All inland water bodies of the planet, as well as the Caspian Sea, are constantly at the mercy of climate and tectonics. It is by their will that the water level changes in almost all large lakes of the Earth. Such a famous closed reservoir of our country as Lake Issyk-Kul did not escape their influence. Being at an altitude of 1600 m, it occupies only the nineteenth place in the world in terms of its water area, but it contains twice as much water as the Aral, the fourth body of water on Earth in terms of the size of the water surface. With such a discrepancy - the huge depth of Issyk-Kul, which reaches 700 m, i.e. second only to Baikal and the Caspian Sea, and abroad - to the Upper and Victoria lakes in North America.
Issyk-Kul is the most "continental" lake. It is 3 thousand km away from the nearest Indian Ocean in a straight line. Around it there are powerful mountain ranges 5 thousand meters high and huge deserts stretch: Kyzylkum, Kara-Kum, Hungry Steppe, Takla-Makan. Issyk-Kul is entirely dependent on the giant glaciers lying on the mountains surrounding the lake. But, alas, the area of these glaciers is constantly decreasing, they are melting, retreating by 5-7 m per year. At the same time, rivers that feed on glaciers are becoming shallow. In addition, this is also "helped" by a person who more and more takes water from rivers to irrigate agricultural fields. That is why Issyk-Kul is “losing weight”. According to the testimony of local residents, over the past 15-20 years, in some places the coast has receded by 100-200 m, and the water level in the lake has dropped by 8 m in less than a century. The water exchange in Issyk-Kul is also bad. After all, it does not have its own Angara, which flows out of Lake Baikal and provides at least a slow, but almost complete renewal of water in the lake. More than a hundred different rivers and streams flow into Issyk-Kul, but not a single small stream flows out. Traces of the old coastline, which dropped by 10-12 m over 150 years, also speak of the drop in the level of Issyk-Kul.
But if the water level in Issyk-Kul is continuously falling, then why are numerous remnants of residential buildings, human burials, household items and tools found at its bottom? How did the fragments of masonry, drainpipes, bones of domestic animals get into the lake? Back in the last century, Russian scientists, first G. A. Kolpakovsky (1870), and then V. V. Bartold (1894) drew attention to the ruins of medieval walls in the Koi-su region lying at the bottom. They were also studied by P. P. Ivanov, an employee of the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the Kirghiz SSR, who said: “On August 18, 1927, I arrived in the village of Kurskoye, located on the shore of the lake between the Bolshoi and Srednii Koisu rivers, to examine the bottom of the lake, and to find out, as far as possible, the question of the location of the island that was here at the time of Tamerlane and in the next century, which was then considered to have disappeared.1 Even before the trip, I had to hear in the city of Przhevalsk the stories of local residents about the underwater ruins available here.
»Here, near the village of Kursk *, a link of a water pipe made of red burnt clay was raised from the bottom. At a distance of 200 m from the coastal region under water at a depth of 3-3.5 m, the researchers discovered a stone domed structure. Several lower flooded stone cones of unknown purpose towered nearby.
A large accumulation of shards of earthenware, boulders, millstones of a mill, bones of cows and sheep, coins, traces of hearths covered by sand and washed out by water about
“I went in search of a place of interest to me to the east of the village, - continued to write P. P. Ivanov, -“The bottom ended abruptly at the very shore. Having driven off 200 meters, I noticed that the depth was getting shallower, the bottom was outlined more clearly. After another 80-100 meters, the bottom surface could be freely viewed. At a depth of 4-6 m, there were occasional pieces of brick, as well as whole bricks.
predominantly square in shape. At my request, one of the fishermen dived to the bottom and took out a square brick measuring 26x26 cm and 5 cm thick."
