Far from thinking in this work to consider all modern myths (the authors will try to solve this problem in a series of subsequent books planned for publication), consider the myth of the world underground and its application to the Volga region. Modern cumulative mythology inherited the idea of the ancient world about the existence of a huge underground world, a system of special channels - tunnels connected with the world of the Earth's surface.
The myth of the Underworld is discrete - from the rather primitive idea of the Hollow Earth, developed by the Ariosophists at the end of the 19th - the beginning of the 20th centuries, bypassing many intermediate forms - this myth reaches such heights as the Buddhist doctrine of the underground "folded" worlds of Patal, Sheol or Conjugated multidimensional worlds of modern physics.
In simpler forms, in various regions of the Earth, the myth tells of people or entire tribes who took refuge in magical kingdoms deep in the earth. It seems impossible that there could be any connection between these tales. But as you study this topic carefully, you begin to notice the special coincidences of these legends.
Every entrance to the smallest cave, every crevice in the rock suggests that someone has already gone there or lives there. Every stream, especially an underground one, turns the imagination towards underground passages.
In mythology, the Lower World appears as the source of all kinds of wealth. Grain is thrown into the ground so that it sprouts. Ore is mined from the ground, and treasures are hidden there. In this regard, the caves are perceived as the shortest way to reach the Lower World, possibly an object, a special cult. In the era of matriarchy, people believed in the image of the "Mother-cave" associated with the female womb, where the sun's rays penetrate, the celestial phalluses.
But caves and the lower world are not always perceived as good. In modern culture, there is also a mythical fear of the terrible "Death in the Deep". So, its most striking representative is Kitum Cave, located on the border of Kenya and Uganda. She is surrounded by dark legends. It is believed that it was from its mysterious depths that unwary "tourists" raised the Ebola virus to the surface.
Indeed, many caves, especially tropical ones, are dangerous. Their air, water, dust, excrement of underground animals, such as bats, can be infected with the smallest spores of various fungi and pathogenic bacteria.
To this must be added new dangers hidden today in the depths of the earth. In modern Russia there are more than 350 underground burial grounds of chemical weapons containing more than 200 thousand tons of poison. Such burials were sometimes made in concrete burial grounds, and sometimes just in caves or trenches, part of the ammunition was dumped in swamps and lakes. To date, only a fifth of such burials are known.
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In Hindu mythology, the image of semi-divine creatures with a snake body and a human head has been preserved. They own the underworld - patala, where their cities and the capital of Bhagavati are located. They are considered sages and magicians and in human form often live among people, guarding their secret entrances to the underworld.
Many explorers of Central Asia talk about the underground country of Agartha and its guiding tunnels that encircle the whole world. The legends of Central America keep the memory of the underground country of Xibalba. In the mysterious dungeons of the extinct volcano Mont Shast, California, USA - the "Ancient People" live. They are peaceful, but always avoid any contact with travelers. They live in a huge underground city, where secret underground passages lead.
There is a legend that a number of European scientists (there were 98 of them, including the "legendary" Landini) teamed up with Guglemo Marconi James in Latin America to create a secret city of scientists inside the crater of one of the extinct volcanoes in southern Venezuela (more about this, the authors will tell in the third book Cycle "Playing Shadows").
This is a legend. In fact, archaeologists at the end of the 20th century discovered in the Shirali crater in Anatolia (Turkey) a cave city - Karapynar. It was built around the 2nd century. There are many floors - the levels are interconnected by narrow stairs and vertical manholes punched into the rock. Some corridors have locking stones. Here, from the inner sides of the corridors from the side niches, stone blocks roll out, similar to millstones. His ventilation system continues to work to this day. Passages connect Karapynar with three more cave settlements located within a radius of 20 km from the crater. Archaeologists have not worked there yet. Many passages are flooded by the waters of a deep lake located in the center of the volcano.
Let's look at some examples
According to the legends of the aborigines of Australia, under the mountains of the Great Dividing Range lies the vast underground country of Binumia. There is at least one known cave on the territory of Samarskaya Luka with an underground siphon lake, quite long and deep.
