Unusual places where people live. Prologue

People are amazing: they can catch a cold and end up in the hospital because of a light rain, or they can survive in the most severe conditions that humanity is experiencing very much.

We, the inhabitants of cities and villages, did not even dream of the trials that people face every day, being in different parts of the world. Somewhere people suffer from a lack of potable water, and the last time it rained was a little less than half a century ago. Other inhabitants of our world are overwhelmed by cold winds and snow, tempering their character.

In these regions, you will be ridiculed for your complaints about the weather and stuffy buses. It is time to find out where it is most difficult for a person to live.

1. Coober Pedy, Australia

Everyone knows that in Australia anything that moves will try to kill you. In addition to these dangers, the region also has a very hot climate, especially in Coober Pedy, where about 1,500 people live. Being almost in the middle of the desert, Coober Pedy boasts an average annual temperature of about 40 degrees. The landscape also leaves a lot to be desired, with sun-scorched lands, orange sands and rocks reminiscent of the surface of the planet Tatooine.

Everything is so severe that many residents hide in special underground caves that have been adapted for life. What makes the locals stay on this land? Coober Pedy produces some of the world's finest opals (a mineral used to make jewelry) and many of the residents are employed in the industry and make very good money.

2. Kandovan, Iran

Continuing the theme of strange dwellings, let's talk about Kandovan. Here people settled in hollowed-out cave houses that look like huge termite mounds. Some of these houses are about 700 years old! This is not your apartment from your grandmother in Moscow to inherit. Despite the difficult living conditions, local residents are not deprived of such benefits of civilization as electricity and the Internet. Apparently, the desire to watch cats on YouTube is too strong even there.

The climate here is quite suitable for a normal life, but there are other inconveniences. Since the houses were carved into the caves, the stairs and climbs are very steep. One wrong step can lead to a fall. The rooms themselves can be a real nightmare for people suffering from claustrophobia: low ceilings, miniature windows and doors, combined with narrow corridors, make this place not the most attractive place to live. If you are tall or overweight, then it is better to buy a ticket to another city, but here you have nothing to do.

3. Isertok, Greenland

The weather in Isertok will make you reconsider your views on the hearth and a blanket with a cup of tea, because the conditions here are one of the most extreme for life. Around this place there is no greenery and mountains, which means that the area is completely unprotected from the icy winds blowing through. People here are surrounded only by snow, gray rocks, cold bays and drifting ice, which have become an excellent place for the seal population in the region. The temperature is negative most of the year, reaching -45 degrees.

It is not surprising that today there are about 70 people in this region.

4. Citta di Castello, Italy

Even in the very heart of Europe, there may be a place where it is not so easy for people to survive. Castello is a small village with a population of about 150 people. The village is located at an altitude of 1452 meters above sea level, but what makes this place so extreme? The settlement is located in a place that is constantly flooded by rains and mountain mudflows. With heavy rainfall, the village turns into a huge lake. locals forced to put up with such conditions: the village is predominantly inhabited by old people who simply cannot afford to change their place of residence.

5. Atacama, Chile

Travelers describe this land as a place around which there is no vegetation, no birds, no animals. The harsh place, which last rained in 1971, can shelter only the most hardy and desperate people.

The only source of water that is available to the inhabitants is a stream seeping from the depths of the rock. But the problem is that in this water in large quantities contains arsenic, making it undrinkable. Due to the combination of cold ocean currents and mountainous terrain, it is physically impossible for clouds to form over the desert, so it may not rain here for a hundred years. Because of this, Atacama gained fame as the driest place, because precipitation here is 10 times less than in Death Valley.

But it's not as hot here as it might seem. The average annual temperature is about 25 degrees. Local residents extract water with the help of special "fog eliminators", on the walls of which water condenses, which is quite suitable for drinking. Despite all the difficulties, people have adapted and learned to survive in such conditions.

