North Ossetia: Koban gorge, Kakhtisar camp site and lost funicular. Dargavs, city of the dead. Koban Gorge. Blood tower. Qakhtisar. Republic of North Ossetia

Greetings readers!
It so happened that in February and March I happened to go "to the south" twice - first for 4 days to Azerbaijan, and then for 5 days to Ossetia. On this occasion, I'm going to write a few photo posts when I have time.
I’ll start today and show you the mountains, and I’ll tell you a little about the abandoned camp site Kakhtisar, about the disappeared hundred-year-old funicular and about the mountain river Gizeldon, which murmurs even under the ice.

In Soviet times, on the top of the pass between the Koban and Dargav gorges, the camp site Kakhtisar (Ossetian K'khtysær) was built, which managed to survive the collapse of the Union, the 1990s, and even the military conflict with Ingushetia.
Unfortunately, the camp site was closed in 2009 - 7 years after it was covered by the descended Kolka glacier, the route passing through the neighboring Karmadon Gorge. Most likely, the main reason for the closure of the camp site is precisely the fact that it ended up on the route of the new road through the pass. Although one should not also exclude the factor of a decrease in the flow of tourists due to the deterioration in the transport accessibility of the camp site after the disaster.

Our path began from the parking lot in front of the Gizeldon hydroelectric power station - it was here that we managed to get a taxi from Vladikavkaz. Further, the road turned sharply onto a rather dumb concrete block bridge and continued, accompanied by signs about repairs, dangers and a special ecological zone near the hydroelectric power station.

We didn’t even try to arrange an inspection of the HPP from the inside - neither in advance, nor directly near it, since we have little faith in our diplomatic skills, and for several years now I have owed RusHydro a report on an excursion to another facility. We limited ourselves to a cursory inspection from the outside - it is very beautiful.

Well, our path ran forward along the road - quite flat and picturesque, despite the steep slopes of the gorge. Power lines run along the entire road

The road goes along the Gizeldon River - or rather, along what remains of it after part of the water goes upstream through an underground channel to the hydroelectric power station. And there is almost nothing left of it - at least in March. The high water on this river occurs at the end of spring - the beginning of summer, but we arrived long before it, so instead of a stormy mountain river, we observed an insignificant cool stream. Here it is at the bottom of the photo:

As for the road itself, it has been here for a long time. Probably since the construction of the hydroelectric power station. The only thing, it seemed to me that relatively recently it was strengthened and somewhat expanded, as indicated by freshly cut rock outcrops

The cut is very smooth - I would like to see the saw that was used to do this :) By the way, these even cuts are already full of Down's graffiti in the spirit of "Vasya was here" - I shopped them as best I could so that it would not be so disgusting

Power line poles protrude into different places on the road - on the right, on the left and even somewhere above

Also along the road from the upper parts of the rocks in several places streams flow down in small waterfalls from the melting of the remnants of snow

In general, the road is extremely picturesque, and I am very glad that we walked along it, and did not move by car. However, if you had a car, you could visit more places than happened without it. Well, nothing - you can always return.

At one point, the road crosses the river again, and power lines hang directly above the bridge. They hang quite high, however, a gas pipeline also runs parallel to the bridge, which is buried in the rest of the road.

Above the pipe, such a diverting structure was built on insulators - apparently so that the gas pipeline would not suffer if the line sagged or broke. Quite an interesting thing. In general, after the bridge, the gas pipeline dives again under the backfill to return to this story a little later

Our further movement along the road was not accompanied by anything, except for a slight rise and removal from the river - until we suddenly noticed the absence of the sound of murmuring water, which accompanied our route for a long time ... It turned out that at some point the river turned from murmuring to frozen. We did not notice this, because in this section it flows away from the road.

Looking at the photos with the hashtag "giseldon" on Instagram, I saw several happy girls against the backdrop of pretty bubbling rapids. Well, on our visit, those very rapids were such an icy beauty

What is very interesting is that under a fairly thick and strong ice, the river still flows and even quite murmurs to itself.

Thanks to the ice, you can afford to shoot it from different sides and angles, and not just from the one that everyone shoots in the summer. No seething and thresholds, but varied!

Turning back from the river, we see the gorge along which we came here, and a relatively fresh serpentine mound, by which the road rises. You can also see a green ladder parallel to the yellow pipe of the gas pipeline, the return of which I promised in this story a few shots earlier.

Well, the road used to end here - at the foot of the pass - and more recently! On its opposite side, there is a reservoir and a water intake of a hydroelectric power station, to which the workers somehow had to get. And for this purpose, a real funicular was built here! The rail track, a little over half a kilometer long, lifted carts to a height of a couple of hundred meters.

