Since ancient times, mysterious tunnels have been preserved to us, twisting Europe from Scotland to Turkey. More than 1200 of them have been found in Germany and Austria, Bavaria. Even in central France, clusters have been found. These tunnels have intriguing parallels to the routes of Irish and Scottish monks who traveled the continent as missionaries in the 6th century and were known for their inappropriate behavior.
German archaeologist Heinrich Kusch, who took an active part in the expedition, claims that the tunnels were discovered in hundreds of Neolithic settlements across the continent. According to him, the fact that these labyrinths have not been destroyed for 12,000 years testifies to their enormous original size.
Most of these labyrinths are slightly wider than large wormholes, he said. That is, the size is quite sufficient for a person to crawl through, but nothing more. True, in some places the narrow aisles have small indents, more like living rooms, or storage rooms, or rooms. Labyrinths do not always and everywhere lead to the top, but taken together they form a massive underground network.
The builders of such tunnels used spiral construction, which required preliminary design of the pattern on the ground. Perhaps that is why four types of labyrinths are now distinguished - kidney-shaped, horseshoe-shaped, concentric-circular and round-spiral. It is known that a stone pyramid stands at the center of each horseshoe-shaped labyrinth.
What names were not given to all the tunnels - the twists and the girls' dances, the roads of the giants and Nineveh, the games of St. Peter and the fall of Jerusalem. People have always wanted to reveal the secret of these mysterious structures and therefore came up with options for their appearance.
Some believed, and even believe that the network of labyrinths was a way to protect people from the beast, while others are highways designed for safe travel away from war, violence and weather over the earth. Still others say that criminals used to stay in the dungeons. Others say that the labyrinths were places where the sick could get rid of suffering. However, if this is so, there should have been at least some remains of people. There is none of them.
Or maybe the majority of people are right, who generally associate tunnels with various legends and myths about druids, demons, evil gnomes, kobolds, fairies and other undead? However, this version is very real. A sand tablet with a picture of a goblin with a tail was found on Lake Constance near the city of Lindau. And if we assume that the ancient people painted only what they saw.
In addition, the ancient discovered scriptures testified that these labyrinths should be considered as paths to the underworld, the doors of which are opened only to people who know special spells and the exact time of opening the entrance, or to those who found themselves near the entrance at the moment when the doors open. … Only a brave man could get into the land of eternal youth, where the gods lived.
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But were the inhabitants of the underground labyrinths gods? Or they were just inhabitants of other worlds, such as gnomes, elves, goblins and others. That is, those who were feared and shunned, communication with whom they avoided by all means. And who lived separately from people according to their own laws. They also never wanted to be meddled in human affairs, as man did in theirs.
By the way, there is another version. Scientists looked in these labyrinths for various tools of labor, but in vain - they were empty. There are no remains of bones, no burials in them, there is nothing that could help solve their mystery. In the center of the labyrinths there is either an absolute bare article, untouched pebble, black stone mounds, boulders placed on the edge, and dolmen boxes. One gets the impression that nature itself created all these inexplicable moves.
Only there is a small discrepancy here. Firstly, remember, at the beginning of the article, they talked about the strange parallel of the tunnels on the path of the monarchs, and so, if the tunnels were created by nature, this would not have happened. Well, Nature will not look after the kings (her children), it’s just absurd.
Another mystery of the labyrinths is their exact location on coins made in ancient Crete. On the one hand, this is nothing special, because the very word "labyrinth" has penetrated to us through the ancient Greek myth of the Minotaur. Probably everyone has heard of this creature, to whom the ancient Greeks sacrificed their daughters. Until theseus went down to visit the monster for his Ariadne and defeated him, freeing his country from the shameful tribute.
