City of the dead in cbr. Eltyubyu and the city of the dead in the Chegem river valley

[:RU]The Balkar people were formed over the centuries in the valleys and gorges of the high-mountain 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 Chegem river valley is one such place. Of the Chegem settlements, the greatest historical and architectural interest is Eltyubyu(El-Tyubu) - "The village at the bottom of the valley." Monuments of folk architecture for various purposes, belonging to different stages of the development of architecture, have been preserved here. One of the monuments of this most interesting village is located a little to the south on the slopes of the "City of the Dead", unique in 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 according to the plan and appearance: rectangular in plan and octagonal.

Rectangular:

Octagonal are later.

These small stone tombs with one window and a thin cornice, five or six meters high, are irregular convex octahedral pyramidal volumes with smoothly curved edges and faces, ending on top with a lump of solid stone.

The old Chegem builders did not know the real vault, arch, dome, and in all cases used only a false vault, that is, such a system when each stone slightly hangs over the lower one, gradually reducing the distance between opposite walls.

In addition, irregularly shaped stone walls were made thicker at the bottom than at the top. All this creates the originality of the silhouette, which distinguishes keshene.

Multifaceted mausoleums with cone-shaped or pyramidal endings 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 ones, unplastered), and in the Kabardian regions. All these monuments belong to the monuments of "Muslim" architecture. This gives grounds to see monuments of the Muslim period in Keshene Eltyubyu and date them no earlier than the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th centuries.

Built with the help of a false vault, the side walls of which are thinning upwards, gradually closing up, ending with a sharp ridge, rectangular keshene look exceptionally monumental and are perceived to be much larger than their absolute dimensions.

The relatively small Baimurza-keshene building, which has a height of 8 m 60 cm and a volume of about 160 cubic meters, subjugates the surrounding landscape with its monumentality, so that it seems as if it was created not by a person, but by nature itself.

It should be noted that the aesthetic impact of all burial structures is determined not by a heap 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 in the landscape. Only on one keshene there is a decorative decoration in the form of several prints on a fresh solution, either the neck or the bottom of the jug.

The entire territory of such necropolises is covered with wildly flowering mountain grass interspersed with bright barberry bushes.

In the hunt for gophers and other living creatures, birds of prey are circling

Part 1. Having captured the treasured letter of recommendation from the worker of the expedition, I went to Upper Balkaria. Bus
went there once a week. We left Nalchik at about 8 am. Quite quickly we slipped through the village of Nartan, the Alan fortification and the Kabardian mounds, and, after about an hour, we were already squeezed by the gorge, which was getting narrower and narrower. Three hours later, the driver stopped the bus at the Blue Lakes. Before that, I watched with curiosity the bridge over the canyon of the Cherek River, after crossing which we ended up on the left side of the gorge. On the bus, I asked everyone if anyone knew where the Musukovs lived. Only one girl spoke Russian, who said that she would take me to the Musukovs' house. . And she also advised me not to look into the gorge, as it could become ill. Indeed, it seemed to me that the rear wheel of the bus, sometimes, almost hung over the abyss, but what beauty, what exoticism. There were only 8 or 9 people on the bus. The entire back half of it was littered with food - salt, sugar, flour, most likely medicines and individual parcels, newspapers, magazines. It was already getting dark when we entered the village and stopped at the main and only store. The girl, together with her friend, went to see me off to the Musukovs' house.

Approaching the house, they rang the bell hanging on the gate post. A 14-year-old girl ran out of the house. They told her something in their own language. I gave her a letter of recommendation. She opened the gate and led me into the house, saying goodbye to the girls who saw me off. Her name was Aminat. She was my assistant and translator. She finished 7th grade and spoke good Russian. We entered the kitchen, or dining room, or living room, through a long hallway or hallway. To the left were long two-story bunks, on which four children's heads were already sticking out, examining me with questioning glances.

In the middle of the room stood a long wooden table covered with a tablecloth. To the right of the table was a large oven similar to a Russian oven with an alcove for making lavash. I was immediately treated to stewed tomatoes with pita bread. During the meal, I talked about myself, Leningrad, about the expedition. Frankly speaking, the road exhausted me so much that I fell off the stool, which was kindly set up for me, although Aminat and her mother, with a child in her arms, were sitting on the carpets of a raised floor, next to the table. After finishing the meal, Aminat took me by the hand and led me into the hallway, where she sat me on a bench and told me to wait.

