with rows of doors with handles, behind which are rooms of unknown purpose.
Versions of purpose underground passages enough: a "refrigerator" for storing food, the home of the ancient Aryans, a giant air conditioner, an air duct. Or, for example, a giant energy generator ...
There is information that during the Second World War in these places were seen researchers from the SS organization "Ahnenerbe", which, as you know, was looking for an entrance to Shambhala. They say that Hitler considered the Caucasus, along with Tibet, "a place of the focus of Power" and "the center of control of the World." And supposedly he was eager for the Caucasus for this very reason.
Researchers, of course, pay attention to the fact that the same Old City is located next to the pyramid. And it is assumed that these two objects are somehow connected.
Indeed, for example, in Turkey, near the village of Derinkuyu, an 8-storey city was found underground, designed for permanent and comfortable residence of 40-50 thousand people. There are houses, outbuildings, bazaars, shops, water supplies, wells and ventilation hatches. In a word, a miracle of engineering technology, which is at least 4 thousand years old.
An ancient underground city was discovered in the North Caucasus (Kabardino-Balkaria). About a dozen underground cities have been excavated in the world, three of them have become tourist sites. At the same time, it is known that some cities have underground communication with each other. These are huge distances - hundreds of kilometers. According to some scientists, the strange hum, which was recorded by scientists in different parts of the planet, is nothing more than air thrust in the system of man-made underground communications located in the depths of the earth.
If this summer it turns out that there really was an underground city near the village of Zayukovo, then the pyramid can be considered a kind of technical installation that ensures its life. And then the "Zayukov miracle" will be the largest man-made prehistoric structure on the territory modern Russia... ("Hidden").
A cave with a swastika found in Kabardino-Balkaria
Local historians have discovered in the mountains of the Baksan region a mysterious mine 80 meters deep with many passages. Scientists have diverged as to its origin. Some believe that the cave is man-made, others believe that it is the result of natural processes. The images of swastikas found in the mine add to the mystery of the find.
It was not easy to find the way to the cave in the autumn fog. Even the pioneers who discovered these mysterious voids and accompanied the journalists to the unusual find had to stray. Standing nearby, you won't find a fault in the rock without a hint.
Clearly outlined, as if from under a stonecutter, the entrance, strictly vertical walls. At regular intervals, vertical moves are replaced by horizontal ones. Descent down is only possible for professionals. The pictures show nothing more than a man-made mine, claims its pioneer Artur Zhemukhov.
“There are no analogues to this mine, there is no water in it, moisture appeared when I opened the shutter stone ...” - he says.
According to Arthur, strange signs showed the way to this find. They were found on massive boulders clearly oriented to the cardinal points. The fascist swastika was supplemented with a calendar date. The location of the stones raised many questions from local historians and ethnographers.
“When we drew parallels with Elbrus, we found seven more such signs, the last one in Tyzyl. These crosses were supposed to mean something, ”says researcher Viktor Kotlyarov.
The historian Kotlyarov claims that in the mountains of Kabardino-Balkaria, where in the autumn of 1942 the Nazis broke through the front, advancing on Nalchik, traces of the presence of a special Nazi unit were found. Perhaps the purpose of his search could be a strange cave. However, geologists do not consider an open cavity in the mountains to be unusual.
“Most likely, this is a natural phenomenon. In these rocks of volcanic origin, so-called rocky and horizontal detachments are quite common, ”explains Albert Emkuzhev, head of the subsoil use department in the KBR.
“The find in the Baksan Gorge is interesting,” says Emkuzhev, examining photographs from the site. "It is quite possible that ancient people used the natural cavity." For a substantive conversation, information from the site is still frankly little, say geologists.
The discoverers of the cave this year, before the onset of cold weather, intend to conduct more thorough research here - that is, we are talking about a serious expedition of specialists. Negotiations on this topic are already underway. ("News").
coat of arms of Kabardino-Balkaria 
Places of Power: Blue Lakes
There are many stories of the origin of this fantastic lake, and one is more surprising than the other. Here is a huge dragon shot down by archers that broke through the earth, and tears of love that flooded the deepest wells, and much more. But the fact remains that the Blue Lake or Tserik-Kel is one of the deepest lakes in the world, where not only legends and their mystical heroes live, but also divers. You will find out below why the waters of the Blue Lake attract divers from all over the world and what does Jacques-Yves Cousteau have to do with it.
In fact, here, in the valley of the Cherek-Balkarsky river, 30 km south of Nalchik, there are five karst lakes at once, and this whole ensemble is called the Blue Lakes. For example, to the east of Tserik-Kel, Lake Kel-Ketchkhen is located, the depth of which is
(177 meters) is also capable of instilling fear, but still falls short of the mysterious record holder. But the depth of the Upper Blue Lake is exactly ten times less than Lake Tserik-Kel, but let's return to our giant, known far beyond the Caucasus.
If we discard the emotions, legends and fantasies that enveloped the Blue Lake, this natural monument will not lose its attractiveness at all. The second deepest karst spring in the world has the shape of a shaft with steep walls. On the surface, Blue Lake is 235 meters long and 130 meters wide.
The Tserik-Kel mine went 258 meters underground, but its extended upper part has sections ranging from 0 to 40 meters deep. Crystal pure water the lake has a constant year-round temperature of 9 degrees, and the visibility under water reaches 20-40 meters!
The first mentions of the lake in the works of scientists appeared in the nineteenth century, and as for diving, the real discovery of the Blue Lake took place only at the end of the twentieth century. Among the pioneers who dared to plunge into the abyss of Tserik-Kel is the Muscovite Roman Prokhorov, who, out of pure enthusiasm, reached a depth of 70 meters here in 1982.
For comparison: the history of Cousteau's dives into the Vaucluse karst well in France is usually given here. At the first attempt, the French diver reached only 46 meters, which, apparently, laid the foundation for the legend of how Cousteau could not dive to the bottom of the Blue Lake.
One way or another, after a series of successful expeditions by Roman and his partner Igor Galayd and negotiations with the local administration, a research underwater center "Blue Lake" appeared on the shore of Lake Tserik-Kel.
Today, on the basis of the complex, you can make an introductory dive, take courses and receive the appropriate certificate, or independently study the depths, if you already have the necessary skills and documents confirming them. The modernization of the center is in full swing, and this moment the complex already has two tiers, equipped with rooms for preparation and storage of equipment, showers, a pressure chamber, and other elements necessary for diving.
The secret of the Blue Lake in Kabardino-Balkaria - one of the deepest in Europe - remained unsolved. There is no exact data on the depth of the lake, and unmanned underwater vehicles were able to descend only to a depth of 365 meters. Scientists understand how it formed and what's down there.
The last time the Blue Lake was explored was in the 20s of the last century. It is known that its level can change several times a day. For what reason, scientists still do not know. The blue lakes of Kabardino-Balkaria are located in the Cherek Gorge. There are 5 lakes in total. All of them have a karst nature of formation.
Lower Blue Lake is the most interesting and unique. It is located at 809 meters above sea level. It has a total water surface area of just over two hectares, and its depth is 386 meters. But there are suggestions that the depth of the lake is much deeper, because no one has yet reached its bottom. In terms of its depth, this lake ranks third in Russia after Teletskoye in Altai and Baikal. The uniqueness of the lake also lies in the fact that not a single river flows into it, and about 70 million liters of water flows out per day.
Tserik-Kel - this is what the locals call this lake, which in translation means like a rotten lake. There is a legend about the origin of this lake among the local population. Once upon a time on the territory of Kabardino-Balkaria lived the fearless hero Bataraz, who defeated the evil dragon in a duel. And when the dragon collapsed, a hole formed in the mountains, which was filled with water. The dragon still lies at the bottom of this lake and sheds tears, thereby filling the lake with water and an unpleasant smell.
Directly from the water's edge, sheer walls are visible going into the depths, and from what he sees, one gets the impression that this is a huge well. Depending on the time of day and weather, the shades of the water are constantly changing and have different colors. The water temperature in the lake in winter and summer is the same +9.3, so the lake never freezes.
Upper Blue Lakes are 2 lakes, East and West. Also these lakes are called Communicating. A dam has been built between them, and the water from the East Lake flows into the West. The East Lake is larger and deeper than the West. Fish are found in these lakes.
Secret Lake is located near the Upper Blue Lakes. And it is so named because it is located in a deep karst funnel, overgrown with a dense beech forest.
