Mount Calvary

Anzer Island is located in the northern part of the Solovetsky Islands archipelago (Yandex Maps)

We landed in the west of the island near Cape Kenga and walked around the island on foot for almost 9 kilometers to Kaporskaya Bay, where the same boat was waiting for us later.


Landing at Cape Kenga (Yandex-maps) The foundation of the chapel in honor of the image of the Virgin of All Who Sorrow Joy.
Time 19:45

It used to be like that.

Now there are no berths on the island, so you have to land on the shore from small boats or boats.
Captain kodola

Worship crosses on the shore

Coastal tundra quickly turns into forest

The road winds around many lakes

Partially waterlogged, so boots won't get in the way.

After about 2.5 kilometers we approach the Holy Trinity Skete (Yandex Maps)

The Holy Trinity Skete was founded at the beginning of the 17th century. Before that, only fishermen lived on the island and there was a monastery saltworks.

Attempts of restoration or conservation are visible.

official site of the skit http://stskit.ru

But it's sad inside...

Until 1683, the skete did not organizationally belong to the monastery.
"The inhabitants of the monastery (17 people) received a salary for food and church needs. There was not enough money to maintain the monastery, the monks suffered hardships."

The Znamenskaya Chapel stands directly above a small water channel between lakes with walls reinforced with large stones.

Worship cross on the site of the desert of Eleazar and stairs leading to the chapel. It is claimed that it is incorrect, because it depicts Jesus Christ, which is not typical of northern worship crosses.

Chapel on the site of the first settlement of Eleazar Anzersky.

"Eleazar, captivated by the location, settled near the lake, called" Round. "The first thing he did was to erect a wooden cross made by himself, near which he built a wretched hut"

After 6 kilometers we come to Mount Golgotha.
Worship cross in memory of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Solovetsky.

View of the Golgotha-Crucifixion Skete, standing on the top of Mount Golgotha

Rising, we pass by a birch-cross. "After all the crosses were destroyed on Solovki, a birch in the shape of a cross grew on Mount Golgotha ​​near the Church of the Crucifixion of the Lord."

The Mother of God who appeared: "Call this mountain Golgotha, because over time it will have to suffer a lot and become an innumerable cemetery. On the top of the mountain, build a temple in the name of the Crucifixion of My Son. I will forever dwell in this place."
In Soviet times, a hospital was set up in the temple for the dying, tortured and overworked prisoners of the camp ....

Even the official church websites say that Mount Golgotha ​​is the highest place in Solovki. But she is only 64 meters tall. And the highest is Mount Verbokolskaya (height 86 meters). Yes, and Sekirnaya Mountain is also higher.

Big Solovetsky Island is visible in the distance.

We continue our way to Kapor Bay.
On the shore of the Holy Calvary Lake.

There are such wooden roads.

Worship cross on the shore of the Kapor Bay. (

Back in 2002, Russian scientists confirmed the possibility of an artificial origin of Sekirnaya Mountain - the one located on the Solovetsky Archipelago. Although the elevation is based on glacial deposits, there is every reason to believe that from above it is indeed supplemented by mounds of artificial origin, that is, all this is the work of human hands.

About hills and knolls

It's no secret that on the numerous islands and islets of the Solovetsky archipelago there are hills and mountains of absolutely different heights. So, Sekirnaya Mountain is perhaps the most high mountain throughout the Great Solovetsky Island. This mountain has another, more euphonious name - Miracle Mountain.

Nevertheless, let's return to a more established name - Sekirnaya. So, it was named in memory of the angels. The essence of the myth is that once the angels descended from heaven and whipped the wife of a fisherman, the wife of a Pomor. According to legend, Saints Savvaty and Herman lived and lived near this, apparently still nameless mountain.

In summer, fishermen with their wives sailed to the foot. The husbands, as expected, fished, but the wives mowed the grass, and ran the household. Why the Pomors disliked Saints Savvaty and Herman, history is silent. That's just a conflict broke out between them and the fishermen. I repeat that it was in ancient times and, as is often the case in the myths of any nation, heavenly forces intervened in the situation - in our case, angels in the form of blond youths.

The latter took and flogged one of the fishermen's wives with rods, and ordered to reel in the fishing rods for good and for health. And that, they say, this island with a mountain in addition belongs to the monks for prayers ... It was not possible to argue with the angels, so the fishermen left this island and henceforth began to treat the saints with respect.

Ancient people tried

This is where questions arise related to the name of this mountain. Judging by the legend, the name "Sekirnaya" allegedly comes not from the word "cut", but from "ax" - the name of a medieval battle ax. It turns out that the angels were supposed to strike the Pomor's wife to death not with vices, but with battle axes. Somehow it turns out tough, especially for angels.

