City of the Dead, Upper Balkaria. Eltyubyu and the city of the dead in the Chegem River valley

After the flights and lunch, it was the turn of the “cultural program” - we went to pay tribute to the ancestors of the current residents of Kabardino-Balkaria. Dmitry took us to the "City of the Dead".
Up the Chegem gorge from the place where paragliding flights take place

The road passes the village of Upper Chegem, former name - Eltyubyu (El-Tyuby) - “The village at the bottom of the valley”, where we stopped briefly at the bridge over Zhilgy-Su, a tributary of the Chegem. The Dzhilgi-Su gorge cuts the village into two parts.

It was impossible to pass by without stopping, because this is also a very interesting place

Firstly, this is the birthplace of the people's poet of Kabardino-Balkaria Kaisyn Shuvaevich Kuliev.

Kuliev once lived there,
there was his cradle,
his saklya remained there
on the bank of the Zhylgy-Su River.

This monument is the center of the village, people gather around it local residents celebrate holidays and special events.

Secondly, Upper Chegem is a museum under open air. It is of great interest to archaeologists. In the center there is a watchtower from the 17th century, reminiscent of the towers of Svaneti.

This is the watchtower of the Malkorukov family.

But Dmitry hid something from us in this village:
Right there, near the bridge, there is a “stone of shame”, to which, according to legend, criminals were tied in the Middle Ages. Along the Dzhilgi-Su River, which flows into the Chegem on the left, you can see the remains of Greek temples carved into the rocks. A poorly preserved path in the form of a staircase carved into the rock leads to one of the former temples, located in a cave. This trail is called the “Greek Staircase”. Here, in the Kyzla-Kyuygenkaya mountain range (from Balkar “Rock of Burnt Girls”), there is the Kala-Tyuby grotto - an ancient human site (13 - 15 thousand years old).
The path into the gorge is dangerous and steep,
Stones fall into a mountain stream,
On a high rock along the wall
Along the path you will come to the writings.
Not far from the grotto is the ancient settlement "Lygyt", which dates back to the 8th-10th centuries. AD, with underground wooden water supply.
Or maybe he didn’t know this himself... So, there is a reason to visit here again with a more detailed excursion! But we admired the local shop...

Having stood at the head of Kaisyn Kuliev, examined the tower and the surrounding rocks, we went further and, after a short time, an ancient necropolis, also known as the “City of the Dead,” surrounded by a low wall made of unfastened stones became visible.

In the “City of the Dead” eight above-ground mausoleums (keshene) have been preserved, four of which are rectangular with a gable roof,

And the other four are octagonal with a dome,

And also ancient unpaved family graves without any identification marks, fenced with small stone walls.

The necropolis dates back to the 11th - 14th centuries. ad. The severity and grandeur of the surrounding landscape is striking. You experience sacred awe.

There are keshenes above the village,
between the crypts on the ground
spread out a thick carpet
juniper bushes.

The crypts were apparently plundered, some were destroyed, it is not clear, by people or by raging elements.

Looking inside one of the surviving keshenes

Through an uncovered small window,

and having examined the floor and the space under the dome, you will be convinced that they are empty. The walls from the inside, as you can see, are plastered.

If you think about it, there is a lot of mystery. Whether there was actually anything there, how it was placed there and how it was later removed remains unclear. The windows are very small...

Galina Vladimirovna picked up a couple of stones from the ground, intending to take them as a souvenir,

But, according to mature reasoning, I decided that they should just stay where they were, it wouldn’t do to take anything from this place...

Dmitry not only lifted us under the clouds and brought us to this place, but also became our guide.

I can’t find any detailed (or even brief) scientific information about the “City of the Dead” on the Internet, at least I haven’t found it... Experts are silent, so in fact it’s not clear what these keshenes are, so I use paraphrases other people's opinions and ideas, possibly erroneous...