Of particular interest were the underwater ruins lying at a depth of 4-5 m from the water surface, 200 m from the coast. They were located on the eastern side of a large sandbank up to 600 m wide, which extends from the coast for almost 2 km. The northern part of this seamount has a steep precipice, in the south - a gentle slope. Attention is drawn to the flooded wall located on the shallows, built of large stones measuring 30x20 and 60x30 cm. The length of this masonry, which stretched from the southeast to the northwest, was 4 m, the height was 1.2 m. the northeastern end of the wall was visible, but its main part turned out to be covered by sand and pebbles. On the top of the stone wall there were 18 round logs with a diameter of 7-15 cm. Layed with a step of 10-15 cm, they formed a quadrangular wooden flooring 5.2 m long,3.3 m wide. From above, the flooring was covered with driftwood, stones and sand with pebbles.
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To the south of the first deck there was a second, similar single-row deck, but slightly smaller: its length is 4.1 m, width is 2.3 m and it consisted of 14 poles. Not far to the east, a third similar quadrangular floor was discovered, also covered with stones, snags and earth. Apparently, stones and earth were poured on the flooring even before the building was flooded, so the wooden poles did not float to the surface of the lake, and the snag appeared later and fastened all the masonry. To the west of these three areas
the dock under a layer of silt was found another flooring of boards lying directly on the bottom, and from the southwestern side, 20 m from the wooden flooring on the flat surface of the lake bottom, the remains of three stone walls 10, 9 and 7 m long were visible. They lay on one level with log platforms; here and there the bricks were knocked out and the bottom could be seen through the holes. Two walls had one pillar dug into the ground. In some places the masonry was covered with silt.
At 70 m from these ruins, under water stood the remains of another stone building, built of large square bricks 25x25x5 cm in size. It consisted of two dilapidated walls, one 7.4 m long, the other 3.3 m. Both of them rose above the bottom by 0, 3 - 0.5 m and had a width of 0.5 m. On the longer wall, a layer of shell rock lay on top, and on the east side of it, four links of water pipes or drainpipes were found. Three of them are connected to each other with sockets with The length of each link is 36 cm, the diameter is 12 cm (the bell is 15 cm). Another 10 m to the south, three stone slabs-beams, 3.2 m long and 8 XI cm thick, were found. In addition, on a rather large area around all these underwater ruins, many large and small accumulations of stone, heaps of bricks, slabs, and cobblestones were found.
GA Kolpakovsky wrote about some of these submarine ruins off the northern coast of Issyk-Kul in 1869: “… one fathom from the coast, at a depth of about one arshin, traces of buildings made of burnt bricks are visible. It is difficult to understand what purpose these buildings had because the walls, made of bricks, do not close any space, but run parallel to one another at the same distance, about one arshin. Now three walls are visible, going almost perpendicular to the shore at such a distance that the depth of the lake does not allow tracing followed by . So, what are these mysterious structures, what time do they belong to, how and when did they find themselves at the bottom of the lake? Various hypotheses were built on this subject. For example, the famous Russian orientalist, academician V. V. Bartold in 1894 suggested thatthat the ruins flooded by the lake are the remains of a fortress, which has long been known from some written sources. So, the Arab authors Ibn-Arabshah in the XV century. and Mohammed-Haydar in the 16th century. wrote about the existence in the northern part of the waters of Lake Issyk-Kul of some kind of large island with numerous fortifications and residential buildings. These structures were used in the XIV century. the conqueror of the East Timur, who, according to some sources, kept his prisoners in prison on the island, according to others, he himself rested here after violent bloody campaigns. And there is also a version that the fortress on the island in the same XV century. was built by the emir Hakk berdy-Bekichek. One way or another, but many decades later the fortress belonged to the Timurid dynasty. There is also information that the buildings on Issyk-Kul lasted until the first half of the 18th century, i.e.before the short Chinese rule here, which replaced the collapsed Kalmyk empire.
However, much says about a much earlier presence of civilization on the now flooded shores of Issyk-Kul. This was reported, for example, by a Buddhist monk
pilgrim Xuan Uzan, who visited the lake in the 7th century.