The dry lake, or it is also called the lost lake, was formed in a large karst depression with sheer walls reaching depths of up to 180 meters. Previously, this sinkhole was completely filled with water, but as a result of the shuddering of the mountains, the lake disappeared and remained only at the bottom of the canyon.
There is a version that after the shuddering of the mountains, a new dip formed below, and the water from this lake flowed into a new lake, which is now called the Lower By the blue lake... There are also assumptions that all upper lakes have underground connections among themselves. ("Abnormal news from all over the world").
Previously unknown dolmens of Kabardino-Balkaria
Cooperation between the Kabardino-Balkarian State University and the State Hermitage continues. During a meeting with students and university staff, Assistant Director General of the Hermitage Yulia Marchenko spoke about the preliminary results of the work of the North Caucasian archaeological expedition, which was attended by researchers from the museum and students from the Institute of History, Philology and Mass Media of the KBSU (History direction).
In August-September of this year, the expedition took place within the framework of a cooperation agreement concluded in St. Petersburg in March 2016 by the rector of KBSU Yuri Altudov and director general State Hermitage Museum Mikhail Piotrovsky. The main goal, which is defined in the document, is the revival of the archaeological school at KBSU - the only Russian university with which such an agreement has been signed.
Yulia Marchenko said that archaeological research was carried out in the village of Lechinkai, Chegem region, where a dolmen was discovered - an ancient burial, cult structure made of large stones.
The uniqueness of this find lies in the fact that no dolmens have been found earlier on the territory of Kabardino-Balkaria, - noted the Hermitage specialist.
Excavations were also carried out in the village of Nizhniy Kurkuzhin, Baksan region, where mounds were discovered that were not previously known and were not registered with the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation.
It was a pleasure for us to work with the Kabardino-Balkarian State University, - commented Y. Marchenko. - Many thanks to the students who took part in these excavations. We have done more than we thought, let's hope that next year we will continue our work.
He expressed hope for the development of cooperation with the State Hermitage
Yu. Altudov. He called the first stage of joint work the beginning of a long journey.
The students asked the management of the KBSU and a representative of the Hermitage if they could undertake internships in the Northern capital, to which they received a positive answer.
The agreement provides for cooperation in key areas of activity (educational, scientific, enlightenment), as well as any forms of cooperation and activities that will benefit the KBSU and the State Hermitage, - assured the vice-rector for academic affairs of KBSU Artur Kazharov. - In the famous museum complex, it is planned to conduct internships for students, graduate students and teachers of KBSU. (Vladimir Andreev).
Megaliths in the Caucasus
Imagine a valley with a diameter of 12-15 km, surrounded by mountains. In fact, in the center of this valley there are stone pyramids - among the people they are called "Chests" for the unusually regular shape of the peaks in the form of squares.
The length of these pyramids is about 300 m, the height is 60-70 m. They are, in general, a complete copy of the pyramids of the Aztecs and Mayans. When I first saw them, I was just confused,
I couldn't believe my eyes. By profession, I am a historian, an archeologist, and to see this at my side is something unimaginable. There are three villages next to these pyramids.
At first, naturally, I began to ask local residents about these structures. Fortunately, one of my classmates lived in such a village, and through him I managed to get to know many. Everyone was unanimous - the place is dark, spirits constantly "fly" there, in no case should you go there. My desire to spend the night on the top of the most preserved pyramid of all (and there are about 12 of them), a reaction like a plague patient. They curl their fingers at their temples and try to get away as quickly as possible.
Finally, with two comrades, I stayed on the Chest. The night passed relatively calmly, except for all mystical things, such as - exactly at twelve o'clock the constantly blowing wind ended and an extraordinary silence came. One could hear the bells of the cows sounding in a distant village, about ten kilometers away. Then an unexpectedly small hollow was filled with a thick fog. And then, in the complete absence of any movement of the wind, I suddenly heard the rustle of branches and the rustle of foliage (larch was growing in the hollow). This, excuse me, could not be. However, we digress from the topic.
So that's it. The wind blew out again exactly at 3 o'clock in the morning. (Later I checked, spending the night several times, all the miracles exactly according to the schedule!). After a few hours, the sun began to come out, and since it was a full moon, I looked to the west, the moon was setting there - but what happened to it! The dark red disk began to rotate unlikely around its axis, change its shape, more and more striving towards the ellipse. Moreover, all these metamorphoses took place in a matter of minutes, not just seconds! Until the sun rose almost completely, my friend and I (the second slept in a tent), stared at the bloody disc, unable to tear ourselves away.
A lot of time has passed (it was 1991), but until now, although not so clearly, I remember this disc of the Moon, morphing by its whim. He did not promise anything good.
When we arrived in the village and had a good night's sleep, I began to ask the locals, and found out that all kinds of UFOs of all sizes, from balls and to plates, and all kinds of colors, are looking for the Valley of the Chests. When their accuracy was especially high, no one knew, they just celebrated the days of their appearance. By the way, I was told that near one of the "Chests", back in Soviet times, a stone was dug (they plowed the field and opened the shaman's grave with a tractor), which depicted constellations of the other hemisphere, and some stars visible almost through a telescope ...
Honestly, I could not verify this information, some say that everything they found was taken to some St. Petersburg institute, others do not really remember anything at all, so I can’t confirm, much less disprove it. But! For more than 20 years, the world-famous scientist, professor, writer, archeologist Vitaly Epifanovich Larychev has been going to this valley to dig. He even has a book on Chests.
I was very interested in this strange connection between "Chests" and UFO. In general, there are many legends and stories about this valley. It is reliably known that a powerful people lived in it for a long time, for they built stone houses, fortresses, skillfully used natural structures. And when the Mongols in the 12th century passed here - they cut out the entire population and tried to destroy all the incidents! There was no such thing behind them. To everything and everyone !!! Now NOBODY knows what was there, and who lived there !!!
For example, I strongly suspect that there was not a simple people there, professing their own not shamanistic religion at all. There is a suspicion that there are hollow places in the piled-up tops of the chests, and there something is waiting for its time. By the way, I forgot to say. If scientists cannot name the exact date of how long ago people lived in the valley, what they call the time of existence of the pyramids - 35-40,000 years ago they arose, and since then they have remained almost unchanged! Like this.
RIDDLES OF THE CHEGEM GORGE
On the territory of Russia, or rather, in Kabardino-Balkaria, one of the most beautiful places countries - Chegem gorge. Here you can see picturesque waterfalls and ancient monuments, old buildings and the remarkable "Town of the Dead". In the Chegem gorge there is a volcanic massif of Kum-Tyube, better known as the anomalous zone "Alpha". Crop circles are often found here, within which all vegetation perishes, at night you can notice a mysterious glow and other inexplicable phenomena ...
It was the Chegem gorge that became the next object of research by the Armavir branch of the Russian Geographical Society. The attention of scientists was paid to the stone buildings of the local Town of the Dead, which were concentrated behind the settlement of Eltyubu. These are simple structures of rough stone, some of which have the shape of an octagonal cone, and the rest are made in the form of a quadrangle.
Local historian V.N. Kotlyarov claims that the tombs and other structures of the City of the Dead were erected between the 13th and 18th centuries. Most geographers are of the same opinion. The "City of the Dead" every year attracts many tourists visiting the Chegem Gorge. A large number of mysterious stories, ancient legends and unexplained facts are associated with this area.
Chegem legends
There is a legend about the origin of local waterfalls that every local resident can tell tourists. According to legend, in ancient times in the Chegem mountains there was a Balkar settlement in which unusually beautiful girls lived. Once enemies attacked a peaceful village in order to capture young women into slavery. Fleeing from their pursuers, the girls rushed to the rocks. One after another, the young beauties fell into the abyss. Women's hair caught on the rocky ledges, and became streams of waterfalls.
In the settlement of Eltyubu, fragments of the old tower of the Balkarukov princes, better known as the "Tower of Love", have been preserved. According to legend, it was erected by order of Akhtugan Balkarukov. The prince used this building to fend off the angry relatives of a girl named Kerime, whom he kidnapped in Dagestan.
In the Chegem Gorge, there are dilapidated fragments of Greek temples. Local legends say that at one time Christian relics were kept here, which were later lost. Nearby, in the rocks, there are two massive defensive staircases, along which the inhabitants of the aul went to the mountains when the enemy attacked the settlement.