Mechanisms and carts a hundred years old, unfortunately, were first abandoned and then destroyed ... Photos from Google

On satellite images Yandex, made before the restoration of the road, the line of the funicular is visible, and on later ones - the fact that it was completely destroyed for the construction of a new serpentine, and together with the existing alternative trail "3ilӕntӕ" that existed nearby - a pedestrian serpentine with 33 turns

The need to build a road here arose due to the fact that the previously existing road in the Karmadon Gorge was filled up in 2002 during the catastrophic descent of the Kolka glacier. However, this construction did not begin immediately, but, probably, it was it that led to the closure of the camp site, to the ruins of which we were just heading.

We return to our history. A pipe with a ladder is a great alternative to a long serpentine walk. Especially considering the fact that the pipe fence does not have a gate, which, as it were, invites everyone to use the ladder

Climbing the stairs is a tedious but familiar task. Moreover, each stop makes it possible to turn back and enjoy the beautiful views of the river and the serpentine passing right here

As we climbed the stairs, an eagle circled and made cackling sounds above our heads. In addition, an unfamiliar bird's voice was also heard, emitted by a group of rather large (from 2-3 sparrows) painted birds with tufts, which are recognizable as jays

Since I armed myself with a telephoto camera for hunting birds in the bushes, it became possible to photograph remote rocks and the remains of ancient fortress walls (and also count all the dirt on the camera matrix)

View of the same "insulator" bridge and a car of some tourists stopped near it

Serpentine with fairly fresh rock cuts

Well, we finally reached our goal.

On the net you can find some information about the history of this camp site, as well as a petition from former employees calling for the restoration of a unique resort ...

Since 2009 in the Republic North Ossetia- Alanya Kakhtisar hostel stopped functioning.
Hopes for its revival are becoming less and less every year.
Qahtisar - natural monument located on the Purt dam between the Koban gorge and the Dargav basin. He is one of the most unique reserved places North Ossetia. Since the foundation of the Gizeldon hydroelectric power station at the foot of the dam in 1928 and until recently, Kakhtisar attracted not only the inhabitants of the republic, but also many true connoisseurs of mountains from Russia and abroad.
The camp site Kakhtisar, organized in 1975, received tourists who traveled along the developed routes, accompanied by instructors. Over the past 15 years, children from low-income families spent their holidays at the camp site - up to a thousand people in the summer, where they received and good nutrition, and beneficial physical activity, and knowledge about the history and culture of their own people, and simple human participation. Due to its favorable climate and geographical location (middle mountains), Kakhtisar served as an excellent base for training camps for athletes of the republic, many of whom later glorified Ossetia as world and European champions: freestyle wrestlers, judoists, arm wrestlers, boxers and many others. Qakhtisar was a place of inspiration for artists and art students during their study practice.
At the moment, the camp site is a complex of dilapidated and destroyed buildings, strongly reminiscent of former place military operations. The paths and playgrounds of the camp site, where children's holidays were held, recently covered with asphalt, are destroyed; trees planted by camp workers 30 years ago have been cut, abandoned buildings, furniture and communications have been dismantled.
The Bremsberg lifting railway, 520 meters long, which lifted people and goods to a height of 253 meters, built back in the 20s of the last century, was also completely destroyed. During the Great Patriotic War she served to lift the wounded.
Concern and pain for the destroyed and deserted natural and historical monument Ossetia encourages us - former workers of the camp site, teachers who worked with children in a summer camp, just resting ever in Kakhtisar and others caring people appeal to the public with a call for joint action to preserve the Kakhtisar camp site. The preservation of Kakhtisar is not an easy task and is possible only with the combined efforts of all representatives of the public of the republic and Russia as a whole. We appeal to the authorities and the public to help preserve and develop the unique protected areas of Ossetia. We sincerely hope that our joint efforts will benefit Russian tourism and contribute to the preservation of the national heritage.

Such is the sad story, as a result of which it turned out to be possible to visit this abandoned object, from which amazing views really open.

Some kind of sluggish construction is going on below, for which an alternative cargo funicular has been built - extremely unspontaneous in comparison with what was here before

The camp site itself is a complex of wooden and brick buildings, from which little has been preserved over the past 8 years. Luckily, the tourist lodges haven't burned down yet.

The views all around are simply amazing. Mountain air, pleasant spring breeze, cozy desert... Wonderful atmosphere

There is still snow in some places - the beginning of March, after all

We look into the cellars, because. we are still diggers :)

Well, we definitely go inside the buildings, being connoisseurs of abandoned

The condition is very normal, if it were not for the floors that have failed in places

Quite empty in places, and in places heaps of typical rubbish

Views from the windows of the building

Empty Alpine Pool

We pay attention to local art

We also pay attention to the unusual old "graffiti" aside from the camp site. It seems that this is Stalin or someone very similar to him :)

Near Stalin, crocuses bloom, which can be mistaken for snowdrops :)

We examine the remaining buildings to put an end to this object

At the end of the inspection, we look into the old transformer booth on the edge of the camp site

Inside the booth, a number of posters and signs are waiting for volunteers who will save them from there :)

Well, that concludes my review.
I would like to promise to try to write a sequel, because after visiting the camp site we went along the basin towards the famous crypts of Dargavs, and returned back under the extremely bright light of the full moon.

