Marked by some very important spiritual event or captured in sacred writings. It is very difficult to count the number of such holy places, and it is not at all possible to taste every single one. But there are two cities in the world that can be called the most sacred of all - this Jerusalem(Israel) and Varanasi(India). Each of these holy places is revered in three religions at once. Jerusalem is a holy city for Jews, Christians and Muslims. Varanasi is a place of pilgrimage for Hindus, Buddhists and Jains. Both of these holy places gather thousands of pilgrims, each eager to look at their shrine.
Jerusalem
This city is a real stumbling block in the relationship between Islam, Judaism and Christianity. Tens of thousands of adherents of each of these religions died for the sake of owning their holy place in Jerusalem. The wars for Jerusalem have become entire historical epochs, and political strife because of it does not stop to this day.
The Jews regard Jerusalem as their holy place for obvious reasons: It was in this city that King Solomon built the first Temple- the main shrine of Judaism and the personification of the Jewish status of God's chosen people. The First Temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, the rebuilt Second Temple was swept to the ground by the Roman emperor Titus, the construction of the Third Temple by the Jews has been waiting for almost 2 thousand years. The restoration of the Temple for the Jews is tantamount to the arrival of paradise, because only then their suffering and wanderings will be over, and Israel will reign over the nations.
Muslims call Jerusalem a holy place because over the Temple Mount, where the Jewish Temple once stood, Prophet Muhammad met with Allah. According to Muhammad himself, once in a dream he was carried there by a winged horse. Stopping over the Temple Mount, the prophet saw the heavens open above him, and the road to the Throne of the Lord opened. Almost no one believed the prophet until he accurately described Jerusalem, although he had never been there. Muslims, having conquered Jerusalem in the 7th century, immediately built a mosque on the holy site of the ascension of the prophet.
Every Christian knows why Jerusalem is the holiest place on earth: Jesus Christ was crucified on Mount Golgotha near Jerusalem. There the Son of God was buried, and there he was resurrected. Now on the holy place of his crucifixion stands the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where every year on Easter day the Holy Fire descends to earth.
Varanasi
The holiest place in India, the city of Varanasi, is located in the northeastern part of this country and is the most popular place of pilgrimage for Hindus, Buddhists and Jains. Hindus believe that this holy place was built by the god Shiva himself five thousand years ago. There is even a half-flooded temple in it, in which, according to legend, Shiva sometimes sleeps. Varanasi is full of temples and shrines, many of which are Jain. Most of the city's population works for the benefit of pilgrims and maintaining order in the temples. Besides, Hindus consider this holy place to be the best place to go to the other world.. Rich and poor Hindus flock here from all over the country in anticipation of imminent death. It is believed that if a Hindu can die on the stone steps that descend to the Ganges, and his ashes will be scattered along the great river, the Goddess Ganges will take his soul to heaven and free him from the wheel of samsara forever.
Buddhists consider Varanasi a holy place for slightly different reasons. According to historical data, in the Sarnath suburb of Varanasi, Shakyamuni Buddha for the first time after enlightenment he revealed to his disciples the Four Noble Truths thus turning the “wheel of the Teaching”. Subsequently, grandiose temple complexes and monasteries of many branches of Buddhism were built on this holy place. Needless to say, there is no end to pilgrims and tourists in Sarnath.
Thus, Jerusalem and Varanasi are the two most holy places on earth, since they are the main spiritual centers for a huge number of representatives of different religions and nationalities. A traveler who has visited these two cities can proudly assure that he has seen the most
Israel is a country that millions of people have been coming to for many decades to see with their own eyes the cities and places connected by the life trials of Jesus and his mother, to touch the shrines and feel with their souls, standing at the Wailing Wall, their involvement in history, regardless depending on what nationality you are. Therefore, a trip to Israel to the holy places is a very popular tourist destination.
Jerusalem
A city that has gone through times of rise and fall, has seen different cultures and civilizations and is a shrine for many thousands of people of different religions - this is Jerusalem. Here the redemptive feat of Christ was accomplished. Any tour of the holy places of Israel starts from here, from one of the ancient cities, the cradle of three religions - Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
The walls of the city were built by the Turks in the 16th century, and the stones from which they are built remember the times of Herod and the Crusaders. On the site of the ancient city gates, the Golden Gate attracts the attention of tourists.
According to Jewish beliefs, the Messiah was supposed to enter the city through this gate. Jesus made his entrance through them. Now the gates are walled up by Muslims so that the next Messiah cannot enter them. Many legends are connected with this gate. Guides always tell tourists and pilgrims an interesting fact that it is located at a depth of 5 meters. That is, the streets of Jerusalem - in the cellars.
Shrines of Jerusalem
The shrines of Judaism include the Temple Mount - Moriah, a holy place revered by the Jews - the Wailing Wall and a cave in Hebron. Al-Aqsa Mosque is one of the Muslim shrines, where the Prophet Muhammad was transferred before ascending to heaven. For Muslims, this is the third most important city after Mecca and Medina. Christian shrines, first of all, are places associated with the birth and life of Jesus Christ. In Jerusalem, Christ preached, in the Garden of Gethsemane he addressed the Father, here he was betrayed and crucified, pilgrims from all over the world come here to Via Dolorosa. The trip is also interesting for tourists who love traveling to historical places. However, a trip to Israel to holy places, at prices, is not always available during the Easter and Christmas periods. Usually, during this period, the cost of a plane ticket and service for pilgrims and tourists becomes higher.
temple mount
In the Old Testament of the Bible, the Temple Mount is mentioned as the site on which the First Temple was built. It is here, according to the prophecy, that the Last Judgment on Judgment Day should take place. An interesting fact is that Jews, Christians and Muslims equally claim this shrine. What has not happened for 2000 years on this peak of Jerusalem! Jews and Christians who come to the holy places in Israel consider themselves involved in the Temple Mount mentioned in the Bible.
The history of the events that took place over many hundreds of years has made its own amendments. Now the mountain is surrounded by high walls with a perimeter length of about 1.5 km, and on the square above the old city there are Muslim shrines - the Dome over the Rock and the al-Aqsa mosque. Christians and Jews can be on the Temple Mount, but praying is strictly prohibited, as well as carrying books and religious items that are not related to the Muslim faith.