And we didn’t see this either:
Opposite the village, on the right bank of the Chegem, you can see the walls of a medieval caravanserai, one of the hotels that stood on the ancient trade route that once passed through the Caucasus mountains.
The caravans are long gone
From China to oblivion.
Framed by clouds
Legends of ancient times are sleeping.

Walking around the crypts, we again got caught in the rain. How cold he was! But as soon as we set off on the return journey, we found ourselves at the steam-planodrome, the clouds parted and the sun appeared. Really, unique place! Overall, if you don’t find fault with individual details, the trip was a success. Possible repetitions in the future.

MKOUSOSH No. 2 With. Upper Balkaria

History of my village

Khulchaeva Fatimat Kharunovna

Job title:Geography teacher

KBR, Chereksky district, village. Upper Balkaria

From ancient wonderful stones

lay down the steps of the future.

N.K. Roerich.

Multifaceted human activity transforms the world, creates material and spiritual values, shapes moral ideals and worldviews of society. Immersed in momentary worries, we often do not realize that the current creations of human hands and minds tomorrow, in a year and decades, will be perceived by descendants as irrefutable and visual evidence of our era.

From this position, when assessing the deeds and letters of people, their worldviews and moral principles, we must recognize them as equivalent monuments of the history of culture and humanity.

Outstanding minds of mankind have more than once expressed the fair idea that without knowing the past, it is impossible to understand the present and foresee the future. Our past has shaped not only today's problems, but also ourselves, enriched by the accumulated human experience. Without knowledge of the past, self-awareness and self-awareness of a person, the development of reliable guidelines in the seething stream of today's events, is impossible. Everything these days arouses unprecedented interest in the truth of history, in the social memory of peoples, compressed in the historical past.

While studying in the “Young Geographer-Researcher” circle, we considered it our duty to begin our work by studying the history of our village. During the work, we realized that we had taken on a great responsibility, but we decided not to retreat. By studying the necessary literature and meeting with old-timers of the village, we managed to collect some material.

Our village is the most remote, it is located on the border with Georgia and is one of the historically settlements republics. This is evidenced historical monuments: towers, crypts, burial grounds. Upper Balkaria consisted of 18 villages: Zylgy, Zarashky, Temukuevo, Nizhny Cheget, Teben el, Upper Cheget, Kosparti, Glashevo, Mukush, Mukhol, Shaurdat, Sautu, Fardyk, Kurnayat, Kunlyum, Cheget el, Shkanti, Tuura-Habla.

Each village has its own beauty, its own destiny, its own history.

Aul Kunlyum 1936

The terrible noise was left behind.

How delicious white bread with mountain water is!

Taste peace and find joy,

A soul tested by black misfortune!...

Aul Kunlyum 2006

This land was developed a very long time ago. The towers, which have survived to this day, indicate the existence here during the early Middle Ages of a feudal system, and this suggests that the class system dominated here for a long time, people were divided into poor and rich. The following surnames were considered Taubi: Abaevs, Mysykaevs, Aidabolovs, Amirkhanovs, Shakhanovs, Zamkhotovs, Bievs, Kuchukovs, etc.

Abayev Tower in the village of Kunlyum.

Among the countless ruins

On both sides of the river

There are two towers, and they are sad

Two white stone sisters...

There are no sentries walking on them

Watch dogs don't bark

There is an age-old silence in them

Don't wake up from sleep

Satisfied with the peaceful fate

There is no former enmity between them now

But those were cancerous days

What are they witnessing...

Tower of the Amirkhanovs in the village of Shkanta.

Each aul had its own taubi, for example, the Abaevs dominated in Kunlyum, the Amirkhanovs and Kuchukovs in Shkanti, the Aidabolovs, Bievs and Zankhotovs in Kosparti and Zylgy. The Zankhotovs had appanage possessions in Psygansu. The Shakhanovs dominated in Mukhol, and the Mysykaevs in Fardyk. Tuura - Khabla, Kunlyum, Shkanti were the places where the nobility of Balkaria gathered and political issues were discussed and the problems of the district were resolved.