Thank you for watching:)

Reference. The Gizeldon River (Ossetian Dzhyzældon) flows through the gorge, but the gorge itself is called Kobanskoye after the village of Koban located in it. This village is famous for the fact that in 1869, during a big flood, one of the terraces of the left bank of Giseldon collapsed. Numerous stone boxes with human skeletons were opened in the cliff. Many objects of the Bronze and Iron Ages were found here, which are of such great scientific and cultural value that today they are in the most famous museums in the world, and the archaeological culture in the Caucasus of the Bronze (XIII - IV centuries BC) and Iron Ages (VII - III centuries BC) became known as Kobanskaya.

At first, a highway with good asphalt went along the gorge, but after the Koban hydroelectric power station it turned into a narrow country road. The road crossed now to the left, then to the right bank of the stormy Giseldon. The gorge narrowed more and more. Wooded slopes gave way to bare steep cliffs.

And we drove up to the Kakhtisar pass, which is located in the Rocky Range. No wonder the Rocky Range is so named. Around rocks, rocks, nothing but rocks.

This is not an ordinary mountain pass, but an ancient landslide 250 meters high, which once blocked the Giseldon River. It is called the Prut blockage and is a natural boundary between the Koban gorge and the Dargav basin, into which we had to descend. The mountains from the side of the Koban gorge are very steep, there are traces of stone scree all around. Giseldon made a narrow gorge in the rubble, thus forming several picturesque rapids-waterfalls.

The river rushes down furiously, forming foam and spray.

Serpentine turned out to be really very cool.

The picture is especially striking when you look back. Have we made it this far?

The elevation difference is so great that from the top of the Kakhtisar Pass the road we just drove along seems like a narrow ribbon, and the cars look like small bugs.

Reference: Once upon a time there was a guard village on the Kakhtisar pass, the ruins of which can be seen under the rock. From the fortification of Kakhtisar, a fragment of the barrier wall was preserved, from which they controlled the passage along the Kakhtisar path connecting the Koban gorge with the Dargav basin. They were built on the eastern slope of Mount Tbaukhoh. . The Purt blockage has been fortified since antiquity and served for defensive purposes, as evidenced by the remains of early medieval ceramics found here.

At the very top of the Prut dam is the abandoned camp site "Kakhtisar". They say that quite recently it was a very popular tourist center in North Ossetia.
The tourist center "Kakhtisar" ceased to exist, and this happened quite recently, in 2009"

Dizzying cliffs everywhere.

You can go up to the cliff and look down at the river.

There are beautiful views from the pass.

Cars carefully overcome rocky lanes.

On the other side of the pass - an amazing view of the reservoir, which begins the Dargav valley. Photo 16

AND big mountains in the distance, the tops of which were covered with thick, shaggy gray-white clouds. These are not just big mountains. Somewhere behind these clouds is Kazbek himself.

August 7th, 2016

photo authors coriosif And karpukhins
authors' comments are in italics

the map is clickable, the area is marked with a yellow pin

It is located about half an hour from Vladikavkaz. The gorge is famous for the ancient necropolis near the village of Dargavs and archaeological finds near the village of Koban - traces Koban culture. Artifacts found near the village of Koban ended up in various museums around the world, including the collection of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg and the Museum of National Antiquities ( Musée d'archeologie nationale) in Saint-Germain-en-Laye (France).

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4. Giseldon River

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In 1869, the spring flood of the Gizeldon River caused collapses of the left bank near the village of Upper Koban, thanks to which the locals discovered numerous stone boxes (graves) with human skeletons and many bronze items here. Soon similar things were found in other places. Thus, an unknown ancient culture was discovered.(see Koban culture)

13. Giseldon River

14. Giseldon River

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The roads are excellent, you can go, not jump)

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23. Kanukov Tower
In the Koban gorge, sentry and fortifications. The watchtower of the Kanukov family, which is located on a rock outside the village of Koban, is the best preserved.

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27. Mount Arauchoh
The height of the mountain reaches 2680 m.
The name is translated from the Ossetian language as "ringing mountain" (in all likelihood, because of the echo in the vicinity of the peak).

