There are many mysterious sacred places in the world, but probably not one of them is so densely covered with ancient secrets as Mamayev Kurgan. Now the very name of this legendary mound causes pride in every person who remembers the military glory of their ancestors and the victims of the Great Patriotic War.
But few people know that for many centuries this Volga height, endowed with an unknown force, has survived many battles - after all, many ancient military leaders tried to use its sacred energy.
Was there Mamai ?
The mysteries of the Mamaev Kurgan begin right from its name. According to historical research, the mound received its name because of the outposts located on its top, according to the order of the legendary khan. But, however, there are several chronicle sources that completely reject this version. According to them, the patrols of the rebellious temnik of the Golden Horde were located on a certain Seleznevy hill, which rose not far from the Mamayev Kurgan, which the khan considered more convenient for carrying out guard duty.
Ancient legends say that the name of the height arose much earlier than the appearance of the temnik-usurper. So the nickname of the legendary mound came from the ancient Tibetan word "ma-may", which is translated into Russian as "mother of the world."
It is possible that the height received such a name not by chance.
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Most likely, this was the name of the ancient peoples, who faced the magical radiation of the mound. Indeed, it is in the hoary antiquity that the unfading glory of the Mamaev Kurgan originates.
Sarmatian victims
The first to appreciate the sacred power of the Mamayev Kurgan of the Sarmatians. These fearless warriors, who reigned for several centuries in the southern lands of modern Russia, for a long time kept all the surrounding tribes and peoples in fear. In battle, they had no equal, since it was believed that the god of war himself helps the Sarmatians.
According to legend, it was on the Mamayev Kurgan that the Sarmatians conjured their gods, and here they kept the main shrine - a magic sword. It was believed that if you stick it into the ground and drink plenty of blood on captive enemies, victory will never leave the owners of this magical weapon. In addition, the priests of the Sarmatians and the winged dog of war worshiped on the wonderful embankment, sacrificing the skulls of prisoners and mysterious figures made from the hooves of horses.
Centuries passed, and the star of the Sarmatians gradually declined. One of the later legends says that on the Mamayev Kurgan, the last representatives of this people buried a fearless warrior who led one of the tribes. This brave woman has been entrusted with a sacred mission - to keep the sacred sword until there is a worthy warrior who can hold the weapon of the ancestors in his hand and revive the glory of his people.
Failure of King Darius
There is a version that it was the unknown forces of the Mamayev Kurgan that forced the Persian king Darius to advance on a campaign against the Scythians who settled in the Volga lands after the disappearance of the Sarmatians.
Collecting a huge army, the ruler of Persia initially freely advanced far into the depths of the enemy's possessions and was even able to capture the coveted height. However, Darius drove himself into a trap.
Having led the army, exhausted by long marches, to the magic hill, the king ordered to erect eight high walls on its slopes, which would serve as impregnable fortifications blocking the way to the top for everyone except himself and his entourage. While the Persian army was busy with construction, small groups of Scythians purposefully exterminated the carts that brought food, and filled up all the wells in the area.
Left without food and water, Darius was forced to go home. True, in order to somehow indicate his conquest, the king left a large detachment of soldiers near the cherished hill, supplying him with the best weapons. It is not known how the future fate of this garrison developed.
Frightened Tamerlane
Several centuries later, rumors about the miraculous power of the Mamaev Kurgan attracted the attention of the great eastern ruler Tamerlane. Going to conquer all the Volga lands, the Great Khromets decided to enlist the power of a mysterious height. Approaching the ancient embankment, Tamerlane ordered to install his yurt at the very top of the hill so that he could lead the night there, conjuring the gods. But as soon as midnight passed, the governor gathered his entourage and gave orders to raise the soldiers, fold the camp and go back.
The military leaders were discouraged by such an order from the great warrior, about whose bravery was legendary, but they did not dare to disobey their master. For several years, a variety of versions were put forward about why Tamerlane deployed an army, and only shortly before his death, the ruler told his trusted people about a wonderful vision that appeared to him on that fateful night.
When the warrior was praying in his yurt, asking the ancient gods to send him a great victory, a beautiful woman suddenly appeared before him with a huge sword in her hand. She looked menacingly at the ruler and ordered him to return to their lands, otherwise everyone would die from the weapon of the warrior.
Over the centuries, various assumptions have been made about who this ghostly woman was. Christians believed that the Mother of God herself appeared to Tamerlane - the intercessor of the Orthodox lands. According to another version, a formidable woman with a sword is the ghost of that very Sarmatian warrior who for centuries has been protecting the peace and safety of her descendants.
Height 102
Few would argue with the fact that Mamaev Kurgan experienced its most terrible battles during the Great Patriotic War. Bloody battles for 200 (!) Days, during which the height passed from hand to hand, claimed the lives of more than 35,000 people who died in this relatively small territory. Eyewitnesses recalled that the slopes of the mound were so densely packed with shell fragments that the grass here for the first time was able to break through only in the late 1950s.
In those terrible days of 1942, on the blood-drenched slopes of height 102 (the so-called Mamayev Kurgan), the outcome of the war was decided, and maybe even the fate of all mankind. After all, as you know, Hitler, who was more than serious about everything mystical, not in vain sent people from the elite unit "Ahnenerbe", who studied the sacred heritage of mankind, to Stalingrad, half-captured by his troops.
Esotericists who investigated the events of the Battle of Stalingrad at a later time argued that as soon as the Mamayev Kurgan passed into the hands of the invaders, experts from Ahnenerbe immediately began archaeological excavations on its slopes. What did the fascists want to find in the land of the old kurgan at such an inappropriate time for historical research?
According to one of the conspiracy theories, it turns out that even before the attack on the USSR in the secret laboratories of the SS, German scientists had developed a certain substance "electrum". It was believed that if placed in the "correct land", it would help its creators control the actions of all people on the planet.
Having carried out some calculations, Ahnenerbe specialists came to the conclusion that Mamayev Kurgan is the right place. Needless to say, Adolf Hitler, who was striving for world domination, did his best to implement this terrible plan.
Be that as it may, but after the war in Stalingrad for a long time there were rumors about strange boxes hidden by the Germans during their retreat in one of the villages closest to the city. It must be said that local ethnographers have repeatedly tried to find these mysterious boxes, but the searches have not been crowned with success.
Ghost Wars
Nowadays, Mamaev Kurgan is a place of memory of the fallen soldiers, of the military glory of a great country. However, according to the testimony of the staff of the memorial complex, built at the legendary height, and numerous black diggers, the war on the mysterious land of the mound continues to this day.
There are many people who saw the shadow of a young soldier in Soviet uniform standing at the post near the preserved bunker on moonlit nights. The imagination of people was also struck by a ghostly nurse who wanders from time to time near the monument to the Motherland.
But the most frightening phenomenon of the mound is, without a doubt, the echoes of distant battles. Many visitors to the complex tell how suddenly, in the middle of a quiet day, the mound is covered with a cloud of sounds of long-past battles. The peaceful air of the heights is filled with the roar of explosions, the roar of military equipment, the screams and groans of the dying. This terrible cacophony sounds for several minutes, and then suddenly breaks off at the highest note.
I must say that after a small Orthodox Church of All Saints was built on the mound in 2005, the ghosts began to behave more quietly, but even regular church services cannot give them eternal peace.
Or maybe the ancient sacred place is trying to keep humanity from new wars, bringing to the unreasonable descendants the terrible pictures of crazy battles, which we consider to be a turned page of history.
Elena LYAKINA