Wall of Tears
Those who come on excursions to the holy places of Israel will certainly come to the miraculously preserved ancient wall of the Second Temple. There are rules on how to behave at the Wailing Wall. So, if you face the Wall, men pray on the left, women on the right. A man must be sure to wear a kippah. According to an unknown tradition, people place notes between the stones in the Wall with various requests to the Almighty. They are mostly written by tourists. When quite a lot of such notes are collected, they are collected and buried in a designated place near Maslenichnaya Mountain.
The Wailing Wall for the people of Israel is not only a symbol of sorrow for the destroyed temples. Somewhere in the subconscious of the Jews, it is rather a prayer carried through the centuries, the prayer of the exiled people for the return from eternal exile and a request to the Lord God for the peace and unity of the Israeli people.
How did they find the place of the crucifixion of Christ
The Romans, who destroyed Jerusalem, set up their pagan temples in the new city. And only in the time of St. Constantine, when the persecution of Christians ceased, in the 4th century, the question arose of finding the burial place of Jesus. Now they began to destroy the pagan temples and temples introduced by Hadrian in 135 - such is the story. Through many military expeditions, called crusades, the liberation of the shrine from the infidels took place. And after some time, Queen Elena found the place where the Savior was crucified. At the behest of the queen, the construction of a temple was begun on this site. In 335 the temple was consecrated. Historians talk about its beauty and grandeur. But less than 300 years later, he suffered from the Persians. In 1009, the Muslims destroyed it to the ground, and only in 1042 it was restored, but not in its former glory.
Church of the Ascension of Christ
The most important and most visited among the holy places of Christianity in Israel has always been the Church of the Ascension of Christ, or the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Pilgrims arriving in Jerusalem, first of all, come to bow to the stone on which Jesus was anointed in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The place where the temple was built and now operates, at the beginning of the first century, was outside the walls of Jerusalem, far from dwellings. Near the hill where Jesus was executed, there was a cave where Jesus was buried. According to their customs, the Jews buried the dead in caves, in which there were several halls with niches for the dead and an anointing stone on which the body was prepared for burial. He was anointed with oils and wrapped in a shroud. The entrance to the cave was covered with a stone.
The temple with many halls and passages, including the Holy Sepulcher and Calvary, is located at the end of the road along which Jesus walked to Calvary. Traditionally, on Good Friday, before Orthodox Easter, the procession of the Cross takes place along this path. The procession moves through the Old City, along Via Dolorosa, which means in Latin "The Way of Sorrow", and ends in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Tourists who come to make a pilgrimage to holy places in Israel take part in this procession and worship.
Six Christian denominations, Armenian, Greek Orthodox, Catholic, Coptic, Ethiopian and Syrian, have the right to hold services in the temple. Each denomination has its own part of the complex and the time allotted for prayers.
Garden of Gethsemane
A unique landmark of Jerusalem, which must be seen when visiting the holy places of Israel, is a garden located at the foot of the Mount of Olives. According to the Gospel, Jesus Christ prayed here before the crucifixion. In this garden, there are eight centuries-old olive trees, which, it is believed, could be witnesses of this prayer. Modern research methods have made it possible to find out on the basis of the real age of olives growing in the garden.
It turned out that their age is very respectable - nine centuries. The researchers concluded that all these trees are related to each other, as they have one parent tree, next to which, perhaps, Jesus himself passed. History has preserved the fact that during the capture of Jerusalem by the Romans, all the trees in the garden were completely cut down. But olives have a strong vitality and from strong roots could give good shoots. Which also gives confidence that the current trees of the garden are the direct heirs of the very ones that Jesus saw.
Birthplace of the Virgin
A visit to the holy places in Israel includes a trip to the birthplace of the mother of Jesus Christ. Not far from the Sheep Gate, almost on the outskirts of the city, was the home of Mary's parents, Joachim and Anna. At present, there is a Greek temple on this site. Above the entrance doors of the temple there is an inscription: “The Birth Place of Virgin Mary”, which in translation is “The Place of the Nativity of the Mother of God”. To get into the house, you need to go down to the basement, since the current Jerusalem, as the guide said, is about 5 meters higher than the previous one.
Bethlehem and Nazareth
Pilgrims visiting Israel's Christian holy sites come to Bethlehem to visit the Church of the Nativity, built on the site where Jesus was supposedly born.
The temple is more than 16 centuries old. Believers come to the temple to touch the star, installed in the place where the manger stood; visit the cave of Joseph and the cave with the burial of babies killed on the orders of Herod.
The next place of pilgrimage is the city where Jesus spent his childhood and youth. This is Nazareth. Here, in Nazareth, the Angel brought the Good News to the future mother of Christ, Mary. Pilgrims and tourists, visiting the holy places, always go to it and 2 more churches: St. Joseph and Over the past decade, the Old part of Nazareth has been renovated and the architectural beauty of the narrow streets has been restored.
Other holy places in Israel
The usual program for tourists visiting the holy places of Israel is very rich. You can stay in Jerusalem alone for weeks and discover something new every day. In order to somehow squeeze the time and meet the allotted time for the tour, the agencies organize the included tours at no cost trips to the holy places of Israel in buses, accompanied by a guide-interpreter. Of course, stops are made, there is an opportunity to take pictures for memory. From the bus window you can see the Mount of Beatitude, where Jesus Christ delivered the famous Sermon on the Mount; drive through Cana of Galilee, where Christ turned water into wine. You can make a stop in the city of Jericho, which, according to experts, is more than 6 thousand years old.
Not far from the city is the Mount of Temptation and the Forty-Day Monastery, where Jesus fasted for 40 days after his baptism. The next stop is at the place where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. And the sign that swimming is prohibited here does not stop a group of tourists.
The time allotted for a tourist trip passes quickly. Impressions, photographs and some souvenirs will long remind you of the days spent in holy places. And, of course, recommendations to your friends and relatives: "Be sure to go to Israel." There are many places that I would like to see in the Promised Land, which is why pilgrims and tourists constantly come here to once again touch the holy places.
Since ancient times, people have traveled thousands of kilometers to feed on energy in the world-famous Places of Power. Mysterious objects are scattered all over the planet, and many legends and tales are associated with them. A person aspired to the Places of Power in order to better know the spiritual world, find harmony within himself, increase extrasensory abilities, heal from ailments or see with his own eyes the lands radiating magical vibrations. It is believed that certain territories are permeated with bioinformation channels through which communication with the Cosmos and the Higher Mind occurs, therefore wonderful zones are a place of pilgrimage not only for tourists, but also for healers, bioenergetics and ufologists. We present to your attention a list of Places of Power located in different parts of the world.