After that, she came with a basin and a jug and, asking me to undress my shoes, began to wash my feet. I could do it myself, but she told me that it was their custom. After that, through a long corridor, she escorted me to the kunat-room for guests. When I entered there, I was simply stunned ... (to be continued)
Darkness soaked the mountains
The mountains have become a black fence.
The stars lit up, the stars lit up
I am in Balkaria. Open the gate door
creaking hello,
opened
Under a black blanket.
Eyes looked at me
I heard voices.
The door opened and the girl
She lowered her black eyes,
And the girl held out her thin hand -
"Sala maleikum" - "Maleykum salya"
Leaving the luggage not heavy in the hallway,
I enter, fastening the floorboard on the go,
I sit down on a big, big ottoman.
Untimely old age came to the hostess,
After all, no one interfered with this old age
And four of these beardless snot
They wove a running network of wrinkles.
She fled from the pecking eyes
In which the fire that kindled went out.
Minute, four and the ferry hanging,
I taste fragrant tea at a party.
Then talk about our city,
About life, about life ... And then, and then
After washing the dead man slept
And probably got up at 8 or 9.
The conductor was waiting for me in the morning.
He wanted to take me to the mountains.
Yes, there is a guide, guide
It is so necessary that the world seen
For the first time I felt
realized-
He's going blind, he's lost his sight
Trying to gain wings for a moment
Eagle feather and wing grow
……………………………………………………..
First, we walk along the river slowly
And Cherek wheezes with high water breathing.
Rapid melodious-legato, legato.
Thresholds - uplifting stokato.
Gardens - an endless crowd, treat
Smiling fruits - forgive murder
In the mouth, they immediately give up and melt.
And the roofless towers and huts collapsed
So the time of life ordered.
Caves, caves - blinding cracks,
Falls roar, spillways roar
And a dead bulk of cliffs colossi.
Balkaria is the capital of nature
And the lyre writhes, anticipating childbirth
Passionate poetry, golden verse,
But thoughts are not strong enough, our word is poor.
Or maybe mine, maybe I'm weak in words,
But the heart sings and dizzy.
Spinning from the beauties and emotions innumerable.
Yes! It's good here, thank you summer!

the road passes the village of Upper Chegem, the former name - Eltyubyu (El-Tyubyu) - "Village at the bottom of the valley", where we briefly stopped at the bridge over the Zhilgy-Su, a tributary of the Chegem. The Dzhilgi-Su gorge cuts the village into two parts.

It was impossible to skip past without stopping, because this is also a very interesting place.

Firstly, this is the birthplace of the national poet of Kabardino-Balkaria Kaisyn Shuvayevich Kuliev.

Kuliev once lived there,
there was his cradle,
there remained his saklya
on the banks of the Zhylgy-Su river.

This monument is the center of the village, around it people gather locals celebrate holidays and celebrations.

Secondly, the Upper Chegem is a museum under open sky. It is of great interest to archaeologists. In the center stands a 17th century watchtower, reminiscent of the towers of Svaneti.

This is the watchtower of the Malkorukov family.

But Dmitry hid something from us in this village:
Right there, near the bridge, there is a “stone of shame”, to which, according to legend, criminals were tied in the Middle Ages. Along the river Dzhilgi-Su, which flows into the Chegem on the left, the remains of Greek temples carved into the rocks are visible. A poorly preserved path in the form of a staircase carved into the rock leads to one of the former temples, located in a cave. This trail is called the "Greek stairs". Here, in the Kyzla-Kyuygenkaya mountain range (from the Balkar "Rock of Burnt Girls"), there is the Kala-Tubyu grotto - an ancient human site (13 - 15 thousand years old).
The path to the gorge is dangerous and steep,
Stones fall into a mountain stream
On a high rock along the wall
Along the path you will come to the writings.
Not far from the grotto is the ancient settlement "Lygyt", which belongs to the VIII-X centuries. AD, with underground wooden plumbing.
And, perhaps, he himself did not know this ... So, there is a reason to visit here again with more detailed tour! But we admired the local shop ...

After standing at the head of Kaisyn Kuliyev, having examined the tower and the surrounding rocks, we went further and, after a short time, became visible ancient necropolis, also known as the "City of the Dead", surrounded by a low wall, built of stones that were not fastened together.

In the "City of the Dead" eight ground mausoleums (keshene) have been preserved, four of which are rectangular with a gable roof,

and the other four are octagonal with domed,

as well as ancient earthen family graves, fenced with small stone walls, without any identification marks.