It is known that the islands of the Solovetsky archipelago are flat, as if ironed by a glacier. High mountains look somehow strange on them, as if they are artificial formations. Mount Sekirnaya (or Sekirka) is the highest mountain on Bolshoi Solovetsky Island, its height is almost one hundred meters. Where does she get on this kind of plateau?

It should be noted that the huge sand and stone mounds of the Solovetsky Mountains were first described by local historians in the 30s of the last century. But scientists then could not explain where such a high mountain could appear on the flat islands. It was assumed that Sekirka was partly created by a glacier and partly a pyramid of boulders, which was built several millennia ago by ancient people who inhabited the shores of the Arctic Ocean and the White Sea.

In 2002, Russian scientists confirmed the possibility of an artificial origin of Sekirnaya Gora. Although the elevation is based on glacial deposits, and there is reason to believe that from above it is indeed supplemented by mounds of artificial origin.

Nightingales do not sing on Solovki

Of course, the question arises: if the ancient Solovetsky mountain is a pyramid, where does it get its original Russian name from? And why did the monks need such a strange legend about angels? In fact, there are doubts that the name of the mountain was originally Slavic. After all, the word "Solovki", although consonant with "nightingales", has nothing to do with them - nightingales have never been found beyond the Arctic Circle.

Well, the monks used the legend of angels as proof that the Solovetsky Island should belong to the monastery, and not to the indigenous people. In addition, archaeologists have confirmed that the Solovetsky archipelago belonged to the inhabitants of the White Sea region thousands of years before the arrival of the first monks. Novgorodians called these White Sea tribes “chud”, and rooted local Nenets - “sikirtya”.

Moss mow

The mention of the Sikitra people is found in the Tale of Bygone Years. Translated from the ancient language, “skhrt” or “skrd” is an artificial mound of an elongated shape. The word "stack" has the same root. Mow - an artificial hay mound of elongated shape. But a stack can be not only made of hay, so a version arose that a “skhrt” is a form of a primitive bulk prehistoric dwelling, like a giant stack of grass, moss and branches, in which our ancient ancestors lived.

The same ancient root stem "skrt" is in the word "hide". After all, the main function of the home is to hide from the cold and wild animals. People who lived in such primitive dwellings were called skitniks, and in the North - sikirtya.

The first chronicle information of the Novgorodians about the Donenetsk cave population of the north (the Nenets came to the territory of the Pechora tundra from behind the Ural Range only in the 13th-14th centuries) confirms that the tribes living there did not know iron and lived in caves.

Cave people

But the question reasonably arises that in the flat Pechora tundra there are practically no mountains in which such caves can be found today, and even so that cave people could live in them. Perhaps such "mountains" of the ancient cave people could only be artificial mounds-dwellings - huge stacks of peat and moss.

Only then it becomes clear why, after a thousand years, there was practically nothing left of them - they turned into ordinary small hills among the flat landscape of the tundra. By the way, archaeologists periodically find traces of the Donets civilization in the tundra - bronze and stone tools, jewelry.

It is worth saying that traces of the dwellings of the Sikitra people also remained. Back in the 19th century, academician Lepekhin wrote: “The entire Samoyed land in the current Mezen district is filled with derelict dwellings of a certain people. They are found in many places, near lakes on the tundra and in forests near rivers, made in the mountains and hills like caves with holes by a similar beast. In these caves, furnaces are found and fragments of iron, copper and clay household items are found.

As for the stone bulk mountains, like Sekirnaya, these are no longer houses made of peat and moss for living people, but the houses of the dead - pyramids made of stones. Thus, the stone mountains on Solovki are nothing but monuments ancient civilization. Our researchers have a lot of work to study the history hidden in the earth.

Solovetsky Islands (Solovki). By the decision of the UNESCO General Assembly of December 14, 1992, the historical and cultural ensemble of the Solovetsky Islands was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The Solovetsky Islands are a unique place. On a small archipelago in the White Sea, a unique natural, historical and cultural complex has developed, which has no analogues in the world. The largest and richest in sights is Solovetsky Island, on which the famous Solovetsky Monastery has been operating for more than one century.
A separate topic on the monastery was posted last year, so I think it's not worth diverting your attention with repetition. Who missed this material, you can go back and read on specified link .

During the XV-XVI centuries. the monastery gradually grew, acquiring major islands archipelago. By the end of the 15th century, the monks erected three wooden churches: Assumption, Nikolskaya and Preobrazhenskaya, numerous wooden cells and outbuildings, surrounded by a wooden fence.

Spiritual stronghold of the Russian North.

