As a reminder, on October 15, Tuapse Vesti published the material “The Dolmen Lost”.
The background is as follows. Telling our readers about the Tuapse dolmens, we decided to visit one of them, located in a meadow near the village of Krasnoye. They came - but he is not! A few years ago, both guests and tourists were taken to this dolmen. In general, the artifact is missing! And the most amazing thing is that no one around was worried - neither in the local police department, nor in the Velyaminovo administration. It will then become clear why. Together with the employees of the criminal investigation department, we found out that this dolmen was … not real!
The first after the publication (we must give them their due) were the employees of the regional administration for the protection of natural monuments. Together with its boss, Grigory Davydenko, we tried to understand what kind of dolmen it was, where did it come from, and why it is not in their register?
The head of the department told us that they are even interested in “not real” dolmens.
- We had cases when entrepreneurs from the resort, in order to attract the attention of tourists to their institutions, assembled a dolmen, like a constructor, from different plates. It turns out that the dolmen itself is not real, but it was made of real dolmens. But their destruction is already a crime. One such businessman was convicted and now has to pay the state several million rubles of damage. Therefore, I would like to find “your” dolmen and see what it is made of,”he said.
The search for the truth continued. And here the Tuapse interdistrict prosecutor's office helped. It turned out that a few years ago this site was rented out. One of the residents of Tuapse tried to create something from the field of ethno-tourism there. To attract the attention of tourists to a nearby waterfall, he equipped a nearby meadow with "artifacts"!
All this was investigated by a criminal investigation officer Sergei Korotaev. He found out where our missing dolmen is now and identified it.
- I spoke with an entrepreneur, - Sergey Korotaev told us. - He made this dolmen from stone slabs, which he ordered in the quarry. A lot of work was done with the involvement of technology. You understand, you can't build this by hand. As the entrepreneur said, he had high hopes for this dolmen, he equipped a place for recreation nearby. But the business didn't go.
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Local residents confirm the appearance of the dolmen in the mid-2000s.
“I remember we were very surprised to find this dolmen on the way to the dacha,” says Valery Voytetsky, who has been walking past this glade to the dacha for more than thirty years. “But when we saw the benches and tables that appeared next to them, we realized that this was just a tourist attraction. But the tourists didn't know about it! They did not know when and under what circumstances the “artifact” appeared here, especially when the dolmen remained “alone” and for some time simply stood in the clearing. I can imagine how ignorant people wandering through the forest were surprised and rejoiced - and suddenly - an ancient dolmen! Like us who accidentally discovered it a few years ago. And then those who lost …
And yet, we met our old acquaintance! Now the homemade product pleases tourists in Agui-Shapsug, in an ethno-cultural complex. As the director of the complex explained to us, that entrepreneur simply gave them a "dolmen" - he can't stand in the forest forever! And people who come from afar have the opportunity to at least roughly see what it is, without climbing the mountains, to see what dolmens are like.
The material about the dolmen that disappeared in the Tuapse forests made a lot of noise. All regional and central newspapers reprinted the news of the loss, news stories were broadcast. And journalists are still returning to our Tuapse dolmens (For those who have not read our articles: these stone structures are as old as the Egyptian pyramids, their purpose is still unknown, and there are about 400 of them in the Tuapse region).
This story has once again shown what treasures we possess. And once again I wish both tourists and fellow countrymen: take care of the dolmens! Do not defile with rubbish and inscriptions. May both grandchildren and great-grandchildren be lucky enough to see and solve their secrets.
SVETLANA SVETLOVA