It is impossible to imagine human natural habitat without sunlight, but this does not mean that a person has refused to explore the world of the underground.
So the famous Sablinskie caves near St. Petersburg are not empty: they were chosen by cavers, tourists, esoteric lovers and … ghosts. The most famous inhabitant of this underground kingdom is the White Caver.
Only 40 kilometers from St. Petersburg along the Moscow highway, and you find yourself in the amazingly picturesque places of the Sablinsky nature reserve. Here, on an area of 220 hectares, unique reliefs for a flat area are concentrated - canyons and waterfalls. And along the banks of the Tosna River, the entrances to the famous Sablinskie caves gape.
All of them are of artificial origin and were formed as a result of the extraction of quartz sand on the banks of Tosna. As early as 150 years ago, during the reign of Catherine II, the glass industry began to develop in Russia, and in Sablino, since 1860, intensive development was carried out for the extraction of quartz sand.
It was hard labor, when the sand was carried in baskets to the mouth of the mine and sent along the Tosna River to glass factories. Later, trolleys appeared, and the sand was sent to the railway station. Three wagons of sand were mined a day, workers were paid 80 kopecks a day.
This is how the Sablinsky Caves appeared - ancient mining workings resembling adits. The method of extracting sand here was special - chamber-pillar, when during the sinking, pillars-columns were left as fastenings, which alternated with chambers, where the main mining was carried out.
The sand was extracted of excellent quality, and the famous imperial crystal was brewed from it, which received the highest marks at international exhibitions. One of the most respected clients was the court of His Imperial Majesty. In 1924, the last miner left the caves, and Mother Nature began to work on them.
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UNDERGROUND PEARL
Currently, there are four large caves in Sablino - Levoberezhnaya ("Garbage"), "Pearl", "Pants", "Rope", as well as several smaller caves: "Three-eye", "Beach", "Dream", "Santa Maria "," Count's grotto "," Fox holes ". All the caves look very colorful due to the fact that the walls are lined with white and red sandstone, and the vaults are made of green glauconite limestone.
The so-called "Garbage" is rich in underground lakes up to three meters deep and an area of many hundreds of square meters. These lakes are unique in their own way, and all thanks to anomalies associated with water filtration. For example, Pearl Lake sometimes stands for years, then disappears in a day. There are floods here, and they begin so abruptly that if this happens, then you need to quickly carry your feet, otherwise it is a disaster.
In general, the Sablinskie caves are famous for their unpredictability. So, for example, sometimes there is a spontaneous change in the configuration of underground rooms, passages appear or disappear, collapses occur. But these are flowers. After several hours of being in caves, hallucinations can easily begin: some people were "lucky" to hear distant female voices, others fancied different melodies.
One of the cavers claimed to have heard a male choir singing the song "Varyag". Experienced cavers say: it is better not to wait for visual hallucinations, if they come, they may not go away. But this is far from the only danger lurking neophytes in the dungeon.
TEST OF STRENGTH
The most famous underground character of the Sablinskie caves is the so-called White speleologist. They say that this is not at all a disembodied shadow like other, often harmless, ghosts. The white speleologist keeps order in the caves and mercilessly deals with those who disturb their peace, comes here "with his own charter." Once a teenager decided to walk alone through the labyrinths of the "Pants" cave, where, according to legend, is the grave of the White Caver.
The invisible lord of the cave lured the guy into the farthest corridor and confused him. As a result, the boy got lost and could not get out of the trap. Only a few days later, a group of rescuers discovered the barely alive teenager and helped him out. What was the fault of the young explorer of the dungeon? They say he decided to smoke there, and the cave spirit did not like it.
Over the years, the story of the White Caver has been overgrown with fables and legends, it is difficult to figure out what is true in it now. It all started with the fact that a certain fan of the dungeon decided to go down into the caves alone. It was in winter, when the entrances to the underground cavities were covered with continuous ice.
The mountain caver slipped and drove down at great speed. Striking his head against the wall of the catacomb, he broke his cervical vertebra and died instantly.
It is unknown who buried him in the underground gallery of the "Pants" cave and put a metal cross on the grave mound, but since then cavers have been making sure that a helmet was on the grave, and matches, lighters, cigarettes, money and even a flask on the mound with water. You cannot touch these things, because they belong to the White Caver.
There is a sign: he took something from Bely's grave - expect misfortune. You can only light a candle and share some thing with the spirit, for example, a cigarette. The things of other dead cavers are also brought here. These are the unspoken cave traditions, and cavemen (this is the informal name of speleologists) sacredly keep their customs and rituals. Destruction and desecration of the grave of Bely is severely punished under the cave laws, not only by people, but also by himself.
Despite the restless spirit of the Sablinskiye Caves, they are very popular. On their basis, the St. Petersburg school of speleology was even opened. Schoolchildren, students-geologists and geographers practice here. But inexperienced neophytes won't even step into the dungeon without the supervision of experienced adult comrades. One story is passed by word of mouth here.
Somehow the supervisor responded to the insistent requests of the students to arrange a meeting with the unknown. At the bottom of the gallery, the man put an overturned bucket, and on it a lighted candle.
The observers sat to the side and stared at the fire for half an hour. Suddenly the bucket tilted, there were confident, quick steps, and the candle suddenly floated through the air. Pressing each other, everyone who was underground jumped out like a cork. Since then, no one has a desire to disturb the spirit of the Sablinskiye Caves in vain.
BY CAVE LAWS
In the foreseeable future, the Sablinskaya Caves will become a place for unique scientific experiments. One of the remote underground galleries will be isolated from the outside world, allowing scientists to observe the natural course of natural processes taking place underground.
Why were the Sablinskie caves chosen as the place for the scientific experiment? The location of the Sablinskiye Caves is unique in itself. 500 million years ago, there was an ocean shore here, and therefore animal fossils are often found on natural limestone slabs. Scientists hope to discover here a lot of interesting and unknown things.
A special temperature regime also reigns in the Sablinskie caves: the air temperature there is at the level of 7-8 degrees all year round. This circumstance largely explains the special love that representatives of the animal world have for these caves: bats and butterflies gather here for the winter.
The atmospheric regime in the cave is such that the tree set by the cavers for the last New Year retains its appearance for almost a whole year. Perhaps observing the processes taking place in the Sablinskie caves will allow scientists to open new horizons in science and technology.
Sergey SHAPOVALOV