Mythical states. The most famous mythical cities See what “Mythical states” are in other dictionaries

“People sometimes dream of blue cities: some – Moscow, some – Paris...” is sung in a popular Soviet song. But somewhere on Earth, perhaps mysterious places shrouded in myths and legends are hidden from us.

No one has been there, but they talk a lot about them. No one has seen them, but a lot is known about what they look like... In someone’s mind, it is these mysterious parallel worlds that appear through the haze of inexplicable dreams...

But in world archeology sometimes real sensations happen. So, a little more than 10 years ago, in the early 2000s, the mythical cities of Heraklion, Canopus and Menoutis, known only from ancient Greek tragedies and legends, were discovered at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea by an international group of archaeologists. By that time, scientists had been exploring the coastal region of Alexandria for three years. Who knows, perhaps very soon a solution to the mystery of ancient Shangrila, the sunken Atlantis and Kitezh will be found, underground Agharti will be discovered...

Shambhala - a mythical country in Tibet

Shambhala in Tibet (or other surrounding regions of Asia) is mentioned in several ancient treatises. According to some of them, the Hindu messiah Kalka was born here. The first mention of Shambhala is found in the Kalachakra Tantra (10th century). The text states that the city has been preserved since the time of King Suchandra of Shambhala. According to another legend, Shambhala was a kingdom in Central Asia. After the Muslim invasion of Central Asia in the 9th century, the kingdom of Shambhala became invisible to human eyes, and only the pure in heart can find their way to it.

Tibetologist Bronislav Kuznetsov (1931-1985) and orientalist Lev Gumilev (1912-1992), working on the issue, came to the conclusion that Shambhala is a real place. Moreover, it is depicted on an ancient Tibetan map published in the Tibetan-Shangshung Dictionary. According to their interpretation, the author of the map reflected on it the era of domination of Syria, led by the Macedonian conquerors. Syria is called Sham in Persian, and the word “bolo” means “top”, “surface”. Consequently, Shambhala is translated as “the domination of Syria,” which corresponded to reality in the period of the 3rd-2nd centuries BC. e.

In the works of Nicholas and Helena Roerich, the idea of Shambhala is important. Nicholas Roerich, who traveled through Central Asia in the years 24-28 of the last century, stated that he personally heard countless stories about this place. On the basis of the religious and philosophical teachings of the Roerichs, a new movement “Agni Yoga” (Living Ethics) arose, which has the veneration of Shambhala as one of its most important foundations. In science fiction writer James Hilton's novel “Lost Horizon,” the country of Shangri-La became a literary allegory of Shambhala.

Kitezh is the Russian Atlantis.

At one time, the writer Pavel Melnikov-Pechersky, inspired by Lake Svetloyar, told its legend in the novel “In the Woods”, as well as in the story “Grisha”. The lake was visited by Maxim Gorky (essay “Bugrov”), Vladimir Korolenko (essay cycle “In Desert Places”), Mikhail Prishvin (essay “Bright Lake”). Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov wrote the opera “The Tale of the Invisible City of Kitezh” about the mysterious city. The lake was painted by artists Nikolai Romadin, Ilya Glazunov and many others. The poets Akhmatova and Tsvetaeva also mention the city in their works.

Today, more and more science fiction writers are interested in the legend of Kitezh. Among works of this kind, we can name, for example, the story “The Hammers of Kitezh” by Nik Perumov and “Red Shift” by Evgeny Gulyakovsky. In the Soviet film “Sorcerers,” which was based on the Strugatskys’ novel “Monday Begins on Saturday,” a worker from a musical instrument factory travels to the fabulous Kitezh.

Remember Atlantis, the continent that sank into the ocean: this is how the gods punished the local population for their sins. So, there is a similar story in Rus' - the legend of Kitezh... It has nothing to do with sins; on the contrary, the reasons for the flooding of the city should be sought in the spiritual purity of its inhabitants. And only the righteous and saints can see this city. Many Orthodox Christians gather for a pilgrimage to the lake, where they believe Kitezh is buried.

