Someone thought it was an alien landscape or hand-drawn graphics? Not at all. When I see these real natural objects, I understand how much I still don’t know, and even more so I haven’t seen on our planet Earth. I have long dreamed of being there and touching them with my hand.
After all, we habitually believe that in search of the wonders of the world, we must certainly go somewhere far away from the distant lands to distant countries.
And this is right here, next to
The era of the great geographical discoveries, we say, is long over. It is all the more surprising that even in the 21st century, when, it would seem, all the paths are trodden, you can discover incredible things right next to your side, which few knew until now.
Among such wonders of the world is the unique Manpupuner plateau, which is hidden in Komi among the mountainous dark coniferous forests of the Pechora-Ilychsky reserve. "Small mountain of idols" - this is how "Manpupuner" is translated from the language of the Mansi people.
Komi hunters also call this place Ichet Bolvanoiz, or Small Dummies. Idols are seven separate stone pillars at an altitude of 700 meters above sea level. The lowest is 22 meters high, and the tallest one goes up 50 meters - like a 12-storey building. This territory is inaccessible. Perhaps this explains the fact that very few people have heard of the plateau. Although it bears the title of one of the seven wonders of Russia.
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Stepping on the plateau, you find yourself in some other world. And everyone feels it in their own way: someone experiences an incredible sense of freedom, someone, stretching out on soft and slightly crispy white moss, is charged with energy, but some are seized by a strange psychological discomfort, a feeling of anxiety. This is from the fact that it is impossible to get rid of the feeling that the idols are watching the guests.
Seven giants, lined up in a row against the background of a transparent blue sky and endless taiga, upon closer examination, suddenly acquire obvious human features. Ahead of all is a real shaman with a raised hand. And here is an old man with a wrinkled face. Next to him is a typical Eagle-nosed Indian. With a certain angle and a certain amount of imagination in the observer, this or that image appears in each of the idols. They stand with their faces turned to one side, as if holding - in the full sense of the word - their noses to the wind. And when you look at these frozen figures, the question involuntarily arises: how did they appear here?
The name Manpupuner migrated to geographical maps from the Mansi language, and the language of this people entered, in all likelihood, several centuries ago, when people tried to find an explanation for everything unusual, creating legends and myths. The Mansi explained the appearance of stone pillars as follows: they say, seven giants-Samoyeds, heading through the mountains to Siberia, to destroy the Vogul people, turned into idols. Samoyeds are the old name of the peoples speaking the Samoyed languages, that is, the Nenets, Nganasans, Selkups.
And the Mansi were called Voguls until the 30s of the XX century. And so, supposedly, when the Samoyeds climbed the mountain that today is called Manpupuner, their shaman-leader saw in front of him the top of another mountain - Yalpingner, sacred to the Voguls. He threw down his tambourine in horror, and all his companions immediately turned to stone. It is not known for certain when exactly this legend was born, however, it is likely that since then Manpupuner turned into an object of cult and was actually revered by local tribes as a mountain protector, guarding their peace, protecting them from the invasion of hostile tribes. And if you consider that only a few could visit the region of the mountain, since the road to it was carefully hidden, it is not surprising that Manpupuner was known among the people as a sacred place.
At the same time, these lands could be known not only to the Mansi hunters and nomads, who overtook countless herds of deer. Komi traditionally lived in the vicinity of the Mansi, who, interestingly, retained a slightly different mythical interpretation of the origin of stone idols. According to their beliefs, these are seven petrified brothers who did not want to marry their beautiful sister to an evil shaman, for which they paid with their lives. Thus, the Komi people give Manpupuner a slightly different sacred meaning, bringing to the fore both cruelty and the great power of shamanism. The Komi believed that anyone whose foot stepped into the domain of the stone blockheads would be punished. And, apparently, shamans, using these legends in their own interests, turned the tract into a forbidden territory, a kind of "place of power."
“Both the Mansi and the Komi unambiguously deified the grandiose stone idols, worshiped them, but the ascent to Manpupuner was considered undesirable, and for some it was completely forbidden,” says folklorist Oleg Ulyashev. - Women were strictly forbidden to approach the boobies symbolizing male deities. The ban did not apply only to shamans. Business here hardly came to sacrifices, and if it did, it was extremely rare and irregular. There are places in the North where sacrificial rites were performed, for example, once a year or even once every 50 years. And Manpupuner is a special case, the local tribes did not try to disturb the idols once again."
The top of the idols was considered sacred until the 1920s and 1930s, when the first explorers came to this territory. In 1930, in order to preserve the unique natural complex, it was decided to create a reserve. Since then, although it is rare, researchers and travelers have come here, and therefore versions of the origin of idols have increased.