The necropolis belongs to the XI - XIV centuries. ad. The severity and grandiosity of the surrounding landscape is striking. You experience a holy awe.

Keshene stand above the village,
between the crypts on the ground
spread out in a thick carpet
juniper bushes.

The crypts, apparently, were looted, some were destroyed, it is not clear whether people or the raging elements.

Looking inside one of the surviving keshene

through a small, uncovered window,

and having examined the floor and the space under the dome, you will be convinced - they are empty. The walls from the inside, as you can see, are plastered.

If you think about it, there are many mysteries. Whether there was actually at least something there, how something was put there and how it was removed afterwards, remains unclear. The windows are too small...

Galina Vladimirovna picked up a couple of stones from the ground, intending to take them as a souvenir,

but, according to mature reasoning, I decided that let them stay where they were, it’s not worth taking anything from this place ...

Dmitry not only lifted us up to the clouds and brought us to this place, but also became our guide.

No detailed (and even brief) scientific information about the "City of the Dead" can be found on the Internet, at least I did not find it ... Experts are silent, so it's really not clear what these keshenes are, so I use retellings of other people's opinions and ideas, possibly erroneous ...

We didn't see this either.
Opposite the village, on the right bank of the Chegem, one can see the walls of a medieval caravanserai, one of the hotels that stood on the ancient trade route that once passed through the mountains of the Caucasus.
Caravans are long gone
From China to oblivion.
Framed by clouds
Sleeping legends of old.

Bypassing the crypts, again caught in the rain. How cold he was! But, as soon as, having set off on the return journey, we found ourselves at the paraplanodrome, the clouds dispersed and the sun appeared. Really, unique place! In general, if you do not find fault with individual details, the trip was a success. Possible repetitions in the future.

The Balkar people have been formed over the centuries in the valleys and gorges of the high-mountain part of Kabardino-Balkaria. The Chegem river valley is one such place. Of the Chegem villages, the greatest historical and architectural interest is Eltyubyu, where monuments of folk architecture for various purposes, belonging to different stages of architecture development, have been preserved. One of the monuments of this most interesting village is located a little to the south on the slopes "City of dead", unique in the variety of burial structures dating back to different times.

Photos and text nalchik360

Chegem Gorge. At the entrance to the necropolis:

City of dead:

Virtual panoramas of the Chegem Gorge. (The panorama is interactive, you have to wait for loading and control the rotation of the image using the mouse buttons or keyboard):

The panorama is interactive, you have to wait for loading and control the rotation of the image using the mouse or keyboard buttons:

The entire necropolis is dominated by several well-preserved monumental tombs - "keshene". They belong to different periods and are divided into 2 types according to plan and appearance: rectangular in plan and octagonal.

Rectangular:

Octagonal are later:

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 above the lower one, gradually reducing the distance between opposite walls:

In addition, walls made of irregularly shaped stones were made thicker at the bottom than at the top. All this creates the originality of the silhouette, which distinguishes keshene:

Multifaceted mausoleums with conical or pyramidal endings are found in the architecture of Central Asia, Azerbaijan, and the North Caucasus (in particular, in the Chechen regions, they are almost similar, but, unlike the Chechen ones, these are not plastered), and in the Kabardian regions. All these monuments belong to the monuments of "Muslim" architecture. This gives grounds to see monuments of the Muslim period in Keshene Eltyubyu and date them no earlier than the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th centuries.

The relatively small construction of Baimurza-keshene, having a height of 8 m 60 cm and a volume of about 160 cubic meters, subjugates the surrounding landscape with its monumentality, so that it seems as if it was created not by a person, but by nature itself:

The entire territory of such necropolises is covered with wildly flowering mountain grass interspersed with bright barberry bushes:

Birds of prey circle in the hunt for gophers and other living creatures:

As to when the Upper Chegem mausoleums were built, scientists have not come to a consensus even today. In general, it is generally accepted that they began to be built no earlier than the 13th century and were erected until the 18th century. "City of dead" - favorite place stops of tourists coming to the Chegem Gorge. Most of them are sure that many legends, mysterious stories are connected with this place. unusual facts.

And not smart...

The mysterious ancient Balkar village of El-Tubyu is the center of the history of the whole Balkaria. Ancient watchtowers, the remains of Greek temples and anomalous phenomena attract adventurers and connoisseurs of beauty here. This is the birthplace of the great Balkar poet and sage Kaisyn Kuliev.