When a tourist is going to travel to any country, it is useful for him to think over the plan of his movements in advance and choose those attractions.
1. Stonehenge, England
Stonehenge ("stone rod", according to another version - "gallows") is located 130 km from London, in the county of Wiltshire. The oldest building is a megalithic structure, the age of which has not yet been determined and is presumably 3-8 millennia. On the plain, stone blocks are installed in a strict order, the weight of which varies from 5 to 50 tons. According to scientists, Stonehenge at various times was used as an observatory, a cult menhir of the Druids and a cemetery. Adherents of other theories claim that this Place of Power was a UFO landing site or a portal to another dimension.
2. Pyramids of Giza, Egypt
They are also called the Great Pyramids - the only wonder of the world that has come down to us, the most famous Place of Power in Africa, presumably somehow connected with the constellation Orion. “Pyramid” from Greek is a polyhedron, in this form the pharaohs imagined their “houses after life”. It is still a mystery why the Egyptians gave the "burial chambers" that shape. The archaeological complex is located 8 km from Giza and 25 km from Cairo in the middle of the desert and consists of three monuments created for the pharaohs Cheops, Menkaure and Khafre. To this day, there are disputes about what technology was used in the construction, but no one doubts that the Great Pyramids are an eternal mystery, shrouded in countless fantastical assumptions.
3. Himalayas, Tibet
The Himalayas (translated from Sanskrit - "the abode of snows") is the highest mountain range on Earth, so it is not surprising that there are many Places of Power over a length of 2.5 thousand km. The Himalayas are called the abode of the gods, sages, monks and priests came here to end their earthly life. Snow-capped peaks attract and fascinate, it is impossible to take your eyes off them. Buddhists and adherents of Hinduism consider the Himalayas a holy place, created for meditation and purification of karma.
4. Easter Island, Chile
Easter Island (in the local language - Rapa Nui) is located in the Pacific Ocean and is famous for its 20-meter stone statues (moai), carved from compressed volcanic ash. According to the legends of the natives, each idol contains a powerful force that was placed inside the idols by the ancestors of the first king of the island. Traditions say that the giants were made in quarries in the center of the island and from there they "went" to their location. Esotericists consider the “Island of Mysteries” to be the remnant of the lost Atlantis, and Helena Blavatsky wrote that representatives of an unknown race once lived here, perhaps they were Atlanteans or Lemurians.
5. Stratovolcano Shasta, USA
The very name of the mountain "Mount Shasta" is extremely surprising, because in English the toponym has no reflection and cannot be translated in any way. According to one version, “shasta” is an echo of the word “happiness”, which was given to the volcano by immigrants from Russia. Today, the mountain is the most popular Place of Power in the United States; hundreds of devotees of spiritualism, the occult, and other extraordinary teachings come to these parts every year. The Indians considered Shasta the center of the universe, bioenergetics consider the peak as a point of concentration of extraordinary cosmic power, a source of magical crystals and a portal leading to the fifth dimension.
6. Mount Pidan, Russia
The stones of Mount Pidan, located in the Primorsky Territory, are the center of attraction for all those who consider it their duty to embark on the path of self-improvement and deep knowledge of the origins of the universe. On the maps, the Place of Power is marked as Livadiyskaya Sopka, where various kinds of anomalous phenomena have been noticed since ancient times, and priests were the only ones who were allowed to climb the mountain to communicate with “flying” people. Researchers call Pedan the gateway to a parallel world, and locals claim that there have been cases of strange deaths of pilgrims from sudden cardiac arrest at the top.
7. Mount Brocken, Germany
The relief of the northern part of the country is represented by the picturesque Harz mountain range, the beauty of which was sung by many German poets in their works. The highest peak of the Harz is Mount Brocken (1141 m), known as a place where witches and sorcerers gather. Local residents claim that many centuries ago, the Sabbat of evil spirits was held annually on Walpurgis Night, and the whole mountain was given over to the dead, warlocks and demons who flew here on brooms, goats and pigs. Today, there is a hotel on the mountain, the rooms of which are never empty thanks to hundreds of curious people who come here hoping to get in touch with the other world.
8. Fortingale Yew, Scotland
Fortingall Yew grows in the Perthshire region and is the oldest tree in Europe, and many believe that the world. The yew is supposedly 5000 years old, the girth of its trunk is 18 meters. In Scotland, the tree is considered sacred and one of the local legends says that under its crown, on the advice of the druids, Pontius Pilate sat to gain power over the world.
The Krasnodar Territory is the southernmost and most visited region of Russia. It includes Sochi, Anapa, Gelendzhik, Tuapse. It attracts not only the sea and sun...
9 Merlin Stones, France
Mysterious stones are located near the village of Carnac in France. Megaliths are not as famous as Stonehenge, although they outnumber it. The complex includes dolmens, barrows and menhirs, of which there are about 3000. Stone rows stretch for 3 km and represent entire alleys. At all times, this area was densely populated, so many exhibits are poorly preserved. On the surface of some slabs, Celtic symbols and Roman images of deities are clearly visible. According to legend, the stones are enemies of King Arthur enchanted by the wizard Merlin.
10. Visegrad, Czech Republic
From this city originates the history of the Czech Republic as a country, from here the first dynasty of the Přemyslid kings ruled. Vyshegrad - Place of Power, where two worlds meet - heavenly and earthly. This land is known for its iconic prophecies and visions concerning the fate of the great ones of this world. The coffin with the body of Longinus, the centurion who ended the suffering of Jesus Christ, is kept in the Peter and Paul Church by thrusting a spear into it. Casemates are located under the city, attracting tourists with their secrets and ghosts. Many men and women from noble Czech families were buried in the tomb of Slavin. From the most beautiful height you can look at the Vltava in the place where the prophecy was said about the emergence of a new state on the world map - the Czech Republic.
11. Athos, Greece
Athos - the Holy Mountain, the Greek Place of Power, the stronghold of the Eastern Christian monastic order and the land where true spiritual values are still alive. Athos is located in the east of the Halkidiki peninsula, which is washed by the waters of the gentle Aegean Sea. Many myths are associated with the mountain, including the one about the greatest commander Alexander the Great. His goal was to carve his image out of one of the rocks, while a river was supposed to flow from the right hand, and they planned to build a city near the left hand of the stone commander. The official church reports that Our Lady Mary herself preached on Athos, taking the mountain under her protection.