The links of water pipes found in the ruins in the Chui valley located near Issyk-Kul have been known since the 11th-12th centuries. A coin of Ars-lanhan Muhammad, also dating back to the 11th century, was found in Kaisar. By the second half of the VIII century. The Soviet scientist A. N. Bernshtam attributes the find in the lake of a well-hewn stone with fragments of some kind of inscription.
In the 50s of our century, divers examined the bottom of the lake along the coast. At a distance of 150-200 m from the coast at a depth of about 5 m, fragments of easel utensils of the X-XII centuries, four burnt bricks 25x25x4 cm in size, and bones of a person and domestic animals were found 1 km from the place of underwater finds near the village of Kurskoye. In addition to a simple diving survey, pits 1-2 m long and 0.5 m wide were laid at the bottom of the lake. After opening up an almost one-meter layer of silt 200 m from the coast and at a depth of 3 m from the water surface, archaeologists found a clay jug with a loop-shaped handle <and stone grain grinder. In addition, a large number of fragments of ceramics, similar to those found during excavations on the shore, were raised from the bottom. All these findings date back to the almost half-millennium period of the 10th - 15th centuries.
So, in the Middle Ages, the level of Issyk-Kul, it turns out, was much lower than the current one. And only around the 18th century, the rise of water in the lake began. At the same time, it is possible that the flooding of coasts, islands and peninsulas did not occur gradually, but catastrophically quickly - it may be as a result of tectonic movements of the Earth's surface.
The earthquake also explains how ancient buildings found themselves at the bottom near the southeastern part of the coast of another unique inland water body of our country - Baikal. The last day of 1861 was ending. In the village “located near the mouth of the Selenga, the peasants were just about to sit down at the table to celebrate the New Year, when they suddenly heard a dull underground noise. And soon this noise grew into the roar of a great storm, bells rang by themselves on the church bell tower, windows and doors of houses were thrown open, gates and gates in fences opened. And then the erased roofs began to crack and fall. The earth swayed and began to sink down. By twelve o'clock on the first day of the new year, fountains of mud and hot water burst from cracks in the ground. The log houses of the village wells rose from the ground and turned into pillars - the earth sank so low. Water from Baikal broke through the coast in three places and gushed into the lowland. People barely managed to get into the boats. And all the livestock, household utensils and birds perished”under the icy waves of the lake.
This is how, right before the eyes of eyewitnesses, almost two hundred square kilometers of fertile lands of the Gypsy steppe with extensive pastures and hayfields turned out to be at the bottom of Lake Baikal. This section, fenced off in the form of a bay by a ridge of islands, is marked on the current geographical maps - Proval. More than a thousand wooden buildings that once belonged to four large villages rest here under a ten-meter thick layer of cold water. Remnants of chopped huts, pillars, logs, poles, boards stick out in the bottom mud.
The failure, apparently, is not the only bay on Lake Baikal, formed as a result of an earthquake.
seniya. Scientists believe that the past is similar to the other branch of the Selenga delta - Posolskiy Sor. Even Academician V. A. Obruchev emphasized the relative youth of the mountainous country around Lake Baikal, the basin of which continues to form in our time. Investigations carried out in the 80s of our century when the deep-water bathyscaphe "Pasis" was submerged to the bottom of the great lake, and long-term comparative geodetic measurements prove that the shores of Lake Baikal are moving apart at a rate of several centimeters per year. Tectonic activity also continues - in August 1959 an earthquake of magnitude 9 (almost the same as in 1862) occurred in the middle basin of the lake; then, in the epicenter area, at a distance of 15-20 km from the coast, the bottom sank by 15-20 m.
There is an assumption that it is along Lake Baikal that one of the largest faults in the Earth's crust passes - the boundary between its plates (for the theory of global plate tectonics, see Chapter 3). In any case, it is here that a record number of earthquakes is observed - up to 2 thousand per year or 6 per day. True, these movements of the earth are imperceptible and are recorded only by seismographs. However, there are points where deep fluctuations are observed almost daily. The volcanic activity of the Baikal region has also been proven, which took place 8-9 thousand years ago, i.e. during the Paleolithic period.