The man-made version of the appearance of boobies has its supporters. They believe that we see figures made a long time ago by masters, which, under the influence of wind and water, have lost their clear features. But who whipped them and why? If we discard the alien version, it remains to suspect of this the ancient shamans, who needed idols to perform rituals. However, most researchers are sure that there is no need to talk about the man-made idols. The most skillful craftsman - nature - worked on their creation from start to finish. Geologists assure that there is nothing mystical about the origin of the stone giants.
They are composed of sericite-quartzite schists, and owe their original shape to the effects of water and wind, as well as to the temperature difference inherent in the sharply continental climate. For millennia, maybe millions of years, these factors have worked on the mountain, destroying the softer rock, first isolating a wall-shaped rock from it, which became narrower and narrower, and then cutting it into separate pillars. The process was also facilitated by the melting of glaciers, which in ancient times covered this part of the Ural Mountains with a solid shell. In essence, idols are unique remnants of the mountain, the vertebrae of its skeleton. “In principle, there are a lot of such formations in the Ural Mountains,” says an employee of the Geological Museum. A. A. Chernova of the Institute of Geology of the Komi Scientific Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexey Ievlev. - But these are really striking in their size. It is also surprising that,when the surrounding rocks collapsed due to various factors, including tectonic movements, these survived. Their phenomenon is in their resilience."
If you come very close to the outliers, not being afraid of the overhanging stone mass, then you will see many deep, almost horizontal and less pronounced vertical small cracks in the rock. This is evidence that nature continues its painstaking work today. Fresh collapses of boulders at the foot of the idols are another confirmation of this. Lichens also have a gradual destructive effect on the breed, which, according to the observations of the reserve's workers, every year gain more and more space on the bodies of idols. “All this just means,” and says. about. director of the Pechora-Ilychsky reserve Dominik Kudryavtsev, - that, alas, do not belong to the category of eternal idols. However, their age is not short at all - for several millennia they will surely rise to the plateau, amazing travelers with their grandeur”.
Evgeny Kalinin, Candidate of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, Leading Researcher, Institute of Geology, Komi Scientific Center, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences:
- Similar outliers can be seen in the Stolby reserve in Krasnoyarsk, but there they are made of granite. And the remnants of the Manpupuner Plateau are composed of quartzite-sandstones and crystalline schists. But, oddly enough, they are almost harder than granite rocks. I personally approached the blockheads with a hammer in order to beat off part of the breed, and I did it with difficulty. Imagine how strong it is! Well, the age of these idols, respectively, is no less respectable. We estimate it to be 490 million years old. It is no coincidence that this object was probably endowed with a certain mystical meaning in previous centuries, but my colleagues and I did not find modern beliefs associated with it.
Yuri Piotrovsky, Senior Researcher of the State Hermitage, Deputy Head for Science of the Department of Archeology of Eastern Europe and Siberia:
- Megaliths for scientists represent a huge field of activity. For example, there were attempts to determine a single center for the emergence of such monuments. Now we understand that it is very difficult. There is also a theory that all megaliths can be structures of one people. A controversial idea, and it is still impossible to confirm it. Megaliths are phenomena of human culture, and they are associated with worship. But with the worship not of stones, but of what, as people always believed, is inside the stones. However, there is a condition: megaliths are man-made objects, and the remnants of the Manpupuner plateau are not such, they are geological monuments. Although this did not prevent them from worshiping in the past.
The Voguls, the local population of the Urals, have other points of view. There are at least three legends explaining the origin of the Small Boobies (this is exactly what Manpupuner sounds like in the Mansi language).
According to one version, after the Younger Brothers, i.e. The Voguls were chasing six giants of the Samoyed, while they were trying to go beyond the Stone Belt. The giants had almost caught up with the Vogul, when suddenly a white-faced shaman Jalpingner appeared in front of them. He raised his hand and managed to utter one spell, after which all the giants turned to stone. Unfortunately, Jalpingner himself was also petrified. Since then, they have stood against each other.
Another legend says that seven giant shamans followed Riphea to destroy the Voguls and Mansi. When they climbed the Koyp, they saw the sacred mountain of the Voguls Yalpingner (the holiest place for the Voguls) and understood the greatness and power of the Vogul gods. They were petrified with horror, only the leader of the giants, the chief shaman, managed to raise his hand to cover his eyes from Yalpingner. But this did not save him - he also turned to stone.