The only hints about its real existence are in the book “The Kitezh Chronicler”. According to scientists, this book was written at the end of the 17th century. According to her, the city was built by the great Russian Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich Vladimirsky at the end of the 12th century. Returning from a trip to Novgorod, along the way I stopped to rest near Lake Svetloyar. He was captivated by the beauty of those places and later ordered the construction of the city of Greater Kitezh on the shore.

The length of the built city was 200 fathoms (straight fathom is the distance between the ends of the fingers, arms outstretched in different directions, approximately 1.6 meters), the width was 100. Several churches were also built, and on the occasion the best craftsmen began to “paint images.” During the Mongol-Tarar invasion, in order not to be defeated, the island miraculously sank into the waters of the lake.

Lake Svetloyar is located in the Nizhny Novgorod region near the village of Vladimirsky Voskresensky district, in the Lunda basin, a tributary of the Vetluga River. Its length is 210 meters, width is 175 meters, and the total area is about 12 hectares. There is still no consensus on how the lake came into being. Some insist on the glacial theory of origin, others defend the karst hypothesis. There is a version that the lake appeared after a meteorite fell.

The underground country of Agharti or Agartha.

The mystical center of sacred tradition, located in the East. The literal translation from Sanskrit is “invulnerable”, “inaccessible”. The French mystic Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveidre first wrote about it in his book “India's Mission to Europe.”

The second mention belongs to Ferdinand Ossendowski, who in the book “Beasts, Men, and Gods,” from the words of Mongolian lamas, tells a legend about an underground country that controls the destinies of all mankind. In Ossendowski's story, some researchers find borrowings from Saint-Yves d'Alveidre. A comparative analysis of both versions of the legend was carried out by the French scientist Rene Guenon in his work “King of the World”, in which he came to the conclusion that they have a common source.

The traditional location of Agartha is considered to be Tibet or the Himalayas. In Agartha live the highest initiates, keepers of tradition, true teachers and rulers of the world. It is impossible for the uninitiated to achieve Agartha - only the elite become accessible to it.

According to Puranic literature, Agartha is an island located in the middle of a sea of nectar. Travelers are transported there by a mystical golden bird. Chinese literature reported a tree and a fountain of immortality located in Agartha. Tibetan lamas depicted Aghartha in the center of an oasis, surrounded by rivers and high mountains.

There are legends about underground passages connecting Agartha with the outside world. F. Ossendovsky and N.K. Roerich reported on special underground and aerial vehicles that served its inhabitants for rapid movement.

Ancient Greek cities discovered at the bottom of the sea.

At the beginning of the article, we talked about the sensational discovery of archaeologists at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea - the cities of Heraklion, Canopus and Menoutis, previously known only from ancient Greek legends. From the bottom, a basalt bust of a certain pharaoh, a bust of a deity according to Serapis, and coins were raised, which made it possible to date the destruction of the ancient settlement to the 7th-8th centuries. BC. But, most importantly, three cities with preserved houses, towers, piers were discovered...

Canopus got its name in honor of the helmsman under King Menelaus, who died from a snake bite (and was immediately deified), and Menoutis - in honor of his wife. Heraklion, according to legend, was founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC. It was in this city that King Menelaus and Helen the Beautiful stopped on their way from the defeated Troy.

So, in any case, wrote the historian Herodotus, who visited Egypt in 450 BC. He also described the city’s landmark – the Tower of Hercules. It was a rich city, however, it lost its influence after the construction of Alexandria. Scientists suggest that Heraklion was flooded as a result of a strong earthquake. However, he, apparently, suffered almost no harm, but was only forever frozen in time at the bottom of the abyss.

Why did scientists (geophysicists from Stanford University who mapped the seabed using magnetic waves) make a guess about an earthquake? It's all about the nature of the arrangement of the columns and walls of the city, which lay in one direction. Whether visiting “maritime museums” will ever be available is unknown. Nevertheless, it would be very profitable for the state and interesting for tourists.

"Chichaburg": an underground city in Siberia.