We heard this story from the watchman of our village, Musukova Kh. A long time ago, four brothers crossed from Georgia through the pass for unknown circumstances to Upper Balkaria: Musaka, Rakhai, Rakhaita and Debo. They settled in a place that is still called Musaka to this day. They lived together for some time, then they disagreed. Mysyk remains in Balkaria, Rakhai goes to Bezengi, Debo to Kabarda, and Rakhaita returns back to G Russia One day Musaka goes hunting in the evening, from afar he notices a fire next to some tower, he became interested in who lives there and he came to the fireplace, where nine brothers and one sister received him. Having made friends with the owners, he goes hunting with them and against the enemy. Always distinguished by his intelligence and cunning, he attracts the attention of his beautiful sister. But in the end, they suddenly fall in love with each other, but the proud brothers do not agree to the marriage of their only beloved sister with an alien of unknown origin. Then they enter into a conspiracy, sentencing the brothers to death for the sake of personal happiness. The lovers carried out their evil intent in the following way. Hay cutting in a clearing called “Zyna” began solemnly. The conspirators decided to take advantage of this and had previously decided that they had submitted to the will of the brothers, and the guest would soon leave. The insidious sister herself prepared the strongest drink made from barley called cheese for mowing day. On the day of the celebration, she herself went to the mowing site and gave her brothers a lot of drink, so that they immediately fell asleep. Then Mysaka kills them all. After marrying the girl, Mysaka took possession of land and other property. Later, other people began to inhabit this place.

This place is still called Zyna today. Now it is inhabited by people and on this site there is a central mosque, an architecture that ranks first in the republic.

Central mosque of Upper Balkaria.

Here is the village administration, hospital, music school, communications department, MOUSOSH No. 1, i.e. Zyna is the center of the village.

Crypt burial grounds in the Upper Balkaria region under the name "City of the Dead" were noted a very long time ago. According to legend, people sick with plague and chalera hid in burial grounds, hoping not to infect others. The sick person voluntarily came here to live out his days. In the city of the dead there is a corner called Ashamish oba. According to legend, a father is buried there who dared to contradict his biy by not giving his consent to marry his minor daughter. He was brutally killed. And the grave of the daughter, who, having learned that the biy had carried out the sentence by killing her father and took possession of her, threw herself off the cliff.

The crypts (cachenel), which were built in the 10th-14th centuries, are well preserved. Almost all of these crypts have their own legend. Crypts were built for a special purpose; if someone died, often an unmarried girl, he was buried in a crypt separately from the general cemetery. Crypts were built by people from well-off families. For example, the crypt in the village of Mukhol was built by the groom of a girl who died on her wedding day from a spider bite.

The crypt in Kosparti was built by a certain Atabiev Baza for the sister of his wife Zankhotova.

The crypt in Shkanty was built by seven brothers for their only sister, who died before marriage.

Keshene in the village of Shkanta

According to legend, you cannot be in the crypt and take anything away, otherwise misfortune will befall the family.

Just above the City of the Dead there is a clearing where competitions were held, this place is called Zirishki from the word “Zarish-Charish” i.e. "Competitions". Today they have built a stadium there where all sorts of tournaments and village events are held.

Higher above sea level, almost three thousand meters, is Ushtulu, which has long served as a tourist base. Ushtulu is translated as Yuchtul. There lived a hunter who had three wives, hoping to give birth to a son or daughter, but he never had any children. They lived together and were friends, even after the death of their husband they did not want to leave that place. For this they gave the name “yuchtulkaynturgangzher”. “Tul” is translated as “childless”, yuch-three.

The population that inhabits the territory of Upper Balkaria call themselves “taulula”. From time immemorial, the Taulula have lived off their labor. They were and are engaged in agriculture, animal husbandry, handicrafts,

Gold will buy four wives,

A dashing horse has no price:

He won’t lag behind the wind in the steppe,

He won't change, he won't deceive.