Finally, we left the most romantic legend about the origin of Manpupuner. As the myth says, there lived one tribe of Ugras (Voguls, Mansi and other tribes related to them were called by a common name - Ugra). It was so rich and happy that it was legendary far beyond the Stone Belt. The tribe lived under the auspices of Yalpingner, and their leader was the mighty and wise Kuuschay. The leader had a daughter, the beautiful Ayum. There was no one more beautiful than her in the world. Torev (bear) found out about her beauty, that he lived on the other side of the Ural Mountains. And then, one day, Torev came to
Kuuschai and demanded Ayum from him as his wife, to which he was refused by Ayum herself. Torev was very angry, called his giant brothers and decided to destroy the Ugras, and Ayyum to marry him by force. Approaching the stone city where Ayum was, the giant brothers began to besiege him. A great battle ensued and the power was on the side of the giants. Then Ayum asked the good spirits of Yalpingner to convey the news of the attack on the city to her brother Pygrychum, who was on the hunt at that time. But Pygrychum was far away. The giants burst into the city, destroyed the crystal palace, the fragments of which scattered over the Riphean mountains (since then, rock crystal has been found here). The Ugra-Vogul tribe was forced to flee. And so, when the giants had almost caught up with Ayum and her fellow tribesmen, Pygrychum suddenly appeared with a golden shield and a shining sword,which the perfume of Yalpingner gave him. Pygrychum sent a beam of light reflected from his shield into Torev's eyes and he turned to stone. Likewise, his brothers were petrified. This is how Manpupuner came into being.
As you can see, in all legends one constant motive remains - the presence of giants who wanted to destroy the Vogul tribe and the magical help of Yalpingner. I must say that Man-Pupu-Ner has always been a sacred place for the Voguls, but its strength was somewhat negative. An ordinary person was strictly forbidden to climb the Manpupuner plateau, only shamans had access there to recharge their magical powers. Not far from the Manpupuner plateau there are several more Vogul sanctuaries - Tore-Porre-Iz, Solat-Chahl (Dead Mountain), where, according to legend, nine Mansi hunters died, and where the legendary group of Igor Dyatlov (already in our time) perished.
By the way, Dyatlov's group also consisted of nine people. Also nearby is Yalpingner itself, relatively close is the Prayer Stone (on the territory of the Vishersky Reserve), where there was also a temple and the sacred cave of the Voguls and Mansi. As you can see, not only Manpupuner deserves the epithet magical and magical, but undoubtedly, he is the most beautiful and impressive.
And more about legends …
Legend of the Golden Woman
For a long time, there has been a legend about the Golden Baba, which is guarded by Mansi shamans. People used to think that it was some kind of material figure or sculpture, and they tried to find it. This is actually a treasure, but not a precious metal, but a spiritual treasure, says the artist Alexander Kaminsky. More than once during the month he saw a glowing golden female figure against the background of a dark peak. "I believe that this is one of the images of the Mother of the World." (Or maybe this is Pavel Bazhov, the Mistress of the Copper Mountain?)
Mansi legends
However, the most interesting are the Mansi legends. ManPupuNer in Mansi means "Small mountain of idols", and the boobies themselves - ern pupygyt - "Nenets idols". According to the legend, reflecting the ancient clashes between the Mansi and the Nenets, the giants-Samoyeds decided to go to war on the Mansi. They climbed the mountain and saw not far away Tagt-Talakh-Yalping-Ner-Oyka, terrible in his anger. This is the “Holy old man Ural at the top of Northern Sosva”, and the giants turned into stone pillars. That's how they stand. And their shaman-leader dropped his tambourine. The tambourine rolled and turned into a huge mountain Koyp.
Nearby is the Pecherya-Talakh-Chakhl mountain - a mountain at the top of Pechora. These mountains are sacred among the Mansi people.
Old-time Russian population and epics
Blockhead - here means an idol, an idol. It is interesting that the old-time Russian population in the villages along the upper reaches of the Pechora calls the stone idols heroes, transferring epic images to the Northern Urals. However, there is another name - the Man's Stone with an interesting commentary written in the middle of the 19th century: “Observing from a distance the pillars that crowned the peaks of the Man's Stone, one might think that this mountain is inhabited by giant people. In the stories of superstitious peasants, there is a legend that the Ostyaks, making a sacrifice on its peaks, were turned to stone by the power of the Almighty as punishment for idolatry. Komi, however, say that these are 7 robbers, petrified by the word of God until the day of the Last Judgment.
Ural - the birthplace of civilization?
According to one of the theories, the Ural was the epicenter of the birth of modern civilization. There was the country of Hyperborea - the foremother of world civilization, from which the sacred cities of the Light remained, in which the Hyperboreans - the Aryans - lived. In the Chelyabinsk region alone, archaeologists have found 23 such cities, the most famous of which is Arkaim. And recently in Bashkiria, another city was found, called Bakshay, which is 1000 years older than Arkaim. All these cities are connected with each other by energy channels.