The ancient legends of Europe have preserved the memory of the underground labyrinth of Paris, the Fontaineblon forest and the "Saracen holes" in the Lyon region. In America, this is the legendary cave of Philip's father, a missionary - treasure hunter who allegedly found the treasures of the Apache Indian tribes in the Victoria Mountains.
No less legendary is an amazing formation - "Devil's Hole", located in a desert place of Nevada (USA), its size is 9 x 12 m. The distance to the water table here reaches 120 m. Nobody knows the full depth of this crevice. According to the legends of local residents, various underground creatures penetrate into our world through this "hole".
In Germany, they remember the caves of the Nibelungs along the banks of the Rhine, where magic gold was hidden and where Frederick the Great sleeps "with eternal sleep". (_According to a legend dating back to the Middle Ages, Frederick I Barbarossa "sleeps" in the underground tomb of Mount Kiefheiser. His nephew Frederick II is immersed in sleep in the mountains of Salzburg.
“One wonderful day, when the dried pear suddenly bears fruit, the Sleeping King will rise from the ground and reassemble his shelves …” _).
In Ireland, in the province of Munster, there is a belief that in the secret dungeons of one of the local mountains there is the tomb of the ancient king Conan. "There will be no healing unless the Chalice is delivered … The Dead King lies on an underground bed untouched by decay, his soul is captivated." And a magic key is hidden in the tomb. And if this key is found, then it can be used to make the magical island of Pra-Brasil rise from the bottom of the sea.
Polish historian Stanislaw Sarnitsky, who lived in the 16th century, reports:
“Russians are trying to convince them of their miracles and heroes, who are called heroes, that is, demigods. They were buried according to the Russian custom in mountain caves, which, as if, like underground corridors, stretch over vast spaces, from Kiev to Novgorod the Great”(Annals, 1585).
Modern legend reports that one of the first polar expeditions of the American Admiral Richard Byrd “discovered in northern Alaska a hole in the earth's crust, which opened access to a vast underground region with a tropical climate. (_In 2001, a message flashed on the Internet that in 1980 a huge hollow space was discovered near the coast of California under the ocean floor _). In Alaska caves, lakes with warm water, vegetation and animals very similar to dinosaurs have been discovered. All this Byrd allegedly filmed on film and described in detail in his diaries. The existence of these underground passages linking Eastern Siberia and Alaska under the Bering Sea is believed to be one of the secrets of the American Department of State.
Indeed, in 1929, American polar explorer Richard Byrd (1888-1951) became the first pilot to fly over the South Pole in an airplane. He later visited these places in 1947 and 1955. It was these his travels that gave rise to a lot of mysterious rumors and assumptions.
On the Volga, in the Urals, in Altai, on the Kola Peninsula, they remember the Chudi - a people who once went underground. “When the Russians came to the Urals, and Chud heard the bell ringing, they built themselves underground shelters in remote places. But the Russians also entered the forests. Then Chud cut down the pillars of her “underground dwellings” and buried herself.
Here is the entrance to the great underworld. When Chud entered the underground passage, she closed the entrance with stones. Now we are standing right next to this underground entrance …
While exploring this hill in Altai, I (Nicholas Roerich) recalled how, while crossing the Karakarum pass, my guide, pointing to the caves, told us:
“Long ago, people lived here, now they have gone underground. They found a passage to the underworld. Only very rarely do some of them appear again on Earth."
The French explorer Rene Guenon assumes the existence in our world of one or more underground "spiritual centers" where the treasures of true knowledge are kept. At the beginning of our time cycle, they were relatively open and accessible to physical perception. The steady process of spiritual decline, entailing division and obscuration in all cosmic and planetary spheres, has caused an ever-growing gap between the very idea of tradition, those who keep it, and those to whom it is intended. So, over time, the repositories of knowledge-traditions descended from the top of the World Mountain into the hidden World Dungeons.
