The vicinity of the Black Sea Gelendzhik is famous for many wonders that attract explorers of the unknown. Some are attracted by mysterious dolmens, others - by the riddles of stone balls, still others go in search of … the biblical Noah's ark. And many still hope to meet a white ghost that allegedly lives in the valley of the Pshady River, which gave the name to the most famous local ghost - the Pshadskaya Maiden.
The valley stretches along the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains, from the slopes of which more than a hundred waterfalls rush to the sea. They say that after sunset in these places you can see a white ghost, which seems to float out of the fog, beckoning travelers. According to legend, a long time ago a young Circassian woman rushed into the waterfall, unable to come to terms with the death of her groom.
This story is worthy of a Shakespearean pen. The beautiful Zulikhan fell in love with the courageous Asker from the neighboring village. Their feelings could not be prevented by the enmity between the clans. The young people met near the waterfall, and then decided to secretly get married. The girl's father decided to interfere with the marriage. Once, secretly from his daughter, he sent a message to Asker about an urgent meeting. That evening, fog enveloped the Pshad Valley in a thick blanket and the young man did not notice the ambush. The old man pushed the highlander down onto the sharp stones. Zulikhan, feeling that something was wrong in her heart, rushed to the coveted place, but it was too late. When she stepped onto the ledge of the waterfall, the fog cleared, revealing Asker's bloody body. Seeing him, Zulikhan rushed down …
Since then, a strange phenomenon has begun to be noticed in the valley of the Pshad waterfalls: at night a translucent silhouette in a white robe appears there - this is the Pshad maiden beckoning lost travelers. A couple of years ago, a white ghost caught the lens of a mobile phone camera of one of the tourists. He posted the video on the Internet. It clearly shows a woman's silhouette, which glides over the surface, and then seems to dissolve - in the trees, in the forest and in the rocks.
Local residents are not afraid of ghosts, and the stories about them are considered tales.
- I think the video got a foggy clot, - Natalya Konopleva explains her point of view to the reporter. - It is no coincidence that this place is called the valley of fogs. From the turbulent river and waterfalls, dense fog spreads along the ground, collecting in crevices and ravines. When the clots come out of them, tourists get scared, mistaking them for ghosts. But here, near Gelendzhik, there are many other mysteries that have not yet been solved.
Natalia lives in the neighboring village of Betta. She used to work as a postman, and now she leads excursions. She talks with special pride about Mount Ararat, the top of which is clearly visible from the windows of her apartment. In the Bible, this very mountain is indicated as the place where Noah, a survivor of the Flood, landed. It is amazing that the history of his famous ark is mysteriously connected with the small Black Sea village of Betta.
There are many mountains in the world with the name Ararat. Most researchers associated the name of the biblical with the one in Turkey, although it has never been exposed to water. Of all Ararats, only the mountain in the vicinity of Gelendzhik fell under water. It happened six to eight thousand years ago - just during the Great Flood described in the Bible. This means that the Old Testament Noah could well have moored precisely to this mountain. The Bible also features a certain Black Lake, which, according to assumptions, is the Black Sea.
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- There is a very fast current, and almost immediately at the foot of Ararat there are sea reefs, - explains Konopleva. - For sailors, this place has always become a trap. According to one of the hypotheses, it was after the end of the Flood that it became the last resting place of Noah's ark.
According to Natalya, for several years a group of researchers led by the coordinator of the public organization "Cosmopoisk" Vadim Chernobrov has been searching for Noah's Ark near Gelendzhik.
“They came every summer,” says Konopleva. - I learned so much interesting from them! I saw fragments of an ancient ship recovered from the bottom of the bay. Vadim said that they are close to solving the mystery of world significance.
But there was no sensation: in May 2017, Chernobrov passed away. He was only 52 years old. Some even associate the researcher's untimely departure with one of the many anomalous zones that he studied. Natalia does not lose hope that the students will continue the work of their teacher.
“Not only the mystery of Noah's ark awaits the clues, but also stone balls, or“God's balls,”as they are also called,” Konopleva is convinced. - Under our Betta, several balls with a diameter of about a meter and many - up to 40 centimeters in diameter were found.
Found in a ravine, Natasha brought home a very small ball that fits in a palm. Outwardly, it resembles a soccer ball.
- According to legend, the Caucasus was once an island in the Tatis ocean, - continues the interlocutor. - Once the lower gods decided to divide it among themselves. To mark the boundaries of their territory, they threw round stones like this.
Scientists examined one of these balls in the laboratory and found out that it was made of limestone and sandstone with a large admixture of iron. The local dolmens - cult "houses" made of huge stone slabs have about the same composition. Along with the Egyptian pyramids, this is one of the mysteries of our time. There are about a thousand dolmens in the Kuban. Everyone has a passport and is under state protection. According to experts, the tribes that settled on the Black Sea coast in the Bronze Age (IV-III centuries BC) were buried in the stone houses of their leaders. There are other hypotheses that excite the imagination and attract tourists to the places where dolmens are concentrated. Modern lovers of esotericism claim, for example, that in these places they feel "special energy". The outskirts of the Gelendzhik village of Pshada turn into a real "dolmen mecca" with the beginning of the holiday season. The Sazonov family from Novorossiysk has been coming here for almost 13 years.
“Miracles really happen here,” says Valentina Sazonova. - Batteries are charged near the dolmens, and electrical devices start to work from them, while mechanical clocks, on the contrary, stop. Milk does not turn sour in the dolmen chamber in 40-degree heat. We lived in a tent and stored food in dolmens. They all remained fresh.
Baba Valya did not delve into the secrets of dolmens due to her venerable age, but she believes that these structures helped their family overcome a difficult life situation. Her children are of the same opinion.
“We met a lot of interesting people here,” says Alexey. - Almost all of them came to the dolmens with their own problems. And if they sincerely repented of their own mistakes or suffered from some atrocities, they received help: the situation began to improve, and things began to improve.
“There are two types of dolmens: granite and sandstone,” Elena explains. - Both materials are superconductors. There is a theory that the Atlanteans who once lived on earth passed their sacred knowledge to us through dolmens, stone balls and other objects, the secrets of which have not yet been solved. But in case of emergency, they come to the person's aid. According to one hypothesis, our body is a computer. It breaks down - diseases, difficult life situations arise, and supposedly dolmens are repairing this computer.
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Almost seven and a half million rubles of the fine were paid by an enterprising businessman who destroyed five dolmens in the vicinity of the village of Pshada. He took out the stone slabs on a tractor. Having installed them in a new place, he declared about the antiquities allegedly found by him. Noticing the fake, experts sounded the alarm. On their submission, a criminal case was initiated under Article 243 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which provides for liability for vandalism. The fine collected from the entrepreneur was used to restore cultural values.
Tatiana Pavlovskaya