Before the penetration of Islam, they were pagans and worshiped various objects: “Raubazyterek” (wood), stone, lightning. The inhabitants of Shauurdat worshiped the Raubaza tree. Even after the penetration of Islam, when the tree was cut down, some of them grabbed a branch, some a sliver, and hid it at home. Even in ours they tell how, after the death of one woman, relatives found a branch from this tree in her chest.

Today Upper Balkaria consists of four villages: Malkar, Mukhol, Shauurdat, Cheget. The length of the village is 7.5 km, there are more than 1000 households, the number of inhabitants is 5 thousand people. There are four schools. Two of them are medium-sized, the House of Culture, the House of Public Service, the post office, Sberbank, the Fire Service, the Dykh Tau Cafe. In this village, every path, every stone, every bridge could be the beginning of a great story.

Village of Upper Balkaria.

Oh, how good our day is: forests, hills,

Peaks. Clouds. Trees. We!

In conclusion, I would like to say in the words of the Russian scientist V.O. Klyuchevsky (1841-1911), regarding issues of the history of the Russian people, he wrote that the initial moments of history must be sought, first of all, in the memory of the people themselves. Memories, in his opinion, are not random, causeless, since “a people is a population, not only living together, but acting together, having a common language, common destinies. Therefore, people’s memory usually retains for a long time events that affected the entire people, in which they all took part and through this participation felt themselves to be a single whole.

Literature

THEM. Miziev “Essays on the history and culture of Balkaria and Karachay. 13-18th centuries.
Misost Abaev “Balkaria”
History of Balkaria and Karachay in the works of Ismail Miziev
Amateur photographs of circle participants.
Stories guarded the villages of Upper Balkaria. (Narrators: Atabiem M.M., Musukov Kh., Shautaeva K.G., Khulchaeva M.L., Mamaev A.L., Bichiev S.Kh.)

El-Tyuby is located in Upper Chegem and is a vast area with burials. It is believed that people were buried here before the 10th century.
A local resident (also our guide), who was present during the excavations, explained that there are a lot of burials here, but they are not Islamic. The distant ancestors of the Balkars now living in that area had their own faith (then there was a short period of Christianity, and then Islam came to these lands) and the skeletons in the graves lie chaotically, without a clear orientation to any direction of the world.

There are 3 types of graves there:
1) Single - stones were laid over the grave and by the size of the “platform” one can imagine the height of a person, for example, there are clearly children’s burials;
2) “Family”, when several family members were buried nearby and stone fences were built around;
3) Crypts.

Opposite in the valley there was once a settlement of some kind ancient people. It is often written that Alans lived there, but jewelry and utensils were found there that were not found anywhere else.
They say that in the spring, gophers dig holes and, along with the soil, stone beads and various decorations come to the surface (I don’t know whether this is true or not, but I fully admit this).

Well, now let's move on to the description of the burials.
“Family” burials have stone fences and are often completely covered with juniper, which was planted after the burial.
There is also a story connected with it from our guide: during the Mongol invasion, the Balkars made balls out of dry juniper, set them on fire and lowered them down the mountain towards the enemy. This method of defense has been encountered frequently in world history, not a local invention :). As a result, the Mongols left.

Well, the most interesting thing that attracts tourists here are the crypts (graves of rich families). True, there are only about a dozen of them and many are destroyed.

The crypt was constructed as follows:
One of the family members was dying, a hole up to 4 meters deep was being dug. The deceased was placed in it and covered with lime on top. The next deceased was placed on top of the previous one. In this way they reached the surface and the subsequent deceased were buried from above, already in the above-ground crypt.
In the crypts located in El-Tyuby they found from 2 to 10 skeletons (I don’t remember the exact numbers).
Now the crypts are of course empty.

During construction, the stones were held together with a mixture of lime and eggs. This solution is durable, which is what allowed the crypts to be preserved to this day.

