A beautiful place in the middle reaches of the Volga hundreds of years ago received the name "Samarskaya Luka" - from the word "bend". The most famous is the northern elevated part of this Volga peninsula, which has long been called the Zhigulevsky mountains. Due to the unique diversity of natural landscapes, as well as representatives of flora and fauna living on its territory, Samarskaya Luka is included in the UNESCO catalogs as a natural and historical monument of world importance. However, the Volga bend is included in another, no less famous list compiled by organizations researching anomalous phenomena. So, in their opinion, unusual and largely mysterious processes are manifested in the Zhiguli mountains ten times more often than in other regions of the planet.
POLARS OF LIGHT
However, if scientists are just beginning to generalize materials about Zhiguli anomalous phenomena, then for the old residents of this Volga region, any devilry there has long been no surprise. In any case, local tales and epics abound in miracles of this kind, which Samara researchers of the native language began to write down in the 19th century. Ory folklorists even then noted that some of the Zhiguli legends in some way echoes the Ural, Bashkir, Mordovian and Tatar legends, but still most of them have no analogues in the oral folk art of Russia.
There are villages on Samarskaya Luka and in the Zhiguli Hills to this day, whose history goes back many hundreds of years. These are, for example, Shiryaevo, Podgory, Vala, Askuly, Tornovoe, Shelekhmet and many others. Information about the very first inhabitants is lost somewhere in the mists of time, and therefore even the famous traveler Pallas, who visited this region in 1768, called these villages ancient. It is not surprising that over hundreds of years of communication with the wild Zhiguli nature, the local peasants quite often encountered something mysterious and inexplicable, and this remained in the memory of the people in the form of legends and epics.
The collector of Samara folklore Sadovnikov heard one of these stories in the period between 1870 and 1875 in the village of Shiryaevo - in the same one in which around the same time Ilya Repin wrote "Burlakov on the Volga". This is what the locals said.
After Ilyin’s day, Ivan Mukhanov, a man from Shiryaev, went to the forest for firewood, but he was late. And then the twilight caught him. He was greedy, loaded firewood well - the horse barely trudged along. Well, Ivan does not lose heart, the road is familiar. He purrs a song under his breath and looks so that the wheel does not slide into the hole. And already the night had descended over the mountains, with each step darker and darker. The first stars appeared. Ivan thinks: "It's still seven miles to the house, no more, I'll get there by midnight, and I'll unload the load tomorrow."
Then suddenly the horse jerked and began to snore. “Are the wolves? - Ivan shuddered. - No, where are they from here in the summer? They don’t come so close to human habitation even in winter.” He also thought about the bear. Only suddenly, by accident, he glanced to the left - priests, light over the mountain! Really, he thinks, he lost his way and drove past his village? Looked around. Although it is dark, the road is clear. Yes, and the horse sensed the proximity of the house, started almost at a run. Vedomo, a village nearby, only three versts left.
And the light over the mountain is still flaring up, and it is as if it is already a pillar. Now he was already behind. A chill ran down Ivashka's back - not otherwise the goblin wants to knock him off the path. Thank God, the horse rushed up the hill in an instant. How many times he was baptized, Ivan does not remember, but the last time he overshadowed himself with a sign, when he entered the gate. And then from the old people I heard that it was the Mistress of the Zhigulevsky mountains after Ilyin's day, she went out for a walk at night, and the light from the door of her underground room was standing over the forest all night long.
Promotional video:
FROM ARCHIVE
This tale corresponds to messages collected in different years by independent Samara and Togliatti researchers about the so-called columns of hard light. They are described as strange, stationary rays, shaped like luminous columns or cylinders, as if hovering several tens of meters above a forest or road. Here are some entries:
May 1932. Early Sunday morning. In the pre-dawn semi-darkness, an observer (his name and surname was not preserved), who was in the Frunze glade in Samara, saw a strange ray of solid light that arose beyond the Volga, over the Zhigulevsky mountains. The beam had no visible source. For some time it hung over the mountains and over the Volga, then dropped sharply down into the water, causing clearly visible waves. After contact with water, the phenomenon disappeared.
August 1978. Summer pioneer camp "Solnechny" near the village of Gavrilova Polyana at the foot of the Zhiguli. At about 11 pm, a vertical column of light appeared in the sky, which was seen by about 200 people. For several minutes he hung motionless over the mountains, then began to descend. Further evidence is contradictory: the overwhelming majority of eyewitnesses simply lost sight of the object, but several people assured that bright rays hit from it in different directions (including in the direction of the camp). After that, the pillar disappeared from sight.
End of August 1988. Several observers at night, about 23.30, saw green light spots over the Volga and distant Zhiguli. They appeared in the air and quickly disappeared. The spots looked like ellipses and vertical stripes.
These and other facts were collected by experts from the non-governmental research organization "Avesta". This is how young scientists-enthusiasts who decided to study the age-old mysteries of the Samara Territory named their group back in 1983. And although now the majority of the "Avestovites" are already under 50 and many of them hold respectable positions, all the same, these people remain the same fanatical researchers of Zhiguli anomalies.