In the depths of the Dargav Gorge, on the right bank of the Gizeldon River, the ancient village of Dargavs is located. In the past, Dargavs was considered one of the largest settlements in Ossetia. Now there are only about a dozen houses here. The village is located on the banks of the Gizeldon River in the very center of a mountain basin, which arose thousands of years ago under the influence of melt water from the surrounding glaciers. Today it is one of the largest valleys in Ossetia - its length is sixteen kilometers, and one of the most sunny places in the republic - up to three hundred days a year there is clear weather here.
The Dargava basin is protected from all sides by mountains from cloudy fronts and winds, so there is a special microclimate here - even in autumn and winter it is dry. Moreover, in the basin a large number of flat spaces - a rarity for a mountain gorge. And an unexpected contrast: it is in this beautiful place on the southwestern spur of the Chitdzhitykhokh mountain that there is a gloomy and grandiose historical and archaeological monument "City of the Dead", which the local population calls from ancient times "Walmardty kuybyr" ("Cemetery Hill").
This is a complex of 99 semi-underground (IX - XVII centuries) and ground (XIV - XVIII centuries) stone crypts that served as family tombs and is protected by UNESCO.
The crypts are reminiscent of towers in shape and are distinguished by great strength, skilful masonry of walls and roofs. The pyramidal and cone-shaped roofs of the crypts are made of slate slate in the form of stepped ledges. The cemeteries served as family (tribal) tombs of the Ossetians. The custom of burial in above-ground crypts was associated with the cult of ancestors. The deceased was buried in full attire with small household items. The deceased was brought in through the hole wrapped in a cloth or in a boat-shaped wooden deck in a robe and with some small items (knives, axes, daggers, maces, arrows) and usually laid on wooden shelves. Small holes were made in the walls for ventilation. Due to exceptional dryness local climate, good ventilation and warmth, the corpses were mummified and well preserved.

28. Necropolis near the village Dargavs

29. Ancient crypts

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33. In the crypts the remains of the dead

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36. Koban gorge in winter

I have been living in the North Caucasus for almost 20 years and I love this region very much. Many people talk about their travels on our baby bikes, and I will also tell you about some popular ones. tourist routes North Caucasus.
I don’t know about others, but I like traveling around North Ossetia the most. Therefore, I will start talking about the most popular route - “Dargavs, the city of the dead. Karmadon and Kurtatinsky gorges.

This is a one-day itinerary, trips are organized travel companies from any city of the Caucasian Mineralnye Vody. It is very convenient - you come to the sanatorium to drink mineral water and see everything that can be seen nearby.
If you want to see as many ancient watchtowers as possible, then choose this route.
And if you are interested in seeing the tsyrts, then it is better to choose the Tsey Gorge route.
I, perhaps, will also show you, but we will start with most interesting place called Dargavs.
This place used to be called the city of the dead, because. in Dargavs is the largest ancient necropolis in the North Caucasus (more than 90 family crypts). This necropolis is an open-air museum.







All these are crypts of the 17th-18th centuries, the last person was buried here at the beginning of the 19th century. During the plague, people entered the crypts, feeling the approach of death, and died there with their whole families. The lower crypts belong to poor families, and the two-storey ones belong to more prosperous ones. As you can see, there are windows in the crypts, this is not to look into them (although we did exactly that), but to let the wind dry the remains. The wind always blows there, such a place.
From the window you can see a coffin hollowed out of wood, in which the remains are buried. The impression is terrible - in every crypt there are mountains of human bones, skulls, in some places mummified remains. I won’t post such photos, it seems unethical to me, it’s the same as showing an open grave to everyone.


We were guided by a local resident, a museum worker, Islam Sosiev. Extraordinarily interesting person told us a lot of stories.
For example, Islam said that during his youth he knew one long-liver, let's call him long-liver No. 1. This long-liver in itself was not simple, in his youth he taught the art of horse riding to Alibek Kantemirov himself (if someone does not know, this is the famous circus rider, the father of Mukhtarbek Kantemirov, whom everyone knows from the film “Do not be afraid, I am with you”).
But besides this, long-liver No. 1 during his youth knew another long-liver (long-liver No. 2). And the long-liver No. 2 during his youth felt that he was sick, according to the signs, it looked like a plague. As is customary, in order not to infect his relatives, long-liver No. 2 went to await death in his family crypt in the city of the dead. Lived there for some time. Relatives brought food to him, next to the windows of the crypts, the designers provided small shelves made of stone, they were made so that they put food on them for those who are in the crypt and have not yet died. It was forbidden for the sick to leave the crypt. However, after a while, long-liver No. 2 realized that he did not have the plague at all, but some other non-terrible disease. He recovered, returned to the village, married and lived a very long life, and also had numerous offspring.
The roofs of the crypts look like this:





The windows of the crypts have stone shelves, perhaps these are the shelves for food for the dying:


A watchtower rises above the city of the dead. It is this tower that is not quite ancient, it has been restored, it is noticeable.



The tower can be accessed via a ladder:

And even climb onto its roof, in the photo we are with my son:


The view from the top of the tower is amazing.
If you go around the tower and stand with your back to it, you can see this:


On the right is Maiden Mountain, a legend about how the name was born is associated with it. On one side of the mountain there was a village, and a young man lived in it, and on the other side of the mountain, a girl lived in her village. Young people were going to get married, they could not visit each other, customs did not allow, they met on the top of the mountain. And then one day the young man came on a date first and decided to joke, he hid nearby in the bushes and waited to watch the reaction of the girl. The girl went to the meeting place, waited for some time, the young man did not appear. Then the girl decided that the young man had fallen out of love with her and changed his mind about marrying, her grief was so great that she didn’t really think about the future, but went up to the cliff and threw herself off the cliff. The young man jumped out of his hiding place, but it was too late, he did not have time to keep the girl. This incident affected his entire later life, the young man never chose a girlfriend for himself anymore, lived his life alone, grieving for his lost love. When this man grew old and felt the approach of death, he went to the crypt built at the foot of the mountain and there he passed into another world. And people called the mountain Maiden.