The crypts were crowned with ceramic finials, although almost all of them were stolen. Unfortunately, it is not known what the tips symbolized.

Among the surviving crypts, there are many destroyed - partially or to the ground. According to the guide, this happened in ancient times, possibly as a result of earthquakes.

And in conclusion, one more photo and video of the City of the Dead.

Source: http://www.esskmv.ru/el-tyubyu-gorod-mertvyh.html __________________________________ The Balkar people formed over centuries in the valleys and gorges of the highland part of Kabardino-Balkaria. The Chegem River Valley is one such place. Of the Chegem villages, the greatest historical and architectural interest is represented by Eltyuby, where monuments of folk architecture for various purposes, belonging to different stages of architectural development, have been preserved. One of the monuments of this interesting village is the “City of the Dead”, located a little to the south on the slopes, unique in the variety of burial structures dating back to different times.
Chegem Gorge. At the entrance to the necropolis.

City of dead

Virtual panoramas of the Chegem Gorge
1. The panorama is interactive, you need to wait for it to load and control the image rotation using the mouse or keyboard buttons

2. The panorama is interactive, you need to wait for it to load and control the image rotation using the mouse or keyboard buttons

The entire necropolis is dominated by several well-preserved monumental tombs - “keshene”. They belong to different periods and are divided into 2 types according to plan and appearance: rectangular in plan and octagonal.

Rectangular:

Octagonal ones are more recent.

These small stone tombs with one window and a thin cornice, five to six meters high, are irregular convex octagonal pyramidal volumes with smoothly curved ribs and edges, ending at the top with a cone made of solid stone.

The old Chegem builders did not know a real vault, arch, or dome, and in all cases they used only a false vault, that is, a system where each stone hangs slightly over the lower one, gradually reducing the distance between the opposite walls.

In addition, the walls of irregularly shaped stones were made thicker at the bottom than at the top. All this creates the unique silhouette that distinguishes keshenes.

Multifaceted mausoleums with cone-shaped or pyramidal endings are found in the architecture of Central Asia, Azerbaijan, the North Caucasus (in particular in the Chechen regions, almost similar, but, unlike the Chegem ones, unplastered), and in the Kabardian regions. All these monuments belong to the monuments of “Muslim” architecture. This gives reason to see monuments of the Muslim period in the Eltyubyu keshene and date them no earlier than the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th century.

Constructed with the help of a false vault, the side walls of which become thinner upward, gradually closing, ending in a sharp ridge, the rectangular keshenes look exceptionally monumental and are perceived to be much larger than their absolute dimensions.

The relatively small structure of Baymurza-keshene, with a height of 8 m 60 cm and a volume of about 160 cubic meters, subjugates the surrounding landscape with its monumentality, so that it seems as if it was created not by man, but by nature itself.

It should be noted that the aesthetic impact of all funeral structures is determined not by a clutter of details, but by the composition of the volume, the contrast of the opening spot with the light plastered field of the wall, and the skillful placement of the structure among the landscape. Only one keshene has decorative decoration in the form of several imprints on the fresh solution of either the neck or the bottom of the jug.

The Balkar people formed over centuries in the valleys and gorges of the highlands of Kabardino-Balkaria. The Chegem River Valley is one such place. Of the Chegem villages, the greatest historical and architectural interest is represented by Eltyuby, where monuments of folk architecture for various purposes, belonging to different stages of architectural development, have been preserved. One of the monuments of this interesting village is the “City of the Dead”, located a little to the south on the slopes, unique in the variety of burial structures dating back to different times.
Chegem Gorge. At the entrance to the necropolis.

City of dead

Virtual panoramas of the Chegem Gorge
1.

2.The panorama is interactive, you need to wait for loading and control the image rotation using the mouse or keyboard buttons

Rectangular:

Octagonal ones are more recent.

In addition, the walls of irregularly shaped stones were made thicker at the bottom than at the top. All this creates the unique silhouette that distinguishes keshenes.

