The anomalous zone on the border of the Shatura and Gus-Khrustalny regions has been known for more than one hundred years. The extremely high number of missing people in its territory brought her gloomy fame. Perhaps no other anomalous zone in Russia can boast of such an "achievement"
Before the baptism of Russia, not only pagan gods were worshiped here, but also the Serpent, to whom human sacrifices were brought. It is believed that the temple dedicated to him survived, and this mysterious place seems to be sometimes seen by travelers wandering into the thicket. Back in the 19th - early 20th centuries, the idea of the existence of a temple was so rooted in the minds of the local population that even famous scientists and historians of that time, including
P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky, wrote about the presence of an ancient megalithic complex in the Shatura forests as an indisputable fact …
The very name "Shatura" is connected with the serpent cult. It comes from the ancient Slavic words "shat" - "hill", and "ur" - "the main serpent, the serpent king." Obviously, in ancient times, the temple of the Serpent was on a hill surrounded by sacred trees.
They tried to find the temple even before the revolution. Many attempts were made in the 20th century as well. The enthusiasm of the search engines was
fueled by rumors that one of the local residents had seen the place of worship of the Serpent. The temple is described as a granite hemisphere with a diameter of about six meters, surrounded by the same granite pillars. A stone statue of the Serpent once stood on the hemisphere. All attempts to find a building were unsuccessful. Local historian Viktor Kazakov explains this by the influence of a certain magical power possessed by ancient megaliths. In his opinion, under the influence of such a force, the temple is either submerged under the ground, then pushed back.
An unusual species of plants and trees should grow in the vicinity of the temple. It happens that people find them. So, in 1970, a group of schoolchildren led by their director Nikolai Akimov, passing through the forest, found themselves in a rather strange place. Upon their return, the participants of the hike told about two-meter ferns, aspens in two girths and birches with square trunks.
Mysterious disappearances
Documentary disappearances of people have been recorded since 1885, when the old Kolomensky tract was being repaired in the vicinity of Shatura. Once, as if into the water, a whole train of four carts with people and iron implements sank. The police combed the forest several times, but to no avail.
The legend of the disappearance of an entire village in the Shatura forests also dates back to pre-revolutionary times. Relatives of people who had fallen through the ground for a long time then came to this place and looked for them in the swamps, but they did not find anyone.
A new surge in the loss occurred in the 1920s. At that time, large-scale works were carried out here to drain swamps and produce peat for power plants. The authorities concealed such incidents in every possible way. But there were so many disappeared that the NKVD officers, in order to correct the statistics, enlisted them as “deserters” and “enemies of the people” and entered them on the lists of those who were shot or sent to distant camps.
In the post-war years, there were always more unsolved cases of missing persons in the police department of the Shatur and Gus-Khrustalny districts than in the police department of neighboring districts. "Lost" were sometimes found, but only "city" ones. About those who did not return from the forest, since then there has been no word or spirit.
Since the 1960s, expeditions have begun to visit here, trying to unravel the secrets of these places. The search engines seem to have succeeded in dispelling some legends. For example, the strange visions of ghostly figures, about which there are many rumors, the researchers attributed to hallucinations caused by intoxicating fumes of bog gas. They also tried to explain the disappearance of people by the same. As if those, having gone far into the swamps and having breathed, lose consciousness and are sucked in by the bog. However, there is no evidence that such deep loss of consciousness is possible from swamp fumes. And in general, a person here is able to disappear in those places where there are no swamps.
Some of the expeditions also ended tragically. Some of the participants, having gone “for five minutes,” disappeared suddenly and forever. More than once, search engines began to suffer from severe headaches or, for some inexplicable reason, hair fell out. A case was recorded when three researchers at once from head to toe were covered with a strange-looking sore, which is why one of them later died in a local hospital.
Misty reptile
Popular rumor stubbornly ascribes to the Snake the habit of eating living people.
In general, reptiles are often seen here. The most striking thing is that even unusually large individuals are met - up to five meters in length. Biologists deny the possibility of the existence of such large reptiles in the local forests. However, such evidence is constantly coming in, and it is unlikely that all of them can be explained by hallucinations caused by swamp gas. The same N. Akimkina saw them.
Some of the cases seem completely fantastic. “One day my friend and I got out of the tent at four in the morning,” says a member of one of the expeditions. - We were awakened by a strange sound, as if something large and heavy was being dragged nearby, like a pipe or a log. The dawn was just beginning, it was still dark. Suddenly Vladimir (that's the name of my friend) grabbed my hand: "Look there!" Behind the trees, I saw a line of white mist creeping across the ground. We approached. The sound, oddly enough, came from this fog. His strip really looked like a curved flexible pipe that was constantly moving, making it all seem alive, crawling in one definite direction. At that very moment it dawned on me: a snake! A huge snake was crawling past us, its massive body, dragging noisily along the ground, for some reason was covered with fog!Vladimir thought the same. We were seized by such a strong fear that we, without a word, ran back to the camp. They raised the comrades to their feet, but the strange sound had already ceased and no creeping fog was observed any more.
Young people were not the first to come across snake-like foggy formations here. We saw them even before the revolution.
How to tame a bloodthirsty disposition?
There are also reports of "fiery snakes". During the catastrophic fires of 2010, when fire was carried by the wind and moved along the treetops, several photographs of the fire whirlwind were captured. Upon further close examination of the photographs, the flame turned out to be like a winged dragon with a large head that opened its mouth.
People believe that as long as the temple exists, the Serpent will also exist, which lies in wait for travelers who have entered the forest.
Ancient temples were built on "places of power", where powerful energy emissions are observed. Researchers have repeatedly recorded anomalies in the magnetic field strength in the Shatura zone. It is assumed that their epicenter was in the place of occurrence of ancient megaliths.
It is possible that the mysterious snake-like entity that hunts people is also associated with the magnetic anomalies of the "places of power". The pagans managed to tame her bloodthirsty disposition by building a temple in honor of the Serpent and bringing him human sacrifices. Having lost them, the entity began to hunt on its own.
Igor VALENTINOV
Secrets of the XX century № 34 2011