The road winds on the left, it leads to Kakhtisar. This is the name of the place and the camp site, which functioned in Soviet times, was also called that. It means head and legs. There is a very steep ascent from the Koban Gorge, I can’t say how many degrees, but if two people rise one after the other, then the head of the one behind is at the level of the legs of the one in front, hence the name.

Behind our backs is the Koban Gorge:



Our guide Islam went to school through this gorge in his childhood, the journey took about two hours.
In this place in Soviet times was cable car with an unprecedented height difference, now almost nothing remains of it. Islam said that during the existence of the camp site there was a serpentine path with 33 turns, which led to the Koban gorge. In general, the impression was that the heyday of tourism in Ossetia was in Soviet times.
On the way to Kakhtisar, Islam showed us Mount Shau-Khokh. The mountain, no doubt, is picturesque, but if Islam were not with us, we would not even pay attention to the most interesting. There is a cave in the mountain, or rather a grotto, and in it ancient tower. It is called the "blood tower". If you don't know where it is, you won't notice. The legend of blood feud is also associated with it. Allegedly, one person built the tower to hide from representatives of a hostile clan, lived there, drank water that condensed and flowed down the walls of the cave, shot back from his bloodlines. He had there from the tower great review, therefore, over time, the recluse shot all the men from the family of his bloodlines, and he went down to the village, got married and had numerous offspring.
The photo is of the same mountain. At the entrance to the cave on the right, the same tower is stuck to the wall like a nest:

GLORY OF THE ANCIENT KOBAN

Eight kilometers west of the capital of North Ossetia, Ordzhonikidze, is the flat village of Gizel. When in the fall of 1942 the Nazi invaders rushed to the Georgian Military Highway, there were heavy battles. On the fields and hills between Ordzhonikidze and Gizel lay the last and fatal frontier for the Nazis, which they could not pass. From here, having stopped and bled the enemy, our army went on the offensive, forward - to the West ... These places are covered with the military glory of Soviet soldiers. Here, on November 9, 1942, Siberian Komsomol member Pyotr Barbashov closed the embrasure of an enemy pillbox with his chest, immortalizing his name forever.

If you turn south from Gizel, to the ridge of blue mountains, and drive another eight kilometers along a wooded gorge, you will reach the confluence of two mountain rivers - Genal-don and Gizeldon, carrying their waters along the gorges converging at this point. The road going left along Genaldon will lead to mountain resort Karmadon. Our path lies along another road - along Giseldon upwards, to the unusually attractive Koban Gorge, initially rather narrow and shady, but then rapidly expanding. Mountains with gray cliffs part, and in front of us is a cozy mountain valley, full of sun and light. On one of the hills to the right of the road, a stone crypt, characteristic of mountainous Ossetia, grows up - "zappadz" - and the houses of the village of Koban appear.

Actually there are two settlements- Upper Koban and Lower. Lower Koban is a local center: there is a village council, a bus station, a post office, a shop, a cafe, a boarding school. Upper Koban is located somewhat higher and has now merged with Lower Koban into one large village. These once deaf Ossetian auls gave their name to the brilliant archaeological culture of the 1st millennium BC. e. - Koban and glorified the land of Ossetia in world science.

In 1869 there was a big flood in the mountains of Ossetia. Spring waters caused the collapse of one of the terraces on the left bank of Giseldon. Numerous stone boxes with human skeletons and a mass of bronze things were opened in the cliff. At the same time, the local aldar (landowner) Khabosh Kanukov collected the things that were in the graves and presented them to Caucasian Museum in Tiflis. The collection from Koban attracted the attention of the archaeologist G. D. Filimonov, who came to Tiflis to prepare an anthropological exhibition in Moscow. Appreciating the finds, G. D. Filimonov in 1877 for the first time made small excavations in Koban.

Watchtower of the Kanukovs
on the southern outskirts of the village of Koban

Two years later, archaeologist V. B. Antonovich came to Koban. His excavations confirm the observations of G. D. Filimonov. The ancient bronze culture discovered in the mountains of Ossetia is not inferior in its level to the famous Central European culture of Hallstatt, then associated by most scientists with the Celts - the ancestors of the Germans and Western Slavs! Moreover, it turned out that the Koban and Hallstatt cultures have certain similarities. At a time when Eurocentrism dominated the views on the cultural development of mankind, for many this was a sensation. Could the ancient inhabitants of the mountain "slums" of the Caucasus, so often depicted in the 19th century as backward "savages" and natural "robbers", be the creators of such a high culture?

A real pilgrimage of Russian and European scientists begins in Koban. Already in 1880, the German archaeologist Friedrich Bayern, the French scientist Ernest Chantre and the luminary of the then European science, archaeologist and anthropologist Rudolf Virchow came here. All of them are conducting excavations in Koban, and Virkhov, on his return from the Caucasus, publishes in Berlin a special book about the Koban burial ground in Ossetia.