At the end of the 90s of the last century, while taking aerial photographs of the Novosibirsk region, researchers 5 km from the regional center of Zdvinsk, on the shore of Lake Chicha, discovered an unusual anomaly: clear outlines of buildings appeared in the image, although there was steppe and lakes all around.

Houses underground?! Novosibirsk scientists, using special geophysical equipment provided by German colleagues, “enlightened” the mysterious place. The result exceeded all expectations: clear contours of streets, alleys, blocks, and powerful defensive structures appeared on the map. A real city is located on an area of 12-15 hectares.

During a study on Earth, on the outskirts of Chichaburg, something resembling a slag dump was discovered, which is usually left over from developed metallurgical production. The class stratification of the ancient Siberian city also turned out to be “illuminated”: “elite” stone palaces were adjacent to the stone houses of common people. A fragment of some ancient - hitherto unknown - civilization was emerging from the ground...

According to preliminary excavations, the age of the settlement is VII-VIII centuries BC. It turns out that the town on the banks of the Chicha is the same age as the Trojan War? It is not easy for scientists to believe this - after all, such a discovery overturns many established concepts in history, archeology, and ethnography.

World legends mention mythical countries where sorcerers and gods live, where there is a source of eternal youth and untold riches. Humanity has lost its feet in search of their traces. Scientists believe that some are worth looking for in Russia.

Sveta-dvipa

“In the Sea of Milk, north of Meru, lies the large island of Shvepa-dvipa, the White Island, or Island of Light. There is a country where bliss is tasted. Its inhabitants are brave men, removed from all evil, indifferent to honor and dishonor, marvelous in appearance, filled with vitality. A cruel, insensitive, lawless person does not live here...”

Where have you looked for this paradise from the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata? Some Indianists, such as Colonel Wilford, identified Shveta-dvipa with Great Britain. Why not? An island beyond the sea, in the north (for the authors of the Mahabharata). Blavatsky Elena Petrovna, who was a famous representative of the mystical order of Theosophists, in her “Secret Doctrine” placed Shveta Dvipa in the region of the modern Gobi Desert. Some researchers, on the contrary, see Arctida under the White Island - a hypothetical northern polar continent that once existed in the Arctic, but as a result of cataclysms that allegedly occurred from 18 to 100 thousand years ago, went under water (hypothesis of the German zoographer Eger).

Supporters of Arctida often associate the legend of Shveto-dvipa with Hyperborea, which, according to ancient authors, was also located somewhere far to the north. But north is a flexible concept. Some linguists have discovered similarities between Ural place names and Indian names. So, based on the research of A.G. Vinogradov and S.V. Zharnikova, the legendary Shveta-dvipa ended up on the territory of the Urals, the White Sea, the basins of the Northern Dvina and Pechora rivers, and the Volga-Oka interfluve.

Khara Berezaita

In history there are so-called nomadic toponyms, which different sources associated with different places. These include the Haru Berezaiti mountain range from the Zoroastrian texts of the Avesta, with Mount Hukairya. This is the archetypal World Mountain, from behind which the sun chariot of the deity Mithras rises in the morning. Above it sparkle the seven stars of the Big Dipper and the North Star, placed in the center of the universe. From here, from the golden peaks, all the earth's rivers originate, and the greatest of them is the pure Ardvi River, which falls noisily into the white-foamed sea of Vourukasha. The Swift Sun always circles over the mountains of High Khara, and day lasts six months here, and night lasts six months. Only the brave and strong-willed can cross these mountains and get to the happy land of the blessed, washed by the waters of the white-foamed ocean. Some researchers compare it with the already mentioned legendary Mount Meru, which is located next to Shveto-dvipa in the Urals. But, according to the Italian researcher Giraldo Gnoli, the Pamir and Hindu Kush were initially perceived as Khara Berezaiti, and then these beliefs were transferred to “more serious mountains,” or rather to Elbrus. The ocean in this analogy is obviously the Black Sea. By the way, this does not contradict the ideas about the mythological country in the north among ancient authors. Many Roman authors gave the same description of the Black Sea region that we can give today of the North Sea - severe cold, everything is covered with ice, people are dressed in thick skins.