Numerous traces of ancient human settlements - from the Paleolithic to historical time - also speak of changes in the water level in Lake Baikal. Moreover, many of them break off at the very shore and go under the water. On the sheer cliffs of some prominent
the lake of capes discovered the so-called "writings" - rock paintings of people of the Stone Age.
The amplitude of Lake Baikal level fluctuations can also be restored from perennial plants growing on the shores. Thus, the famous researcher of the lake G. Galaziy traced the changes in the water level over the last four hundred years by the circular cuts of trees. The distances between the rings on these sections show how the plants were fed with groundwater associated with the waters of Lake Baikal. The narrower the rings, the lower the water level was underground, and hence in the lake, and vice versa. And very small increments of wood mass belong to the period of "soaking out" of the roots, when the water level was so high that the banks were flooded.
And one more of our large alpine lake, the pearl of Armenia - Sevan - keeps traces of ancient human settlements at its bottom. In the 50s, a catastrophic shallowing of the coastal part of this famous water basin began. And already in 1956, at the exposed section of the bottom, burial mounds of the Bronze Age were found and excavated by archaeologists. There were also found gold mines and magnificent examples of gold jewelry. In particular, in Lchashen were found belonging to the II millennium BC. carts and chariots, zoomorphic figurines and ornaments, tools and building structures.
In Transcaucasia, at the bottom of Lake Paleostomi, located near the city of Poti, traces of a large ancient settlement were found. Georgian archaeologists found fragments of building ceramics and utensils under the water column.
The legend about the sunken "city of Kitezh", first presented in
"Kitezhsky Chronicler" (approximately 1251), leads to the lake Svet-loyar. This book tells in detail about the deeds of Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich, who built the city of Small Kitezh on the Volga (the Gorodets bus) and the BIG Kitezh and Lake Svetloyar. When approaching the last of the Tatar-Mongol hordes of Batu, the “concealment” of Big Kitezh took place at the bottom of the lake.
At the beginning of this century, an ancient tale about the sunken Kitezh was circulated in handwritten lists among the local inhabitants of book-lovers. And along with him, rumors were passed from mouth to mouth about the mysterious bell ringing “prayers that were heard from under the water only by believers. Well in front of some of them there were "visions" of underwater temples, bell towers, burning candles and altars. Pilgrims came from different parts of Russia to bow to the miracle. The folklore "The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya" formed the basis for the libretto of the opera by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov.
* Lake Svetloyar lies 1.5 km from the village of Vladimirskoye, not far from the town of Semenov, Gorky Region. The steep bank, 30 m high, goes under the water in three terraces, which is proved by the three-time rise in the water level. In one of such ascents, a settlement, chapel, church or monastery could sink to the bottom of the lake, which was the reason for the creation of the legend.
In 1968-1969. an archaeological expedition conducted research at the bottom of Lake Svetloyar. On the upper terrace, in a thick layer of silt, the scuba divers found tree trunks sticking up. According to their cuts, it was found that the wood
no more than 400 years. No remains of large structures were found.
A similar legend about the sunken city of Raigradas, located on the plaster banks of the lower reaches of the Nemunas, was circulated in Lithuania at one time. The bells ringing from under the water were heard by the peasants of the coastal villages, who talked about the Paradise city, which, allegedly, was once flooded by God, angry with its inhabitants. Is this not a retelling of the well-known message of the Bible about the punishment of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, sunk for sins to the bottom of the Dead Sea?
Many colorful legends are associated with the alpine lake Ti-ticaca, located in the Peruvian Andes on the border with Bolivia. One of them tells about the capital of an ancient civilization of Indian tribes, which was located on a huge island in the middle of a lake. The connection between the city and the coast was carried out by a half-kilometer tunnel, through which carts could ride. In the city itself, temples built of pure gold sparkled in the sun.