In the "Primary Chronicle of Nestor" in 1096, the following information is preserved:
“In the mountain (overlooking the sea bay) there is a small window cut through and from there they say, but do not understand their language (those who live in the mountain), but point at the iron and wave their hands. They ask for iron. And if someone gives them a knife or an ax, they give furs in return … The way to those mountains is impassable because of precipices, snow and forests, and therefore they do not always reach them (mountain inhabitants)."
René Guénon thinks that “Tradition” can be “darkened” or “distorted”, but by its nature it cannot be stopped. Sooner or later, a search begins, a movement leading “seekers” to its restoration.
N. K. Roerich in his article "Buried Treasures" noted:
“Suddenly, movement starts. Wandering singers, monks and beggars walk in an endless stream - they carry wonderful legends written in a kind of secret language. These are the bearers of the Vesti … At times you can see these people and their strange letters … The "instructions" wander around the world - they are waiting, waiting for what will be able to understand and decipher their meaning. - From the Red Field you will go to sunrise. Follow this path until you see the grave mound. Climb this hillock and go left to Rusty Creek. And then up the stream until you see a huge gray rock. On it you will find the footprint of a horse's hoof.
Here are the treasures that open the entrances to the underground worlds. They are waiting, famous and unknown, sung and not sung, legendary and nameless … They are waiting for the Deadline."
Sometimes this Deadline comes and experts, following the instructions of myths, make amazing discoveries. So, in 1963, in the central part of Asia Minor (in Turkey), in the Cappadonia mountains, archaeologists found a huge underground city. It was named after the Goreme Valley. Seven tiers went to a depth of 85 m. The walkways and galleries were over 30 km long and could accommodate over 20 thousand people. Each passage to the underground galleries was tightly closed from the inside by huge boulders - "hatches" of a rounded shape.
The famous French speleologist Norbert Caster, having successfully overcome the siphon of the Montespan grotto, discovered the world's oldest caveman statues.
According to one of the modern myths, it was the Inca treasures, hidden by the guardians in the Cordillera caves, that “supported” the Indian uprising in Peru in 1915.
Some of the treasures were converted into money, with which they purchased weapons. It is a myth. But in reality, in the summer of 1947, a Palestinian shepherd found the most valuable Hebrew manuscripts in one of the caves 2 km from the shores of the Dead Sea.
According to Spanish legends from the time of the Conquest, at the end of the 20th century, the Inca caves in Mount Huacarana were discovered and explored. Tunnels, cut exclusively in hard rocks, led to the underground chambers of the island of Guanaco, running under the seabed at a depth of 25 m. According to foreign press reports, in 1974, the strange caves of Los Tayos were found in the jungles of Ecuador. These are systems of intricate passages with a total length of about 5 km. Their walls and vaults were incredibly smooth, as if someone had melted these passages in the rocks. This happens if a heated steel rod is introduced into a piece of ice. Later, the exploration of these caves for some unknown reason was stopped. A similar story is told about a certain cave of Sotano de Las Golondrinas, located in Mexico. Its depth is more than a kilometer, and its width is several hundred meters. This is a real "man-made" (?) Labyrinth,whose walls are even and smooth. In the limestone plateau, the surface of which is dotted with sinkholes and sinkholes, there is a labyrinth of passages with a total length of more than 48 km. There are many grottoes and halls. Water, seeping into the cave through limestone, is collected in deep underwater rivers.
There is a legend that in South America, under the leadership of Jesuit monks, 650 Indians from 1767 to 1778 were engaged in the construction of a huge treasury. The main gallery, carved into the rock, was 188 m long, and in some places it reached 40 m wide. There was a huge man-made labyrinth with false passages, dead ends, turns, thick partitions. Poison was scattered in these passages. There were many other traps, such as overturning stones.
In the Lombrive Cave, near Ornolak, in the 12th century the Cathars built a secret underground church with many corridors, several kilometers long. After the defeat of the movement, hundreds of believers immured themselves there and chose to die of hunger, but not renounce their faith.
According to legends, the now famous Mammoth Caves were discovered in Kentucky, USA. They represent the largest network of caves in the world, with a total length of all passages and halls of 240 km. The Karladskaya Cave complex, located in the state of New Mexico, is not much inferior to these caves. This is a grandiose system of halls with a currently explored length of about 50 km, going down to a depth of 403 m.