Biarmia or Bjarmaland is an unknown historical region, which is constantly mentioned in the Scandinavian sagas, and which, according to some historians, could be located somewhere at the northern tip of Eastern Europe, in the area of the current Arkhangelsk region. The mysterious country was first mentioned in the story of the journey of the Viking Ottar from Holugaland (870-890). According to Ottar, Holugalang is the northernmost region of his subordinate Norway. He wanted to find out what lands lay beyond nearby Lapland and discovered the Bjarm people. Unlike the nomadic Laplanders, they lived sedentary and wealthy lives. They were also notorious sorcerers: “With a look, words or some other actions, they know how to bind people so much that they lose their common sense, lose free will and often commit incomprehensible acts.”

Despite the fact that the sources have preserved a detailed description of the Scandinavian expeditions to Biarmia, historians still cannot come to a consensus about what kind of country of rich sorcerers it was. The most common version is that the sagas describe the territory of the Northern Dvina. Other researchers, based on the ethnonym “Bjarm”, which the Vikings used to designate local residents, compare the legendary people with the Finno-Ugric tribes in the territory from modern Udmurtia to the Polar Urals. Bjarmiya, in this case, is a derivative of “Perm the Great”. The famous Scandinavist T.N. Jackson believes that Biarmia could be localized on the shores of the White Sea and on the Kola Peninsula.

Buyan Island

"On the sea on Okiyan, on the island on Buyan...". These are not only words from Pushkin’s fairy tale, but also the beginning of many ancient Slavic conspiracies. According to legend, on the legendary island the world mountain rises, a magical oak tree “neither naked nor clothed” grows, under it lies the mysterious white-flammable stone Alatyn: “Under that stone a mighty power is hidden, and there is no end to it.” There sits “a beautiful maiden, a skilled seamstress, holding a damask needle, threading an ore-yellow silk thread, sewing up bloody wounds.”

Thus, Buyan is a legendary island from Slavic mythology, possessing extraordinary, divine properties. But where was it located? The conspiracies that have come down to us answer this question ambiguously: “Beyond the blue sea, beyond the Khvalynsky (Caspian) Sea, in the middle of the Okiyan Sea lies the island of Buyan”; “On the sea on Okiyan, on the island on Buyan, on the Yardan River”; “On the sea on the Okiyan, in the middle of the White Sea.” In general, they extended the possible location from the Jordan River through the Caspian Sea to the White Sea. The historian Merkulov generally compared Buyan with the German island of Rügen in the Baltic Sea, where the ruins of the sacred city of the Western Slavs of Arkona are located.

In the legends of the Pomors, Buyan Island is mentioned, first of all, as an island rich in amber: “amber felt” supposedly came from somewhere far away from the Arctic Ocean, and then through the White Sea to the Dvina, then through a portage to Pechora.

Today, Buyan Island is clearly marked on the map of Russia in the Arctic Ocean. It is part of the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago in the Taimyr Dolgano-Nenets region of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Whether he has any relation to the legendary Buyan is unknown. At least there are no traces of ancient cultures and amber there.

Altai Shambhala

Shambhala is a mythical land of Hinduism and Buddhism. The fabulous land promises fabulous conditions - to give eternal youth, to open all the knowledge of the world. “If you know the teachings of Shambhala, you know the future,” Nicholas Roerich said about the magical land. Traditionally, the entrance to Shambhala is placed in the mountainous region of Tibet, somewhere near the sacred Mount Kailash. But, according to Roerich’s teachings, there should be three gates of Shambhala. One of them is located in Altai, in the area of Mount Belukha - a sacred peak among the local Altai peoples. According to their beliefs, there is a land of spirits there. One of the Altai shamans, Anton Yudanov, said in an interview that even clergy do not dare to approach the mountain closer than 10 km, and the attempt to conquer Belukha, which many people undertake every year, is a real sacrilege, followed by punishment. It’s not for nothing, he said, that Belukha is called “the killer mountain,” where most tourists have died recently: “The sacred mountain will throw off everyone who strives to approach its secret.”