Multifaceted mausoleums with cone-shaped or pyramidal endings are found in the architecture of Central Asia, Azerbaijan, the North Caucasus (in particular in the Chechen regions, almost similar, but, unlike the Chegem ones, unplastered), and in the Kabardian regions. All these monuments belong to the monuments of “Muslim” architecture. This gives reason to see monuments of the Muslim period in Eltyubyu keshene and date them no earlier than the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th century.

The entire territory of such necropolises is covered with wildly flowering mountain grass interspersed with bright barberry bushes.

Birds of prey circle in the hunt for gophers and other living creatures

In the ringing silence of the rock-strewn slopes, horses peacefully nibble the grass.

The road passes the village of Upper Chegem, former name - Eltyubyu (El-Tyuby) - “The village at the bottom of the valley”, where we stopped briefly at the bridge over Zhilgy-Su, a tributary of the Chegem. The Dzhilgi-Su gorge cuts the village into two parts.

It was impossible to pass by without stopping, because this is also a very interesting place

Firstly, this is the birthplace of the people's poet of Kabardino-Balkaria Kaisyn Shuvaevich Kuliev.

Kuliev once lived there,
there was his cradle,
his saklya remained there
on the bank of the Zhylgy-Su River.

This monument is the center of the village; local residents gather near it to celebrate holidays and special events.

Secondly, Upper Chegem is an open-air museum. It is of great interest to archaeologists. In the center there is a watchtower from the 17th century, reminiscent of the towers of Svaneti.

This is the watchtower of the Malkorukov family.

But Dmitry hid something from us in this village:
Right there, near the bridge, there is a “stone of shame”, to which, according to legend, criminals were tied in the Middle Ages. Along the Dzhilgi-Su River, which flows into the Chegem on the left, you can see the remains of Greek temples carved into the rocks. A poorly preserved path in the form of a staircase carved into the rock leads to one of the former temples, located in a cave. This trail is called “Greek Stairs”. Here, in the Kyzla-Kyuygenkaya mountain range (from Balkar “Rock of Burnt Girls”), there is the Kala-Tyuby grotto - an ancient human site (13 - 15 thousand years old).
The path into the gorge is dangerous and steep,
Stones fall into a mountain stream,
On a high rock along the wall
Along the path you will come to the writings.
Not far from the grotto is the ancient settlement "Lygyt", which dates back to the 8th-10th centuries. AD, with underground wooden water supply.
Or maybe he didn’t know this himself... So, there is a reason to visit here again with a more detailed excursion! But we admired the local shop...

In the “City of the Dead” eight above-ground mausoleums (keshene) have been preserved, four of which are rectangular with a gable roof,

and the other four are octagonal with a domed,

as well as ancient unpaved family graves surrounded by small stone walls without any identification marks.

The necropolis dates back to the 11th – 14th centuries. ad. The severity and grandeur of the surrounding landscape is striking. You experience sacred awe.

There are keshenes above the village,
between the crypts on the ground
spread out a thick carpet
juniper bushes.

The crypts were apparently plundered, some were destroyed, it is not clear, by people or by raging elements.

Looking inside one of the surviving keshenes

through an uncovered small window,

and having examined the floor and the space under the dome, you will be convinced that they are empty. The walls from the inside, as you can see, are plastered.

If you think about it, there is a lot of mystery. Whether there was actually anything there, how it was placed there and how it was later removed remains unclear. The windows are very small...

Galina Vladimirovna picked up a couple of stones from the ground, intending to take them as a souvenir,

but, according to mature reasoning, she decided that they should just stay where they were, it wouldn’t do to take anything from this place...

Dmitry not only lifted us under the clouds and brought us to this place, but also became our guide.

Walking around the crypts, we again got caught in the rain. How cold he was! But as soon as we set off on the return journey, we found ourselves at the steam-planodrome, the clouds parted and the sun appeared. Truly a unique place! Overall, if you don’t find fault with individual details, the trip was a success. Possible repetitions in the future.