DARGAVS

Dargavs is the city of the dead in North Ossetia, which is fraught with many secrets and legends of the Caucasus.

One of the creepy and mysterious places in Russia is the settlement of Dargavs. It is located in the middle of the Caucasus Mountains. This mysterious town is actually a cemetery, consisting only of crypts and tombs. It is not surprising that there are many legends about this place. According to some reports, people of the past were afraid of this place, because they believed that whoever went there would never return alive.

The largest necropolis in the Caucasus is located on a green hill dotted with many tiny buildings. They are just the same crypts. There are about 97 crypts in Dargavs. Behind these buildings is a half-destroyed watchtower. According to legend, it is intended to protect the deceased souls.

The tombs themselves were round in shape with a sharp roof. They had about 2-4 floors, and those that are smaller only had flat walls, sometimes without roofs at all. Inside the massive crypts, there is a large cross-shaped vault that supports the roof. These are quadrangles with roofs made of steps. This form is necessary so that the water flows out and does not flood the tombs.

The walls of the tombs are almost all built of stones and well plastered with clay or limestone. Every building in this city has a small hole, most likely a passage. Many years later, such passages were even locked. These holes are so small that an ordinary person cannot get out through them.

Inhabitants of the mountains buried their family members always dressed and with things. Each family had its own crypt. The higher and larger it was, the more likely it was, the more people were buried there. There are even cameras somewhere. Of course, there are also ordinary simple crypts. They were intended for people left without a family, or strangers.

The bodies inside the tombs were usually buried not in coffins, but in wooden boxes resembling a boat. But where do boats come from if there are no bodies of water nearby? According to beliefs, it was believed that the soul must cross the river in order to safely go to heaven.

Legends

1. According to one of the legends, a girl of unusual beauty once arrived in their population. No one knew where she came from. The entire male sex forgot about their beloved ones and began to fight each other for the heart of this beauty. People died in fights. Then this girl was taken to the council. But all the men of the council, eyes lit up at the sight of this girl. The women of this settlement were tired of this situation, and they decided to drive her away and declare to everyone that she was a witch. But the male population did not want to part with the stranger, did not want her to go to other men, so they decided to kill her. It was to go only to God. Immediately after her death, a plague epidemic broke out in the settlement. But the earth rejected them outward. This is how the crypts appeared.

2. Another legend says that any person who has been there will no longer live. Therefore, the locals avoid him, and all the curious are called lost people, whose life will not be long. And here it is worth remembering the plague epidemic in the 18th century. The population decreased because of her from 20 to 16 thousand people. And so that the sick did not infect anyone, they voluntarily left the whole family in these crypts and never returned. Food and water supplies were quickly running out, and soon people were dying simultaneously of hunger and fear of contracting cholera. Their bodies remained in their huts.

Today the city is considered the most eerie "city of the dead".