The land of eternal youth
Like many other auls, the Eltyubu settlement is famous for its long-livers. But this is far from the only feature of this area. Many tourists note that wristwatches and other chronometers begin to lag behind as soon as they enter the territory of the aul. One gets the impression that time here flows much more slowly, and sometimes even stops altogether ...
Another oddity has to do with food. For example, a bottle of mineral water exposed outside on a frosty night remains unfrozen by morning. And in the warm season, meat and milk remain fresh for a very long time, even despite the summer heat.
Fans of mysticism claim that the anomalous phenomena of the Chegem gorge are explained by the unusual location of this area. The fact is that the aul is surrounded by rocks resembling a pyramid in configuration. Moreover, the faces of these mountain formations are oriented strictly to the four cardinal directions, and one of the rocks points to the North Star.
However, the members of the expedition of the Armavir branch of the Russian Geographical Society were not lucky enough to witness any mystical phenomena. So, it is simply impossible to confirm or deny the existence of the Chegem anomalies without additional research.
"Caucasian Stonehenge"
A stone solar observatory was discovered in the Baksan region of the KBR not far from the village of Zayukovo. It is located on the territory of the ancient Caucasian Stonehengekimmerian necropolis, which is a mountain plateau, where burials were made for many centuries, starting from the 8-7th century BC.
On a relatively small, flat area - the amphitheater, large obviously man-made stone balls are successively installed. One of them has a seat hollowed out.
The base of the amphitheater is a rock covered with a small layer of earth. It is convex, resembling a lens. In the amphitheater itself there are 7-8 round stones. It looks like the stones represent a celestial constellation.
An architect from Nalchik, Murat Orkvasov, who studies the settlement features and architecture of the peoples inhabiting the North Caucasus region, believes that an ancient near-horizon solar observatory was located here, which pursued purely practical goals. Viziers - rather large stone balls marked the position of the planets of the solar system visible to the naked eye.
“The Zayukovskaya Solar Observatory is only a small unexplored part of the huge untouched culture of the Hittite civilization, the heirs of which are today the peoples inhabiting our region,” - this is how he characterizes the found object.
Local historian Viktor Kotlyarov also believes that this is an ancient near-horizon observatory. It was used to observe astronomical events. In the largest boulder there is a crevice for viewing perspectives and, apparently, this stone - a sight - a "sight" with which the positions of the stars and the sun were determined. Astronomers in ancient times could here calculate the days of the autumn and spring equinox, winter and summer solstices.
The ancient megalithic observatories include Stonehenge in England and Arkaim near Chelyabinsk. These are the most mysterious ancient structures of great interest. The discovered near-horizon observatory over the village of Zayukovo is called the "Caucasian Stonehenge".
“In order for a near-horizon observatory to serve as a tool for astronomical observations, three elements are needed: an observer's workplace, a near sight and a far sight," explains Viktor Kotlyarov. The close sight is installed not far from the observer.
In this case, it is important that the working (upper) edge of the sight from the point of view of the observer coincides with the horizon line on which the far sight is located. All these three elements are present in the object we found in the upper reaches of the Zayukovo. But we are sure of more.
He had not one, but several purposes at once. In the upper part of this peculiar natural circus there was a necropolis, in the lower part - a near-horizon observatory. In the amphitheater itself, most likely, some kind of religious or spectacular activities were performed. "
A man-made cave-mine was also discovered on this plateau. During the Great Patriotic War, the Nazis from the "Ananerbe" organization were very interested in this cave. It is known that they were looking for ancient artifacts because they believed. that the power over the world will be possessed by the one who holds the Spear of Destiny and the Grail in his hands. Spear of Destiny - the spear of Longinus was in Hitler's possession after the capture of Austria. But the Holy Grail was never found. They tried to find her in the Pyrenees and elsewhere. Perhaps there were also searches here in the Caucasus. Who knows ... ("Rossiyskaya Gazeta").
Mingi Tau, Oshkhamaho, Shat-tau, Elbrus
There is no more majestic, regal mountain in our country than the legendary Mount Elbrus. He is taller than all the other mountains in these parts, but what's in them - and Mont Blanc looks up at him. If Elbrus is considered a European mountain, then it has no equal. On some maps it, of course, refers to Asia, and there he cannot compete with Tibet, where there are several dozen "five-thousanders". But in the history of Russia and Soviet Union- Elbrus is the most remarkable, the most famous mountain.
Tales are told about Mount Elbrus - for example, how the giants Elbrus and Kazbek wooed the beautiful Mashuk (also one of the peaks of the Caucasus). Legends were made about Elbrus. But reality, as usual, turns out to be more wonderful than any myth or any fiction.
Mount Elbrus is located on the territory of two republics - Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia. It is noteworthy that the languages of these places also have double names, but they are not divided in the same way as the republics - there is the Karachai-Balkarian and Kabardino-Circassian languages.
In Karachai-Balkar, this mountain is called Mingi Tau, which means "eternal mountain", and the Circassians and Kabardians call it Oshkhamaho, "the mountain of happiness."
The familiar name "Elbrus" is of Nogai origin (the Nogays are another Caucasian people), and it means "guiding the wind". There is another, even more beautiful version - “all my land in the palm of your hand”, as the medieval Nogai poet described the view that opened to him from the mountain slope. And a long time ago this mountain was called "Shater" in Russian, because the locals called it "Shat-tau", which means "cheerful mountain".
Indeed, you can see very far from Elbrus - the entire Caucasus is in the palm of your hand, and the two-humped mountain itself rises above the clouds and in clear weather, when the air is clear, is visible from many points of the North Caucasus.
Elbrus is an extinct volcano that has not erupted for several thousand years. The bowels of the mountain have long cooled down, and above three and a half kilometers, to the very top, Elbrus is frozen and covered with snow.
There are glaciers on Elbrus, the water in the depths of which froze even when our ancestors used stone axes and painted with soot on the walls of caves. In total, there are seventy-seven glaciers covering the surface with an area of almost one and a half hundred square kilometers.
The height of the peaks of Mount Elbrus is 5642 and 5621 meters. They remained unconquered until the 19th century, although the heroes of the tales and legends of the local peoples climbed, of course, to the top of the mountain. In the 15th century, at the peak of Elbrus, Tamerlane prayed, which was recorded in the biography of the great commander. When, they say, the herds were driven away from the local residents, they climbed the slopes of the mountain to see from afar where their cattle were. But for this, of course, there was no need to get to the top.
However, no one did this with documentary evidence until the eastern peak was submitted to the Russian General Georgy Emmanuel and his companions. Rather, the general himself never reached the summit - in 1829, when his expedition was being made, the equipment of the climbers was not yet perfect, and many, including the general himself, did not have the necessary experience.
The expedition consisted of several scientists and a large number of soldiers who supported it, but only the guide Hilar, who was a local resident, saw the world from the top of Elbrus. One by one, the members of the Academy of Sciences, Cossacks and soldiers stopped and returned to the camp, while Hilar reached the highest point. General Emmanuel watched him through a telescope, and as soon as Elbrus was subdued, he ordered to fire a rifle salvo in honor of the daredevil. The stone record of this ascent was rediscovered in the 20th century.
It took almost half a century for Elbrus to surrender completely - English climbers climbed its western peak, the higher one, in 1874.
The first to visit both peaks at once was the Russian topographer Pastukhov. He not only conquered Elbrus in late XIX century, but also made its detailed maps.
Since then, of course, more than one hundred people have managed to look at the Caucasus from the peaks of Elbrus - climbing equipment has been improved, the mountain itself has become more explored. Currently, many climbers climb Elbrus along easier and more difficult routes.
A special story is associated with Elbrus during the battle for the Caucasus during the Great Patriotic War. Actually, the mountain was not of strategic value either for the German or for the Soviet command, but only carried symbolic meaning, how highest point Europe.
However, among the Nazis who participated in the Battle of the Caucasus, inveterate climbers were found. Without any combat mission, they climbed the western summit of the mountain and planted Nazi flags there. I must say that only they themselves were satisfied with this - both the direct and the high command were very angry that instead of thinking about the war, someone in their subordination was thinking about how beautiful the view of the Caucasus from the top of Elbrus is.
However, the fascist flags did not stand on the Soviet mountain for long - as soon as the German troops were squeezed out of the local mountains, without delaying until the summer and without waiting for good weather, Soviet military climbers climbed both peaks of Elbrus and installed Soviet flags there.
Currently, on the southern side of Mount Elbrus there is an operating cable car, with which you can climb to a height of three and a half thousand meters without effort at all. On the slope of the mountain there is a mountain shelter "Bochki", where there are always a lot of tourists - someone is preparing for the ascent, and someone has just returned from it.