In the middle of the 16th century, the monastery entered a period of serious economic transformations. Roads were built here in the 1550s-1560s, but a "milk yard" with deer and cattle was founded on the island. To provide the population of the monastery with running water, 52 lakes of the Solovetsky Island were connected by drinking canals. For defense in 1582-1594. a stone fortress wall with towers and gates was erected. Throughout the 17th century, the Solovetsky Monastery continued to form as an administrative, economic, spiritual, military-political and cultural center of the White Sea region. In the XVIII-XX centuries. it was one of the places of exile and imprisonment of state criminals.

Gulag archipelago.

From 1920 to 1939, the territory of the islands and all the buildings of the former Solovetsky Monastery were occupied by the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camps of the OGPU-NKVD (SLON). The Solovetsky camps were among the largest in Russia. The composition of the prisoners in the SLON changed at different times. Among them were representatives of the Russian aristocracy, the church, the intelligentsia, all pre-revolutionary political parties, criminal elements convicted on domestic matters, representatives of national parties, and many others. Among those exiled to the SLON were scientists and cultural figures, writers, poets, religious figures of Russia.

This year, extensive restoration and restoration work is underway here, almost all the domes and walls of the Solovetsky Monastery are in scaffolding. For this reason, photographing them does not make sense.
The restoration of the monastery will cost the Russian budget 6 billion rubles. They plan to restore almost 70 objects in the next four years. cultural heritage. About it reports TASS with reference to the Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky.

I would like to note that it is difficult morally and spiritually to be in these places. Each square meter of the island is a mass grave of repressed citizens, more precisely, mass graves of unknown victims of the regime. Barracks were built on these graves, documents were destroyed, and fires were set in the offices to cover their tracks and hide the number of victims.

But the more people visit these places, the better the memory of both the beauty and the tragedy of Solovki is preserved ...

Archipelago map.
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In the first half of the 1920s, the Soviet authorities organized the first official criminal and, for the first time, a political concentration camp in Kem, which served as a transit point for sending prisoners to Solovki, to the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp.

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Pier Kem. Apparently, the repressed were sent from here to the island of Solovki.

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Here, in Kemi, a Russian feature film, Ostrov, was filmed.

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Solovki Island. Tamarin berth. Motor ships and boats with tourists moor here.

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Map of the island and attractions.

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On the island, in one of the surviving barracks, there is a museum:

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No comments...

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Naftaly Aronovich.


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It should be noted that many barracks, buildings and buildings of the USLON period have been preserved. Based on the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR of October 13, 1923, the Northern camps of the GPU were liquidated and the Office of the Solovetsky Camp for Forced Labor for Special Purposes (USLON or SLON) of the OGPU was organized on their basis. All the property of the Solovetsky Monastery, closed since 1920, was transferred to the camp for use.

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The main attraction and spiritual center of the islands is the Solovetsky Monastery (listed world heritage UNESCO)

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The corner tower of the Trinity Cathedral in the Solovetsky Monastery.

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Place of mass burials. During the existence of the camp, about 7.5 thousand people died in it, of which 3.5 thousand died in the hungry 1933. railway to Filimonovsky peat extraction in 1928, ten thousand Ukrainians and Don Cossacks died on eight kilometers of the road.

The official number of prisoners in 1923-1933 is given in the table below (figures as of the end of the year)

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Every square meter of the island is a mass burial of the innocent victims. Nobody knows the exact number of them. All archival documents were first classified, then there was a fire in the office and they burned down.

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There are also mass graves...

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Prisoners lived in this dugout, and here they were buried in a common pit.

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A memorial cross was erected in memory of the victims of repressions

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AND commemorative signs dead

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Guards, employees of the NKVD, prison workers and escorts lived in such barracks.

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Solovki. Cape labyrinths.

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There are two labyrinths on the cape: large and small. These are reconstructed stone labyrinths. They served our ancestors in ancient times, and how exactly they served - modern science has not yet established exactly - there are several hypotheses. Possibly for ritual purposes.

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Monastery pier. It was here that the repressed were brought from Kem to serve their sentences. The monastery hotel (which is currently being renovated) served as a place of residence for the camp authorities, guards, and the third floor was a hostel for family guards. The commandant's office was on the ground floor.

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The fugitives had no chance

Under Soviet rule, the first special purpose camp in the country operated on the territory of the monastery, the buildings were systematically destroyed.

The features of the White Sea made it the best barrier against attempts to escape from the islands. In summer, a person can survive in such cold water for only a few minutes, and in winter, the water near the coast never freezes enough for the ice to support the weight of people. unavailable location and climatic conditions made Solovki an excellent place for isolation from the world, which was used by both Orthodox monks and the state. Opponents of the authorities and heretics were sent here even under the tsar, but the real “prison machine” started working here in full force only after the Bolshevik revolution. For comparison: in the 400 years of the existence of the monastery, only about 300 people have been imprisoned there, and in the 20 years of the existence of the SLON, several thousand prisoners have passed through Solovki.