6. La Rinconada, Peru

This is the highest place on Earth where people permanently live. At an altitude of more than 5,000 meters, about 30,000 people found their homes. But the city was formed in such a harsh place for a reason. Next to it is a gold mine, which stores incredible reserves of the precious metal. True, this mine does not promise enrichment for ordinary hard workers, and all profits go into the pockets of the owners. The miners have a very specific payment: for 30 days they work completely free of charge, and on the 31st, any gold mined by the miners belongs exclusively to them. But no one gives guarantees that the workers will be able to get at least something on this day.

7. Verkhoyansk, Russia

Verkhoyansk is a harsh city located in the very center of Siberia. It is located on the banks of the Yana River, which has been frozen for nine months. Today, about 1,500 people live in Verkhoyansk. Residents of the city see the Sun no more than 5 hours a day, and the temperature in winter ranges from -40 to -60 degrees. Today, the city attracts people with a special one: those who wish can experience all the “charms” of the climate in this region.

"The place where the leader lives"

In 1871, the German traveler Karl Mauch, cutting through the thickets on the right bank of the Zambezi River, discovered majestic ruins, the likes of which no one has ever seen in Africa. Right in the jungle, overgrown and braided with creepers, there stood silently mighty walls built of hewn stone and built without any mortar, and round massive towers with a simple ornament of stripes.

Addition

Of course, this is only one of the hypotheses, one of many assumptions. There must have been hundreds of other reasons for the progress of human evolution. But the African geological catastrophes cannot be discounted. No wonder it was in Africa that the most ancient remains of humanoid creatures, hominids, were found. They are still very similar to monkeys, but they already stand firmly on two legs, live in a herd, hunt together and do not disdain meat food. Their remains differ from monkeys in something very significant, very important. So important that scientists, without classifying them as humans, cannot also attribute them to monkeys ...

Powerful defensive structures protected the dilapidated entrances inside. Who lived here? Who built these cyclopean fortifications in the very center of Africa - the “wild” continent, whose peoples, according to white researchers, did not know other buildings, except for adobe huts with leaf roofs?

When the traveler, accompanied by porters, went inside the building, he saw that behind the first circle of walls there was a second one, divided by stonework into small spaces. Here and there, numerous smelting furnaces, fragments of ore, slag and the remains of ancient melting crucibles caught my eye. Mauch moved from one crucible to another, carefully examining the remains of their contents. A few years ago, in the area between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers, he discovered rich gold placers. Suddenly, this find has something to do with the precious metal?

This is true! Some crucibles show traces of yellow metal. So, maybe he stumbled upon the ruins of the legendary country of Ophir - the country of gold? She was looked for in India, then in Africa, but was not found anywhere ...

A few years before Karl Mauch, the Englishman Adam Rendere visited these places. He briefly described some ruins of Zimbabwe, which in the Kaffir language meant "The place where the leader lives." But his article was ignored. But as soon as the word "gold" flashed in Karl Mauch's message, it immediately attracted greedy glances, especially in colonial England.

And when diamonds and gold were found in the land taken by the Boers from the Africans, the colonialists of Great Britain could not stand it. Once again, regular troops in British colonial uniforms crossed the frontiers to "help the Boers". The Anglo-Boer War began.

Whole European world sympathized with the colonists who fought against the English invaders. Few then thought that the Boers themselves took these lands from the local population. Only the belligerents knew and felt it. The British diligently set the African tribes against the Boers, and the Boers watched with alarm at the unreliability of their rear...

In the end, the colonists still had to lay down their arms and submit to the British. From the Boer republics and the British colonies a new state was formed - the Union of South Africa. His government began to support England in everything and organized a real terror directed against the local African population.

White minority politics in South Africa defined in one word: APARTHEID. In the Afrikaans language, which is spoken by the descendants of the Boers - the inhabitants of South Africa (since 1961, the country has adopted the old name - the Republic of South Africa), this word means "separate existence of white and colored inhabitants of the country." At the same time, all the wealth and rights are in the hands of the "whites", and the lack of rights falls on the share of the "colored".

