In the mountainous region of Arkhyz in Karachay-Cherkessia, on one of the rocks, the face of Jesus Christ is captured, which locals call hidden. It was revealed under mysterious circumstances just 20 years ago. Scientists argue about its origin, and believers talk about the mystical power of this image.
Hermit
In the late 80s, in the small village of Nizhniy Arkhyz, don't understand where the old man came from. He was dressed inconspicuously, walked with a stick and did not talk to anyone. This seriously worried astrophysicists who worked at an observatory nearby. When the old man disappeared, they tried to find him in the surrounding forests - to no avail.
Scientists have seen him only a few times. And, strangely enough, always near Mount Mitsesht, towering over the valley of the Bolshoi Zelenchuk River.
And one day, in the late 90s, the elder unexpectedly came to the local residents Sergey and Anatoly Varchenko. He introduced himself as Ivan Ilyich and said that the face of Jesus Christ not made by hands was hidden in the mountains of Nizhny Arkhyz. The brothers believed the hermit and began their search.
However, they were constantly hindered by an unknown force: they either get lost, or they do not reach the top of the rock, where the image is supposedly located. As Sergei Varchenko later recalled, they passed by the mysterious face of Christ as many as seven times. And finally …
“Meter by meter I climbed up the steep slope. It was pouring rain, lightning flashed, mud sticking to his boots. The ascent was incredibly difficult. I clung to the branches and roots of trees, but I still walked. How I got to the site - I don't know. I only remember that I felt a straight, calm look on me. A look that I won't confuse with anything and I will never forget,”recalls Sergei Varchenko.
Promotional video:
He turned around and saw on the slope of the cliff a large male portrait, almost the size of Sergei himself - about one and a half meters in height. This image was well known to Sergei, because it can be seen on the icon "Savior Not Made by Hands": long hair, smooth facial features and piercing eyes.
The Varchenko brothers told their fellow villagers about the discovered face of Christ. But when the inhabitants of Nizhny Arkhyz came to the rock on one sunny day, they saw nothing. It turns out that the face is clearly visible only in the morning or evening.
A year and a half after these events, the mysterious hermit Ivan Ilyich died. However, the house in which he lived still stands in the forest.
Test site
Of course, as soon as the face of Christ was revealed, pilgrims immediately reached out to him. Archbishop of Pyatigorsk and Circassian Feofilakt (Kuryanov) was one of the first to pray then in front of this image.
“I was a seminary student at the time, and I remember very well how we climbed the dangerous slope. They grabbed the trees so as not to fall, and held each other,”says the bishop.
He clearly remembers his first impressions of the image he saw after 20 years. First of all, he was struck by the piercing gaze of the Savior.
“When you pray before this face, you feel well that you are standing before Eternity. It is an amazing sight, a kindness that is especially felt here in the mountains. I was born and raised here. The mountains are always a place of testing not only for yourself, but for the people who are nearby. A test of mutual assistance and a willingness to even sacrifice oneself,”the Vladyka admits in conversation.
The mysterious image of the Savior is located in a very inaccessible place, almost on the very edge of a steep cliff. And only recently a staircase was made there for the safety of pilgrims and tourists.
“More precisely, this is a whole cascade of stairs. But all the same, the road to the face of Christ is very difficult. By the middle of the journey, even strong men have shortness of breath. But, surprisingly, both old people and children go to the image - they somehow manage to find strength in themselves. Because at the end of the journey, when you see the image, the piercing gaze of the Savior, fatigue disappears,”says the Orthodox journalist Alexander Yegortsev, who has been here many times.
An artist's hoax?
Perhaps numerous pilgrims are attracted by the mystery of the origin of the image. There is even a belief that he was miraculously manifested. However, experts are confident in its man-made origin. Only they are bitterly arguing about the time of creation. And they have some clues.
In the summer of 1888, the famous artist and archaeologist Dmitry Strukov traveled through the Arkhyz mountains. On the banks of Bolshoy Zelenchuk, he accidentally stumbled upon a tombstone, carved in Greek letters. I tried to read the inscription, did not succeed. His colleague Vsevolod Miller, having studied the slab, came to the conclusion that it was an Old Ossetian language, for the written version of which the Greek alphabet was used.
Along the way, Strukov redrew the frescoes of ancient temples built in Arkhyz at the beginning of the 10th century. And it is possible that he captured the face on one of the rocks, imitating ancient artists.
“Maybe there was some kind of image, and Strukov just finished painting it. In any case, this image was created not so long ago,”says Valentina Trifonova, an employee of the Nizhne-Arkhyz Museum.
However, this version has one significant but: the artist's journey across the Caucasus is documented in detail and the rock paintings are not mentioned anywhere. In addition, scientists analyzed the paint of the Arkhyz face and realized that it was much older than the days when Strukov lived.
However, it was the tombstone that he found that attracted researchers to Arkhyz, who discovered numerous burials here. And the local historian Vasily Sysoev found out that some of the local caves are of artificial origin. They were hollowed out around the 10th century - but for what?
Landmark for caravans
At the beginning of the 10th century, the Patriarch of Constantinople Nicholas the Mystic sent missionaries to the North Caucasus. And it is in the valley of the Bolshoy Zelenchuk River that temples appear. The first, Georgievsky, was a cathedral, it was erected in 916. The other two were built after about 50-70 years. By their presence, scientists have suggested that it was here that the main city of the ancient Ossetian state was located - Magas (or Maas). And in the vicinity, apparently, settled Greek monks. They were the ones who could leave the image of Christ on Mount Matsesht.
“Judging by the style and technique of writing, the creator of the image was well acquainted with Byzantine icon painting, and possibly came from Byzantium. Most likely, he lived in a cell on the slope of the gorge. The wall of his dwelling may have collapsed and the face was revealed. Or maybe it was a house church,”admits Vladyka Theophylact.
There were a lot of such images. The Archbishop noted that even on his first visit to the rock with the face of Christ, he heard from the locals that a similar face of the Mother of God was hidden on one of the neighboring mountains. That is, in the vicinity of ancient Magas, there could be a whole monastic republic.
Some experts doubt that monks lived here. Firstly, the Great Silk Road passed nearby, always busy. In addition, the nearby city of Magas was most likely much larger than it is commonly believed.
“The city was large, it occupied 63 hectares and surpassed Ancient Athens in area. And he stood just on the Great Silk Road from Constantinople to China,”notes archaeologist Sergei Kuznetsov.
Therefore, it is quite possible that the icon painters left the face of Christ on the rock dominating over the Zelenchuk valley for the invisible protection of numerous caravans. And the image could well serve as a guide for travelers.
It is also possible, according to some local historians, that icon painters created the icon as a talisman for Magas during the plague epidemic in the XII-XIII centuries. This version is supported by the fact that the face of Christ is just turned to where the ancient city once was.
One way or another, despite the still unclear origin of the face of Christ, the flow of pilgrims and tourists to the image only increases every year. Apparently, in an attempt to discern in the eyes of the Savior the answer to the great mystery.
Author: Anton Skripunov
