The highest point of the West Karelian Upland, Mount Vottovaare (417.2 m), is located in the western part of central Karelia, near the border with Finland, in the south of the Muezersky District. There is a lake at its foot. The flow of tourists here never stops. But they are attracted to these lands not so much by the picturesque Karelian landscapes as by mysterious stones - seids - laid by someone in time immemorial on the top of the mountain.
From the Lappish word "seid" is translated as "deity". Ethnographers generally refer to them as cult stones, artificial stone pyramids, and ritual man-made tours of stones. According to the beliefs of the Karelian Sámi, the souls of the dead moved into the seids.
Presumably, these stones could serve as indicating and demarcation signs. Beliefs also say that seids can impart magical properties to objects flying over them. Proceeding from this, the hunters "made" conspired bullets, firing over the seids into pieces of wood.
There are more than one and a half thousand of them on Vottovaar. Huge boulders weighing several tons are stacked on smaller stones. The indigenous inhabitants - the Sami - ascribe cult significance to the seids, and some researchers believe that they were left here by the inhabitants of the ancient country of Hyperborea, according to legend, located on the Kola Peninsula. Here, on the mountain, there is also a "staircase to heaven" - steps ending in a deep cliff. The mountain has already been nicknamed "Russian Stonehenge".
In fact, "Vottovaare" is translated from Sami as "mountain of death." The ancient Sami believed that this place served as a gateway to another world. And our contemporaries, who have visited the summit, assure that there is a kind of geophysical anomaly that causes malfunctions in the operation of mechanisms and electronic equipment.
In 1990, a group of enthusiasts from the Karelian Center for Esoteric Research, headed by the chairman of this organization, Viktor Komkov, visited Vottovaar. One of the participants in the ascent made the following entries in his diary:
“At the top we saw seids - cult stones of the ancient inhabitants of Karelia. In one place we came across seids laid in a circle. As soon as I entered this circle, my ears began to ring. I had to get out. Everyone who entered the border marked by stones began to feel: something was pressing.
We did a little experiment. Victor with the stopwatch was in the circle, and I, too, with the stopwatch, was on the sidelines. On command, time was noted. It turned out that the stopwatch runs slower inside the circle. With the help of a radiometer, we checked the radiation level at the foot of the mountain and at the top. At the top is the background below.
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Each of us measured our pulse. In almost all, it turned out to be more frequent. With the help of a thermometer, we also measured the boiling point of water heated on a camp stove. The water boiled not at 100, but at 80 degrees.
The people at the top are in trouble: they are bleeding from the nose, visions begin. No wonder the locals don't even appear near the mountain. We all scattered along the top, and although it was time to return, we could not get ourselves together. It looks like Death Mountain acted like a drug. Everyone, without exception, recalled: at that moment they felt pain in their heart."
The members of this group wisely did not spend the night on the summit. Presumably, the seids were placed there for a reason. As determined by experts, their age exceeds 2500 years. And the name of the top - Death Mountain - is obviously also given for a reason.
You can, of course, believe in some witchcraft, but most likely there is a natural phenomenon here. Such an effect can be produced, for example, by deposits of magnetic ore. By the way, according to researchers-ethnographers, ancient sanctuaries and places of worship were often located in places of various physical anomalies in order to feel "strength".
However, this does not bother tourists. To visit the anomalous zone is so cool! Recently, the Committee on Natural Resources and Ecology of the Parliament of Karelia supported the proposal to create a specially protected natural area "Vottovaare" in the Muezersky District. As the Ministry of Economic Development of Karelia explains, this will help protect the unique geological and historical monument from barbarism and industrial development.
Starting this year, excursions have been organized to the top of Vottovaare. Local authorities are committed to turning these places into an organized tourism zone.
SUPRUNENKO YURI