In Russia, since ancient times, they tried to use, as well as explore the underworld.
One of the myths describing the exploration of underground spaces says that once Ivan III, going around his possessions, excavated the Sineus mound. He ordered to dig four pits, get the finds, and then fill everything up so that the mound would remain intact.
Several indirect evidences of the increased interest of the Russian military in the underground structures of antiquity have survived. According to unverified information, in the mid-30s of the 19th century, a decree of Tsar Nicholas I was issued - to compile a complete description of castles, fortresses and other ancient structures (including underground ones) throughout the Russian Empire. A special group of specialists was even created, according to the myth of subordinates directly to the Chief Executive Officer of the Office of His Imperial Majesty State Secretary Taneyev (the authors do not know whether such a person actually existed). Perhaps the interest in the underground world of the Russian military was provided only by the activities of individual prospectors.
So, A. V. Eliseev, during a trip to Syria in 1884, describes the underground city of Tiversada, one of the most curious structures in Palestine. “The rows of these caves run on a cliff at an altitude of 60 fathoms and are practically unattainable by man. These caves are beautifully finished and communicate with each other, forming a vast cave city. Further, there is another group of caves, where several thousand people can fit. All the individual caves are connected by stairs and passages, light wells cut into the rock. There are many tanks for collecting and storing rainwater …”In his diaries A. V. Eliseev describes the Zakhl temple, carved into one of the rocks of mountain Lebanon, the dungeons of Bet Jibrin and Beni Zeltana in Tunisia, a huge underground complex of ancient water cisterns of Carthage. He visits and inspects the underground complex of the Valley of the "Cursed Baths" in Algeria and the system of underground canals and galleries connecting some wells in the oases of Southern Sahara, laid at a depth of 30 or more fathoms.
The catacombs on the Oka in the Kaluga region are marked with legends. It is believed that earlier here the passages stretched for many kilometers. Then the vaults settled or were blown up.
Preserved "speleological legend" that at the beginning of the XX century in the Arkhangelsk province professor Antonovich discovered a system of artificial caves from the Stone Age. “The cleared caves were long, peculiar corridors, over one and a half meters high and about a meter wide, going deep into the soil in different directions. One of them, about a hundred paces long, deepened in a spiral and represented, as it were, a turn of a huge screw …”.
Where these caves were found and what their fate is today is unknown to the authors. There are legends about an extended system of natural caves and "man-made passages" that existed in the 17th-19th centuries in the Cyril Mountains on the Volga. This system extended for many hundreds of meters and led to the "underground churches" and secret "prayer halls".
At the end of the 19th century, Old Believer asylums became widespread in Russia. They were of two kinds. The first is a hut or two, three in a forest wilderness, more often on an island lost among a swampy swamp. The second is a dungeon, quite ramified, of two or three or more interconnected compartments with a common well-type entrance.
In the 18th century, somewhere in the Urals, drawings of a large cave and a phallus of a similar menhir were made in it (Archive of the Academy of Sciences. F.21, Op. 5, D.39-47). It is interesting to note that this cave sanctuary, fixed by the artist's pencil, also somehow imperceptibly disappeared from the field of view of the researchers.
Perhaps here we are talking about a place with the poetic name "Leaky Stone", located on the Ural river Chusovaya. There, a steep stone slope still relatively recently formed some kind of a huge human face with a "cave-mouth", in the depths of which an ancient sanctuary was found in the 18th century.
It has been established that Russian pre-revolutionary speleology is the work of individuals who do not have proper training and equipment, which predetermined their rather modest results.
There is unverified information that a certain sect of "underground workers" was formed in Moscow a few years before the start of the First World War. It was made up of people who felt an irresistible need to go down and live there, below, a small, closed colony.