At the four thousandth mark stands the Shelter of the Eleven, a hotel for climbers built in the thirties. In 1998, however, the hotel burned down, and the new building is still not completed, so for those wishing to join the history of Russian mountaineering there is only a small house, a kind of "temporary house". The name of the hotel was given in honor of a group of schoolchildren who, together with their teacher, spent the night at this place in 1909.
A tourist can get to the very top without any climbing experience at all - if there are guides with him and if he goes in the summer and along a special route on the southern slope. The one who reaches the top is awarded a special certificate.
However, Elbrus does not tolerate familiar treatment - tragedies still occur every year, the victims of which are those who decided to climb the mountain on their own or hoped for their great mountaineering experience and did not turn to experts of local peculiarities for a clue.
Elbrus is respected not only by miners and climbers, but also by skiers - the ski slopes here are simply fabulous. Snow on most of the slopes lies all year round, except for the middle of summer, but in order to know for sure whether the weather is suitable for skiing, there are special sites - they show a fresh television "picture" from the slopes of the Tsar Mountain, and everyone can see for themselves whether there is Elbrus is snowing now or not. (Anastasia Berseneva, Ksenia Krzhizhanovskaya).
Kyzburun hill
Mounds and hills have always held a special place in the history and folklore of mankind.
The cone, aspiring to the sky, has always been the place where heaven and earth come into contact, and the mounds, as burial places, also had an energy that required careful handling. But the Kyzburun hill is special because it is one of the few burial places that are considered healing (with the exception of the relics of "saints" who grant "healing", burial places usually have the opposite effect).
Who is buried in Kyzburun is unknown, since the inhabitants of Kabardino-Balkaria prevent excavations there. Firstly, they are sure that the mound stores the remains of Muslim righteous people (although historians assume that it is more likely that the remains of the Scythians are stored there, since this type of burial is typical for them).
Secondly, the power of the mound in healing abilities is so great that those who come to him for help would not want to lose them, if suddenly the forces that guard the hill suddenly find the interference of science offensive.
In order to be healed, you need to come to the Kyzburunu hill and ask him for help by praying, and anyone, not only a Muslim, can do this, and you can also read any prayer you believe in. Local residents tell of the most amazing cases of "healing", including paralysis and other serious illnesses.
By the way, the story of the discovery of the amazing properties of Kyzburun is also very unusual - a local girl Zuriyana, who constantly communicated with angels not only in a dream, but also in reality, once saw a dream about a luminous hill, which in reality turned out to be Kazburun. When the locals gathered near him for prayer, the hill really began to glow, and those who suffered from any diseases found that they disappeared without a trace.
And in the 90s, Zuriyana saw in a dream the Prophet Muhammad himself, who ordered people of all faiths suffering from diseases to turn to the hill. Since then, the fame of the mound-healer has firmly entrenched in Kyzburun and attracts both researchers and tourists to it, and those who want to be healed with its help. Now the hill is considered sacred place, but access to it is not limited for everyone.
Outwardly, the Kyzburun hill is no different from other mounds, which are many in this area, but those who have been there claim that the ground on the mound is warm at any time of the year. But opinions differ about the energy field of the hill - some experts in their study argue that there is a positive energy field above the hill (which, as we have already said, is generally not characteristic of burial sites), others, on the contrary, attribute Kyzburun to the hepatogenic zone ...
There were no official conclusions about the impact of the hill on the human body, but you can find people who are sure that it helped them to heal, so interest in Kyzburun does not subside. (Anastasia Berseneva, Ksenia Krzhizhanovskaya).
LAKE TAMBUKAN 
Lake Tambukan - bath of Hercules and Tamerlane
Tambukan is such an unusual, royal name for a lake in Kabardino-Balkaria.
The lake is famous and popular for many reasons, primarily due to its healing mud. Lake Tambukan is located near Pyatigorsk. It is sometimes called the Black Lake - not in any mystical sense of the word, but quite literally, since the layer of mud at the bottom of the Tambukan is very black and thick.
The water in the lake is salty, not very clear. And yet, many people swim here and with great pleasure, because the mud is not simple, but medicinal. The name, according to one legend, comes from the name of Tambiev. Prince Tambiev took part in battles on the shores of this lake, was seriously wounded and buried next to the reservoir, and the lake was named after him "Tambiev's Shelter", i.e. Tambukan. However, scientists doubt that this is true, so let's leave it on the conscience of the writers.
But the fact that cannot be doubted is that the great commander and conqueror Tamerlane himself loved and appreciated this lake, took baths there, and made wraps from mud for his sore leg (his knee was badly damaged). However, medicinal properties These muds were discovered back in the Bronze Age, and while excavating on the shores of the lake, archaeologists discovered not only old traces of settlements, but also baths created by the lake. And some even argue that the mud of Lake Tambukan is better and healthier for the body than the mud of the Dead Sea.
Whether it is true or not, it is impossible to say unequivocally, but the fact that these muds really have a very effective effect on the body is beyond doubt. Studying them, scientists have found that mud contains many substances useful for the body, both mineral and organic.
This mud is excellent for treating skin diseases, diseases of muscles and ligaments (sprains, etc.), has a tonic effect on the body, strengthens and looks the skin, etc. A mud bath gives a tangible rejuvenating effect, so that women living in these places, until their very old years, as a rule, have beautiful, smooth skin.
They make wraps from the mud, smear themselves from head to toe, make cosmetic masks, unless they take it inside, especially since it tastes rather nasty. It is thanks to the mud of Lake Tambukan that these places are very popular among tourists. Mud baths function here all year round, and they are practically in all the surrounding towns.
They are visited by everyone: from families with diathetic children to world famous stars who have come here to take a break from the bustle of the world and refresh themselves. Previously, participants of the Great Patriotic War were actively treated here, whose battle wounds healed faster under the influence of mud dressings.
Many scientific works and studies have been devoted to the mud of Lake Tambukan, which is truly unique not only for Russia, but for the entire planet. For example, it has been estimated that the mud reserves are more than 900 million cubic meters, which makes Tambukan not only a local attraction, but also a valuable export-oriented object. The water in the lake is also useful, although it is replenished mainly by sewage and during thawing.
The low mineralization of this water makes it unsuitable for drinking, but simply amazing for swimming. By the way, there is a theory that the waters in which Hercules bathed to acquire his superhero abilities belong to these very places. True, it smells, frankly, not very pleasant because of the specific chemical composition of the water. There are no animals in the lake, only microorganisms and bacteria. Large inhabitants of reservoirs do not survive in such an environment.
The air in the vicinity is very clean, and the reservoir itself is surrounded by a forest, where birdsong is constantly heard. It is worth visiting this place not only for health purposes - Lake Tambukan and its environs are very picturesque, so you will spend time here not only profitably, but also with pleasure, arriving at the health center, mud baths or just on the shore of the lake. (Ksenia Krzhizhanovskaya, Anastasia Berseneva).
Ullu Tau "Sacred Mountain"
Mount Ullu-Tau is sometimes also called Mother Mountain, that is, the place where all desires are fulfilled, moreover, the most intimate desires.
Barren women who pray here in the same year find the great joy of motherhood. Mount Ullu-Tau amazes with its grandeur and pristine beauty. It is no coincidence that local Balkar residents call it "God's Mountain", here you feel like in a temple. They say that a person who has been at the foot of this mountain is healed of all diseases and is charged with positive energy.
You will be amazed here by the extraordinary, pristine beauty and the presence of an amazing aura. Looking around, you involuntarily begin to believe that miracles can happen here. Legends that the highest mountain of the Adyrsu gorge has inexplicable strength and fulfills wishes are passed down from generation to generation in the Caucasus. It is likely that on the Ullu-Tau mountain there is a correction of the energy-informational exchange of a person, and, as a result, the metabolism, well-being improves, the damaged tissues are restored and "healing" occurs.
The Balkars living in this area, and not only them, both in former times and now, have come and come to the top of this mountain to ask her about the most intimate and unrealizable. Ask for a child if you had problems with conception, and also brought incurable patients to the foot of Ullu-Tau. And often the incredible happened here! And yet these incredible stories of "healings" from various diseases are mysterious and still almost inexplicable ...