The first forced labor camp for 350 people, together with guards, was established on Solovki already in 1920. It was one of the first places of this type in the entire Soviet Russia. In 1923, the ELEPHANT appeared. The first prisoners were political opponents of the Soviet regime: Socialist-Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, anarchists, White Guards. In addition to the "political" common criminals and the clergy were massively exiled to Solovki.

The chambers in the monastery towers and the walls of the Solovetsky Monastery had the shape of a truncated cone about three meters long, two meters wide and two meters high, and one meter at the narrow end. In the upper floors of the Golovlenkovskaya Tower of the Solovetsky Monastery, the cells were even tighter: 1.4 meters long, 1 meter wide and high. The small window served not for lighting, but only for serving food. It was impossible to lie in the cell, the prisoner slept in a half-bent state.

In the tower of the Solovetsky Monastery, which was called Korozhnya, prison cells were arranged on each floor. These were small and dark closets with small openings instead of a door, through which the prisoner could hardly climb inside.

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The main worship cross of Solovki in the Harbor of Prosperity big island opposite the Solovetsky Monastery. At the beginning of the last century, there were three thousand worshiping wooden crosses in the Solovetsky archipelago. They got here with great difficulty, with prayer. And these vows were embodied in crosses. And in the 20s, the fire, in which crosses collected from all over the archipelago were burned, burned for 4 days. The tradition of placing worship crosses on Solovki was renewed in 1992.

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Big Zayatsky Island
Until the middle of the 16th century, apparently, there was only a camp for industrialists who mined sea animals and fish on the islands. Large-scale changes began under Abbot Philip, when"monastic people and abbot hirelings"a stone chamber, a kitchen and a harbor were built here. Existence on the island“excellent stone monastery house”noted by English travelers Thomas Southam and John Spark, who visited here in 1566.According to the surviving information, next to the newly built harbor, Abbot Philip was installed worship cross , the inscription on which called for everyone coming to the island“according to their strength, stones would be worn on back side camps at the corner from the sea, so that the waves of the sea do not rinse"

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Church of St. Andrew the First-Called. Around - a typical landscape of the island: rocky land, overgrown with shrubs.

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There are a lot of pilgrims and tourists here.

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The construction of St. Andrew's Church was completed on August 30, 1702. It was cut down "in a corner", from very tightly fitted logs with a diameter of 20-25 centimeters, without caulking the seams.

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Other interesting buildings of the skete are the stone chamber built under Abbot Philip, the kitchen and the first stone harbor in the history of the White Sea region. The skete buildings of the 19th century certainly deserve attention: a wooden bathhouse and a well, as well as a boulder cellar.

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Andreevsky Skete is one of the sketes of the Solovetsky Monastery, founded in the 16th century by hegumen Philip (the future Metropolitan of Moscow) on the Big Zayatsky Island of the Solovetsky Archipelago. Kitchen and stone chamber (hotel).

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A hotel for fishermen who came to the island to wait out the storm at sea has been preserved here.

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Here - tundra vegetation.

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Sekirnaya Mountain- a hill on the Big Solovetsky Island. Height - 73.5 meters. The Voznesensky Skete of the Solovetsky Monastery is located on the mountain. A lighthouse church was built on the very top of Sekirnaya Gora.

In the years 1920-1930, there was a punishment cell, the 4th department of the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp, a kind of Solovetsky punishment cell. Patriarch Kirill recalled his grandfather, who survived that time: “The same grandfather Vasily Stepanovich, who later became father Vasily, told me, a child, about all this. He talked about how he never had fear in his heart, ever. That it was impossible to frighten him, although he was on the verge of death, being with St. Hilarion at the same time on Solovki and going through the terrible trials of the punishment cell on Sekirnaya Hill. Few people passed this test, usually people died. But my grandfather survived. And, having left these prisons, already in the 55th year, almost 10 years after my father took the priesthood, he first became a deacon, and then a priest, and served in a distant Bashkir village until the age of ninety-one. I keep his covenants, his commandments. And for me it was a living experience and a living image of a man who knew what the love of God is.”

In the side aisle of the temple there is now a museum of the punishment cell.

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The building of the monastic bath, lined with large boulders. Next to it is a well, from which the monks drew water and carried it upstairs.

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The Church of the Ascension of the Lord (in the 20-30s of the 20th century it was turned into a punishment cell for the SLON for delinquent prisoners) and a private wooden building in front of it. A lighthouse church was built on the very top of Sekirnaya Gora. It was built in 1862. In sad Soviet years this place was a punishment cell for Solovki prisoners. And those sent here on a “business trip” had a hard time here. To get "on Sekirka" then meant "to get to the next world." From here, few people returned to the camp alive and well.


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The only lighthouse on the island is located on Mount Sekirnaya.