12. Arunachala, India
Arunachala is a sacred hill for the people of India, located in the state of Tamil Nadu, one of the main places for the followers of Shaivism to make a pilgrimage. Hindus call Arunachala the ocean of grace, according to legend, it was here that Shiva received the revelation of higher knowledge. The hill was first mentioned in an ancient Indian treatise, which states that the dispute between Brahma and Vishnu was stopped by Shiva, who became a pillar of light and turned into Arunachala. In the middle of autumn, in memory of the feat, they hold a festival of lights at the foot of the hill, and a huge fire is lit at the top.
13. Maiden Mountain, Ukraine
The Ukrainian Place of Power is located above the Dnieper River, in the historical region of the country - Tripoli. Devichya Gora is the highest point of Obukhiv region, the height above the Dnieper is 55 m, above sea level is 186 m. mother will feel good. At the top of the mountain, archaeologists found burial grounds, temples, altars and a settlement. Historians associate the worship of the mountain with the visit of the Apostle Andrew here, and psychics believe that here you can feed on positive energy that can reveal their abilities to the fullest.
14. Ararat
Ararat (in Armenian - Masis), contrary to popular belief, is located on the territory of Turkey. The sacred peak is part of the Armenian highlands and is considered the shelter of the Ark. The name comes from the ancient Seri word "Urartu", the peoples of the Caucasus considered the mountain to be holy, so climbing it was condemned as ungodly sacrilege. For Armenians, Ararat is a sacred mountain, its images are present on the coat of arms of the country, because according to their ideas, they are all descendants of the righteous Noah.
Hands to Feet. Subscribe to our channel atThere are places in the world where you can feel the connection with the divine - one of them is the Rila lakes, known for their strong energy field. Sensitive people see strange things when they spend the night in this place.
Such places can give you answers to questions that have been tormenting you for a long time, where you can feel the concentrated energy on a higher spiritual level.
1. Rila - Bulgaria
Some people may be surprised, but this mountain range is one of the most powerful energy centers in the world.
It is no coincidence that one of the greatest spiritual masters of the twentieth century, Beinsa Duno, chose this place to transmit his wisdom.
The area around the Rila lakes actually has a very strong energy and sensitive people have strange dreams when they are in this area.
2. Machu Picchu in Peru
The Lost City of the Incas is one of the places associated with energy centers in the world. The Incas built Machu Picchu at a specific location, high in the Andes.
This place channels energy and allows people to experience something that just doesn't belong in our world.
3. Socotra
Socotra is an archipelago of four islands in the Indian Ocean in the Horn of Africa. The largest makes up 95 percent of the area.
Its specific landscape and wildlife is like from a sci-fi movie and you can easily imagine that you are on another planet or in prehistoric times.
As a result of isolation, many rare species are born on Socotra, which are not found anywhere else in the world.
Spiritual energy here connects the human soul directly with the Universe.
4. Uluru Plateau in Australia
Uluru is the spiritual center of Australia and is located in the center of the continent. Legends say that the plateau itself is hollow and is the source of energy, which are called Tiukurpa.
The ancient tribes that surround the plateau have left many painted stories in some of the caves in the area.
The tribes maintain the belief that when people surround the plateau, they receive spiritual vision.
5. Easter Island
It is one of the most isolated places in the world, famous for its breathtaking stone giants - "moai" that rise everywhere along the rocky coast. Scientists have absolutely no answer to the question: "Who made them and how?",
The entire island is the top of a large volcano that rises from the bottom of the ocean. Therefore, the ancients called it the Navel of the World - in the local language, known as "Te Pito O Te Henua", while the name "Rapa Nui" is now widespread. Another indigenous name for the island is "Mata" ("Eyes that look to the sky").
It is believed that the Navel of the World collects the most important spiritual energy of the Earth.
6. Belintash plateau
The Belintash Plateau is one of the three points (Belintash - Cross Forest - Caradiy Stone) that create one of the strongest energy zones in Europe.
There is a strong energy in and around Belintash, and hundreds of people have witnessed frequent paranormal activity.
7. Berat
Berat is the pride of Albanian architecture. The old city is under the protection of UNESCO. Berat is an excellent combination of Eastern and Western cultures, traditions and customs. The city is a treasure trove of Albanian history and evidence of harmony between faith and culture.
In Berat, people have a very strong spiritual healing energy. Today, people who do not believe in diseases still live outside the city walls, which makes this place unique and authentic.
8. Stonehenge
Stonehenge is the most famous megalithic monument in the world, probably dedicated to the Sun, dating back about 5,000 years. Located in the heart of Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK.
It is known for its huge stone blocks arranged in a circle. It is impossible to say with certainty what was the purpose of Stonehenge, but many scholars believe that the monument was used as a ceremonial or religious center.
According to one theory, Stonehenge is an ancient cemetery.
9. Bosnian pyramids
Bosnian pyramids are located near the city of Visoko, according to recent research, date back to the biblical past. The largest pyramid is the Pyramid of the Sun, and is the first of its kind in Europe, while the Pyramid of the Moon and the Pyramid of the Bosnian Dragon are much smaller.
Under the pyramids, three underground rooms and a small blue lake were found. A reservoir containing clean, sterile water free from bacteria, algae, fungi, microorganisms, animals, moss and dirt. It is called living water because it purifies the body.
This means that these sites are actually "places for healing". The human body regenerates faster and the disease disappears.
10. Mount Kailash in Tibet
Mount Kailash is the sacred site of four religions that originate from that part of Asia, Tibetan Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism and the old pre-Buddhist religion of Tibet - Bongo.
All these religions have their own legends about the place, but they agree that the top of the mountain is the home of the gods and one of the energy centers of the world, where spiritual bliss is received.
UDC 911.531
Al.A. Grigoriev
SACRED SITES AS HERITAGE OBJECTS
What is holy?... That which binds many souls.
Johann W. von Goethe (1749-1832), poet,
thinker, naturalist.
Introduction.Sacred places (revered, holy places, shrines) are found throughout the planet. They are included in the category of Heritage sites, including UNESCO monuments, and at the same time occupy a special niche among them. The purpose of the article is to define the concept of "Sacred places" (and it is interpreted by the author in contrast to the commonly used in a broader sense), their classification, emergence, informativeness as an object of Heritage, significance for peoples and states.
