- Part two -
The Leso-Kyafar settlement is a mysterious place, little-studied and already overgrown with legends. Archaeologists call it a monument of the Sarmatian, Alanian and, possibly, several other cultures, earlier and later. Esotericists are looking for sources of Power among the ruins, see mysterious signs in everything and even attribute the ancient settlement to the Atlanteans. Ruins of houses and fortress walls, dolmens, a sanctuary on outlier rocks, stone figures, numerous crosses carved on stones and slabs, priestly fortune-telling "Babylon", inscriptions that look like runes, images of people and animals - in this dead city, lost in the wilderness of the Kyafar gorge, layered on each other for several eras.
The main part of the settlement, judging by the archaeological data, was erected in the 11th century, but some fragments (dolmens) are much older - they date back to the 2nd millennium BC. Are there many monuments in Russia that go back to such a depth of centuries? It would seem that the Kyafar settlement, by definition, should have become a nature reserve back in the Soviet years. However, it still does not have a protective status, and serious scientific research has not been carried out here for twenty years.
The settlement was discovered and began to be studied relatively late - unlike the Nizhnearkhyz one, it is hiding in a hard-to-reach place. The Kyafar Gorge is the least populated gorge in Karachay-Cherkessia, and the village of Leso-Kyafar is its farthest settlement, the border of civilization. The settlement is located beyond this border, after it there are only mountains. Lost in space and time is clearly felt on the spot. The only sound that is heard here is the noise of the Kyafar and Krivaya rivers flowing below. It seems that even the birds do not sing, although perhaps this is an auditory illusion - some views of the settlement are so reminiscent of pictures from the famous horror film "Sleepy Hollow" that the imagination plays out.
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Today the settlement looks like this: on a narrow forested hill (two kilometers long and up to two hundred meters wide) there are ruins of houses, stone figures, sanctuaries, massive fortress walls and nineteen dolmens. On the slabs and stones, clear traces of inscriptions and images are visible. It is noticeable that the settlement was built up according to the plan - you can distinguish something like streets and a city square. However, what exactly was here once - the capital of the Alans, or a large cult complex, or a fortress - there are many versions, but there is no exact information. This is the main mystery of the Leso-Kyafar settlement, and it is purely historical, beyond any mysticism. It has not been solved solely due to the fact that there were no serious archaeological expeditions here. The place not occupied by science, of course, was filled with mystical speculations about cosmic energy, either emanating from this point, or vice versa,pouring here from the sky, about the city of Atlanteans, etc. It is strange that the Amazons were not settled in Leso-Kyafar, but everything is still ahead.
You can sneer at seekers of the paranormal, but people, in the end, have the right to believe in what they like. Until faith grows into vandalism - as it was several years ago, when some amateurs decided to “finish building” a couple of dolmens: they assembled them from several scattered parts and fixed the whole thing with concrete for reliability. The Storozhevsky forestry enterprise (the village of Storozhevaya is a large settlement closest to Leso-Kyafari) also contributed to the destruction: in the summer of 1996, his bulldozer simply destroyed the main street of the settlement, which was then clearly visible. The prosecutor's office then ruled that "no damage was done" - not surprising, because the settlement is not a protected monument. No one is going to give it the status of a reserve. And the protection status helps, unfortunately, little. Nizhnearkhyz settlement,for example, it is officially recognized as a museum-reserve, but residents of nearby villages continue to build fences and baths from its stones. So those who want to see the monument with their own eyes should hurry up.
Without a map of the settlement (it was compiled in 1991–1994) or a brief description, it is difficult to navigate the place - you have to wander at random, bumping into mysterious artifacts literally lying under your feet. Therefore, we will try to describe the road and the location of the monuments.
From the village of Leso-Kyafar to the ascent to the hillfort, you need to walk about 1.8 km. The road starts at the edge of Druzhba street, goes along the Kyafar river, and after the swampy area turns into the forest. From this point, the settlement is already visible. The narrow promontory on which it stands is called the Spire. The trail to the Spire leaves the road to the left and up. The ascent starts from the clearing, where the posad was once located, and now trees grow. You can see the ruins of the posad - heaps of stones scattered here and there - only in early spring, while there is no grass. And if you look closely at the trees in the clearing, you can recognize them as wild apple and pear trees: in Soviet times, an orchard was laid out here, long abandoned.