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In the years 1920-1930, there was a punishment cell, the 4th department of the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp, a kind of Solovetsky punishment cell.

The white stone one-domed temple is visible from afar, from the most unexpected points, behind the next turn of the road, from the side of some forest lake and from the sea. It was built according to the project of the architect Shakhlarev, a pillar-shaped temple with two altars: in the first tier - a chapel in honor of the Archangel Michael of the miracle in Khonekh, in the second - a church in honor of the Ascension of the Lord. In the third tier there was a belfry. The building was crowned with the turret of the highest lighthouse on the White Sea, the light of which is still visible at night from a distance of up to sixty kilometers. The unusual appearance of this structure involuntarily attracted the attention of the pilgrims, and they did not see anything seditious in it. The light coming from the cross and showing the wanderers the right path to the Solovetsky monastery acquired a special symbolic meaning for them.

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According to the guides, the corpses were brought to a certain place. However, it was not known for certain where the "cemetery" was located. In 2005, the first burial was discovered, now about 10 mass graves have been discovered. Excavations are underway, the number of people is being determined. There is no way to identify individuals. The Lord alone knows the names of the sufferers.
They said that when digging up graves, they very often found relics ... It's not scary there, but it takes your breath away and your heart beats and flutters - it's a shame for former compatriots - those who executed and tortured people. Ashamed is not quite the right word, for the first time I wanted to repent for other people's sins, as for my own, and ask for forgiveness from all relatives who have lost their loved ones.

P.S.
From a letter - October 30, 2016 For free access to the archives of the Cheka-NKVD-KGB.

my grandfather, Stepan Ivanovich Kuznetsov, spent 15 years in Soviet camps on charges of spying for Japan. A month and a half after serving his term, he was rehabilitated.

We know little about the fate of the victims of terror: about those who did not return from prisons and camps, were shot or committed suicide, died during interrogation. The details of their deaths are hidden in the cellars of the Lubyanka. It is there that the archives of the Soviet state security agencies are located.

In March 2014, the period for classifying documents from the archives of the Soviet state security agencies for 1917-1991 was extended until 2044.

This means that for at least another 30 years we will not be able to learn anything about those terrible years of our history, about the details of the death of our parents, grandparents, about those who tortured, interrogated and shot.

For more than 7 years I have been studying the history of Soviet repressions, including researching the cases of those whose names were mentioned in my grandfather's memoirs. But without access to the archives, I cannot reveal the full truth about the NKVD officers who were responsible for participating in the repressions.

Today, on the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repressions, I ask you to sign a petition to cancel the decision to extend the classification of the VChK-NKVD-KGB archives. Help preserve the memory of my grandfather and the millions of victims of repression.

Thank you,
Sergey Prudovsky

JOURNEY PHOTO REPORTS

Announcement. To the Far North in the "Leviathan" places. And not only...

Ferapontov Monastery. Painting by Dionysius. Vologda Region

The Far North is conquered. Homecoming

Top list anomalous zones to which rumor ascribes healing and mystical properties

There are many places in Russia that are attributed with mysterious properties and where people from all over the country go in the hope of getting healed and recharged with positive energy - the so-called "places of power". We will not claim that pilgrimage to such places really heals and gives health; after all, many of the phenomena occurring in such mysterious places ah, often baffle even serious scientists. But in any case, we found it interesting to acquaint readers with some of these anomalous zones.

Solovki (Arkhangelsk region). The Solovetsky archipelago is located in the shallowest western part of the White Sea, at the entrance to the Onega Bay, not far from the Arctic Circle, and consists of six large and about a hundred small islands. main island archipelago - Big Solovetsky, its size - about 25 kilometers in length and 16 in width. The main attraction and spiritual center of the archipelago is the Solovetsky stauropegial monastery. Also popular places of pilgrimage are Golgotha ​​- the highest mountain of the Solovetsky archipelago, the stone church of Anzer Island, which offers an incredible view of the entire archipelago, Holy Lake. There are many mystical and mysterious places on Solovki, for example, one of the most ancient agglomerations is located here stone labyrinths inherited by mankind from the great-people who came here after the retreating glacier, and for some reason left these places. And, of course, many legends about Solovki are associated with all sorts of miraculous healings and the special energy of this place.

Mount Belukha (Republic of Altai). The highest mountain of Altai has been revered since ancient times as a sacred place of power not only by the Altaians, but also by the peoples of India and Tibet. Many people who are fond of oriental teachings believe that the legendary Shambhala is located here. There is also a version that the great Gautama Buddha came to India just from this region. Belukha has a completely unique geographical position: it is equidistant from three oceans - the Pacific, the Arctic and the Indian. The famous mystic artist Nikolai Roerich brought worldwide fame to the mountain, in many works he noted its strong energy and created the concept of the connection between Belukha and Everest, which are a kind of cosmic antenna connected by an energy bridge. Belukha is worshiped not only by the Altaians, among whom there is a taboo on climbing the mountain, but also by climbers (“Belukha must be respected, it is for the soul, not for records”), many of whom are also confident in its supernatural properties. Knowledgeable people recommend not to come to Belukha with insignificant goals, not to ask her for any nonsense and not to disturb her in vain.