Almost the most famous place forces of this kind are located in Kabardino-Balkaria, in the so-called Elbrus region, this is Mount Ullu Tau. Local peoples also call it the Great Mountain, or the Mother Mountain. Those who have visited this place note that already in the foothills there is an unprecedented amount of various gifts of nature - berries, mushrooms, medicinal herbs, which are especially rampant here. At the same time, each person feels a kind of reverent calm, similar to that which people experience in temples. A trip to these places is worth making at least to see unique nature and take a break from the bustle of the city.
In order to get to Ull Tau, it is necessary to overcome a long gorge with a length of almost 15 kilometers, which is called Adyr-Su. When traveling by car, people usually stay in the gorge itself only for a few days, it is so mesmerizing.
Also in the gorge itself there is a huge amount of strawberries, raspberries and blackberries, which are often collected by tourists. The air here is very interesting - it is a stream that is ideal in terms of humidity, which slowly flows along the gorge, and it is filled with the smell of mountain herbs, heated stones and needles of numerous pines.
You can get to the mountain only through the Baksan valley, to which the path is blocked by a 200-meter rock. But especially in order to jump over it along with the vehicle, a powerful lift was made, taking whole buses on board.
All exceptions, people who spend at least one night in a camp at an altitude of 2400 meters, which is specially equipped for tourists, note an improvement in their well-being. The prices for spending two days there are low. Most people spend many times more on various worldly pleasures imposed by civilization.
At the same time, one weekend near the mountain that heals people, and Ullu Tau will give much greater relaxation, saturate with self-confidence and remove all annoying chronic ailments. Tourists note an increase in mood, appetite, and after sleep everyone gets up in the camp without the slightest swelling and other unpleasant symptoms, the head is fresh and full of pure thoughts.
Therefore, we strongly recommend visiting this place, because those who have been here at least once will definitely return here again, but this time with their friends and family. "Shamanic paths of the Caucasus" is one of the most interesting trips to the Ullu tau mountain, which is carried out by the site "Shaman's World". Summer time and early autumn is the most favorable time for such a trip. ("Trial-News").
Silver Key
Before climbing to Matera Mountain, you will visit the healing Silver Key.
It is so due to the high silver content in the water. Bathing in the Silver Key will help to cleanse and balance before meeting the Mother, calm down internally and reduce aggression, and prepare for further spiritual work. Water with the presence of such a quantity of silver has a good healing effect, has a beneficial effect on the entire body.
There were cases when people suffering from skin diseases, after bathing in a key, recovered from their ailment. ("World Shaman").
The healing power of water
The snow that covers the mountain peaks, warmed by the sun, turns into melt water and reaches people in energetically pure and pristine form.
It has been proven that one of the reasons for Caucasian longevity is melt water, which is credited with miracles of rejuvenation, the ability to restore the immune system, stimulate life processes, cleanse the body of toxins and toxins.
Water is an excellent conductor of information, it carries the energy of a place, and in places of power in the Caucasus, water is energetically pure, which can help a person to purify and change his information field. ("World Shaman").
Living and Dead Lakes
Many legends, tales and myths are composed about living and dead water, many were looking for this water to create an elixir of immortality, perform miracles of "healing", gain superpowers and other purposes. In Russian fairy tales, living and dead water are repeatedly mentioned, and after all, fairy tales are based on real phenomena and events that took place in ancient times. So in the Russian folk tale "Marya Morevna" it is said: "The raven splashed with dead water - the body grew together, merged, the falcon splashed with living water - Ivan Tsarevich shuddered, got up and spoke ...". And in the work of Alexander Pushkin in the poem "Ruslan and Lyudmila" there is similar description"Healing":
What do folk tales tell about? What can bathing in the Dead, and then in the Living lake give? Let's get a look. Have you ever wondered why in almost all esoteric teachings, an important stage of development is overcoming the fear of death? There are many rather painful practices and rituals aimed at experiencing death.
In fact, overcoming the fear of death is indeed an opportunity to rise above material nature and experience the spiritual world. Indeed, in fact, death does not exist, it is an illusion that exists in the material world, and makes us its prisoners.
The physical body dies, but the Spirit is eternal, it cannot be destroyed by the frailty of the body. The fear of death is also a strong attachment to the material aspects of life, which bring a lot of problems in life. If a person does not want to overcome his dependence on matter, but, on the contrary, clings to it more and more, the separation in this case occurs in difficult ways - such as illness, misfortune, endless problems, and, ultimately, it is a painful death.
Swimming in the Dead Lake is like the experience of death, only on a subconscious level, and then swimming in the Living Lake is an opportunity to be reborn as a new person, already with a different energy field, a new awareness of yourself and your life, acceptance of death, and perhaps you can go to the next stage of development.
The lakes are located at an altitude of 3200 meters, the route to them is difficult, but even those who have never been to the mountains can do it. During the ascent, the Spirit will be tempered, which will allow you to prepare for swimming in the lakes. Of course, you will not be left indifferent by the views of these places, they are so pristine, beautiful and quiet that staying in such an environment is a real meditation, communication with nature and yourself. ("World Shaman").
Emerald lake
The shaman will guide you to a place even more amazing and bewitching - the Emerald Lake, located at an altitude of about 4000 meters.
This lake is called so because the water in it has a beautiful emerald color, clean and cool. Places at such a height are virgin, calm and amazing, inspiring and inspiring to new deeds of the Spirit. Swimming in the Emerald Lake is a kind of cleansing, raising the spirit and clarity of thoughts, reducing internal conflict, overcoming the negative qualities of your soul.
Healing herbs by the waterfall
Nature has generously endowed the Caucasus with medicinal herbs and berries, of which there are up to 70 species of herbs alone. These are thyme, used to treat the respiratory tract, and rhododendron, which lowers blood pressure, hawthorn, which heals the heart and strengthens the nervous system, as well as oregano, mountain sage and lavender, St. John's wort, willow tea, barberry and calendula, sweet clover, acacia and other herbs ...
In the mountains, there is no transport or factories, the places are ecologically clean, virgin, and therefore it is a pleasure to collect herbs with your own hands in the Caucasus. ("World Shaman").
City of dead
The nature of the Verkhnechegemskaya depression is extraordinarily beautiful. In the south, the peaks of the Side Ridge (Kurmytau, etc.), more than four kilometers high, sparkle with eternal snows. Magnificent and impregnable as a citadel, Mount Karakaya ("black rock" of the KBR. Mount Karakaya - bulk; 3646 meters), the highest in the Rocky Range, rises in the east.
In its spur, in the Kyzla-Kuygenkaya mountain range (from the Balkarian "Rock of burnt girls"), there is the Kala-Tyubu grotto - an ancient man's site (13-15 thousand years old). Not far from the grotto there is the ancient settlement "Lygyt", which belongs to the VIII-X centuries. AD, with an underground wooden plumbing.
The Chegem gorge in some miraculous way combines the beauty of nature and the mysteries of history. This is probably what inspired the filmmakers to shoot the feature film “Sannikov's Land” here (directed by A. Mkrtchyan, L. Popov; 1973). In the upper reaches of the Chegem - near the village of El-Tyubu, the Chegem waterfalls, the Andai-Su waterfall, a significant part of the action of the film takes place. In the gorge, including near the waterfalls, episodes of S. Rostotsky's film "A Hero of Our Time" (1965-1966) were filmed. In 1975, in the village of El-Tyubu, the film "Rider with a lightning in his hand" was filmed.
The village of El-Tyubu resembles an open-air museum. When this village appeared, now no one knows. In a literal translation, "El-Tyubu" means "the foundation of the village." Its name suggests that it was based on the site of some even older settlement... When the present village was founded, there were already ruined foundations of some more ancient buildings.
The spirit of antiquity reigns here everywhere. Preserved stone houses are several hundred years old. In the center of the village we can see an old tower, which was built by invited Svan masters in the late 17th - early 18th centuries. This tower belonged to the local princes Balkarukovs, who were related to the Tarkov shamkhals in the 18th century. This tower is also called the "Tower of Love".
It was built according to the legend by Akhtugan Balkarukov to defend against the Tower of the Balkarukovs or the “Tower of Love” of relatives, the beautiful Kumychka Kerime stolen by him in Dagestan. One of the family's sacred relics was the 14th century Koran brought from Dagestan. At the end of the XIX century. a mosque with a minaret was built in the village (unfortunately, it has not survived), and there was a school with it, where local children studied the Koran. At the beginning of the twentieth century. The Balkarukovs owned the only cheese factory in the gorge.
