This village with an unusual name for the Russian ear has been standing for several hundred years in the very center of Samarskaya Luka, on the Middle Volga. The time of foundation of this settlement can be determined only approximately. In any case, the famous traveler and explorer of the Russian expanses Peter Pallas, who visited these places in 1769, already then wrote about the village of Askuly in his diary as “old”.
Batu passed by
Although the first written mention of the village of Askula in documents dates back to 1740, experts have no doubt that the settlement was founded much earlier. It is much older than the Samara fortress, which Prince Grigory Zasekin placed near the confluence of the river of the same name with the Volga in 1586. Most likely, the Turkic-speaking Volga Bulgars were the first to settle in this place. And this happened no later than 1236, when the hordes of Khan Batu marched westward along the Samara Luka. The word "Askuly" is of Turkic origin and means "lower water".
Then, 800 years ago, the Tatar-Mongol army wiped out the neighboring Bulgar settlement, located 15 versts from Askula, which is now known in the archaeological environment as the Murom town. During excavations, burnt walls of ruined houses are still found here, among which there are Tatar arrowheads and spears.
Why did the aliens devastate the Murom town, but did not touch the neighboring village? This is due to the location of the settlements. The first of them was in an open area, but the Askuls still stand in the ring of a dense forest. Therefore, we can say with confidence that in the 13th century it was the thickets of the forest that saved local residents from nomads.
Olearius error
Promotional video:
In the vicinity of the village of Askuly, two ancient ravine valleys begin, which local residents call Shiryaevsky and Askulsky gullies. These places have always been considered a place of concentration of anomalous phenomena. For hundreds of years of communication with the wild Zhiguli nature, the local peasants have repeatedly encountered the mysterious. The memory of such meetings was preserved for subsequent generations in the form of legends and bylikas about the so-called underground Zhiguli elders, who most often met people in the upper reaches of the Shiryaevskaya valley.
Local legends have long attracted the attention of Russian writers. For example, here is how these mysterious underground hermits are described in the novel by P. I. Melnikov (Andrei Pechersky) "In the woods": "The Kirillovy mountains are parting … The elders are stupid, they worship the sailors in the belt, they ask to take their bow, kissing the brothers of the Zhigulevsky mountains in absentia …" another anomalous zone of Russia.
The river flowing along the Samarskaya Luka is mentioned in his notes in 1636 by the traveler Adam Olearius. But here he, apparently, made a mistake in the description, because usually the bottom of the Askul gully is always dry, but in the spring melt waters are rolling down its bed in a stream. Because of this, the ravine takes on the appearance of a rather noticeable and turbulent river. In May 1636, this circumstance, most likely, confused Adam Olearius.
English circles
There is also numerous evidence that the fields near the village of Askuly are one of those places on Samarskaya Luka, where the so-called English circles are observed almost every year. So in the ufological environment they call areas of agricultural crops, on which, unexpectedly for the observer, circles, rings or their combinations visible only from the air appear.
There is a supposedly miraculous source in the village
These circles are most often found in the early morning. Here is a story on this topic by the Syzran researcher of anomalous phenomena Nikolai Novgorodov.
- In the summer of 1991, I was driving with my family by car from Togliatti to Syzran. We crossed the dam of the Volzhskaya hydroelectric power station, passed the village of Aleksandrovka - and suddenly, at the edge of a wheat field, my brother Boris, who was traveling with us, exclaimed: “Look, circles! English circles!"
There were about two dozen of them, with a diameter of one to forty meters. There were ellipses and spirals, inside of which were preserved areas of untouched ears - a sort of "patch" with a diameter of twenty centimeters. Then we noticed several triangular bald spots on the field, resembling traces of some supports."
There is also more recent evidence of the observation of crop circles not only near Askula, but also near the neighboring villages of Sosnovy Solonets and Berezovy Solonets, near the village of Mordovo, the Churokaika reserve cordon and in some other places. The stories of local residents are recorded by members of the Samara non-governmental organization "Avesta".
Entertainment of the mistress of the Zhiguli
In the second half of the 19th century, the famous writer and folklorist Dmitry Sadovnikov, the author of the song "From behind the island to the rod", began to collect legends and stories from the inhabitants of the villages of Samarskaya Luka. Even then, he drew attention to the fact that most of the local legends and legends agree on the same legendary character - the mistress (or sorceress) of the Zhiguli mountains. According to legends, she lives in mysterious caves deep in the mountain range, only occasionally appearing on the surface and showing herself to people.
If at this time she meets a good fellow, then the hostess can invite him to her, to the underground palaces, promising fabulous riches and eternal life. However, until now, all the good fellows who met the sorceress have refused these benefits, and therefore the underground mistress is already here. for thousands of years it mourns its longing and loneliness. These tears flow from the rock into the Kamennaya Chasha tract, where the only water source of the Zhiguli mountains is located.
Another phenomenon from the local folklore is also associated with the mistress of these places - the so-called mirage of the Peaceful City, aka Fata Morgana. According to the descriptions, sometimes the peasants of the villages of Askuly, Pine Solonets, Anurovka and some others had an extraordinary vision in the morning fog. According to the villagers, it looked like a fantastic city with old houses, towers and fortress walls, as if hanging in the air against a background of foggy haze.
Usually this performance lasted only a few minutes, and then it disappeared as suddenly as it appeared. Of course, popular rumor attributed the emergence of such "pictures" to the magic charms of the mistress of the Zhiguli Mountains, who sometimes entertained herself in this way and entertained the local residents.
And in the legends it is said that strange creatures serve the underground sorceress - transparent white dwarfs, through which the surrounding trees and bushes are visible. They can suddenly disappear in one place and immediately appear in another. Like the elders, dwarfs often suddenly appear in front of a weary pedestrian in order to take him straight to the house, and then, having done their good deed, in front of everyone, they seem to fall through the ground.
At first, the first settlers of Samara Luka were afraid of the rulers of the Zhiguli dungeons and therefore did not risk wandering through the forests unnecessarily. However, they soon became convinced that the sorceress was distinguished by a peaceful disposition. She never offended people, and even more than that - sometimes she helped them in trouble.
According to researchers from the Avesta group, many of the legends of Samarskaya Luka have a very real basis. In particular, at a number of points of the Volga bend, scientists have repeatedly recorded unexplained surges or drops in the level of electric, electromagnetic and gravitational fields, noted streams of radiation emanating from the bowels or observed other physical anomalies. But so far they have only hypotheses about the nature of all these phenomena, which still require experimental verification.
Valery EROFEEV