The artifacts, as already mentioned, lie right under your feet, so be careful. Right at the entrance to the settlement, to the right of the path, you can see a stone with squares carved into it, inscribed in each other - the so-called "Babylon". It is assumed that such "Babylon" was used by the priests for divination. We rise a little higher and on the right we see another stone, very large and flat, with numerous drawings in the form of crosses. The images are best seen in early spring, when moss has not yet grown on the stone (in summer it is very warm and damp here, so the moss grows quickly).
Crosses are also carved on the slabs scattered a little higher. In addition to crosses, there are drawings of deer and images, the meaning of which is difficult to understand. Since there are many crosses on the site, it is believed that it was because of them that the Muslims who settled here named the river Kyafar, that is, the river of the infidels (“kafar” or “kafir” is translated this way).
If we go up the path for another two hundred meters, we will see the most recognizable place of the settlement - two remnant rocks, which are a former sanctuary of some unknown gods. One rock is larger, with a platform at the top, the other is narrow, like on the Manpupuner plateau. There are stone steps leading to the platform of the first rock, and at the top there are two flat slabs, which are considered sacrificial stones (you can also see "Babylon" on them). Modern visitors often leave personal items on the slabs - earrings, for example. Either make a wish, or make a sacrifice. Some manage to climb from a large outlier to a small one - there is also a platform carved into the stone there.
In the early 1990s, a prison or burial chamber was excavated between the outliers. Now the chamber is filled up and you can walk between the rocks.
From the outliers, the path goes up. On the left, at the edge of the hill, a three-meter-high defensive wall, made of flat stones without mortar, has survived. If you go higher, you can distinguish the foundations of the houses - they stood close to each other on a flat section of the settlement. Even higher will be a small dolmen (by the way, they were used as tombs), which has a well-preserved front wall with a round hole in the middle. Several fragments of dolmens can be found nearby. The settlement ends with a steep cliff, next to which you can see the ruins of two small churches and several foundations of houses.
Behind the Spire, across the saddle, on a hill are the Alanian burial ground and most of the dolmens. This site is called Jordan (Ordan), according to legend - after the name of a hermit monk who once lived here. You can't go straight from the Spire to Jordan. You need to go down to the right before reaching the end of the settlement, go through the saddle and climb the second hill - this is Jordan.
It is difficult to get lost here, the paths are well trodden. Even dolmens are easy to find - a path leads from one to another, like a line on a navigator. In addition to dolmens, there are remnants of semi-underground crypts on the Jordan - here they buried ordinary Alans (noble ones were buried in dolmens).
People come to the site mainly for esoteric reasons, in search of an ancient place of Power. There are, of course, both tourists and hikers, but mysticism is still in the lead.
Local features
It is possible to come to the settlement in winter, but it is much more difficult to examine the stones and foundations under the snow.
Ruins and monuments are distributed over the site not in chronological order, but chaotically. Dolmens, the oldest of the local structures, are scattered along the Spire and Jordan. More precisely, four pieces (of varying degrees of preservation) are on the Spire, about one and a half dozen - on the Jordan.
Next to the ascent directly to the Spire hill, there is a table with benches, and there is a place for a fire. If you are going to take a break, it is better to use this prepared parking lot. It is forbidden to put up tents on the settlement, and every reasonable person understands and observes this prohibition.
If you go by car, we advise you to leave it near the river, so as not to knead mud on the already torn up road to Spire.
After the Leso-Kyafar settlement it is interesting to go to Nizhnearkhyzskoe - the old way of the Alans. Even the paved section of the ancient road that connected the two settlements has been preserved. Locals say that on this road through the pass to the Nizhnearkhyz settlement can be reached on foot faster than by car to take a detour. True, it is worth taking a guide on a hike or thoroughly studying a map of the area. Soviet descriptions of tourist routes in the republic can be used.