The nature of the Verkhnechegemskaya basin is extraordinarily beautiful. In the south, the peaks of the Lateral Range (Kurmytau and others), more than four kilometers high, sparkle with eternal snow. Magnificent and impregnable as a citadel, Mount Karakaya (“black rock” - Balk.; 3646 meters), the highest in the Rocky Range, rises in the east. In its spur, in the Kyzla-Kyuygenkaya mountain range (from the Balkar “Rock of Burnt Girls”), there is the Kala-Tubyu grotto - an ancient human site (13 - 15 thousand years old). Not far from the grotto is the ancient settlement "Lygyt", which dates back to the VIII-X centuries. AD, with underground wooden plumbing.

The Chegem Gorge somehow miraculously combines the beauty of nature and the mysteries of history. Probably, this inspired the filmmakers to shoot the feature film "Sannikov Land" here. In the upper reaches of the Chegem - near the village of El-Tubyu, the Chegem waterfalls, the Adai-Su waterfall, a significant part of the film's action takes place. In the gorge, including at the waterfalls, episodes of the film by S. Rostotsky "A Hero of Our Time" (1965-1966) were filmed. In 1975, in the village of El-Tyubu, the film "The Horseman with Lightning in His Hand" was filmed.

The village of El-Tubyu resembles an open-air museum. When this village appeared, now no one knows. In a literal translation, "El-Tyubu" means "foundation of the village." Its name suggests that it was founded on the site of some even older settlement. When the current village was founded, there were already collapsed foundations of some more ancient buildings. The spirit of antiquity reigns everywhere here. Stone houses that are hundreds of years old have been preserved. In the center of the village we can see ancient tower, which, at the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th century, was built by invited Svan masters. This tower belonged to the local princes Balkarukov, who were related to the Tarkovsky shamkhals and in the 18th century. This tower is also called the "Tower of Love". According to legend, Akhtugan Balkarukov built it to defend himself from relatives, the beauty Kerime, a Kumyk woman, stolen by him in Dagestan. One of the sacred relics of the family was a 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 been preserved), and it had a school 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 used to be worshiped, seeing in it the patron saint of hunting Afsati; and the “sacred” stone of Bayram-tashi, and a stone of strong men weighing three hundred kilograms (the winner in the competition was considered the one who tore it off the ground) ...

Near the village, on a rocky wall, two ancient defensive Greek staircases go up, leading to a cave in which, according to legend, ancient Christian relics were buried, which are still being sought.

In ancient times, when the enemy attacked, people went up the stairs to the mountains, and the warriors took up defense above the stairs to bring down stones and arrows on the enemy. Climbing 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. Kuliyev in the form of a bust. Not far from here you can see ancient stone huts with flat sod roofs. Due to the lack of arable land, barley and oats used to be grown on these roofs, and after a meager harvest, goats were released to graze. These old 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 of Kum-Tyube (“sandy hill” - balk.) with a height of more than 3500 m. The “City of the Dead” is located. This array has been included in the list anomalous places Russia as anomalous zone"Alpha". Above its summit in the 1980s, mysterious night glows 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-Tubyu. Here, the "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 have been preserved. The ancient "keshene" are called "Christian", although they undoubtedly represent the result of the layering of a wide variety of cultural influences. Similar tetrahedral houses of the dead with gable roofs and a small window on 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 Karachay 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 gained some distribution among the population of Caucasian Alania in the early Middle Ages. According to Zoroastrian rites, a dead body was not supposed to defile 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. Likewise with water. So I had to isolate the body with the help of special facilities. 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), traditions continued to be preserved for a long time.

On one of the mausoleums of El-Tyubu, a stone “knob” has been preserved, which indicates 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, L. I. Lavrov writes: “An external examination of the Verkhnechegemsky burial ground makes it possible to distinguish seven types of graves in it: 1) an earthen mound lined with stones along 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, it is empty inside and, secondly, “has a small square window on the eastern side. That is, it is a small crypt, as if repeating itself external forms 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 octagonal) high roof, turning into a cone at the top."

Further: “Already a simple listing of the seven types encountered suggests that the crypts North Caucasus do not repeat the architectural tradition of certain, in the past, more cultured peoples that 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.