For a quarter of a century they have been studying the unofficial history of the Volga region, hidden in legends, legends and myths. In their opinion, folk tales are interesting already because they are far from always pleasing to the authorities, and therefore for centuries they retain those facts and observations that do not fit into the official point of view and cannot be explained from the standpoint of the dominant religion and science.
By now, the archives of "Avesta" have accumulated a lot of descriptions of Zhiguli pillars of light. By the way, one day Oleg Ratnik, vice-president of Avesta, a teacher at the Samara International Aviation and Space Lyceum, saw such a phenomenon with his own eyes. According to him, it happened in August 1998 near the village of Shiryaevo. Here is how Oleg Vladimirovich commented on what he saw:
- From the point of view of rigorous science, the notorious pillars of light are not mysticism at all, but a completely real phenomenon with a natural basis. In particular, we believe that the vertical glow over the mountains can appear during air ionization, which always occurs in the zone of action of powerful electromagnetic or radiation radiation. The source of such radiation can be underground deposits of uranium and radium. Indeed, back in the 1980s, geologists established that in the Samarskaya Luka region, these rocks lie at depths of only 400-600 meters from the earth's surface, and therefore it is quite possible that natural radiation periodically breaks out through peculiar windows in the Zhiguli mountains. It was then that the columns of ionized glowing air appeared over the forest. But how exactly these windows are formed, modern science cannot say for sure …
MIRACLE UNDERGROUND
Almost all local legends and traditions speak of the mysterious inhabitants of the Zhiguli dungeons and unusual visions. The most famous is the so-called mirage of the Peaceful City, which is mentioned in his book by the Holstein traveler Adam Olearius, who visited the Volga region in the 17th century. Other names for the same phenomenon are Fortress of Five Moons, White Church, Fata Morgana and others.
This mirage is most often observed near the Molodetsky and Usinsky kurgans, as well as in the area of the lakes that stretch between the villages of Mordovo and Brusyany. At dawn, a ghost town may suddenly appear in front of the astonished traveler, only to disappear again in a minute or two. Those who have seen this mirage tell of a fairytale castle with a white fortress wall and turrets with white flags flying.
This mirage is also mentioned in the collection "Pearls of the Zhiguli", published back in 1974. Here they say about him as follows: “And when the sun rises in the east over the Volga, the palaces and walls of the Mirny city become visible over the river. He stands in the old way and waits for people to need his wealth."
However, sometimes on the Volga bend you can see other phenomena, which are in many ways similar to the Peace City. Among them is a mirage called "Temple of the Green Moon" in the form of an amazing iridescent tower. He was observed more than once near the villages of Zolnoye and Solnechnaya Polyana, as well as in the area of Strelnaya Gora.
Another worth mentioning is the waterfall of tears mirage. Popular rumor connects it with the well-known spring Stone bowl, as well as with the disappearing lake, which is located in the Yelgushi tract. According to legend, all these water sources were formed from the tears of the Mistress of the Zhiguli Mountains, who to this day mourns her beloved. Anyone who sees the Waterfall of Tears can find a secret door to the Mistress's underground chambers. However, it is not recommended to enter there, since the traveler risks remaining forever in the bowels of the mountains as the eternal groom of the underground ruler.
Geological data indicate that in a number of points of the Zhiguli mountains in ancient times, in fact, waterfalls could exist. In this regard, the researchers attribute the described phenomena to the group of so-called chronomirages. It is assumed that they are reflections of the realities of the distant past, projected into the present.
There are several descriptions of such chronomirages in the Avesta archive. They were seen by the members of the research group themselves. Here is a record of observations from November 3, 1991, made by the president of "Avesta" Igor Pavlovich.
“About 21 hours 15 minutes above the Volga in the area of Krasnaya Glinka local time, a neat square hole suddenly appeared in thunderclouds. A red ray seemed to run along its perimeter, which fanned out, flashed and went out. Immediately after that, a vision appeared in the sky window: the coast of the sea bay, bounded by a ridge of low hills overgrown with forest. A chain of sand dunes ran from the hills to the water. It was a bright sunny day in that distant world, small white clouds crawling lazily across the sky. Suddenly, many black dots appeared over the otherworldly hills. They seemed to have moved from the depths of the image towards the observer. Following this, the clouds surrounding the window began to move, began to converge and in one second they closed a square hole in the sky."
Another group of Zhiguli myths concerns the underworld of the Volga mountains. For scientists, he remains terra incognita to this day. In particular, there are very interesting epics about ghostly men who suddenly appear from under the ground and just as suddenly disappear. These white dwarfs are "transparent so you can see trees through them."
In the legend of the immortal Ivan Gorny (whose image is intertwined with the image of Stepan Razin), recorded in the middle of the 19th century. by the already mentioned collector of folklore Sadovnikov, these creatures are called the underground chud. Local residents describe them as follows: "A small man with a bony body, with skin covered with scales, with huge eyes, a deadening gaze and a mysterious property to move consciousness from body to body." Apparently, the latter meant that the underground inhabitants had telepathic abilities.