Approach to identifying sacred sites . Sacred places are places we worship. And therefore they are special, rare and even unique. Shrines should not be confused with the most expressive, beautiful "corners" of the Earth. They have both common and different. What is common is seen in their uniqueness. The main thing that distinguishes them is that natural and man-made (natural-man-made) shrines are places on Earth with which he is spiritually connected. And further: people worshiped a stone not because it was a stone, but because it was sacred. These words of the outstanding modern philosopher Mircea Eliade, in my opinion, make it possible to single out sacred places even more clearly among other unique phenomena.
The shrines are not the same, they are not similar to each other. It can be a "wild" stone - some kind of boulder or temple on the river bank; any tree or battlefield on which the blood of the ancestors was shed. What places can be classified as sacred, and why people have a worldview of such a place - this will be discussed in this section. However, first let's dwell on the root of the word saint.
word root explorers holy, holy, holy – holy(philologists I.A. Letova, V.N. Toporov, O.M. Freidenberg) came to the conclusion that it is associated with the ancient (pagan) ideas of the Slavs about patronage from above over certain places or phenomena. Moreover, the word saint akin to the Greek word for things, phenomena (objects) associated with the cosmos, with the supreme forces (for example, the god-tree, the god-locality).
In the leading religions of the world, the light given to people by the Sun is regarded as the main life principle. After all, life itself is a confrontation between light and darkness (the latter personifies death). The sun (as the main source of light) is considered the light of Buddha, the eye of the Universe for Hindus, the all-seeing and all-knowing eye of Allah for Muslims, a symbol of righteousness for Christians (Fig. 1).
Fig.1. Sun: Fig. to the poem "The Sun" visiting Mayakovsky. Hood. D. Burliuk. (New York. 1925).
Interestingly, only Russians currently have the root of the word saint(holy) almost coincides with the word light. Light among the Slavs and Russians in all its meanings, one way or another, ascends to the Sun, as its main source. Concepts holy (holy, holy) or sacred are also associated with the highest manifestation of the "heavenly" forces on Earth, with the Sun.
The outstanding philosopher and religious thinker P. Florensky equated light with God, as the highest principle on Earth: “ God is light, and this is not in a moralistic sense, but as a judgment of perception ... of the glory of God: contemplating it, we see a single, continuous, indivisible light» . According to him, light is the exact opposite of darkness: Light is pure light, pure light, in which "there is no darkness, not a single».
Specific observations are interesting, proving the undoubted connection of holiness with white. So, in particular, the White Sea is most likely named in this way not only and not simply for the amazing beauty of the white, milky color of its waters (and in winter for the snow and ice cover). The white color among the Slavic and other northern peoples has long been considered a sign of holiness, extraordinary transcendence (Fig. 2)
Fig.2. White Sea. At the Solovetsky Islands. Hood. M. Nesterov: "Silence". 1903
This was especially true of water bodies - rivers, lakes, and regardless of the color of their waters. - Which already by their "water" basis have always stood out among others and more often than others were called saints. Those of them, which were also distinguished by the whiteness of the waters, stood out to the greatest extent. They were already put in a row not only physically, materially, but also, to the highest degree, spiritually remarkable places.
Sacred, they are holy, places and differ from all others in their connection with the Light, the Sun, some higher principle for life. It is there, on them, miraculous visions, signs, just miracles in everyday life (not associated with certain religious ideas) occur. A person who believes in the exceptional peculiarity of such places and who is on them experiences insight (and this is Light again).
Sacred places in the system of shrines. Along with the religious interpretation of the concepts of saint, saint and shrine, there is another - civil. According to her, “holy” is something most precious, cherished, intimate. It is this broad view of the concept of "holy" that also reflects the opinion of some well-known philosophers and writers. Let's try to build on their views and also take a broader look at a related concept - "shrines".
Let's start our comparative consideration with the ideas of A.S. Pushkin. In the poem "Two Feelings", the poet calls the ashes and the father's coffins holy. However, it is clear that the earth itself, their natural surroundings are just as sacred to him. This is how he treated the landscape, the natural corner in the Pskov region, the lands of his ancestors. Everything was sacred for the poet there: the forest, the river, and the fields.
Philosopher P. Florensky under the shrines understood “ something that is above the ordinary, natural, ordinary”. In other words, it is something extraordinary, sublime. From this it follows that one of the types of shrines - natural phenomena are not just beautiful places (and such can be found in any region of the Earth). These can include such natural (and naturally-man-made) corners of the Earth, not necessarily the most photogenic, moreover, not at all visually expressive, but they certainly elevate a person spiritually.
The writer and philosopher I.V. Goethe very accurately noticed another feature of the shrines, which unites people spiritually: “ What is holy? - asks I.V. Goethe question in one couplet and answers: " That which binds many souls". Another philosopher G.W.F. Hegel agrees with him, who quotes the words of Goethe. And in fact, the Ganges or the Volga are sacred for all Hindus or Russians, they are in their souls, even those of them who have not been on the banks of these rivers.
Another important feature of the shrines is noted by the philologist and ethnographer-traveler V.I. Dal: “shrines are what is sacred to whom, what we worship, honor inviolably”. Sacred places are not only something sublime that exists in our minds, in our souls. These are also real, earthly phenomena that we worship, the object of the highest reverence. It follows from the foregoing that only such corners of the Earth belong to the shrines, which had a great influence on a person, who illuminated him, helped (preserved) or even protected him.
Writer and thinker F.M. Dostoevsky in his "Diary of a Writer" definitely connects the concept of a shrine with the place of birth, with the Motherland. In his opinion, a Russian will understand a European for his person, if he understands and loves his shrines: “ First love my shrine, you are almost what I honor, then you are exactly like me.” .
Of course, natural shrines are not just some sights of nature, but man-made (natural-man-made) shrines are not only some phenomena of co-creation of the hands of man and nature. They may be places that are not at all pretentious in this respect. - That is, not the most expressive in the visual range and not the most significant and interesting in the geological, biological, architectural and other senses. For the Russians, they will be one, for the Arabs - others, for each people their own.
It should be noted that nature has always played an important role in the life of people and the people as a whole. Let us recall the reflections of the historian V.O. Klyuchevsky about the role of the natural environment in the formation of the Russian state. He was one of the first to notice the great role in the life of our multinational people, the formation of three natural elements in Rus' - forests, steppes and rivers. This view of the historian is largely modern. It helps to understand the essence of natural shrines. These are such natural corners in forests, steppes or on the banks of rivers, which in the past rendered special services to the Russian people. In some cases, they are expensive already because nature itself helped the Russians to survive, to resist the enemy. So in the twentieth century it happened on the Volga, which served as a barrier to the Nazis.