The attention of scientists to the antiquity of Koban did not escape the enterprising and greedy Khabosh Kanukov. During Virchow's stay there, he profitably sold the collection of antiquities he had accumulated to the German professor. Apparently, it was this deal that gave impetus to all subsequent stormy "activities" of Kanukov - using his private property rights to land, he dug up the ancient burial field of Koban, plundering over 600 graves. Remarkable bronzes from the hands of Kanukov ended up in the Saint-Germain Museum of Antiquities in Paris, in the museums of Lyon, Vienna, Berlin, enriching the Koban aldar. The harm caused by Kanukov to domestic science cannot be accounted for.

It must be said that the interpretation of the Koban culture very quickly caused heated debate. If many Western European scientists, such as G. Wilke and M. Görnes, saw in it only the result of the influence of the Aryans, who supposedly came to the North Caucasus from the Danube countries, then the leading representatives of domestic science proceeded from the opposite - from the recognition of its high level and originality. Thus, A. S. Uvarov was the first to point this out at the V Archaeological Congress in Tiflis, and the outstanding Russian archaeologist V. A. Gorodtsov wrote: burial ground and other points in the Caucasus... The abundance of objects and hitherto unheard-of originality of style produced strong excitement throughout the entire archaeological world in their time. Now, thanks to the research of Soviet archaeologists and, first of all, the late A. A. Jessen and E. I. Krupnov, the development of the brilliant Koban culture, which was included in archaeological textbooks and manuals, has finally been proven to be independent of the West.

The Koban society, which left monuments of its culture not only in Ossetia, but also in Balkaria and Checheno-Ingushetia, was a society of cattle breeders, hunters and metallurgists who widely used local ore deposits. Copper deposits in the mountains Central Caucasus enough, and there is no doubt that the Koban developed them. "Classic" bronze, from which most of the Koban objects are cast, required up to 12 percent of tin in its composition, which is practically absent in the Caucasus. It is believed that tin was imported here from the countries of the Middle East or Asia Minor. But the scale of the Koban bronze metallurgy is so significant and it needed so much tin that it is hard to believe in such an extensive import of tin.

What explains the glory of the ancient Koban? First of all, of course, the high level of culture that struck the imagination of scientists in the 19th century. The unusually bright flourishing of bronze metallurgy, which produced a mass of truly artistic objects that stood on the verge of high art, turned out to be unsurpassed in subsequent eras. Outstanding achievements in the field of material culture for that time imply a rise in the field of spiritual culture, in all spheres of society. Therefore, we can consider the Koban society, in terms of its cultural level, to be advanced for that time.

The cemeteries of the Koban culture contained a huge number of bronze items - jewelry, weapons, utensils. Iron at the beginning of the existence of this culture was rare (mainly as an inlay on bronze), but the number of iron objects is constantly and rapidly increasing, and since about the 16th century weapons have been almost entirely made of iron. Of the bronze weapons, very original and elegant cast axes and daggers stand out. Various pendants in the form of figurines of animals and birds, earthenware and metal utensils were also placed with the buried. Clothing was fastened with massive bronze fasteners - brooches (reminiscent of modern safety pins) and large barrettes. Headdresses were covered with small plaques, spectacled agraphs were hung from the temples. Hands and feet were decorated with bronze bracelets, spiral handcuffs and elbow pieces. Women's braids were inserted into similar but narrower spiral braids, women's necks were framed by necklaces of bronze and carnelian beads. Finally, one cannot fail to note such an interesting detail as wide men's belts made of sheet bronze, fastened with massive buckles.

Our understanding of the Koban culture is primarily associated with bronze axes - cult and ceremonial, related to the attributes of the cult of honor and power. They are usually covered with finely engraved images. Their plots are stable - figures of dogs, deer with branched horns, horses, snakes, fish, accompanied by a geometric ornament associated with cosmological ideas (rosettes, circles, zigzags). On one of the ritual axes, we can see a whole scene: a man surrounded by three writhing snakes shoots at them with a bow, and four more snakes with arrow-shaped heads, characteristic of Koban graphics, lurk on the butt of the ax. Professor L.P. Semenov saw in this scene an echo of the Nart legend about the seven-headed snake. In the epic it is called "Zaliag Kalm". According to legend, this monstrous snake was brought to be eaten by people in turn, after which a festival was held. Only then did people get rid of the snake and get access to the water, which she often took away and brought to the pestilence and death.

So, on a unique ax from Koban, an unknown artist captured the ancient plot of snake fighting, the struggle of man for sunlight and water - the most existent on earth. Similar stories were common among many peoples.