Recall that the scientist visited here in the summer of 1936, and 20 years later Timur Shakhanov found only eight of the eleven crypts. And here is what he writes about the crypt located behind the village: “... at a distance of a kilometer, in the area of Syugyulchu ichi, on the mountainside there is a lonely crypt (keshene). This crypt is hexahedral, the only keshene we have encountered that has not eight, but six faces. It is possible that this is an accidental error of the builder. The height of this crypt is 4.5 m, inside the dimensions are 240 x 110 cm, it looks like an irregular oval, narrows upwards, the window is 50 x 40 cm, it is oriented to the north-west, the wall thickness is 65 cm. There is a burial ground next to the crypt.”

Scientists date the construction of the mausoleums in different ways, but in general it is generally accepted that they began to be built no earlier than the 13th century and were erected until the 18th century.

The "City of the Dead", as these burials are also called, is a favorite stopover for tourists coming to the Chegem Gorge. Most of them are sure that many legends, mysterious stories, unusual facts are connected with this place. And they are right. What is worth at least this one: during the excavations that were carried out from the outside of the crypts, skeletons of sizes unprecedented for those times were found - two meters or even more. The question is: who, even after death, were guarded by those giants?

ELTYUBYU "OUT OF TIME"

And about one more publication of the Russian tabloid "Life"1 - that "in the mysterious Kabardino-Balkar village, the clock shows different time". It turns out that the tiny village of Eltyubi was examined by specialists from the Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism and Radio Wave Propagation of the Russian Academy of Sciences and found out that "this place is a unique chronal zone ... all processes here are slower than on the plain." Moreover, according to the correspondent, “the special course of time in Eltyubi is felt in everything. Houses built fifty years ago, despite the harsh climatic conditions to this day they do not even need cosmetic repairs. Refrigerators are not used by local residents even in the summer heat. No need. Products here do not spoil at all. People do not get sick and live very long. Time is known here only with the help of television. Because in each yard the clock shows a different time. As a rule, it is always less than the real one.

Why is this happening? The answer of scientists and esotericists-mathematical sciences Vladislav Lugovenko and the founders of the club "Aura" O. and B. Kolchenko is simple: Mountain peaks. The central point in this foundation turned out to be the lonely house of the M family. According to the property of the pyramids, which has long been familiar to scientists, the chronal effect should be maximum there. Acquaintance with the owners of the house fully confirmed the guesses of the researchers. Confirmation was that the owner of the house became a father at a rather advanced age, and, in addition, in his old age he started ... a woman on the side, to whom he regularly traveled on a donkey to a neighboring village. Everything, no more and no less - no other evidence is given in the article.

So, finally, a geopathic zone has been discovered, in which time slows down. But where is this very Eltyubi located? The place called Eltyubyu is known - it is also indicated on the maps, translated from Balkar as “village at the bottom of the valley”, where el is a village, and tyubyu is a floor, a bottom. Ask any inhabitant of the Chegem Gorge, they will answer without hesitation: “This is the Upper Chegem!”. Yes, in the handbook Concise Dictionary mountain names of Kabardino-Balkaria" directly states: "El-tyubyu is a village in the Chegem Gorge, also called Upper Chegem." The same Upper Chegem, to which several materials are devoted at once in this book, the same Upper Chegem, the surroundings of which we went far and wide, the very village in which people close and dear to us live. Yes, and the photograph illustrating the sensational material captures not only the "house of centenarians, located in the very center of the zone", but also the famous architectural monument- Malkaruk-kala tower.

So there is no mistake: the mythical Eltyubi is the real Upper Chegem. The only difference between the second and the first is that normal people live in it, whose watches, due to the wear of the mechanisms, happen to show different times. And television is always accurate: after all, it broadcasts from Moscow. Refrigerators are really not favored here - most of the year the climate allows you to do without them. Nevertheless, in many houses - we saw for ourselves - there are such devices. As for houses that do not require repair, this is how to look. If the Upper Chegemians had extra money, they would have repaired it long ago. And so you have to save a lot - after all, with the beginning of perestroika, the number of jobs in the village has decreased significantly. As for centenarians, there are no more of them here than in others. settlements Kabardino-Balkaria, - the data of the last census quite convincingly testify to this. We have noted almost all the unusual features of this place, with the exception of the one that has been given the appearance of the main evidence. But this is not a scientific question, but an ethical one. Including the ethics of the profession of both a journalist and a scientist.

The Upper Chegem does not live “out of time”, but in the time, moreover, the newest, all the trends of which (unemployment, low birth rate, lack of medical care) have, unfortunately, fully tasted.

And as for the “chronal zone”, it is really worth looking for here: the same talking Chegem mummies, which were described above without any fiction, don’t they testify to its presence? ..