In other cases, such special lands are sacred because they served as a place of exile or voluntary seclusion, an escape from worldly bustle, oppression, injustice, including Solovki and Altai (both UNESCO heritage sites are located there). Finally, there are places with which the fates of great citizens of a particular country or even the world are connected (in Russia, for example - Peter the Great - and without him it is difficult to imagine the surroundings of St. Petersburg).
According to our contemporary geographer and historian L.N. Gumilyov, the Russian people (ethnos) arose as a kind of organic component of the landscape of the Russian Plain. - Moreover, the natural landscape had a significantly greater impact on the education of the people than social causes. If you listen to the opinion of L.N. Gumilyov, then the natural shrines will correspond to important, even key moments in the life of the people (and not only, of course, Russians or Russians) in certain places of their residence.
According to the philosopher Mircea Eliade, people of primitive society identified the sacred with power. Is it not from here and in the shrines that people draw their strength even now? In any case, in Russia, the Russians, fighting for the Volga, for the sacred cities, including Leningrad, felt an extraordinary surge of strength.
Just like the broader concept of “shrine”, the concepts of natural and man-made (natural-man-made) sacred places cannot be connected and explained only by religious ideas. At the same time, religious ideas are undoubtedly very significant in shaping the concept of a shrine. And it is no coincidence, because the worship of our ancestors began precisely from the Earth, from the graves of their ancestors.
It should also be noted that the concept of "sacred" can be associated with such different concepts as Religion and Culture. Therefore, all the sacred places considered in the article can be associated both with faith, religion (including the Orthodox Church), and with history and culture. In this regard, the reflections of the philosopher N. Berdyaev are interesting: “ There is not only the sacred tradition of the church, but also the sacred tradition of culture... Culture originated from cult. In the cult, there is always a connection between the living and the dead, the present and the past ... And culture received a legacy from the cult ... veneration of gravestones and monuments, this is the maintenance of the sacred connection of times» .
The origin of sacred places and their environmental conditionality. Shrines appeared in ancient times. Since pagan times, people believed in the powerful forces of nature, in supernatural, divine forces that controlled them. And therefore, the real objects of their faith, whether stones, whether trees, undoubtedly, became one of those that people worshiped. Gradually, everything that, in one way or another, is connected with the events of “sacred” history, began to be considered shrines. However, closer to our time, objects or phenomena associated with cult, religious events, rituals began to be called shrines.
And yet, most (if not all) of the sacred places of antiquity arose not only because of the worship of deities, spirits, but, above all, due to the natural needs of man in orientation in space and time. These skills were vital to a person - like food and water, which, by the way, he could not get to the proper extent without them. Without knowledge and skills in this, a person was threatened by all kinds of dangers (hunger, natural and other natural disasters, enemies).
The most ancient places of orientation by the Sun - megaliths, labyrinths, megalithic temples almost immediately became sacred, because with their help the necessary knowledge was obtained. - This is a new, geographic and ecological approach to understanding the sacralization of geographical space, based on field research (including astroarchaeological), proposed by G.N. Paranina and L.S. Marsadolov, also developed by the author. The sacralization of space in antiquity took place, first of all, in places chosen for orientation. Thus, it was environmentally conditioned.
Daily worries about getting food by hunting, fishing, gathering, choosing a place for a favorable safe living, and later for farming. - The ability to read signs of impending natural phenomena, ideas about adjacent territories, other peoples, about possible ways of moving to safer, more favorable areas - all this required perfect knowledge of the location in space and time.
Natural (natural) and man-made phenomena, which helped to obtain and consolidate the acquired knowledge, became not just necessary for life. They were a kind of "keys" for existence and therefore carefully guarded, became sacred. Such knowledge became the lot of the elite.
It is worth noting that places or centers of orientation (and in ancient times it could be a megalith, a labyrinth, and later temples in their place) really brought light to people - the light of knowledge obtained with the help of light from the Sun (in the process of orienting on the ground) .(Therefore, the proximity of words light and holy, at least in Russian, this is not a pun. There is a deep connection between them. An example is the Circle of Brodgar - a ring of menhirs with a diameter of 104 m, which, according to the legends, was called the Temple of the Sun (Fig. 3). This cromlech is a Neolithic structure built between 2000-2500 BC. BC, included in the UNESCO List (Neolithic Monuments in the Orkney Islands).
Consciously or unconsciously, sacred places were associated with higher, incomprehensible forces, spirits, deities, “forever” fixed in the mind, overgrown with all sorts of legends. Over time, other ways of orienting in space and time were invented. However, such knowledge has always been the lot of the few. Knowledge about sacred places, cut off from their primary use, nevertheless, was preserved in the memory of the people, entered into culture. In many ways, this was facilitated by the "inheritance" of sacred places.
Fig.2. The Circle of Brodgar is the ancient Temple of the Sun. Orkney Islands. http://wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Ring_of_Brodgar_6.
Classification of sacred places. They can be divided into two large groups: 1. natural and 2. man-made. The first group includes trees, stones, springs (keys), hills (mountains), rivers, lakes. The second group of sacred places includes places of battles and, especially, great battles, landscapes “marked” by temples, bastions (fortresses) on the banks of rivers, lakes, landscapes “marked” by churches, monasteries, just crosses, some ancient manor or palace and park ensembles. At man-made shrines, both the natural environment and architectural (engineering) structures complement each other. Therefore, man-made sacred places can also be called natural-man-made, emphasizing their inseparable connection with the natural environment.
It should be noted that the line between natural and man-made shrines is sometimes fragile and transparent. Indeed, the Volga, the great river of Russia, or the Ganges, the great river of India, are largely sacred because they are associated with many of the most important historical, cultural and religious events in the life of the peoples living along the banks and tributaries of these rivers, moreover, these states in general.
Sacred places can also be divided into several groups depending on their significance. Some of them are those for a small circle of people. This, for example, is some spring with healing water, which is visited by residents of one or more nearby villages. The following groups of especially revered sacred places are of local and regional significance. We are talking about such phenomena that are known to the inhabitants of any locality or (respectively) any large area, region. Shrines of a higher rank are national. These include phenomena that are equally dear to residents of the most diverse regions of Russia or any other country. Finally, there are natural corners on Earth that are of non-national, global significance. These, of course, include the Jordan River, Lake Baikal or Mount Fuji and Mount Ararat.