Right there, near the bridge, there is a “stone of shame” with a hole made in it (according to legend, criminals were tied to it in the Middle Ages. There is also a stone Avsoltu, who was previously worshiped, seeing in it the patron saint of hunting Afsati; and the “sacred” stone Bayram-tashi , and a stone of strong men weighing three hundred kilograms (the winner in the competition was the one who tore it off the ground) ...
Near the village, along a rocky wall, two ancient defensive Greek stairs go up, leading to a cave in which, according to legend, ancient Christian relics were buried, which are still being searched.
In ancient times, when the enemy was advancing, people went up the stairs to the mountains, and the warriors took up defenses above the stairs in order to bring down stones and arrows at the enemy. Climbing stairs today, in Peaceful time, you understand how hard it was for the attackers.
In the center of the village, near the bridge, there is a monument to K. Kuliev in the form of a bust. Not far from here you can see ancient stone sakli with flat turf roofs. Due to the lack of arable land on these roofs, barley and oats were formerly grown, and after harvesting a meager harvest, goats were allowed to graze. These ancient buildings of the village became natural scenery when A. Balabanov's feature film "War" (2002) was filmed here.
At the foot of another interesting natural object- the volcanic massif Kum-Tyube ("sandy hill" - balk.) with a height of more than 3500 m. The "Town of the Dead" is located. This array was included in the list of anomalous places in Russia as anomalous zone "Alpha". Above its summit in the 1980s, mysterious night lights were observed.
CBD. City of the DeadSo the "Town of the Dead" - a monument of history and culture - is located a few hundred meters from the village of El-Tyubu. Here are preserved "houses of the dead" or "keshene" of the early Middle Ages (X-XII centuries) and later - Muslim mausoleums of the late XVII -beginning XVIII centuries The ancient "keshenes" are called "Christian", although they are undoubtedly the result of the layering of a variety of cultural influences.
Similar tetrahedral houses of the dead with gable roofs and a small window from the front facade are found in the mountains of Ossetia, Ingushetia, in the Cherek Gorge of Kabardino-Balkaria and even in the upper reaches of the Kuban River near the Karachaev village of Kart-Dzhurt. There is an opinion that the custom of burying the dead in such "houses of the dead" is one of the remnants of Zoroastrianism, which became somewhat widespread among the population of Alania, KBR.
According to Zoroastrian rites, a dead body was not supposed to desecrate the sacred element of the earth, so it was forbidden to bury it in the ground. Cremation was also ruled out, since fire is also sacred. The same is with water.
So I had to isolate the body with the help of special structures. In Persia, these were “towers of silence”, and in the Caucasus, there were dry caves, burials in ossuaries (special vessels for collecting bones) and “houses of the dead”. When Zoroastrianism was supplanted by Christianity, and then paganism revived with renewed vigor (due to the decrease in the influence of Byzantium), the traditions continued to persist for a long time.
Muslim mausoleums, unlike the older keshenes, were crowned with a dome and had 6 or 8 sides. The distant ancestors of the present inhabitants of the village are buried in these later structures. On one of the El-Tyubu mausoleums, a stone "lump" has been preserved, which suggests that the men of the clan to which this mausoleum belongs are still alive, although no one has been buried in this mausoleum for a long time.
CBD. The city of the Dead Here is what, in particular, L. I. Lavrov writes:
1) an earthen embankment lined with stones at the edges;
2) stone embankment;
3) a stone box made of smoothly fitted stones and covered with stones inside. That is, the same stone embankment, but with fortified walls;
4) a stone cemented box with a steep gable roof; the inside of the box is filled with stones; this grave differs from the previous one only in that it is better protected from destruction;
5) a grave with the same box as the previous one, differing from it in that, firstly, inside it is empty and, secondly, “has a small square window on the east side. That is, it is a small crypt, as if repeating the external forms of a stone cemented embankment;
6) a large quadrangular crypt (keshene) with a high gable roof and a window on the east side;
7) a large octagonal crypt with a pyramidal (also octahedral) high roof, turning into a cone at the top.
further: “Already one simple list of seven encountered types suggests that CBD. the city of the Dead Crypts of the North Caucasus do not repeat the architectural tradition of one or another, in the past, more cultured peoples who influenced the highlanders. The crypts are organically linked with the local “architecture” of mountain graves. We see how each type is only a complication of the previous one.
On the way from the village to the “town of the dead”, you can see an irrigation canal - a channel of a mountain stream diverted to the side. This canal was created more than one century ago and, apparently, served for irrigation of fields in the lower part of the slope. As soon as a damper was installed in the canal, the water began to overflow over the low earthen rim and irrigate the crops below. ("O-Caucasus").
Bulungu
From the "town of the dead" you can see the most remote village in the gorge - Bulungu. Bulungu is one of the oldest settlements on the territory of Kabardino-Balkaria, located in the upper reaches of the Chegem Gorge, famous for its beauty. The history of the settlement goes back hundreds of years. This is confirmed by the name of the village - Bulungu (Burungu), which in translation from the Balkar language means “ancient”, from the Turkic language - “bay, bend of the river”).
In ancient times and in the Middle Ages, Upper Chegem was political, religious and administrative center Chegem Society. Bulungu - Bulungu, today is not much different from others, whereas earlier it “was a collection of stone nests, fastened together, like in an ant heap, where all the houses were connected to each other by internal passages under flat roofs, so that, without getting off, it was possible to bypass the whole village on them.
Inside, these passages resembled catacombs, where saklis were placed, completely dark, with wide pipes for the exit of smoke, which at the same time served for lighting. Nearby, under the same common roof, were cattle pens and tiny courtyards. All this was molded under the protection of the battle tower. The whole village represented one common fortress in those days when only the clan was the protection of life and property. Such architecture of the village provided reliable protection in case of intergeneric strife and even wars. "
If you cross the bridge to the left bank of Chegem, then directly opposite the burial grounds you can see the road leading to the village of Dumala. It passes under a mountain (this area is called Shegishti), on which two unusual stones have been preserved, which have very interesting story... One of them is Ash-Totur. Near him in the old days, sacrifices were made on the occasion of the coming of age of young men, and the riders, passing, always dismounted.
L. Lavrov wrote down the following legend about this stone: “They say that once a Balkarian and a Kabardian were driving by. The Balkarian dismounted and warned his companion about the same. But he refused. "I'm a prince," he said, "and I'm not afraid of anything in the world!" As proof of his fearlessness, he shot at the "sacred" stone and drove on. Suddenly a cloud appeared, which kept growing and approached the Kabardian. There was a bee in the middle of the cloud. When the cloud enveloped the Kabardian, the bee stung him in the nostril. After a while, the nose was swollen, worms wound up in it, and the Kabardian died. "
No less interesting is another stone located nearby and considered sacred. It clearly shows the prints of hands and feet, which, as the legend says, belong to the one who bore the name Pai-khanpar. L. Lavrov believes that the term "payhanpar" goes back to the Persian word meaning "prophet".
How long the prophet had to spend in order to leave such clear traces is difficult to imagine, but they are visible and, no doubt, of unnatural origin. Here, on a rather steep mountain, standing on a stone and kneeling down, you understand that true faith can work miracles and the power of the rocks is nothing in front of it.
Behind the village of Bulungu, the road leads to the reserve (to travel or pass also the KBR, Abai-Su waterfalls require a special pass), to a place of amazing beauty, where stormy streams of mountain rivers flowing down from the glaciers of the Greater Caucasus - Gara-Auz-Su and Bashil-Auz-Su, giving rise to the Chegem River.
Not far from the confluence of two rivers, in the Bashil-Auz-Su gorge, the Abai-Su waterfall (from the Balkarian "Abai water") gracefully falls from 70 m height - a great many streams united in a water dance. In warm weather, swimming in its jets is possible. The surroundings of the waterfall are surrounded by a beautiful pine forest full of mushrooms and berries. The Gara-Auz-Su valley (from the Balkarian "Narzan water gorge") is known in the North Caucasus with a very KBR.
In the Shaurtu gorge, which is the right branch of the Gara-auz gorge, there is a large glacier falling from the western slopes of the spur and the summit itself. The very name of the mountain, which gave it its name, is translated as “stepped black peak”, where shau is from Ossetian - “black”, and to mouth - “step”. The main attraction of the glacier is the amazing grotto, shimmering in all shades of heavenly blue, which is called the Blue Grotto. It is from it that the swift Shaurtu River bursts out, which is a tributary of the Gara-auz-su.