History
The first written information about the Leso-Kyafar settlement was published in Military Collection No. 1 for 1860. An unknown author wrote that in the upper reaches of the Kafar "there are many different statues and figures carved in stone, and there is also a large building, the walls of which, according to the natives, are covered with inscriptions and painted with images of knights, animals, birds and fish." But even before that, in 1843, during the construction of the Nadezhdinsky fortifications of the village of Storozhevoy (12 km from the settlement), stones from the settlement were used.
Scientific research of the monument began in 1952-1953, when expeditions from the Pyatigorsk Pedagogical Institute went here. In 1972 and 1975, dolmens were studied, attributed, according to the results, to the Bronze Age.
In 1985 and 1988, archaeological excavations were carried out on the Spire - scientists examined several residential buildings, one of which is much larger than the rest. Then there was an assumption that the Kyafar settlement is the family castle of the famous ruler of Alania of the 11th century, Dergulel the Great. But these findings have not yet been confirmed. The last time archaeological work at the site was carried out in 1991-1994, when the cult complex on the Spire was dug.
It is a shame not only that the scientists studied only a small part of the complex - it is a pity that the bulk of the materials remained unpublished.
It is believed that the Alans, who lived on the site before the invasion of Tamerlane in the XIV century, used dolmens for their burials. The largest, intact and richly decorated dolmen from the Kafar settlement can now be seen in the Stavropol Museum of Local Lore on Dzerzhinsky Street. It stands in the courtyard of the museum and is called the "Mausoleum of the Alanian leader of the XI century." Dolmen was taken to Stavropol during the first expedition in the 1950s.
Who and why built the dolmens is unknown to science. It is assumed that the "dolmens" became the first inhabitants of the settlement, which after them remained uninhabited for some time. Perhaps, then the Sarmatians came to their place - this version arose by analogy with the Nizhnearkhyz settlement, where the presence of the Sarmatians was proven.
It is also unknown when the Alans (Iranian-speaking nomads) came to the Leso-Kyafar settlement. In the Caucasus, they appeared in the 1st century A. D. After several centuries, the Alans were already known as a sedentary people who founded or settled numerous settlements in the foothills of the Caucasus Range. The earliest of the Alanian finds at the Leso-Kyafar settlement date back to the 7th century AD. The most recent - by the first half of the XIII century. The Golden Horde pottery found here is also attributed to the same era (the Caucasus, as you know, did not escape the Mongol invasion).
Like other settlements on the territory of modern Karachay-Cherkessia, the Leso-Kyafar settlement ended its century, most likely, with the invasion of Tamerlane at the end of the 14th century, when the Mongols simply wiped out the Alanian state with all its cities.
During the Caucasian War - it was during this period that the first written data on the region of modern Karachay-Cherkessia began to arrive after the invasion of Tamerlane - the Adyghe (Circassian) tribes lived in the Kafar valley.
© Based on site materials
Description
Now this place is called Kafar settlement. According to scientists, the city standing here was the residence of the Alanian kings, the political center of the ancient state of Alania. Not far from the Kyafar settlement there are dolmens - one of the most ancient human structures, which are megalithic, that is, made of solid stone blocks, tombstones. Unfortunately, the dolmens located on the territory of Karachay-Cherkessia are almost destroyed, the plates on their surface are already half-buried in the ground, but on their surface you can see ancient runic letters, images of crosses that are not typical for the Christian tradition, drawings of animals that most likely had ritual character.
In the area where the dolmens are located, there are several other religious buildings and natural objects that served for these purposes. Unusually shaped rocks have flat areas at the top - scientists still cannot establish what these sites were for. However, scientists disagree about the dolmens themselves - some of them believe that these were not gravestones at all, but the so-called "Places of Power", sacred places of worship of a religion already lost in centuries. Undoubtedly, one thing, the region of the Kyafar settlement is one of the most interesting places in Russia, requiring detailed research.