Arkaim (Chelyabinsk region). This ancient city was found by Soviet archaeologists in 1987 at the confluence of the Karaganka and Utyaganka rivers, not far from Magnitogorsk. According to legend, the city was built by the Slavic goddess Slavunya, the great-granddaughter of the ancient Slavic single god Rod. The opinion of scientists is more prosaic: Arkaim is a city-fortress of the ancient Aryans, who for some reason left their homes and left. Four entrances lead to the city, clearly oriented to the cardinal points, there are central square and several streets diverging from it, and Arkaim itself is surrounded by two rings of defensive structures. Rumor ascribes supernatural properties to Arkaim, for example, if you spend the night on top of the nearby mountain Shamanka, you can get rid of all diseases. It is also argued that women who have problems with their personal lives should certainly visit the Man's Forest - supposedly after that a lover will definitely appear in life.

Vottovaara (Republic of Karelia). Vottovaara is a cult sanctuary of the Sami, located on the mountain of the same name in Karelia. The complex covers not only the entire surface of the mountain, but also several nearby single hills. The main sacred objects of Vottovaara are cult stones - the so-called seids. Unlike stones, the place and location of which was determined by nature, seids are characterized by human intervention - although the stones were not subjected to mechanical action, one can see their artificial grouping, the addition of “legs” and “tops” to them. In total, there are about 1,300 seids in Vottovaara. The Saami call Vottovaara "Death Mountain" and forbid their women and children to come here. But all kinds of followers of various teachings consider Vottovaara a place where a person acquires strong energy, is healed of illnesses, understands his purpose in this life, feels a connection with the Cosmos.

Lake Pleshcheyevo and Sin-stone (Yaroslavl region). The age of Lake Pleshcheyevo, on which the ancient Russian city of Pereslavl-Zalessky stands, is more than 30 thousand years old, it was formed after the retreat of continental glaciers. The area of ​​the lake is more than 50 square kilometers, it is believed that its water gives energy and strength. One of the main legends of the lake is connected with the Sin-stone - the legendary boulder, in which, according to ancient legends, the spirit lives, giving strength and health. The blue stone is located on the shore at the foot of the Yarilina Mountain and attracts many pilgrims here, which does not affect its condition in the best way - it happens that exalted “pagans” even break off pieces from it with a hammer. The area around the Sin-stone was fenced and landscaped, to access this area you need to buy a ticket for 50 rubles, and all the surroundings around the attraction were chosen by sellers of souvenirs and magical artifacts.

Lake Baskunchak (Astrakhan region). Baskunchak is a unique creation of nature, a kind of deepening on the top of a huge salt mountain, leaving its base thousands of meters deep into the earth and covered with a layer of sedimentary rocks. It is the largest and saltiest of all known salt lakes in the world. Baskunchak area is about 115 square kilometers. Since the 8th century, salt has been mined on the lake and sent along the Silk Road. The lake is fed mainly from springs, numerous springs flow into Baskunchak, bringing more than 2.5 thousand tons of salt water during the day. On the coast of the lake there are deposits of healing clays, from May to September thousands of tourists flock here, driven by the desire to strengthen their strength and get rid of ailments. Salt waters of the lake and therapeutic mud are especially useful for those who suffer from diseases of the joints, skin and lung diseases, and problems with the respiratory system.

Reserve Monrepos (Leningrad region). Mon Repos (from the French Mon Repos - “my peace”) is a picturesque rocky landscape park on the shore of the Protective Bay of the Vyborg Bay and one of the main attractions (along with the famous old fortress) of Vyborg. In Mon Repos you can see how amazing natural objects, in particular, the majestic stone selgas of the Ice Age, as well as man-made sights (Ludwigsburg Chapel, Imperial Column, etc.). One of the most visited places is the source of Narcissus - a pavilion built according to the project of the great Montferrand in the 1820s. The water of the source, as the rumor says, is healing and, in particular, cures eye diseases.

Valley of the river Zhane ( Krasnodar region). In that unique place several natural and archaeological sites. In particular, there are megalithic tombs dolmens and ancient Adyghe burials. Ancient builders applied symbolic drawings to the walls of dolmens, to which many people attribute miraculous properties. Thousands of people make a pilgrimage here, looking for a special energy; they believe that ancient people built their shrines in this place for a reason. unusual place, and that it can endow with extraordinary power.

