Vottovaaru - a mountain in Karelia - is called "Russian Stonehenge". There are megaliths, lakes, bizarre trees and even a stone staircase. Vottovaaru has already been nicknamed "the place of power" by tourists-mystics.
What is Vottovaara?
Mount Vottovaara is the highest point of the West Karelian Upland - 417.1 meters. Area: 6 sq. km It is located 350 kilometers from Petrozavodsk in the Muezersky district, 20 km southeast of the village of Sukkozero, 35 north-east of the village of Gimoly and 40 km south-west of the large lake (reservoir) Segozero.
What does Vottovaara mean?
How is "vottovaara" translated? If you don’t bother with searching, then the first translation that can be found is "a forest that is not worth walking into." Despite the fact that this translation is fundamentally incorrect, for some reason it occurs more often than others. Apparently because of its mystery.
Promotional video:
In fact, everything is not so mystical. The second component of the word Vottovaara, "vaara" is translated from the Sami as "mountain covered with forest." How is the word "votto" translated?
In the Sami-Russian dictionary, edited by R. D. Kuruch (Moscow, Russkiy Yazyk, 1985), you can find the words "vuadt" (den) and "vots" (sand), that is, the word "vottovaara" can be translated as "sandy mountain overgrown with forest" or "mountain overgrown forest with a den ".
Vottovaara and Death Mountain
In many articles about Vottovaara, written as a carbon copy, it is said that Vottovaara is also called Death Mountain, which, of course, gives Vottovaara the same mystery, but this association is erroneous. In fact, these are two different mountains. Death Mountain, or Death Hill, is located five kilometers southeast of Vottovaara and is 264.9 meters high.
This hill got its name because of the events that took place on it in the summer of 1942, when several hundred Soviet partisans and the commander of the 1st partisan brigade I. A. Grigoriev. From the 1950s to the present day, bodies of the dead partisans continue to be found on this mountain and in its vicinity.
Seydy
Vottovaara is known today as "Russian Stonehenge". It received this name because of the seids located on the mountain - various structures made of stones.
For the first time, Sergey Simonyan, a local historian from the village of Sukkozero, spoke about the Vottovaar seids as artificial structures in 1978-1979. In the early 1990s, archaeologists M. M. Shakhnovich and I. S. Manyukhin conducted surveys on the mountain, who made a conclusion about their cult purpose and belonging to the culture of the ancient Sami.
The wave of publications in the media provoked a great interest in Vottovaar, both from archaeologists and from various "fanatics" from mysticism and quasi-science. Vottovaara was immediately baptized as a "place of power." The pilgrimage of people who are looking for special energy here does not stop.
There are several versions of the appearance of seids. According to one of them, the sinking of the glacier led to such an arrangement of stones, on the other, the reason for the earthquake that occurred here BC, however, most likely, the seids are of artificial origin and had a cult purpose among the Sami.
stairway to Heaven
Geologists believe that about 9 thousand years ago, at the place where Vottovaara stands, a powerful earthquake occurred, as a result of which a giant sinkhole was formed. Because of this, a natural amphitheater, dotted with lakes and rocks, arose in the center of the mountain.
Another attraction of Vottovaara is the so-called "staircase to heaven" - 13 steps, about the origin and purpose of which a lot of legends have already been invented, although geologists are skeptical that this staircase is of natural origin and was formed by weathering.
