Russian scientists published the results of a 3D scan of an unusual underground structure in the city of Derbent, and put forward their own versions of what the mysterious "bunker" could be.
An intriguing find was found in the northwestern part of the Naryn-Kala fortress. The building is about 1700 years old. The building is almost completely covered with earth, and for a long time was used as a storage for drinking water. But archaeologists believe that the building could have been a Christian temple - the oldest in the territory of modern Russia.
The ancient bunker was discovered about a year ago, but they could not fully explore it. Excavations of the building could cause serious damage to the Naryn-Kala fortress itself, which is a UNESCO cultural heritage site. A new non-invasive method - muon radiography - helped to recreate the scheme of the internal structure of the alleged temple.
The essence of the method is that special detectors with a nuclear emulsion are placed inside the building and take pictures of the room, on the basis of which a 3D plan of the room is later drawn up. Thanks to this method of studying the structure of the building, archaeologists saw that the building has a cruciform shape, just typical of religious Christian buildings of that time. In favor of the fact that the underground water reservoir turned out to be a temple, once covered by the Arab invaders of the fortress, is also evidenced by the specific orientation of the building to the cardinal points.
Building plan constructed using muon radiography. Photo: MISIS.