The lands of the Republic of South Africa turned out to be extremely rich in rare minerals. There is a lot of gold and platinum, uranium, antimony, manganese and chromium ores, excellent diamond mines. Has grown in the country and its own industry. The working class emerged. Every day the consciousness of the South African working class is growing, and the power of the democratic forces is growing. And no terror will stop the movement of those who defend the democratic rights of the peoples of the country. The imperialists know this. Know and fear...

Well, how did the story of the discovery of the mysterious stone complex of Zimbabwe - Places where the leader lives - end? For a long time, scientists did not know what to think. Hypotheses were put forward according to which these buildings were allegedly erected by visiting specialists from Asia or Europe. Or maybe they were built by aliens in general ...

Today, the ruins of Zimbabwe have been explored in the most advanced physical ways. Other buildings were found nearby, similar to the Place where the leader lives. Everywhere during the excavations, archaeologists found a lot of iron spearheads and arrowheads, hoes and axes, found shards of Persian faience dishes, Chinese porcelain and Arabic glass. This means that the people who lived within these walls were not only skilled builders, experienced metallurgists, but also enterprising merchants. Out of what distant countries brought goods...

When did the first settlements appear here? Precise physical instruments showed that the oldest buildings date back to the 6th century AD. Scientists have come to the conclusion that the ancestors of the modern Bantu peoples created the culture of Zimbabwe. And on its basis, around the 14th century, here, in the area between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers, an extensive state formation of Monomotapa was formed.

Few travelers who visited here in those days told real miracles. The king of Monomotapa was, according to them, so rich that he received guests sitting on a golden throne, and weighed golden dust with golden weights depicting various fish, insects and plants.

Oh, how the Portuguese and the Dutch, the Arabs, the British, the Indians and the French, the Persians, the Belgians, the Danes… wanted to get to the gold of Monomotapa! It didn't work! The fabulous riches of African kings remained legends. And when the first conquerors nevertheless penetrated the virgin forests, the cities turned out to be abandoned and overgrown with jungle. As in other countries of that era, African states were at war with each other. Some rose, others fell. Weakened by internal unrest and the struggle against the Portuguese colonialists, Monomotapa at the end of the 17th century was captured by the tribes of other African peoples, who were replaced by new conquerors. Large cities that stood on the banks of full-flowing rivers fell into decay. Trade routes are overgrown. The secrets of metal production were forgotten. But there was a time when life was in full swing here.

It is believed that it was in Africa that people first got acquainted with iron. No one on other continents had ever known this hard, refractory metal compared to copper and tin, but here bellows were already puffing, forges and furnaces were burning hot. Blacksmiths forged beautiful tools from the new metal, which were convenient for cultivating the land and harvesting.

In the western regions near the shores of the Gulf of Guinea, amazing varieties of velvet were made from the tender leaves of a banana tree. Today, his secret is irretrievably lost. They wove crease-resistant materials, shiny and flexible, like silk ... They carved wonderful sculptures from wood and ivory. And spears and bows were decorated with ornaments of such amazing beauty that they would worthily take a place in any armory. And what magnificent masks, gold pendants and bracelets were produced by black jewelers!

As in the rest of the world, the Black Continent developed its own original civilization, in no way inferior to either Asian or European cultures.

Foreign colonialists took it by surprise, trampled, destroyed it. They mixed the peoples of Africa, setting the boundaries of colonial possessions, regardless of the historically established national boundaries.

But the time of the colonial regime has passed. One by one, the young African states shake off the remnants of foreign domination and choose their fair path of development. Never again will the past return to the lands of Africa.

It's no secret that Europe, which was once extremely religious, is no longer so. Modern society in the West considers it possible and even to some extent fashionable to “settle in” ancient monasteries and churches, rebuilding them into residential buildings.

Date: February 07, 2014

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