In the Koru gorge, you will meet with mysterious mushroom-shaped stone pillars, which somehow crush ancient castles. These pillars are located on the right bank of the Gara-auz-su river.
Narzan sources, which we spoke about above, are located both on the right bank of the Kulak-su river - it is called Gara-su, which means "acidic water", and on the left - Kiik-Gara, which can be translated as "turiy narzan" ...
The upper reaches of the valley are closed by the amazingly beautiful Tikhtengen peak. Tikhtengen-Bashi - Mountain peak in Kabardino-Balkaria; is located in the Main Caucasian ridge, in the upper reaches of the Chegema River. Height - 4617 meters. It is translated from Balkar as “calmed peak”, where quiet - “quietly”, “calmly”; gene - the end of the past tense; KBR.Tikhtengen-Bashi bashi - "top", "top". This massif received this name because from high points it looks like Elbrus, that is, a volcano. Locals consider it an extinct (calmed down) volcano.
MEGALITS BESH-TAU
Historical sites in the Caucasus are everywhere. Here you can find stone structures of both periods of unknown cultures 5-10 thousand years ago, as well as the remains of fairly well-known types of structures made of processed stone. In the dumps of Mount Beshtau, silent witnesses of the epochs of Ancient Rome and Alexander the Great are scattered, these are fragments and blocks of megalithic structures.
Sometimes there are also mill-type stone millstones, mistaken by some people as part of the Scythian culture. But this is more likely evidence of Alanian or Circassian culture, and millstones were originally used exclusively for grinding corn. As you know, corn in Eurasia could not appear earlier than the beginning - the middle of the 17th century. The simplicity and unpretentiousness in growing this outlandish cereal in the mountainous climate of the Caucasus made it the main source of food for the ancestors of modern Kabardians and Karachais, Circassians and Circassians. Subsequently, when agriculture developed here, they began to sow wheat, rye, barley and millet, and round millstones were used more widely. The Scythians and the earlier cultures of the Caucasus made do with stone millstones of a different type, small forms, which were a flat base stone and a stone grater, with which the grain was ground.
Megaliths of Beshtau: are they megaliths?
There are numerous hypotheses about the purpose of these or those stone structures and fragments. But the main and immutable thing is often overlooked: in the difficult conditions of antiquity and archaism, stone processing took too much time and effort to make something of little significance out of it, having no economic, everyday value. For example, a fragment of a machined massive boulder with clearly manual processing, where the base and the convex radial surface are distinguishable.
The first impression of such a stone is deceiving. It is unlikely that this is a remnant of the overlap of the tomb or temple. If you imagine how difficult it was to grind grain (or acorns) in large quantities in a relatively short period of the autumn period, for a group of people who lived here a couple of thousand ago, then this fragment easily appears as the lower part of a large millstone. Somewhere in the vicinity, there was certainly (possibly lost in earlier times) an upper stone with a concave working of the same size. Putting one such megalith on top of another, shown in the photograph, you can get a solid manually operated mill. The spherical surface of the lower stone was convenient for pouring grated grain or acorns under its own weight down to the edge having a flat horizontal surface.
Other large megalithic elements made of natural stone Beshtau could well serve for economic purposes of a somewhat different nature. For example, for the arrangement of an artificial reservoir, a pond, where water flowing down from the mountain (including melt) was collected. There are enough natural ravines and wash-outs here to be used as a reserve source of drinking water during drought years.
On large flat stones it was extremely convenient to flesh and dry animal skins, in later times - to process homespun clothing. The megalith heated by the sun was also an excellent platform for drying (curing) meat, this is still practiced in some high-mountainous regions of the Caucasus (in the mountains, in the absence of flies in the autumn, meat and lamb by-products are successfully dried, storing for the winter).
Megalithic speculations Beshtau
At present, the hypothesis of dolmens on Beshtau is not an antiscientific statement, since historical finds here they confirm the presence of signs of this culture. Some of the finds, according to former employees of the State Artistic University, were taken to the capital for museums and scientific work, back in the 70s of the last century. But there are other events that have nothing to do with the official history, ordinary speculations.
For a number of years different groups people who do not represent official science invented (and successfully continue, I must say) their own, alternative history of Mount Beshtau and part of the North Caucasus. Finding a boulder unusual shape, they attribute sacred and paranormal properties to it, calling it magical, giving their own name. Then they drag up the boards with a jack, and they are not too lazy to install a large boulder on the supporting stones, later composing a legend about the newly discovered megalith, under which the wizards crawled. Going further into the jungle of their fantasies, they even built here a kind of spiral labyrinth, which they later tried to pass off as a historical artifact. Despite the fact that dozens of researchers have studied these places perfectly for hundreds of years, and have not seen any "labyrinths" in their eyes. But this does not stop the enthusiasts, and they continue to stubbornly seek out mythical traces of the Caucasian Arkaim. But all this has nothing to do with reality, since distorted facts are in the nature of myths and legends. Official science, as you know, relies in everything on obvious, proven and presented facts.
THE CASE IN KABARDINO-BALKARIA - THE VISION OF THE PAST WAR
My father, a hunter in his spare time, went to his old friends and took me with him. We stayed there for a week and, of course, went to the mountains to hunt for snowcocks - these are birds, such as chukaros. They are found high in the mountains and it took a long time to get there, almost all day. Alpine places and not a soul around. I didn’t go hunting, I was very tired and stayed at the tents to prepare firewood for the fire. Soon my father came with his friends. They didn’t bring anything, it was getting dark, it turned out they just looked for places for tomorrow. We had supper and went to bed, as we had to get up early in the morning. We slept in two tents. I'm in the same tent with my father. From fatigue, I collapsed on the sleeping bag, as if knocked down, and only my head touched the improvised pillow - I passed out. I woke up in the middle of the night because a gusty wind was blowing outside and the tent was shaking, I was a little cold.
I wrapped myself up more tightly and already began to fall asleep, suddenly I hear ... as if right at the tent, at my very head, but only outside, on the other side of the tarp, someone is whistling. And not the wind or the mouse, it was clearly a man whistling some kind of melody ... I heard her clearly, she was not familiar to me at all. There was a feeling that someone bent down and carefully examining me through the tent, whistling over me. At first they whistled softly, as if through the tongue. Then a little louder, the same tune, then the whistle moved a little to the side of the tent and became stronger and clearer. All this lasted for about five minutes. I began to wake up my father. Someone was obviously walking around the tent. Quietly, without words, I push my father in the shoulder, he barely wakes up. Before he had time to say a word, the whistle outside instantly ceased.
We left the tent. My father was serious about why I woke him up (then there was a war in Chechnya, and even though it was many kilometers away, you never know who and how could have brought here), we went out with a gun and a lantern. There was no one, nothing was touched, no traces. We looked into the tent to our friends, except for loud snoring, there was nothing to achieve from them. We went to bed again. I could not fall asleep right away and thought all about what had happened, played that melody in my head, over and over again, I remembered it well and distinctly.
Then in the morning I fell asleep and I had a bad dream - some mountains, war, people in old uniforms, I think they were Germans, shouting something and shooting down, from there cannons hit them. For some reason, I, together with a big shaggy white dog, hide from them in the rocks, then one notices us and with a twisted angry face gives us a turn, which is why I, with a cry, wake up in an empty tent. Just a bad dream.
Outside, everyone is already having breakfast. When I came out, they joked about me, saying that someone was whistling again? Or maybe at night you yourself slept like a marmot and heard your own whistle? I laughed it off.
A lot of time has passed since then, but I remembered everything as if yesterday, especially that melody, it seemed strange to me, or maybe everything that you experience so acutely seems unusual and remains with us forever.
A few years later I entered the university, began to study seriously German, and then left by the will of fate in Germany. There this story of mine from my childhood mystically found its continuation.
Once I accidentally heard music on TV, it was so pleasant, very familiar, and there was even a desire to sing along. I also thought subconsciously - where did I hear it? STOP!!! ... I was poured with cold water, I rushed to the TV.
Goes documentary, black and white footage, the famous German singer of the forties Lale Andersen sings the song "Lili Marleen" - a hit of the Second World War.
Look on Youtube for this beautiful song, and you will hear one and the same tune that I heard fifteen years ago behind a tarpaulin of a tent, on a windy night in the Kabardian mountains, where not what about Lale Andersen from the 40s of the last century, but even about Michael Jackson, not everyone has heard.