The experience of the First World War has shown the effectiveness of the use of underground defensive structures. In a number of European countries in the early 1920s, work began on the construction of branched defense systems: in France - the Maginot Line, in Germany - in the west, the Siegfried Line, in the east, the Oder Line, in Finland, the Line Mannerheim ", in the USSR" Stalin's Line ", in the north-east of China - the Manchurian fortified area, etc. The offensive firepower that existed during this period was not capable of solving the problem of overcoming such defensive systems. Consequently, specially trained assault units were needed, capable of conducting offensive operations in underground conditions.
The specifics of underground combat imposed significant restrictions on the use of conventional types of small arms. Explosions, impacts of fragments, ricochet of shells and bullets can cause unpredictable collapses that block the system of underground passages. It seems that flamethrowers and a number of other specific types of weapons that do not cause concussions are the most effective means for conducting underground battles. Such exotic vehicles as underground tunnels could play a special role in the assault on underground facilities, as well as in the evacuation of blocked garrisons. According to unverified information, in 2001, a group of A. Kuvichinsky and V. Lebedev within the framework of the Telespetsnaz program on NTV, an old experimental underground passage was discovered at one of the long-abandoned underground facilities. In the USSR, according to modern legends,General Tsiferov's group worked on the machines of this design.
The experience of the Second World War showed that it is preferable for the attacking army not to storm underground objects head-on, but to bypass them; then blockade the defending garrison, gradually forcing it to subsequent surrender. In subsequent years, the appearance of heavy bombs, missiles and shells capable of going to great depths and only after that explode, made the construction of such shelters ineffective. The entrances and exits on the surface, as well as various nodes of transport communications, turned out to be especially vulnerable.
It is believed that "extensive" evidence of the "underworld" of Russia was collected and presented in the report of the famous speleologist - archaeologist I. Ya. Stelletsky "Underground Russia" (_I. L. Stelletsky (1878-1949) as a speleologist, one of the first to explore the Biblical caves of Trans-Jordan, the tunnels and quarries of Jerusalem, the undergrounds of Constantinople, Alexandria and many other cities of the East. Since 1907 he worked on the study of the undergrounds of Moscow According to legend, the entire "underground archive" of Stelletsky was seized by the Cheka immediately after the October Revolution, although the researcher himself worked in Moscow until his death in 1949, periodically conducting various surveys under the auspices of the NKVD_).
The report was made at the 15th Archaeological Congress in Novgorod, where the amazing "indifference of archaeologists" to the dungeons was noted (the report was preserved only in fragments, however, like most of the other works of the researcher).
There is a legend that in the first years after the revolution, the special services showed an increased interest in the underworld (20). It is said that already in 1921 a special speleological expedition was sent to the Kola Peninsula to search for "Varangian treasures" under the auspices of the Cheka. She arrived safely in the work area, and there her trace is lost. According to unverified information, in the early 30s, a special unit of specialists was created in the structure of the OGPU-NKVD, designed to act (as well as conduct hostilities) underground. The unit's emblem was "The Bat". (_Two types of modern emblems are known. The first, a white outline of a bat against the background of the Globe, with the inscription of the RF Armed Forces in the upper part and military intelligence, in the lower part. The second, black outline of a bat against the background of the Globe crossed out by lightning,with the words special forces at the top and armed forces at the bottom. There is an image of a white bat as the emblem of the army intelligence units. An emblem (from the Greek emblema) is an insert, a convex decoration, a conventional designation of an abstract concept that carries the hidden meaning of the represented phenomenon or object _).
Bats (Microchiroptera) are a very ancient group of mammals “equipped” with echolocation, leading nocturnal or crepuscular life, capable of significantly changing their body temperature, depending on environmental conditions. Most often, bats live in caves, adits or tree hollows, during the hunt they destroy a large number of insect pests.
It should be noted that in the early 1930s the bat emblem appeared in the West as well. Batman became her personification. This is a man dressed in a special bat costume, fighting evil in its various manifestations and hiding from enemies in man-made dungeons.
Batman is the personification of a certain secret group of people who develop and manufacture various unique equipment and equipment in secret dungeons, including the bat costume itself. A suit that allows the hero to "fly", move at high speeds, suddenly disappear in the dark, see in the dark, and has many other very useful properties necessary in the fight against evil.