Fig.3. Sacred Mount Kilimanjaro (Tanzania-Kenya, UNESCO site) http://phototravelguide.ru/
World-class shrines are also included in the UNESCO Heritage List (including the mentioned Baikal and Fujiyama), but not always. “Sometimes for political reasons. Such is the world-famous Mount Ararat (territory of Turkey), the sacred symbol of Armenia. Sometimes - due to the strong development of the territory, such as the river. Jordan and r. Volga, shrines (respectively) for Israel (and not only for it) and Russia. However, individual objects on the banks of both rivers are UNESCO monuments.
Sacred places are very diverse. Among them are those that have arisen in our time, already in the twentieth century, and those that were formed several millennia ago. Undoubtedly, natural revered phenomena must be older than man-made ones. Natural man-made shrines are an “alloy” of man-made structures (temples, fortresses, cities…) with the landscape, with the earth, which played a big role in people's lives, sometimes at critical moments in their lives. Some of them are up to several thousand years old. However, most of the most ancient pagan sacred places have now ceased to be objects of worship.
In conclusion of this section, we emphasize what has already been mentioned earlier - all sacred places are divided into religious shrines and shrines of our culture. Moreover, the latter, seemingly having nothing to do with religion, are associatively compared in the human mind with the former and are perceived in the same way as something higher, exceptional, and even divine. Let us recall how visitors from distant places who first saw the palace and park ensembles of Peterhof, Pushkin or Pavlovsk in the vicinity of St. Petersburg (UNESCO sites) sometimes call what they see a divine creation.
Distribution and "energetics" of sacred places. In every country of the world, or rather, in the territory of residence of a particular people, sacred places have their own characteristics and at the same time some common features with neighboring countries. This is explained by the natural situation and the peculiarities of the historical and cultural development of each of the countries. So, everywhere various water objects are attributed to sacred phenomena: rivers, springs, lakes. In a number of lowland countries, rivers have long been the main organizing links, both in natural and social relations. It was they, the main arteries of the country, that were revered as sacred places. Let's remember the Nile, the Volga, the Ganges (Fig. 3).
In mountainous countries, the most revered places include prominent mountains, less often entire ranges. This is not surprising, since the life of mountain peoples is largely subordinated to the mountains, which give people everything they need, it is enough to recall such mountains as Fujiyama in Japan (a UNESCO site) and Kilimanjaro in Kenya on the border with Tanzania (Kilimanjaro National Park - a UNESCO site), Mount Kailash in Tibet (not yet on the UNESCO List). Undoubtedly, people, first of all, refer to sacred places that struck them with their grandeur, a manifestation of mighty forces and energy.
In the countries of Europe, whose territory was exposed to either ancient glaciers advancing from the north, or, rather, the ocean (there are disputes), among the sacred phenomena there are many boulders - rounded stones brought from rocky Scandinavia. Such boulders, revered so far, can be found in Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Russia. In Russia, among sacred natural places, springs (springs) take precedence. They enable people to "touch" one of the most revered foundations of life - clean water. And although the territory of Russia is by no means a desert and abounds in rivers and lakes over a large area, it is the springs that are especially revered in our country.
From country to country, the attitude of people towards trees also changes, which is determined by the geographical features of their distribution, the difference in natural features on the territory of different states, and, of course, the national characteristics of the perception of certain trees. So in the forest-steppe Ukraine, among the revered trees, oaks prevail, and in the taiga landscapes of the north of European Russia - spruces and pines.
Fig.4. The Volga is a sacred river. "Above Eternal Peace". Hood. I. Levitan.
The historical, cultural and religious development of the country is inseparable from the nature of its territory. Because of this, the emerging geocultural and places of worship within it are specific within each state, as well as the distribution of one or another ethnic group. In England, among the ancient sacred places, there are especially many mounds. For the most part, these are places of ancient Celtic burials and even more ancient megalithic structures. Among them are Glastonbury Tor in Somerset, Stonehenge (UNESCO monument) and Silbury Hill in Wiltshire, (included in the UNESCO site Avebury Neolithic complex).
There are many “corners” in Russia, revered because the blood of its inhabitants was shed there, who defended their land from alien enemies. Particularly memorable, for example, are the places of former battles during World War II, which in Russia is called the Great Patriotic War.
In different countries of the world, individual leaders of states who played an outstanding role in the prosperity of their state and in protecting it from enemies enjoy special respect. In Russia, this is Peter the Great, also called Peter the Great. In England it is Winston Churchill. The Swedes have this Karl HΙΙ. In France it is Charles de Gaulle. Places associated with their lives and deeds are revered in each of these countries. In Russia, for example, there are countless oaks under which Peter the Great allegedly rested or planted.
In the USA, in the rocks of the Black Mountains (Black Hills) in the state of Wyoming, on the sacred place of the Indians, huge faces of the presidents of the country were cut down (on Mount Rushmore). And although their role in the history of the country is not the same, together they made this place iconic for Americans (this is the US National Monument). And they, as you know, to a greater extent than the inhabitants of many other states, are proud of the fact that they are citizens of their country.
A specific feature of the states in which the communist ideology dominated is the spread of revered places associated with its leaders, with the events of communist history. In China, for example, these are places of residence or some important moments in the life and work of the Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung. In Russia, the “corners” of the earth are still revered, covered with memories of the great founder and leader of the Soviet state V.I. Lenin. Mausoleum with the body of V.I. Lenin - part of the ensemble of the Kremlin and Red Square in Moscow (UNESCO site).
Religious shrines are widespread in all countries of the world. Their character varies depending on the religious beliefs of the population. Among the revered places among many peoples of Siberia, the North of the European part of Russia, various natural phenomena are observed - stones, caves, rocks, to which the pagan shrines of the northern peoples of Russia are confined. Tibet is a land of monasteries, in terms of the number of which and in importance among other sacred phenomena, it is not comparable to any region of the world. The ensemble of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, the main religious center of the Lamaists of Tibet, is included in the UNESCO List. Among religious sacred places in India, places associated with Buddhism and Hinduism dominate, in Russia - with Orthodoxy and Islam, in France - with Catholicism.
As already mentioned, the most important property of sacred places is miracles. Science does not always give an answer to their origin. Nevertheless, it is precisely because of the miraculous phenomena that occur in sacred places that they are sometimes considered to be a kind of energy centers of the planet. Researchers of non-traditional science, primarily physicists and chemists, in the locations of some sacred places recorded (by dowsing) the presence of a certain energy field. It was discovered on Valaam on Lake Ladoga (UNESCO Tentative List), as well as in Sergiev Posad near Moscow, where the Trinity-Sergius Lavra (UNESCO site) is located. Similar anomalies have been identified in a number of sacred places in England, in particular in the Stonehenge area (UNESCO site) (Fig. 5).
