World legends mention mythical countries where sorcerers and gods live, there is a source of eternal youth and untold wealth. Humanity has been knocked off its feet in search of their tracks. Scientists believe that some are worth looking for in Russia.
Shveta-dvipa
“In the Sea of Milk, north of Meru, lies the large island of Shvepa-dvipa, the White Island, or the Island of Light. There is a country where bliss is eaten. Its inhabitants are brave men, remote from all evil, indifferent to honor and dishonor, marvelous in appearance, filled with vitality. A cruel, insensitive, lawless person does not live here …”.
Where this paradise from the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata was not sought. Some Indianists, such as Colonel Wilford, identified Shwetu-dvipa with Great Britain. Why not? An island beyond the sea, in the north (for the authors of the Mahabharata). Blavatsky Helena Petrovna, who was a famous representative of the mystical order of Theosophists, in her "Secret Doctrine" placed Shveta-dvipa in the area of the modern Gobi desert. Some researchers, on the other hand, see Arctida under the White Island - a hypothetical northern polar continent that once existed in the Arctic, but as a result of cataclysms that allegedly occurred 18 to 100 thousand years ago, it went under water (hypothesis of the German zoographer Eger).
Supporters of Arctida often associate the legend of Shveto-dvip with Hyperborea, which, according to ancient authors, was also located somewhere far to the north. But the north is a loose concept. Some linguists have found similarities between the Uralic place names and Indian names. So, based on the research of A. G. Vinogradov and S. V. Zharnikova, the legendary Shveta-dvipa ended up on the territory of the Urals, the White Sea, the basins of the Northern Dvina and Pechora rivers, the Volga-Oka interfluve.
Hara Berezaita
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There are so-called nomadic place names in history, which were associated with different sources with different places. These include the Kharu Berezaiti mountain range from the Zoroastrian texts of the Avesta, with the Hukairya mountain. This is the archetypal World Mountain, from behind which the sun chariot of the deity Mithra rises in the morning. The seven stars of the Big Dipper and the North Star, placed in the center of the universe, sparkle above it. From here, from the golden peaks, all earthly rivers originate, and the greatest of them is the pure Ardvi River, falling with noise into the white-foam sea of Vurukasha. Above the mountains of the High Khara, the Swift Sun is always circling, and for half a year it lasts a day, and half a year - night. Only the brave and the strong in spirit can pass these mountains and get to the happy land of the blessed, washed by the waters of the white-foam ocean. Some researchers compare it with the already mentioned legendary Mount Meru, which is located near Shveto-dvipa in the Urals. But, according to the Italian researcher Giraldo Gnoli, the Pamirs and the Hindu Kush were initially perceived as Hara Berezaiti, and then these beliefs were transferred to "more serious mountains", or rather to Elbrus. The ocean in this analogy is obviously the Black Sea. By the way, this does not contradict the ideas of the mythological country in the north, among the ancient authors. Many Roman authors gave the same description of the Black Sea that we can give to the North Sea today - severe cold, everything is covered with ice, people are dressed in thick skins.and then these beliefs were transferred to "more serious mountains", or rather to Elbrus. The ocean in this analogy is obviously the Black Sea. By the way, this does not contradict the ideas of the mythological country in the north, among the ancient authors. Many Roman authors gave the same description of the Black Sea that we can give to the North Sea today - severe cold, everything is covered with ice, people are dressed in thick skins.and then these beliefs were transferred to "more serious mountains", or rather to Elbrus. The ocean in this analogy is obviously the Black Sea. By the way, this does not contradict the ideas of the mythological country in the north, among the ancient authors. Many Roman authors gave the same description of the Black Sea that we can give to the North Sea today - severe cold, everything is covered with ice, people are dressed in thick skins.
Biarmia
Biarmia or Bjarmaland is an unknown historical area that is constantly mentioned in the Scandinavian sagas, and which, according to some historians, could be located somewhere on the northern tip of Eastern Europe, in the area of the present Arkhangelsk region. For the first time, the mysterious country is mentioned in the story of the journey of the Viking Ottar from Holugaland (870-890). According to Ottar, Holugalang is the northernmost region of his subordinate Norway. He wanted to know what lands were behind nearby Lapland, and discovered the Bjarm people. Unlike the nomadic Laplanders, they lived settled and rich. And they were also notorious sorcerers: "With a look, words or some other action, they know how to bind people so that they lose their sanity, lose free will and often commit incomprehensible acts."
Despite the fact that the sources have preserved a detailed description of the Scandinavian expeditions to Biarmia, historians still cannot come to a consensus about what kind of country it was of rich sorcerers. The most common version is that the sagas describe the territory of the Northern Dvina. Other researchers, based on the ethnonym "Bjarm", which the Vikings used to designate local residents, compare the legendary people with the Finno-Ugric tribes in the territory from modern Udmurtia to the Polar Urals. Bjarmia, in this case, is a derivative of "Perm the Great". The famous Scandinavist T. N. Jackson believes that Biarmia could be localized on the shores of the White Sea and on the Kola Peninsula.
Buyan Island
“On the sea on okiyane, on the island on Buyan…”. These are not only the words from Pushkin's fairy tale, but also the beginning of many Old Slavic conspiracies. According to legends, a world mountain rises on the legendary island, a magic oak "neither naked nor dressed" grows, under it lies the mysterious white-combustible stone Alatyn: "Under that stone a mighty force is hidden, and there is no end to it." There is also a "red maiden, a seamstress-craftswoman, holding a damask needle, threading a silk thread, ore-yellow, sewing up bloody wounds."
Thus, Buyan is a legendary island from Slavic mythology, possessing extraordinary, divine properties. But where was it located? The conspiracies that have come down to us answer this question ambiguously: “Across the blue sea, beyond the Khvalynsky (Caspian) sea, in the middle of the Okian-sea lies the Buyan island”; “At sea on okiyan, on an island on Buyan, on the Yardan river”; "On the sea on the okiyane, in the middle of the White Sea." In general, we have stretched a possible location from the Jordan River through the Caspian to the White Sea. Historian Merkulov generally compared Buyan with the German island "Rügen" in the Baltic Sea, where the ruins of the sacred city of the Western Slavs Arkona are located.
In the legends of the Pomors, Buyan Island is mentioned, first of all, as an island rich in amber: the “amber felt” supposedly came from somewhere far away from the Arctic Ocean, and then through the White Sea to the Dvina, then through the portage to Pechora.
Today Buyan Island is clearly marked on the map of Russia in the Arctic Ocean. It is part of the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago in the Taimyr Dolgan-Nenets District of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Whether he has anything to do with the legendary Buyan is unknown. At least, traces of ancient cultures and amber are not observed there.
Altai Shambhala
Shambhala is a mythical land from Hinduism and Buddhism. The fabulous land promises fabulous conditions - to give eternal youth, to discover all the knowledge of the world. “If you know the teachings of Shambhala, you know the future,” Nicholas Roerich said about the magical land. Traditionally, the entrance to Shambhala is placed in the region of mountainous Tibet, somewhere near the sacred Mount Kailash. But, according to Roerich's teachings, there should be three gates of Shambhala. One of them is located in Altai, in the area of Belukha Mountain - a sacred peak among the local Altai peoples. According to their beliefs, there is a land of spirits. One of the Altai shamans, Anton Yudanov, said in his interview that even the clergy do not dare to approach the mountain closer than 10 km, and the attempt to conquer Belukha, which many people undertake every year, is a real sacrilege, followed by punishment. No wonder, according to him,Belukha is called “the killer mountain”, where most of the tourists have died recently: “The sacred mountain will throw off all who seek to approach its secret”.