In the middle of the last century, inmates of a prison located on Luzira Hill near the capital of Uganda, Kampala, dug a trench under the foundation for the construction of auxiliary premises. The pick of one of them unexpectedly hit a hard object - a sculptural image of a human head. The find turned out to be part of a ceramic figure. Fragments of the torso and limbs were unearthed nearby. The builders refused to work at this place, as many assured that the found sculpture portends misfortune.
The head of the discovered figure turned out to be strange - a chin protruding forward, a long nose, a hairstyle that remarkably resembles a judge's wig, and a kind of cushion on the crown. A guest English archaeologist E. Wayland declined to comment on the find. He said that he could not find comparisons to any famous culture in Africa. His words were repeated by an employee of the British Museum, who got the image of the mysterious "judge". And the famous Ugandan researcher Thomas Scott said that he did not know any analogues of this sculpture in the world.
Photo: sarah-itsnotmyfault.blogspot.ru
It has been suggested that the figure found may have been part of a hitherto unknown cult of the inhabitants of the Lake Victoria coast. But while the lakeside area is home to some of the most important places of worship in traditional religion, research has failed to clarify the statue's origins. And the local Baganda tribe has practically no human images.
Ugandan historian Michael Nsimbi believes that the sculpture came to the area of Luzira Hill from the coast of the Indian Ocean. M. Wayland discovered many shards of pottery in the place where the "Luzira man" was found. Some of them, according to the scientist, are as old as the statue - five to six centuries. But scientists drew attention to the similarity of the shards with fragments of pottery found at the beginning of the 20th century in another mysterious place - Biggo-bya-Mugenyi, which means Fort Mugenyi.
Biggo bya Mugenyi is the ruins of ancient fortifications on the southern bank of the Katonga River in western Uganda. Until now, rings of trenches up to five meters deep, punched in solid rock, have survived. Their total length is six kilometers. As the legends say, Mugenyi was one of the habitats of the Bachwezi - a mysterious tribe that amazed the locals with their knowledge and abilities.
Place of discovery of the "Luzira man"
They did things, as Africans say, that no man could do. They easily flew over lakes, climbed steep cliffs. They cured all diseases. They reported events that were far away.
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The Bachwezi left behind buildings, the ruins of which have survived to this day. After the sudden disappearance of the bachwezi, archaeologists discovered strange objects that in time belonged to the era of the existence of Biggo-bya-Mugenyi, but in appearance they did not at all correspond to those products that were made by the tribes inhabiting Uganda.
The first mention of Biggo bya Mugenyi appeared on May 15, 1909, in the Office Gazette, a publication of the Ugandan protectorate. The note said that the inhabitants associate the origin of the fortress with supernatural forces. According to the tradition that still exists today, the trees and bushes growing there are considered sacred, and those who dare to cut them down will perish. Not a single local will pass by this place at night or during the rain. No one has lived near the ruins for a long time.
Ruins of Fort Mugenyi
The first excavations of the Mugenyi Fort were carried out in the early 1920s. It was then that the fragments of pottery were found, which were sent to the British Museum. Nearby, scientific expeditions discovered the remains of irrigation structures, which, apparently, were erected by highly qualified builders. Wayland compared them to the remains of irrigation structures on the island of Sri Lanka, which are more than two thousand years old.
But the most interesting find was made in the 30s of the XX century. An elderly peasant woman, working in the garden, came across a cylindrical clay object. She took it to the village chief, who took it to the national museum. The size of the cylinder was small - 14 centimeters high and 8 in diameter. Its clay surface is dotted with bulges and holes. Who made this item and for what purpose is still unknown.
Mystery tightly envelops the so-called Walumbe burrows on the Tanda hill, about seventy kilometers from the Mugenyi fort. In the Luganda language, walumbe means death. Legend has it that one day the sky god Gulu got angry with Walumba and drove him to earth. And he sent his brother Kaikuzi after him to kill the unwanted one. Descending, Valumbe discovered the pursuit. Then he decided to hide from Kaikuzi and began to dive into the ground. Dives - Kaikuzi is behind him. And Walumbe appears from the ground in a different place. Kaikuzi never caught up with him, and death remained with the people.
Walumba
More than two hundred holes appeared after that crazy "race" on Tanda Hill. Now the hill is covered with dense thickets, and without a guide you can easily sink into the ground. The holes are arranged one after the other in a specific order. All of them are about one and a half meters in diameter. The depth is different - from three to seventy meters. The holes are dug in the rock and extend perpendicularly downward. The same "holes" were found in other parts of Uganda. Their age has not been determined, although local scientists suggest that they have existed for a very long time.
In the form of "holes of death" resemble mining mines. But what could the ancient tribes be looking for here? Only in a few hills, where such holes were found, there are hints of minerals, and in very small quantities. Besides, how could people who had at their disposal only primitive tools of work could pass tens of meters of rock?
Is there a connection between the holes and the ruins of Biggo-bya-Mugenyi, and are they in turn connected with the “Luzira man” or with the mysterious bacwezi? There are no intelligible answers to these questions yet. But scientists do not give up on their searches.
Back in 1934, E. Wayland suggested that there was a connection between Biggo-bya-Mugenyi and the ruins of Great Zimbabwe, a fortified city located on the territory of today's Zimbabwe. He compared the plan of the Ugandan buildings with the Zimbabweans and it turned out that they have a lot in common: the same methods of erecting walls and the same semicircular or semi-elliptical fence of small courtyards, adhered to the walls of the central building.
During subsequent excavations at Biggo bya Mugenyi, shards of pottery were found, very similar to the remains of utensils found in Great Zimbabwe. And the most striking thing is that in the ruins of Great Zimbabwe they found a cylinder similar to that found in Fort Mugenyi. Moreover, a similar cylinder was previously found during excavations in Cyprus. It was compared with the Ugandan find by the famous Zimbabwean culture researcher G. Caton-Thompson.
Zimbabwe, Uganda, Cyprus - has there ever been a connection between them? Where did the "Luzira man" come from? There are no answers yet. Africa keeps many secrets and is reluctant to part with them.
Used materials from the book by N. N. Non-subduing "100 great mysteries of the ancient world"
Source: lib.informaxinc.ru