Mount Mashuk (Stavropol Territory). This is a 994-meter laccolith mountain, at the foot of which lies the central part of the city of Pyatigorsk. On the southern slope of this mountain is the famous Pyatigorsk Proval - a deep natural well-cave with an underground lake of stunning sapphire color about 8 meters deep, and in general Mashuk is rich in sights, in particular, it was here that the death duel of the great poet Mikhail Lermontov took place. In the past, about 40 springs self-flowed around Mashuk mineral waters, near which the famous drinking galleries were built. Under certain weather and lighting, it is clearly seen that Mount Mashuk is very reminiscent of a man-made regular pyramid with a truncated sloping top. And this gives reason to mystically inclined people to consider Mount Mashuk a place of strength and a source of healing energy.

Donskoy Monastery and the grave of Matrona of Moscow (Moscow). This monastery was founded in 1591 by Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich in gratitude for the miraculous deliverance of Moscow from the troops of the Crimean Khan Kazy Giray. The monastery is dedicated to the Don Icon of the Mother of God, painted by Theophanes the Greek, after whom the monastery was named. According to legend, it was with this miraculous icon that Sergius of Radonezh blessed the Russian army for the Battle of Kulikovo, and later the intercession of the Mother of God helped protect the city from the invasion of the Crimean Tatars, who never again approached the Moscow walls. This was regarded as a divine miracle. Within walking distance from the Donskoy Monastery there is another famous place- Danilovskoye cemetery, the burial place of the Matrona of Moscow, where people from all over the country flock with the hope of healing and gaining health.

Many mysteries of Egypt are still not solved. Our northern land also keeps many secrets associated with ... the pyramids

The name of the highest mountain of the Solovetsky archipelago, Sekirnaya (its second name is Chudova Gora), is usually associated with the legend of a miracle that happened here - two angels at its foot carved the wife of a local coast-dweller, who on the Solovetsky Islands caught fish and mowed hay. From the word "sekli" supposedly comes the name.

The name of Mount Sekirnaya should have come not from the word "cut", but from - "ax" (medieval battle ax). It turns out that the angels were supposed to kill the Pomor's wife not with vices, but with battle axes. It is obvious that the legend of the monks with visses does not stand up to scrutiny...

man-made mountain

You are one of the supporters of the version of the artificial origin of Sekirnaya Gora, how do you justify this?

It is no secret that the islands of the Solovetsky archipelago are flat, as if they were ironed by a glacier, so the high mountains look like artificial formations on them. highest point on the Big Solovetsky Island is Mount Sekirnaya (or Sikirnaya, Sikirka) almost 100 meters high. Huge sand and stone mounds of the Solovetsky mountains were first described by the Solovetsky Society of Local Lore Studies only in the 30s of the twentieth century. But scientists then could not convincingly explain where such a high mountain could appear on flat islands among plains, swamps and small hills. Even then, scientists assumed that the highest mountain of the Solovetsky archipelago, Sekirnaya, was partly created by a glacier, and partly a pyramid of boulders, built several millennia ago by ancient people who inhabited the shores of the Arctic Ocean and the White Sea.

In August 2002, geological and geomorphological studies by Russian scientists confirmed the possibility of the artificial origin of Sikirka. Although the elevation itself (the base of the pyramid) was formed by glacial deposits, there is reason to say that from above it was indeed supplemented by mounds of artificial origin.

Look at the root

Ivan Ivanovich, but where then is the original Russian name for the ancient Solovetsky mountain, if this ancient pyramid? And why did the monks need such a strange legend about angels?

There are big doubts that the name of the mountain in general was originally Russian, Slavic. After all, the toponym Solovki itself, despite the consonance of this name with the Russian word "nightingales", has nothing to do with these birds, which have never been found here, beyond the Arctic Circle. And the legend of the angels, who supposedly expelled the local fishermen from Solovki, has been used by monks for centuries as an indisputable "proof" that the Solovetsky Island should belong to the monastery, and not to the indigenous people. However, archaeological evidence suggests that the Solovetsky Archipelago, thousands of years before the arrival of the first monks, belonged to the inhabitants of the White Sea region and served them as a sanctuary for performing ancient religious rites. The Novogorodtsy called these White Sea tribes of the arch-Pomors the Chud, and the local peoples, for example, the Nenets, called the word Sikirtya.

But how to prove that Mount Sekirnaya comes from a non-Slavic root and is associated with the Sikirt or Chud people?

