In fact, it is unnamed. Long-distance drivers call it Shaitan's Gorge. This place is located in Tajikistan near the Dushanbe-Kulyab highway, about an hour's drive from the regional center.
Not a good place
Safar Odinaev, the driver of the Dushanbe motor depot of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, told me about it back in 1973. He himself is a native of Kulyab and often traveled along the above-mentioned path. Here is his story:
- Everything seems to be ordinary there. It is no different from other places. The road is like a road. You roll yourself calmly, and suddenly the horror takes. And always in the same place. In others, nothing like this happens. And sometimes you see everything in the sky - spots of fire, dark balls fly, a column of light hangs … Sometimes strange people appear. But I just say this - people, in fact, can't find names for them.
Yakub, Safar Odinaev's replacement, adds:
- I also noticed that the place is not good. Once or twice a strong fear attacked me there - for no reason. Already the hair stood on end, moved. And I did not understand the reason for this. True, sometimes it is not fear, but, on the contrary, some kind of relaxation, serenity. Because of what some drivers' cars flew into a ditch, but Allah saved me. Once I almost drove off the road, but at the very last moment I seemed to wake up, twisted the steering wheel … There are all kinds of visions here. Once I’m looking, the beauties peri have gathered in a clearing with green grass and are dancing and singing. They are dressed unusually for our places, and the music is not at all similar to ours, Tajik, and neither is it Russian. As if unearthly. I never did. On another flight, something suddenly made me stop, leave the car and go to the Shaitan Gorge … Ok, I managed to overcome myself,I remembered in time what the guys I knew said - you can't slow down here. He jumped into the cab, turned on the gas and drove away … Then he told his people in the garage. So the oldest driver praised: right, they say. entered. It could have ended badly. Better not to go there at all.
Promotional video:
A dead bride
And just an incredible story I heard from a chauffeur named Jafar:
- It was there, near the Shaitan Gorge, that the engine of my car stalled. The hour was beating. I can’t do anything. It was getting dark, I prepared to spend the night there. Got some brushwood, lit a fire. As soon as I ate, a girl came to me from the darkness: slender as a poplar, and light. the grass will not bend. I looked closely and found out: Nuri, my bride! My head was spinning, I lost my mind. She and I caressed each other, hugged, kissed, she began to lay me on the grass, but I managed to stop myself, said that this should not be done before the wedding, it was not good. For a long time she tried to persuade me, more and more insistently and insistently, then she got offended and went back into the night. It was as if some kind of shroud was asleep, the dope disappeared, and it dawned on me that it was not Nuri who had come, although she looked incredibly similar. My fiancee died a few months ago … In the morning, the engine started immediately, as if it had never broken down.
Tales of illiterate drivers
All these stories interested me very much. In libraries later I looked through many books, articles about the Kulyab region, but I did not find anything on the topic that intrigued me. Then he met as a journalist with experts, asked them about the Shaitan Gorge. but they just threw up their hands. Not everyone believed me, they called the stories mysticism or "little bitches of illiterate drivers."
By the way, the situation is quite typical. The drivers who often drove there noticed something unusual and tried to tell their superiors about it. And people (including bosses and scientists), who had never seen the Shaitan's Gorge and had never seen it in their eyes, categorically declared that this could not be, because it could never be. Well, this does not fit into their heads. A real scientist, as I think, should follow the facts, study the phenomenon and only then draw conclusions.
In a word, I had to turn to the drivers again. Some confirmed that the Shaitan Gorge is "unclean". According to them, there were several cases when empty cars were found there without drivers and without passengers, but with intact cargo, sometimes very valuable. Where did the people go - a mystery!
True, one person was found. He was in a completely deranged state, without a flash of reason: he muttered something, gestured, answered questions inappropriately - it was impossible to understand anything. I had to send him to the doctors.
Bobo Runner
Unidentified flying objects frequently appear in that area. You can also see living creatures wonderful in appearance. They resemble either huge insects, then extinct dinosaurs, or fabulous freaks, or people, but with any difference in body structure, with an unusual skin color. Someone argued. that he even met people with wings there.
Once I went on an urgent business trip to Kulyab. The driver Mirzobek was a talkative, cheerful person. We talked to him all the way. Suddenly he darkened, the nodules went on his face. Noticing my surprised look, he explained:
- We pass the Shaitan gorge. Not a good place.
I began to look around, but did not notice anything unusual. I told Mirzobek about it. He burst out:
- Do not let Allah see something!
- Have you seen?
- It happened. In the past year. I reached this place and decided to pass it as quickly as possible. Suddenly I see a bobo (old man) walking ahead. Stick in hand. She walks, doesn't even look back. I put on the gas, I don't turn my head on either side - as if I could not see something like that. I only look forward. And suddenly I realize that I can’t catch up with bobo. I step on the gas again, the engine roars, the speed is just tremendous. And he walks and walks in front, the distance does not decrease … I already shook, covered with goose bumps. And the bobo is gone. I look back - not behind. Then I saw that I was still at the gorge, as if I had not passed it. I don’t want to talk. Bad place. We must pass it as soon as possible and not remember, otherwise it will not be good.
Here's a story. I really wanted to visit the mysterious gorge, but, alas, I didn't. Only once did I rush past in my car. In addition, during the "stagnation" times, writing on such topics was not particularly allowed. Anything incomprehensible was declared superstition and mysticism. And after the well-known events in Tajikistan, there was no time for Shaitan Gorge. I had to leave the republic, which had become sovereign, to Russia. So the mystery is still waiting to be solved.
Hell smells of sulfur
By the way, not too far from this place, on the banks of the Vakhsh River, there is a mysterious mound about eight meters high. It is composed of rounded stones. Someone does not see anything unusual in it: they say, the stones were brought here by local farmers from the fields. Someone is sure that the mound was erected by the soldiers of the legendary Iskander Zulkarnein (Alexander the Great), who once conquered the local lands and peoples. But the third version is indirectly related to the Gorge of Shaitan: they say that here you can find the entrance to the underworld of evil spirits. From time to time, people observe strange celestial phenomena over the mound. which science calls UFOs. Some locals do not dare to approach the stone mountain. They explain it this way: they saw some creatures there "in the glow of black light." No matter how I asked eyewitnesses, they could not explain to me more precisely. Black light is hard to imagine.
I was at this mound. I saw nothing unusual, but I felt the smell. It smelled of sulfur. And sulfur, as you know, is an indispensable attribute of hell …
Alexander Ziborov. Magazine "Secrets of the XX century" № 3 2011