Nobody knew what the Cretan labyrinth looked like until A. Evans went on an expedition. Having begun excavations in Crete, the archaeologist discovered a huge palace of hundreds of rooms. It was decided that this is the mysterious dwelling of the Minotaur. After all, it really cost nothing to get lost in it, and everything else is an invention of poets. But later it turned out that the Greeks understood the “labyrinth” as a labyrinth, which means that this building was intended for something else.
Interestingly, the double spiral on the coins of Crete exactly matches the pattern of stone labyrinths inscribed on the northern cliffs. Just where did people get this spiral and what did they want to convey with this drawing? After all, there is nothing like this either in Greece or in Crete itself! All attempts by archaeologists to find out anything ended in failure.
The first small step towards discovering the secrets of the northern labyrinths was made by the archaeologist Vinogradov during his time in captivity on the Solovetsky Islands. He, having bypassed all the surroundings of the area, sketched all the labyrinths he encountered, individual stones and tombs. As it turned out, they are all interconnected. He dismantled one pile of stone, but found nothing. Just as another archaeologist, A. Ya. Bryusov.
But still, it was at this time that a bold assumption appeared that the labyrinths are sanctuaries, extraordinary huge altars left by the most ancient unknown people of the world. And they are connected with the other world, where the dead rule. It was along the spirals that the souls of the dead had to pass in order to get lost among the labyrinths and not come back. That is, the labyrinth opened the way for the souls of dead people to the Other world.
This theory had to be proven by the presence of the burial remains of those people who left on their last journey through the labyrinth. And you know, such remains were unexpectedly found by the archaeologist A. A. Kuratov. He found burnt human bone and, next to it, the remains of quartz in one of the rings of the labyrinth. The archaeologist's find confirmed that the heaps of stones near the labyrinth were nothing more than ancient burials. This was also confirmed by the location of the tunnels near the sites of ancient people.
It would seem that everything, the riddle of the labyrinths can be considered solved. But it was not there. There were no stone heaps next to other tunnels located under Europe, which means there were no burials. It was difficult to call them the entrance to the Kingdom of the Dead, since most of the labyrinths were located far from any settlements. One could call these labyrinths altars, but even this version is refuted by the length of the labyrinths. Why did the ancient people need such long tunnels, and even located in different places?
An interesting fact is that labyrinths in European countries appeared at the end of the 2nd millennium almost at the same time. It is also interesting that on many rocks on the shores of the White Sea, ancient people left various rock carvings that illuminate their lives and ways of obtaining food. But nowhere … there is no picture of labyrinths. Maybe they were forbidden to draw? And if so, why?
Do not think that the very first studies of the labyrinths will reveal their secret. We cannot answer which of them are more ancient and which are simply imitative. But this is important. In modern or primitive magic, the principle of imitation of any event lies. And even an incomplete knowledge that arises during the period of the primitive impulse leaves behind only action. This is how valueless rituals arose. The same should have happened with the labyrinths, which over time turned into the same symbol of ancient civilization as the Orthodox cross.
And here's what else is interesting in connection with this.
Many researchers were at a loss as to why the labyrinths are called "Babylon". Why exactly Babylon, the eternal city - mentioned in the Bible and already found by archaeologists in our time - gave the name to all these tunnels? And why in Northern Europe it is customary to coincide with the labyrinths of fairies who are the keepers of the secret of eternal life. However, these two facts, being interconnected, explain the existence of each other.
In Celtic mythology, there is a city (island) of Avalon, whose inhabitants are fairies. The gates of the city are opened only to a select few. And, most likely, it was he who became the progenitor of the name of the labyrinths "Babylon". At the same time, the very name of the city in translation means “apple”. We recall the rejuvenating apple, the story of which also arose from Celtic legends. Add here the shape of stone labyrinths, very similar to the cut of an apple, and everything turns out to be interconnected.
As a result, doubts about the coincidence of coincidence disappear: the stone labyrinths are to some extent indicators of the proximity of other dimensions and spaces. And, perhaps, they themselves are unknown to us "communication channels" of the Universe, the existence of which we began to suspect only now.