FIRE BALLS
Local legends also say that not only in the present, but also in the past, people more than once saw some flying fireballs and other incomprehensible objects, the nature of which remains unclear, over the Samarskaya Luka. The Gremyachee tract, a mountain range in the Syzran region near the village of the same name, remains very attractive to the anomalous to this day.
Here, on the very outskirts of the Zhiguli deployment, is the source of the Usa River. The mountains here are second only to the highest peaks of the Zhiguli in height, and on their slopes between the bizarre outlier rocks, many caves, karst funnels and sinkholes were formed in ancient times, from which springs flow. Many legends are connected with these places …
According to local legends, a dwarf people have been living in the caves for many thousands of years, which the local Chuvash call “uybede-tu-ale”. This phrase can be translated as "man - hairy monkey", as well as "man-owl". Even today, these strange creatures, although rare, are encountered by people. Imagine a dwarf not taller than a person's navel, with huge eyes and a face covered with either wool or feathers. It is clear that some of those who met such a horror movie called him a monkey, others - an owl.
Another no less mysterious phenomenon looks like this.
Over the Gremyachee tract, they say, sometimes strange fireballs of about two meters in diameter and with a tail fly. They say that those of the villagers who have lived here for two or three decades have seen these objects at least once in their lives. In Chuvash they are called "patavka-bus", which just means "fireball".
As one of the eyewitnesses of this phenomenon told the collectors of folklore, the patavka-bus usually flies slowly and close to the surface of the earth. But the most incredible part of the legend says that these balls of fire can … turn into a man! Allegedly, the villagers are aware of specific cases when such newcomers came to the village and cohabited with local women. And the children born of this strange marriage either died or turned into legendary underground men uybede-tuape …
TRACES OF A DISAPPEARED PEOPLE
The famous astrologer Pavel Globa says that cave people are fragments of some ancient civilization. In one of his works he writes: “Between the Volga and the Ural mountains, Zarathustra, the wisest philosopher and reformer of antiquity, was born and lived. The most ancient earthly civilization, now forgotten, is associated with his name. However, to this day, ancient cave monks remember about her, sometimes coming out to people from their dungeons”.
Well-known researcher of Zoroastrianism Mary Boyes agrees with Globa. This religion was founded many thousands of years ago by Zarathustra, or Zoroaster, one of the greatest philosophers, who expounded his teaching in the book "Avesta" and introduced the cult of fire worship. It has been proven that many centuries ago it was Samarskaya Luka and Zhigulevskie mountains that were the world center of Zoroastrianism.
Another confirmation of the incredible antiquity of this mysterious Volga civilization can be found in the works of the Kazakh explorer of Central Asia, Chokan Valikhanov. Referring to the eastern chronicle "Jamiat-Tavarikh", in the 19th century he wrote the following: "Himself, the son of the righteous biblical Noah and the legendary ancestor of the Arabs, found his death on the banks of the Volga. His name was immortalized in the basis of the name of the Samara River. Here he is also buried."
From most ancient legends it follows that the Samara Luka peninsula, surrounded by water on almost all sides, several thousand years ago became the last stronghold of the great race of fire-worshipers, who at that time lived on the Russian plain. Squeezed from all sides by nomads, these people reached the Zhiguli mountain range, where they were finally able to safely hide from the persecution of enemies in hard-to-reach caves and mountain gorges. It was from this great ancient race on the Samara Luka that the underground people subsequently arose.
The above myths and legends are largely confirmed by archaeological research, which, in particular, made it possible to find the so-called Zavolzhsky historical shaft in the endless steppes. It is a huge earth mound. A well-visible ditch stretches along its foot. Now the embankment is about 5 meters high and 7-10 meters wide, and the depth of the ditch ranges from one to 3 meters, although in the distant past these figures, of course, were much higher.
On the whole, the scale of the Zavolzhsky historical wall cannot but amaze: it stretches intermittently through the Saratov and Samara regions, through Tatarstan and Bashkiria, and then gets lost somewhere in the foothills of the Middle Urals. The total length of this gigantic structure is at least 2,000 km.
It is assumed that the rampart was erected in the II millennium BC by some powerful race, which has now disappeared from the face of the earth. These data are quite consistent with the existence of the mysterious city of Arkaim in the South Urals, on the territory of the modern Chelyabinsk region.
Apparently, it was the largest cultural and economic center of that very ancient civilization of fans of Zoroastrianism. It turns out that thousands of years ago the Arkaim people knew metallurgical production well. Probably, this people built the Zavolzhsky historical shaft, which played the role of defensive structures during the raids from the west of wild European tribes - most likely, Germanic and Finno-Ugric.
***
According to archaeological data, in the II millennium BC Arkaim for some unknown reason literally ceased to exist in one day. Following this, the mysterious civilization that gave birth to it very quickly disappeared from the expanses of the East European Plain. The remains of these tribes of fire-worshipers are supposed to have taken refuge in the caves of the Samara Luka. But so far this is just a hypothesis …
Valery EROFEEV