Bronze jewelry of the Koban culture.
Alagir Museum

The images were placed on the flat blades of axes. They are precisely inscribed in the very limited space of the blade and amaze with the confidence of the drawing, the sharp observation and the truly brilliant skill of the Koban engravers. In the IX-VIII centuries BC. e. they developed their own artistic style inherent in the Koban culture. In the center of his teratological motifs - animals, fish, birds, inhabiting the three elements of the universe - earth, water and sky.

Magnificent axes of the Koban culture have been discovered in recent years in a rich burial ground near the South Ossetian village of Tli (in the upper reaches of the Bolshaya Liakhvi). Some Aphid axes have a dark green patina so deep and noble that they appear to be made of jade.

We see the same images of dogs, deer, snakes on bronze plate belts and buckles. The style of all these drawings is the same, the visual means are concise. As on axes, the figures of animals and snakes were sometimes filled with dotted punch, oblique hatching, and geometric ornament. Why were these particular animals, snakes and fish, so popular with the Koban people? Indeed, in the Caucasian forests, in addition to deer, there were bears, wild boars, lynxes, wolves, in the highlands - mountain tours. But they are not on the axes.

Perhaps only those representatives of the fauna that were totems, that is, patron animals, could be shown on the ritual Koban axes? Each clan could have its own totem - "clan of the dog", "clan of the deer", "clan of the fish". But these are only guesses, the semantics of Koban art is still poorly understood, and there is still more unclear here than clear.

But back to the metal belts. They had not only practical, but also cult significance - magical actions and rituals were associated with the belt, and the images certainly had a cult-symbolic character. In Koban, before the revolution, one such belt was found from a wide bronze plate. Thanks to the outstanding results of the excavations of the Ossetian archaeologist B. V. Tekhov at the Tli burial ground, the number of lamellar belts has increased significantly. The edges of the belts are usually covered with geometric ornaments, and either the animals mentioned above or real plot scenes are placed in the middle field. So, in grave No. 40, a very interesting belt 110 cm long, 9.2 cm wide. On the front side, the field of the belt is divided into three friezes, in which animals running from left to right are placed - first, fantastic griffins with lion bodies, eagle wings and a human head in a pointed helmet, then - bulls, lions, horses, riders in the same helmets, archers, war chariots with warriors in them, eagles flying into the air. Everything is in motion and rapidly rushing, catching up with each other. This belt is not of local origin - it was brought from the ancient state of Urartu on the territory of the USSR, which occupied in the 9th-6th centuries BC. e. Southern Transcaucasia. Maybe this is a battle trophy of a warrior buried in Aphids.

Even more interesting is the lamellar belt from burial No. 76, which is a masterpiece of Koban art. Its length is 103 cm, its width is 10.5 cm. The edges are framed with two ornamental friezes, and the wide middle field is completely filled with a hunting scene. Hunters - one on foot, the other on horseback. A hunter on foot with his right hand shoots from a bow of complex design at the tour (one arrow has already hit him in the neck), and at the same time takes out an arrow from his quiver with his left. Before the tour, a deer crouched, throwing up its head, struck by a snake with an arrow-shaped head. Next, a wolf is depicted, in front of him are three birds, apparently partridges.

The same birds are placed under the figures of the tour and the deer, between the tour and the hunter.

Let's see what is being done on the right half of the belt. Here, an equestrian hunter, like the first one, caught at the waist with a wide belt (isn't it metal?), With a bow and a quiver behind his back, drives animals in front of him - a deer, a tour, a wild boar, again a deer and a bull. Animals move to the left, towards the first hunter. It is quite obvious that the functions of the hunters are divided - the horseman drives the animals to the footman, who beats them. That is why the equestrian hunter does not hold a weapon in his right hand, but some object resembling a whip. Another object is suspended from the horse's muzzle, requiring interpretation. It is very similar to the stylized heads of people - nose, chin, eye, hair in the form of oblique strokes. There is no doubt that this is a human head. The custom of cutting off the heads of dead enemies or scalping them by hanging them from a horse's bridle was widespread in that era. In particular, the Scythians did the same.

And here, the free areas of the field are filled with figures of partridge birds, guinea fowls, as well as symbolic images of the sun in the form of a cross or a dotted circle with two “spokes” inside. Solar signs - concentric circles with rays extending from them - are also placed on the bodies of all animals, except for the wild boar. As you can see, a completely real picture of hunting is combined with astral symbolism, in the center of which is the sun. This is understandable - Koban art is based not on aesthetic motives and ideals, but on a developed primitive worldview based on fantastic ideas about life.

The perfection of the composition is amazing. Images of people, animals and birds are placed so skillfully that one has to think about preliminary drawing on the belt, after which engraving on metal with a chisel begins. The drawing is made by a confident and firm hand of a great master. looking at it amazing creation ancient art, we feel a sense of admiration and gratitude for the talented artists of Koban...

It is impossible not to say especially about the bronze cast buckles that fastened the ends of the belts. Ordinary "ordinary" buckles were decorated with a geometric ornament, characteristic of the Koban culture, engraved with figures of dogs, deer, snakes. Such buckles were common in the era of the "classic Koban". Later, in the era of late Koban culture (from the 4th-3rd centuries BC), when Koban art seemed to be in decline, against the background of a general simplification and coarsening of style, new masterpieces of toreutics appeared - large openwork square-shaped belt buckles. They are found both in North and South Ossetia (in the latter even more often), spreading from Western Georgia, where the center of their production was located.