Rice. 5. The oldest megalithic observatory and at the same time the sanctuary of Stonenage. England .
A number of sacred places are known to have a healing effect. Some sacred stones, trees, springs have such an impact on people. It is also widely known that certain natural man-made phenomena have an impact on the psyche of people: enlightening or, conversely, depressing. These include, in particular, the pyramids in Egypt (UNESCO monument).
I also note that in Russia, a connection has been established with some revered places of various sizes - from individual churches to cities - with cracks in rocks (rock breaks). Through cracks, deep groundwater can flow to the surface of the earth, including thermal (heated) and enriched with rare chemical elements. Through them, various gases can also be released into the atmosphere.
An example of a deep impact, the bowels of the earth, on the formation of a sacred place is the Delphic oracle in Greece (the complex of temples in Delphi is a UNESCO site). As it has now been established, indeed, it was in the area of the Delphic oracle at that time, for several hundred years, underground gases (ethane, methane and ethylene, traces of which were found in calcareous tufa directly under the sanctuary) were outpouring through rock cracks.
From the standpoint of traditional sciences, there are no scientific explanations for the impact of sacred places on humans. One can only assume the direction of this influence on the psyche, on the human soul.
The evolution of natural and man-made shrines . Sacred places are an integral part of natural and historical territories, geocultural space. Each such territory has its own components, that is, those natural elements that are significant for the life of people, and specific cultural elements that correspond to the level of cultural development and development of the area. The natural-historical territory changes with time, and each of its segments, historical epoch, has its own element of geocultural space.
This applies equally to natural and man-made shrines. Such places are especially sensitive to all "ideological" changes in society. Therefore, as a rule, a new religion, a new cultural and historical consciousness has always denied the old.
Chapels were erected on the roads in place of stone signs (including menhirs). Where there were pagan sanctuaries, after their destruction, Christian churches were built throughout Europe. This happened, for example, in a pagan sacred place, on the island of Konevets, on Ladoga. On the site of the unique destroyed ancient megalithic sanctuaries on the islands of the White Sea and Lake Ladoga, complexes of structures of the Solovetsky (UNESCO site) and Valaam monasteries (Valaam archipelago - on the Tentative List of UNESCO) were erected.
The huge mound Glastonbury Tor in Somerset is one of the revered Christian places in England. According to Christian legend, the cup of the Holy Grail is hidden in it, from which, according to legend, Jesus Christ drank during the Last Supper. At the same time, this hill appears in the myths of the Celts. They, in the pre-Christian period, it was also a sacred place.
In the former USSR, such a tradition - the destruction of old sacred places and their inheritance with new symbols - existed in the Soviet era as well. In Murmansk, on one of the plateaus on the site of an ancient pagan sanctuary and at the same time one of the centers of ancient orientation, from which some of the largest megaliths, seids, have been preserved, a huge modern megalith was built. - A reinforced concrete monument to the soldiers-defenders of the city rises above Murmansk. Thus, the memory of the sacredness of the place itself is transmitted "by inheritance".
On the territory of France, cathedrals and churches mark the line of the zero (Paris) meridian, along which they are built. In the church of Saint-Sulpi in Paris, a gnomon has been preserved - in the form of a copper strip marked with divisions. A sunbeam fell on it, oriented from south to north, the fixation of which made it possible to determine the daily and annual time. On the site of the temple X century there was a chapel, it was also erected on the site of a megalithic sanctuary and at the same time - an orientation center. A whole network of similar lines, oriented to the cardinal points and significant directions of the solstice, connecting sacred places and at the same time the centers of ancient orientation (megaliths, on the site of which temples are now located), is also revealed on the Russian Plain.
Conclusion.Thus, the concept of "sacred" can be associated, firstly, with such different concepts as Religion and Culture. Secondly, all shrines are characterized by their ecological dependence, and for religious ones, their ecological conditionality of genesis is also characteristic. Let us note the most important aspects of sacred places as such and their study.
People's aspirations are directed not so much towards the religious as towards the sacred places of our Culture. Some of them are personal, known only to one or a few people (in the words of the philosopher Mircea Eliade, this is “ places of his personal universe”), others are public. Both those and others are associated in the souls of Russians with the concept of Motherland.
Shrines are peculiar energy, spiritual centers Lands whose force of influence on people has a natural origin (however, in many respects it is still not explainable). They belong to the highest spiritual values of mankind. The foregoing convinces in a special uniqueness sacred places, which are the most important key spiritual and at the same time material centers of the planet. Many sacred sites are essential components world heritage(Fig. 6). Various phenomena of this kind carry information about various aspects of events and phenomena in the history of the Earth and mankind. Shrines of different ages display state of geocultural (or natural-historical) space at a certain historical stage, being its memorable places.
Rice. 6. Temple on the Nerl. Russia. World Heritage Monument.
Significant for any state are all shrines - of any kind and age, including prehistoric ones - petroglyphs, megaliths. - This is both the spiritual and material historical and cultural wealth of the country. Sacred places may not be connected in any way with the peoples living today, but they are of extra-national and even world significance. Unfortunately, unlike, for example, from Great Britain, in Russia almost no attention is paid to the megaliths of the North of its European part, the Urals, the Far East.
sacred places like overvalued phenomena for humanity as a whole and for the individual, are not just milestones of its cultural development. Carriers of the memory of the past, they are a kind of landmarks in the spiritual life person. The deep significance of the shrines lies in the fact that they bind peoples to a certain territory, individual people to their Little Motherland. They are important for understanding the identity of a person, an ethnic group, a people, "tying" them to the earth. In this regard, the experience of neighboring Mongolia is indicative for Russia. – Research, systematization and protection of sacred places in this country takes place at the state level, under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture, Education and Science. However, in Russia their study is an integral part of the concept of teaching the basics of regional studies at St. Petersburg University. However, this is clearly not enough.
The identification and preservation of sacred sites has a clear environmental focus. – It is important for preserving the diversity of natural and cultural resources – a necessary condition for the development of society. We must agree with Prof. K.M. Petrov that Culture (and thus - Heritage - Al.G.) plays an essential role in the preservation of society, maintaining a habitat favorable for life. I will add that the role of sacred places as the “quintessence” of Heritage monuments is especially significant.
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