Surely everyone remembers the myth of the Minotaur or heard about the famous English Stonehenge. Meanwhile, it is quite possible that we also have our own labyrinth, not far from Voronezh - in the Ostrogozhsky district, next to the Mostishche farm. Who and why created this miracle? And will it be possible to find the answer to at least one of his many mysteries?
Over three rivers
The Mostische farm is located between three chalk hills. An amazingly beautiful view of the valley of three rivers - Don, Potudani and Devitsa opens from the peaks. Such places have attracted people since ancient times. Around there are forests rich in production, an abundance of fish and free pastures. And if you build a rampart, install a palisade, the settlement on the hill will turn into a reliable fortress, inaccessible to unfriendly neighbors.
There is little to see from the maze in Mostishche now. It was badly destroyed, and what was left, archaeologists tried to bury it underground. On the surface, you can find only isolated white stones, barely visible in the grass. But judging by the plan created by archaeologists, the structure was large and complex.
It is not surprising that archaeologists have noticed this place long ago. Back in 1957, an expedition from the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Sciences discovered on the central hill an ancient settlement of the Scythian era, who settled in the southern Russian steppes in the 6th – 4th centuries. BC.
And in 1983, the archaeological expedition of the Voronezh State Pedagogical University under the leadership of Arsen Sinyuk found traces of more ancient tribes that inhabited these places as early as the III millennium BC. Little remains from that era - an accumulation of stones. But soon scientists realized that these stones are not scattered in disorder, but form six concentric rings-ellipses. Then a bold hypothesis was born: the old building is nothing more than a labyrinth, the only one in central Russia.
The ellipse of the labyrinth is elongated along the northeast - southwest line, the outer boundaries of the structure are 26 × 38 m. Most of the stones are chalk, but there are also granite boulders - a rock not typical for these places.
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Ancient sanctuary
Why was this unusual structure built? Researchers agree that the labyrinth could have been an ancient sanctuary. At the same time, there is a version about its astronomical purpose. The fact is that granite boulders clearly indicate the direction to the north, the points of sunrise and sunset on the days of the summer and winter solstices, the spring and autumn equinoxes.
Arsen Sinyuk believed that the sanctuary was built by representatives of the so-called Ivanobugorsk archaeological culture. For the first time its traces were found on Ivanovo Bugr - hence the name. The Ivanobugorsk people were forest hunters and fishermen and at the same time communicated with the population of the steppe.
The people were very conservative, they did not use the achievements of their neighbors and even in the Bronze Age they retained the way of life characteristic of the Neolithic - the new Stone Age. Except in Mostishche and Ivanovo Bugr, this culture is not found anywhere else.
Place of power
And yet, the fact that the Mostishchensky find is a labyrinth is only a hypothesis. The trouble is that the monument has come down to us badly destroyed: even the Scythians began to take away stones for building materials.
Although 2.5 thousand years have passed since then, archaeologists are not confident that our contemporaries will treat the construction more carefully: in the end, it was decided to bury the ancient stones again. A tourist will not see anything in this place except a hill overgrown with steppe grasses.
Nevertheless, the hill with the labyrinth buried in it is very popular today and, above all, among enthusiasts who are keen on searching for paranormal phenomena. According to eniologists - supporters of the theory of energy-informational interaction at a subtle level - Mostishchensky labyrinth is a "place of power" with a special energy.
“The radiation of the labyrinth is felt at a distance of up to 2 km and covers nearby villages,” says Alexander Sukhorukov, chairman of the committee for the study of anomalous phenomena in nature. - Being in the epicenter, people feel drowsiness, light dizziness, pleasant tingling throughout the body, especially along the spine, and enter a state of euphoria, increased activity, the body's healing processes are turned on.
Light swaying occurs. All this may even be accompanied by visions. It is important to get out of resonance in time, because the energy is very strong. Some time after relaxation, a state of increased activity sets in."
The labyrinth has even gained international fame. So, tourists from Germany came here for group meditation. According to German fans of esotericism, Voronezh and 100 km around the city is the “heart chakra of Europe”.
“I don't really believe in this, but megaliths really have amazing energetic properties,” says Alexander Sukhorukov.
Unsolved mystery
Will we learn something new about the labyrinth and its builders? Or has the veil of millennia hidden the truth from us forever? Archaeologist Valery Berezutsky, one of the labyrinth discoverers, is not optimistic.
“The entire area occupied by stones has already been explored,” said Valery. “Moreover, not all researchers consider this structure a labyrinth. I also have doubts. For example, we dug up, as it seemed to us, one of the turns of the maze, and then it turned out that this is a natural outlet of chalk. This is often the case in archeology.
Maybe this is a discovery. Or maybe a misunderstood object. The difficulty is that after the Ivanobugorsk people, at least two or three peoples lived there. Only from the Scythians there were 126 household pits, carved in chalk. And it is very, very difficult to catch the labyrinth among the piles of stones."
The archaeologist is also skeptical about the fact that the pilgrimage to Mostishche is gaining momentum every year.
“Yes, I talked with people who say that energy flows to them in this place,” says Valery Berezutsky. “Maybe that's true. But there is no guarantee that it comes from the labyrinth."
In a word, everyone decides for himself whether to believe in the labyrinth and its magical powers or not. Evidence is unlikely to be found to convince a stubborn skeptic. For enthusiasts, a fragile hypothesis that opens up room for imagination is enough. Be that as it may, it is important that another secret awakens interest in the turbulent past of the forest-steppe expanses of the Voronezh region.