If the name of the mountain Si-kirnaya (Sikirka, Chudova) is of pre-Slavic origin, then on the map of Pomorye one should look for a toponymic series of consonant mountain names. And we really do find it: at the mouth of the Pomeranian river Korotaikha, we find Mount Sikhirtesya (translated from the Nenets - the mountain of the Sikirtya people). And on west coast On the island of Vaygach we find the high cape Sikirtesale (in translation - Cape Sikirtya). Moreover, on all these mountains, archaeological evidence has been found that they served as ancient sanctuaries. Thus, the Solovetsky mountain Sikirka, apparently from the same toponymic series, is one of the sacred mountains of the ancient people of the Sikirtya (Chudi). By the way, the said sacred mountain at the mouth of the Korotaikha River, Sikhirtesya, as well as the Solovetsky mountain Sekirnaya, has a second historical name - Miracle Mountain! It is unlikely that such a toponymic coincidence can be accidental.

A bygone civilization is near

What does the name of the people Sihirtya mean? And what did this people have to do with pyramid mounds?

The answer to this is given by the ancient Indo-European root bases, consisting of consonant sounds skhrt (skrd, skrt), which, in a comparative semantic analysis, reveal much in common. In fact, skhrt or skrd in translation from the ancient proto-language means "an artificial mound of elongated shape." For example, this root is still found today in such a well-known word as a stack. So, a stack of hay - literally means an artificially created mountain of hay, which has an elongated shape. But a stack can be not only made of hay.

Based on the linguistic analysis, a version arose that "shrt" is a form of a primitive bulk prehistoric dwelling, like a giant stack of grass, moss and branches in which our ancient ancestors lived. I also want to draw attention to the fact that the same ancient root base "skrt" is contained in the word "hide", which corresponds to the purpose of the structure, because the main function of the dwelling is to hide from the cold or wild animals. The same ancient basis "skrt" is also in the Latin word "secret", which is equivalent to the word to hide. The terms with the same root base, despite the reduced letter "p", obviously include the word for the primitive dwelling "skit". People who lived in such primitive dwellings were called skitniks, and in the north they were called sikirtya (skhirtya, siirte).

It is curious that the first chronicle information of the Novgorodians about the Donenetsk cave population of the north (the Nenets came to the territory of the Pechora tundra from behind the Ural Range only in the 13-14th centuries) indicates that the tribes living there did not know iron and lived in caves. By the way, the Novgorodians themselves, fishermen and hunters of wild deer and sea animals (apparently, the ancestors of the current Mezen and Kanin Pomors) were brought to this northern people by representatives of other Finno-Finnish tribes of Ugra and Samoyeds who disappeared today. The name Pechora suggests that they really were cave people.

My house is my pyramid

But in the flat Pechora tundra there are practically no mountains in which today you can find such caves, and even so that cavemen could live in them ...

You are right: such "mountains" of the ancient cave people could only be artificial mounds-dwellings - huge stacks of peat and moss. In this case, it is understandable why, after a thousand years, there was practically nothing left of such dwellings and the "caves" dug in them - they turned into ordinary, not very large hills among the flat landscape of the tundra. But surely there are archeological artifacts preserved in the land of these hills. And periodically, archaeologists find traces of the Donets civilization in the tundra - bronze and stone tools, jewelry.

What is the Novgorod chronicle and what exactly does it write about the Sikirt people, who lived in such bulk houses-stacks?

This description can be found in the "Tale of Bygone Years", in its Laurentian list, where there is a story of the Novgorod boyar Gyurata Rogovich, whose youth went to Ugra and Samoyed in the 11th century. I will quote him almost verbatim: “The Ugra tribe told my youth about a miracle, about which they themselves heard only three years ago: near sea ​​bays there are huge, almost to the sky, mountains. In these mountains, shouts and a voice are heard, "and they cut the mountain, wanting to be flogged." And in that mountain a small window was pierced for negotiations. They do not understand the language and use gestures to explain that they need iron. And those who give them a knife or an axe, they pay in skins."

Are there no traces of the dwellings of this cave people left?

Traces, of course, remained: back in the century before last, Academician I.I. Lepekhin wrote: “The entire Samoyed land in the current Mezen district is filled with deserted dwellings of a certain people. They are found in many places, near lakes on the tundra and in forests by rivers, made in mountains and hills like caves with holes by a similar beast. In these caves they find furnaces and find fragments of iron, copper and clay household items.

As for the stone bulk mountains, like Sekirnaya (the big Solovetsky Island), Sikirtesale (on the western coast of the Vaigach island), the Sikhirtesya mountains (at the mouth of the Korotaikhi River) - these are no longer those residential buildings made of peat and moss, intended for living people, and the houses of the dead, pyramids made of stones.

Thus, these stone mountains "stacks" are monuments of the ancient civilization of the early protopomors, who thousands of years ago mastered the expanses of the ancient Arctic long before the arrival of the current indigenous inhabitants of the North. And our researchers still have a lot of work to do to study this history hidden in the earth.