But the gods were angry with the local residents and first sent them hunger, plague, and then a terrible flood. As a result, the main city of the country suddenly sank to the bottom of the lake.
According to another legend, a large number of jewelry made of gold and precious stones were thrown by local residents into the lake during the attack of the Spanish conquerors. At the bottom of the lake there were whole chests with jewels and gold coins, which are now the prey of modern archaeologists. And they find at the bottom of the lake not only jewelry, but also the collapse of temples (of course, stone, not gold).
Now in the middle of the lake there are the Holy Islands, apparently, they were once connected and formed a whole "continent". Bolivian cameramen and archaeologists with scuba divers, who worked in the 80s near the islands of the Sun and Moon, found walls and fragments of masonry sinking under the water at the bottom of the lake, as well as fragments of ceramics, jugs, dishes.
There is a hypothesis that relatively recently (in the geological sense) Lake Titicaca, now located 320 km from the sea, was a sea bay, as evidenced by the traces of seaweed and shells found on its bottom. As a result of tectonic shifts, the lake rose to a height of 3.8 km above sea level.
The insular nature of the life of many generations of local residents is also evidenced by the fact that even today some of them live on floating reed islands.
Many years have been spent on underwater expeditions from different countries in search of the legendary Loch Ness monster in Scotland. This was repeatedly reported and continue to be reported by newspapers all over the world, radio says, newspapers write. But few people know that in the 70s of our century, instead of a prehistoric reptile, American scuba divers at a depth of 10 m found large (30-80 m in diameter) mounds of the era of the ancient Celts at the bottom of the lake.
In the winter of 1966-1967. Swiss submariners discovered a large accumulation of fragments of ancient ceramics in Lake Zurich near the building of the yacht club on the General Quison Cai embankment. A little later, archaeologist Ulrich Ruoff in the southern part of the lake carried out surface measurements and excavations of a primitive settlement, KOTO-
they used to look for a swarm on the shore near the embankment. On a shallow called "Small stove-maker" at a depth of up to 10 m in silty sediments, cultural layers of a settlement were discovered, in which people lived for many millennia. Remnants of wooden beams and piles with keyed and wedge-shaped joints driven into the bottom were found.
Research in Lake Zurich continued, and archaeologists found at least 22 more submerged prehistoric settlements in the lower part of the lake.
100 km north of Rome in Lake Bolsena, Italian scientists, together with divers from the Kirkolo Kasiatori Subaskey club, have been researching a sunken prehistoric settlement dating back to the 9th-8th centuries since 1959. BC. At a depth of 8-10 m in the chalk lacustrine sediments, remains of a thick stone wall with rubble filler and a pile grillage were found, on which a large wooden building apparently stood (32). Also not far from the Italian capital, at the bottom of Lake Bracciano, a settlement of people of the Bronze Age was found. Discovered
the wife's remains of a protective wall 2 m high, consisting of two rows of thick oak piles.
In the GDR, near the village of Alten-Hof, at the bottom of Lake Verbellinsee, the remains of a structure square in plan, surrounded from the west by a semicircular pile row, were discovered. Another former building was found nearby, standing on three rows of doubled wooden piles. On the basis of pottery shards and fragments of a silver goblet, it was established that the pile remains belong to the XIII-XIV centuries.
Another interesting find in the GDR in 1963-1965. was discovered at the bottom of the Ober-Jückersee near Prenzlau. Here, on a shallow 3--5 m deep from the water surface, there was a bridge 3.6 m wide and more than 2 km long. Built without a single nail, this structure had an interesting and reliable design. The bridge served as one of the links in the famous medieval trade route from Magdeburg to the mouth of the Oder. Even earlier, there was obviously some kind of Slavic settlement, which was later replaced by a settlement, which was most likely the feudal center of the Pomeranian state in the first half of the 12th century.
G. A. Razumov, M. F. Hasin