By the way, about that bad dream - in Kabardino-Balkaria, as I later found out, there were bloody battles for the Caucasus between German mountain rifle battalions and Soviet troops. Maybe my that distant dream is somehow connected with this.
Today I know the words of this old German song by heart, and even learned to play it on the guitar. Sometimes I play and sing, it helps to clear my mind when I need to think about something. I recently found a translation of it into English and even into Russian, as it was so popular at the time.
Here I am posting it here in its Russian version:
Lily Marlene
Near the barracks, in the light of a lantern
the leaves of September are circling in pairs,
Oh, how long have these walls
I myself stood,
stood and waited
you Lily Marlene
you, Lily Marlene.
If I don't die of fear in the trenches,
if a sniper doesn't make a hole for me,
if I don’t surrender myself,
then we will again
twist love
with you, Lily Marlene,
with you, Lily Marlene.
Hurricane beat, God help,
I will give the Ivans a helmet and boots,
if only they allowed me in return
under the lantern
stand together
with you, Lily Marlene,
with you, Lily Marlene.
Is there anything more banal than death in war
and more sentimental than meeting at the moon,
is there anything rounder than your knees,
your knees,
Ich liebe dich,
my Lily Marlene,
my Lily Marlene.
The shells will run out, the war will end
by the fence, alone at dusk,
will you stand by these walls
stand in the darkness,
stand and wait
me Lily Marlene
me, Lily Marlene.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
SOURCE OF INFORMATION AND PHOTOS:
Team nomad
Encyclopedia of anomalous zones in Russia.
Materials and articles of V. Chernobrov
Cosmopoisk website
Abnormal zones of the Caucasus
The nature of the Verkhnechegemskaya depression is extraordinarily beautiful. In the south, the peaks of the Side Ridge (Kurmytau, etc.), more than four kilometers high, sparkle with eternal snows. Magnificent and impregnable as a citadel, Mount Karakaya ("black rock" - bulk; 3646 meters), the highest in the Rocky Range, rises in the east. In its spur, in the Kyzla-Kuygenkaya mountain range (from the Balkarian "Rock of burnt girls"), there is the Kala-Tyubu grotto - an ancient man's site (13-15 thousand years old). Not far from the grotto there is the ancient settlement "Lygyt", which belongs to the VIII-X centuries. AD, with an underground wooden plumbing.
The Chegem gorge in some miraculous way combines the beauty of nature and the mysteries of history. This is probably what inspired the filmmakers to shoot the feature film "Sannikov's Land" here (directed by A. Mkrtchyan, L. Popov; 1973). In the upper reaches of Chegem - near the village of El-Tyubu, Chegem waterfalls, Andai-Su waterfall much of the action of the film takes place. In the gorge, including near the waterfalls, episodes of S. Rostotsky's film "A Hero of Our Time" (1965-1966) were filmed. In 1975, in the village of El-Tyubu, the film "Horseman with a lightning in his hand" was filmed.
The village of El-Tyubu resembles an open-air museum. When this village appeared, now no one knows. Literally translated, "El-Tyubu" means "the foundation of the village." Its name suggests that it was founded on the site of an even older settlement. When the present village was founded, there were already ruined foundations of some more ancient buildings. The spirit of antiquity reigns here everywhere. Preserved stone houses are several hundred years old. In the center of the village we can see an old tower, which was built by invited Svan masters in the late 17th - early 18th centuries. This tower belonged to the local princes Balkarukovs, who were related to the Tarkov shamkhals in the 18th century. This tower is also called the "Tower of Love". According to the legend, Akhtugan Balkarukov built it in order to defend against relatives, the beauty he stole in Dagestan, Kerime, a kumychka. One of the family's sacred relics was the 14th century Koran brought from Dagestan. At the end of the XIX century. a mosque with a minaret was built in the village (unfortunately, it has not survived), and there was a school with it, where local children studied the Koran. At the beginning of the twentieth century. The Balkarukovs owned the only cheese factory in the gorge.
Right there, near the bridge, there is a “stone of shame” with a hole made in it (according to legend, criminals were tied to it in the Middle Ages. There is also a stone Avsoltu, who was previously worshiped, seeing in it the patron saint of hunting Afsati; and the “sacred” stone Bayram-tashi , and a stone of strong men weighing three hundred kilograms (the winner in the competition was the one who tore it off the ground) ...
Near the village, along a rocky wall, two ancient defensive Greek stairs go up, leading to a cave in which, according to legend, ancient Christian relics were buried, which are still being searched.
In ancient times, when the enemy was advancing, people went up the stairs to the mountains, and the warriors took up defenses above the stairs in order to bring down stones and arrows at the enemy. Climbing the stairs today, in peacetime, you understand how hard it was for the attackers.
In the center of the village, near the bridge, there is a monument to K. Kuliev in the form of a bust. Not far from here you can see ancient stone sakli with flat turf roofs. Due to the lack of arable land on these roofs, barley and oats were previously grown, and after harvesting a meager harvest, goats were allowed to graze. These ancient buildings of the village became natural scenery when A. Balabanov's feature film "War" (2002) was filmed here.
At the foot of another interesting natural object - the volcanic massif Kum-Tyube ("sandy hill" - balk.) With a height of more than 3500 m. "The Town of the Dead" is located. This array was included in the list of anomalous places in Russia as anomalous zone "Alpha". Above its summit in the 1980s, mysterious night lights were observed.
So the "Town of the Dead" - a monument of history and culture - is located a few hundred meters from the village of El-Tyubu. Here are preserved "houses of the dead" or "keshene" of the early Middle Ages (X-XII centuries) and later - Muslim mausoleums of the late XVII-early XVIII centuries. The ancient "keshenes" are called "Christian", although they are undoubtedly the result of the layering of the most diverse cultural influences. Similar tetrahedral houses of the dead with gable roofs and a small window from the front facade are found in the mountains of Ossetia, Ingushetia, in the Cherek Gorge of Kabardino-Balkaria and even in the upper reaches of the Kuban River near the Karachaev village of Kart-Dzhurt. There is an opinion that the custom of burying the dead in such "houses of the dead" is one of the remnants of Zoroastrianism, which became somewhat widespread among the population of Caucasian Alania in the early Middle Ages. According to Zoroastrian rites, a dead body was not supposed to desecrate the sacred element of the earth, so it was forbidden to bury it in the ground. Cremation was also ruled out, since fire is also sacred. The same is with water. So I had to isolate the body with the help of special structures. In Persia, these were "towers of silence", and in the Caucasus - dry caves, burials in ossuaries (special vessels for collecting bones) and "houses of the dead". When Zoroastrianism was supplanted by Christianity, and then paganism revived with renewed vigor (due to the decrease in the influence of Byzantium), the traditions continued to persist for a long time.
Muslim mausoleums, unlike the older keshenes, were crowned with a dome and had 6 or 8 sides. The distant ancestors of the present inhabitants of the village are buried in these later structures. On one of the mausoleums of El-Tyubu, a stone "lump" has been preserved, which suggests that the men of the clan to which this mausoleum belongs are still alive, although no one has been buried in this mausoleum for a long time.
Here is what, in particular, LI Lavrov writes: “An external examination of the Verkhnechegemsky burial ground makes it possible to distinguish seven types of graves in it: 1) an earthen embankment lined with stones at the edges; 2) stone embankment; 3) a stone box made of smoothly fitted stones and covered with stones inside. That is, the same stone embankment, but with fortified walls; 4) a stone cemented box with a steep gable roof; the inside of the box is filled with stones; this grave differs from the previous one only in that it is better protected from destruction; 5) a grave with the same box as the previous one, differing from it in that, firstly, inside it is empty and, secondly, “has a small square window on the east side. That is, it is a small crypt, as if repeating the external forms of a stone cemented embankment; 6) a large quadrangular crypt (keshene) with a high gable roof and a window on the east side; "7) a large octagonal crypt with a pyramidal (also octahedral) high roof, turning into a cone at the top."
further: “Just one simple list of seven types encountered suggests that the crypts of the North Caucasus do not repeat the architectural tradition of one or another, in the past, more cultured peoples who influenced the mountaineers. The crypts are organically linked with the local “architecture” of mountain graves. We see how each type is only a complication of the previous one.
On the way from the village to the "town of the dead" you can see an irrigation canal - the bed of a mountain stream diverted to the side. This canal was created more than one century ago and, apparently, served for irrigation of fields in the lower part of the slope. As soon as a damper was installed in the canal, the water began to overflow over the low earthen rim and irrigate the crops below.
