Agricultural prosperity, the Christian church and the village of the dead attract tourists in North Ossetia.
In this country, there is a village called Dargavs, which has a peculiar history. This village was called "the city of the dead."
City of the Dead is a place where people were buried from the local surrounding valleys. The cemetery consists of 96 crypts.
This is a real open-air museum, which stretches for seventeen kilometers and gives an insight into the life of ancestors who lived here over 400 years ago. In the stone vaults are also things and clothes of the dead.
Is located at the road crypts store a skeletons dead. At the same are in the depths of the crypts of the cemetery there are mummies. City of the dead were not interested in 60-ies of the last century, when the first studies conducted there.
crypts soldiers
Bodies of the fallen soldiers, believed to have been the first buried in the crypts. This theory began to look the most likely after found several weapons in the graves.
With a multitude of small white houses, the cemetery looks like a village. Nevertheless, it vaults, some of which belong to the sixteenth century, although it is believed that the oldest of them belong to the twelfth century.
The last burial took place in 1830, which currently is of historical value.
Crypts belonged to each family in the district. Crypt size depended on the number of generations in the family. Structure reach two or three floors, but there are four-storeyed crypts. There is also a grave with underground chambers, which are embedded deep into the mountains.
architectural forms
architecture buildings suggests that lived here before the ethnic people Nakh. But it is believed that the locals just took as the basis of such architectural style.
Crypts with curved roofs and sharp peaks: this is typical of the architecture of the Nakh. The smallest crypts do not have a roof. All the walls are plastered with clay and lime or just lime, and serve as the foundation stone blocks.
The corpses were placed in a square hole in the wall.
Crypts on the hillside
Although the crypts are not too close to each other, in the city of the dead was clearly a placement plan, which also gives a hint of the culture of the Nakh.
Similar architectural idea, for example, in the necropolis of Itum-Kali.
In this scheme, the crypts and tombs are located close to each other and are in the mountains or hills. On the graves should always be a tower to watch the dead from a height.
According to legend, the crypt allows you to inform people got the deceased to heaven. To do this, users simply toss a coin at the bottom of the well, and if the coin falls into the stone at the bottom, it means that their loved one is already in heaven.
shrouded in secrecy
Around the city of the dead, there are many legends and myths.
One such myth says that the man who dared to disturb the dead in the cemetery, will not leave there alive. This legend has taken root in the years of the spread of the plague.
Due to the relentless disease, the population fell to 16 000 people in the middle of the last century, whereas before that reached 200 000 That is, the loss amounted to 92%.
Sick family members were placed in quarantine at home, and forbade them to any movement outside this territory, fearing the spread of disease. Sick and doomed people just provide food until they died.
Infected with plague people who understand that death is inevitable just went into the vaults and waited there for his death.
Boat in paradise
Some people were buried in the boats.
Anthropologists are not sure what it's doing, but it is believed the alleged ancestors of the Ossetians believed that crossing the river on the boat easier getting into paradise. In this case, the navigable rivers near the village no.
If the deceased person was not a resident of the village, and he had no relatives who could be concerned for the deceased, it was buried in a common tomb. These crypts in the city of the dead is rare.
Except for a few archaeologists who made the unusual discovery, and Christians that come to the celebration of Baptism, cemetery, no one of much interest.
modern Dargavs
Now the area in the district was abandoned because of the small population.
Locals tell a story to that of the body to the cemetery may revive. There are museums, which store certain, well-preserved clothes from this place.
Preservation of clothing provided special structure of crypts, in which a special ventilation and a special microclimate. All this affects the natural mummification of corpses.
The most famous tombs of the world
In the world there are numerous graves, which turned into a cult of worship. The most extensive and significant present attention.
Tomb of Jesus Christ
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Taj Mahal, Agra, India
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Speyer Cathedral
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Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China
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Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt
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Tomb of Abraham Lincoln, Springfield, Illinois, USA
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Westminster Abbey, London, UK
This is the traditional burial place for British royals, as well as in the Abbey coronation takes place for the British monarchy.
St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, Rome
Burial site of Saint Peter, one of the 12 disciples of Jesus; St. Peter's Basilica and the most sacred place for Catholics.
The Pantheon, Rome, Italy
Pantheon has been used as a tomb for the burial of some of the most creative personalities of the Renaissance. Composer Arcangelo Corelli, an artist and architect Raphael Baldassare Peruzzi, all buried here.
The grave of the Prophet Muhammad, Saudi Arabia
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