So far, we have been familiar with Koban graphics. But it does not exhaust the content of Koban art. Koban small-volume sculpture can be considered no less significant artistic phenomenon. These are cast bronze figures of people, horsemen, rams, deer, wild boars, fish, snakes, dogs, horses, birds. Often there are images of non-whole animals, for example - sheep's heads with steeply wrapped horns, heads of aurochs. There is also a human hand. Sometimes one or two barking dogs are placed on the wrist. This is probably a hunting amulet, which was supposed to contribute to the successful outcome of the case.

Bronze staff pommel
from Kazbek station

Integers known sculptural compositions. Thus, the upper part of a bronze pin from Koban is decorated with the following scene: a deer with branched horns is attacked by two barking dogs. The work is done in a strictly realistic spirit. The hilt of one of the Koban daggers is crowned with two heads of dogs holding rams in their teeth. And how complex and whimsical is the composition of the famous Kazbek treasure, found in 1877 at the southern end of the Darial Gorge! This is a bronze cast pommel (perhaps from a wooden staff of a local tribal elder) 20 cm high. The basis of the composition is nine tury heads with powerful horns, three heads in a row. On the horns of the middle row stands a naked man with a fighting mace in his left hand. Three massive bells are suspended from the lower row of heads on rings. This thing, like other works of Koban small-volume sculpture, was cast using a complex wax model. The craftsmanship of the Koban casters has reached perfection here.

In 1913, the former Terek Museum (now the North Ossetian Museum of Local Lore) received a valuable find from a resident of the village of Nar Esta Kaloev - a bronze human mask. She was discovered by chance under a juniper bush on a high rocky mountain against the village. L.P. Semenov, who published the mask, noted that below the place where the find was made, there is an ancient stone “dzuar” (sanctuary), the name of which has long been forgotten local residents. It should be noted that this region of mountainous Ossetia - the Toiletia, which occupies the upper reaches of the Ardon River - is still almost unexplored and holds many surprises for the future.

bronze weasel
from the village of Nar.
North Ossetian
local history museum

According to the conclusion of L.P. Semenov, the mask depicts the head of a woman, “the facial expression is full of concentrated strength and energy”, even severe authority. Hollow inside, it was probably put on a wooden idol that stood on this mountain or even near the mentioned ancient pagan dzuar.

In the era of Koban, when deep traces of matriarchy were preserved in the patriarchal-tribal society, the existence of a cult of a female goddess is very likely. After all, it is no coincidence that one of the most archaic images of the Nart epic, the image of the wise Satan, dates back to the era of matriarchal relations. Are these not links of one, now broken chain?

The unique work of the Koban master had no analogues in primitive art for a long time. Now there is such an analogy. This is a stone sculpture of a human head, found on the Tui River, a tributary of the Ob. Their similarity is amazing, although, of course, there is no direct connection between the Tui and Nart heads, just as there were no direct connections between the Koban culture of the Caucasus and the Ust-Polui culture of Siberia.

But it is impossible to understand and reveal Koban art and its flourishing without taking into account connections and relationships. The local basis of the Koban culture has long been established. As for the rich art of Koban - both graphics and sculpture - there are no origins in the previous local North Caucasian cultures. The art of Koban is inextricably linked with the simultaneous art of Transcaucasia and Northwestern Iran, where in the painted ceramics of the III-II millennium BC. e. (Tepe-Sialk, Tepe-Giyan, etc.) and the bronzes of Luristan, we clearly feel those artistic elements, those stylistic features that flourish in Koban. This is one closely connected cultural and artistic world, the most interesting applied art of which is still poorly known not only to the reader, but also to art experts.

What is the historical fate of the tribes of the Koban culture? The later Koban tribes, who inhabited the northern slopes of the Central Caucasus, at the beginning of our era came into contact with the Iranian-speaking Alans, began to mix with them and dissolved, thereby taking part in the formation of the Ossetian and some other peoples of the North Caucasus. The bright art of Koban did not disappear without a trace - its elements have survived the centuries and are organically woven into the modern ethnographic art of the Ossetians. We can easily recognize the Koban features in the Ossetian national ornament, embroideries, and in hanging lamps - “tsiragdarans” - animal figurines skillfully forged from iron. And the well-known Caucasian daggers of the 18th-19th centuries almost exactly repeat the forms of Koban's bronze daggers.

V. A. KUZNETSOV

"JOURNEY TO ANCIENT IRISTON"

MOSCOW "ART" 1974

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V. A. Gorodtsov. Household archeology, M., 1910, p. 283.

L. P. Semenov. Monument of the ancient cult of Ossetia. - Materials and research on archeology of the USSR, No. 23, M.-L., 1951, p. 142.