Ancient Alan settlement Leso-Kyafar or Spire
An article appeared in Military Collection No. 1 for 1860, where an anonymous author (A-DG) writes that in the upper reaches of the Kafar “there are many different statues and figures carved in stone, and there is also a large building, the walls of which, according to the natives, covered with inscriptions and painted with images of knights, animals, birds and fish."
These words refer to the Kyafar settlement, which for a long time remained unknown to science due to its location in an inaccessible place.
However, the command of the Line knew about it, and in 1843, during the construction of the Nadezhdinsky fortifications of the village of the Guard, the soldiers took a stone from this settlement.
Kafar settlement occupies a long hill between the Kyafar rivers and the lower part of the Krivoy river. The mound is about two kilometers long, with a width of 50 to 200 meters. The hill with the settlement is called the Spire, and the next rise through the saddle behind the Spire, where the Alanian burial grounds, most of the dolmens are located, is Jordan (or Ordan).
In front of the hillfort, in the glades, there was an unfortified settlement, but now only in early spring heaps of stones are visible here and there, since all the buildings have long been dismantled into stone for construction. In Soviet times, an orchard was laid on the site of the plantation, now wild.
The study of the settlement began in 1952–53 by expeditions from the Pyatigorsk Pedagogical Institute under the leadership of PG Akritas and VA Kuznetsov, who was then still a student. In 1972 and 1975 V. I. Markovin studied dolmens on the Jordan and proved their origin in the Late Bronze Age. In 1985 and 1988 excavations on the Spire were carried out by Kh. Kh. Bidzhiev, who examined several residential buildings. One of them had a large area, which gave V. A. Kuznetsov the basis to speak of the Kafar settlement as the family castle of the famous ruler of Alania of the 11th century - Durgulel the Great. In 1991-1994, the expeditions of IA Arzhantseva carried out excavations of the Shpil cult complex. A topographic map of the settlement was compiled.
All conducted studies cover only an insignificant part of the Kafar settlement and it remains, in fact, almost unexplored. Unfortunately, the materials of the excavations carried out have not been published for the most part. And the scientific void is filled with wild hypotheses: about the belonging of the settlement to the Atlanteans (not to be confused with the Alans) or about the existence on Kafar of an almost second Bermuda triangle with cosmic energy pouring onto the Earth ("… not a closed navel of the Earth" as Vysotsky sang). One can be amazed at this stupidity for a long time, but very active supporters of these hypotheses appear and begin to rebuild the dolmens according to their vision, fixing the structure with concrete. This is no longer laughter, since the city is being destroyed.
In the summer of 1996, the bulldozer of the Storozhevsky forestry enterprise demolished the main (and only) street on the settlement, which was clearly visible at that time. The case was considered for a year and a half and in the end Art. the counselor of justice BO Daguzhiev wrote, “… no damage was caused by the forestry enterprise”. Indeed, how much is a street in an ancient city?
By now it is clear that the Kafar settlement is multi-layered. From the most ancient period (I – II millennium BC) dolmens remained, of which 3-4 are located on the Spire, and the rest, 12-15 are located on the Jordan. Alans, who occupied the settlement until the XIII century A. D. used ancient dolmen tombs for their burials.
One of the dolmens, which is now in the Stavropol Museum, is decorated with images of people, animals, everyday scenes, and mythical creatures. It is clear that such a dolmen served as a burial place for people of noble birth. Who was the original creator of the dolmens and where these tribes disappeared can only be guessed without any reliable basis. It is possible that after the “dolmenschiks” the settlement was uninhabited for some time, but in the Meoto-Sarmatian period (IV century BC - first centuries AD) the settlement was inhabited again. Who were the inhabitants?
IA Arzhantseva considers the early ceramics at the cult complex to be Meotian, but the word “Meots” is not an ethnonym, but designates the multilingual tribes who lived near Meotida (the Azov Sea). The inhabitants of the Kyafar settlement could also be Sarmatians, given the proximity of the Lower Arkhyz, where the presence of Sarmatians is proved in the publications of S. F. Varchenko and A. Yu. Pogrebny, as well as N. A. Tikhonov.
The time of the appearance of the first Alans at the Kyafar settlement is also unknown. Iranian-speaking nomad Alans appeared in the Caucasus in the 1st century. AD A few centuries later, they are already known as a sedentary population, who founded (or continued) numerous settlements in the foothills of the Caucasus. The earliest Alanian inventory, originating from the Kyafar settlement, dates back to the 7th century AD. As for the sunset of the Kyafar settlement, the Golden Horde ceramics are found on the territory of the posad, i.e. in the first half of the XIII century, the Kafar settlement continued to exist. During the Caucasian War, numerous Adyghe (Circassian) tribes lived in Kafar.
How to get to the settlement? From the village of Lesokyafar, where buses go from the station Zelenchukskaya, up Kafar 1.8 kilometers. The road goes first along the river, and after passing the wetland it goes into the forest. The settlement (Spire) is already visible from this point. From the glade in front of the entrance (former posad), the ascent to the settlement begins along the path. Entrance coordinates: λ = 41 ° 25′.891, φ = 43 ° 45′.942. Interesting objects marked on the plan by I. Arzhantseva and Z. Albegova are visible from the first steps. To the right of the path lies a stone with a "Babylon" (a system of inscribed squares) carved on it, which, according to I. Arzhantseva and Z. Albegova, served as a place for divination by the priests.
A few meters higher, to the left of the road, there is a stone with engraved Christian crosses. Christian crosses are often found at the Kafar settlement. They can be seen on individual stones and even dolmens. And the self-name Kyafar comes from the word "kafir" - unfaithful, as Muslims designate all people not of their faith. For the Muslims who came to these places, Kyafar became a river of infidels, since the symbols of Christianity were everywhere.
Around 80 meters higher along the path, a group of slabs is visible to the right, one of which is completely painted with images of deer and crosses. Other slabs with images of deer lie on the other side of the road. About 200 meters up from the slab, on the right in the forest, you can see the most interesting object of the settlement - the cult complex, which is two outlier rocks. On the plane of one outlier, where the steps lead, there are sacrificial stones. After the adoption of Christianity, a church was built in front of the sacrificial stones, the foundation of which is clearly visible. Images of Babylon are visible on the stones of the cult complex. The expedition of I. A. Arzhantseva between the two outliers excavated a chamber into which the steps descended. The entrance to the cell was walled up. Fragments of ceramics and human bones were found in the chamber. It is unclear if this was a burial or a prison cell.
Farther away from the cult complex, to the left of the trail, a defensive wall is visible, the height of which in some places reaches three meters. Above the wall, the flat part of the Spire begins with clearly visible foundations of houses. The dense development of the settlement is visible on a fragment of a plan drawn up by the expedition of I. A. Arzhantseva.
After walking a hundred meters along the flat part of the settlement and approaching the steep edge towards the Krivoy River, you can see a dolmen, which has a well-preserved front plate with a round hole. Parts of two other dolmens are visible nearby. On the site that continues further, numerous remains of residential buildings and two small churches are visible. The settlement ends with a steep cliff. To go to the Jordan, you should, before reaching the end of the settlement, go down to the right under the steep part where the path goes, and after passing the saddle climb to the Jordan. Many visiting tourists have laid clearly visible paths on the Jordan that lead from one dolmen to another.
In addition to dolmens, numerous semi-underground crypts-burials of Alans of not noble origin are visible on the Jordan. Sandstone slabs for dolmens and semi-underground crypts were mined in quarries, one of which is located on the right bank of the Curve, not far from the entrance to the settlement. There is a small grotto near the quarry. The Kafar settlement and the Nizhne-Arkhyz settlement existed simultaneously. This is indicated by a section of a paved ancient road between the two settlements. Apparently, another road went past the Jordan to the Mytseshta ridge in the direction of the Old Dwelling (modern Arkhyz) and then through the Phiya pass to Laba, from where it is easy to go to the sea through the Damkhurts pass.
© Based on site materials
- Part two -