Shambhala - a mythical country in Tibet

In the works of Nicholas and Helena Roerich, the idea of Shambhala is important. Nicholas Roerich, who traveled through Central Asia in 24-28 years of the last century, stated that he personally heard countless stories about this place. On the basis of the religious and philosophical teachings of the Roerichs, a new movement “Agni Yoga” (Living Ethics) arose, which has the veneration of Shambhala as one of its most important foundations. In science fiction writer James Hilton's novel “Lost Horizon,” the country of Shangri-La became a literary allegory of Shambhala.

Kitezh is the Russian Atlantis.

The underground country of Agharti or Agartha.

Ancient Greek cities discovered at the bottom of the sea.

Why did scientists (geophysicists from Stanford University who mapped the bottom using magnetic waves) make a guess about an earthquake? It’s all about the nature of the arrangement of the columns and walls of the city, which lay in one direction. Whether visiting “maritime museums” will ever be available is unknown. Nevertheless, it would be very profitable for the state and interesting for tourists.

"Chichaburg": an underground city in Siberia.

World mythology is full of fantasy worlds and kingdoms that exist alongside our own world. Many of them are said to have real-world entrances, meaning many of us have probably at least stood on the threshold of some pretty amazing places. Now, if only we knew the magic words that open these doors...

10. Fairytale Kingdom

Knockma Woods is located in the wilds of western Ireland and has several major legends associated with it. According to the stories of ancient storytellers, the legendary warrior queen Maeve was buried under a pile of stones on Concma Hill, and now the hill itself is supposedly the entrance to one of the fairy-tale kingdoms of Ireland. Ruled by King Fionnbhar (also known as Finvarra), the fabled kingdom of Connacht exists only within one of the many stone circles and fairy rings that dot the mountain.

According to legend, Finvarra once kidnapped the beautiful bride of an Irish lord and took her to his kingdom. The lord pursued the king and his bride all the way to the hill and ordered his men to start digging, but every night when the warriors went to bed, all the holes they managed to dig during the day were completely restored by the fairies serving Finvarr. To prevent this from happening again, the lord ordered salt to be poured around the hill and eventually managed to dig his way into the fairy kingdom and rescued his wife.

It is also mentioned in family legends of the 18th and 19th centuries that Finvarra supposedly protected nearby Hackett Castle, ensured that its owners' wine cellars were always full, and ensured the victory of their horses in whatever competitions they entered. However, Knockma Forest is not just a local legend or anything like that, but also an archaeological site, because during excavations here it was possible to discover a number of Neolithic settlements and cairns (note: piles of stones piled above a burial place) dating back to around 6000-7000 BC AD

9. River Styx

The Greeks believe that the River Styx is the main entrance to the afterlife. They say that it circles the kingdom of Hades seven times, and its water is extremely caustic, poisonous and deadly. In addition, according to rumors, it flows between two massive silver columns, guarded by nymphs, after whom it received its name. Legends say that all this is true and that its deadly waters once killed one of the greatest leaders in world history.

According to legend, Zeus once forced the gods to drink water from the River Styx, which was used like a lie detector. If they were liars, they lost their voice and ability to move within one year. These symptoms are eerily similar to those experienced by Alexander the Great before he died prematurely due to an unspecified sudden illness in 323 BC. Before falling into a coma, the Greek leader suffered from stabbing pain in his internal organs and joints, high fever and loss of voice.

These symptoms are also very similar to those experienced by a person when they enter their body with calicheamicin, a toxin produced by bacteria found in limestone found in high concentrations in the Mavroneri River. It is also known as the Black Water, which flows from the Peloponnesian Mountains and has long been considered the real passage to the banks of the River Styx. An ancient legend says that the water in it was so poisonous and deadly, like that of its mythical counterpart, that the only thing it could not damage were boats and rafts made from horse hooves.

If the version of the death of Alexander the Great is correct, then we can assume that he did not die from malaria or typhoid fever, as previously thought, but was in fact poisoned by a man who managed to get water from the mythical River Styx.

8. The Lost City of Z

The Lost City of Z is a mythological city located in the wilds of South America. Supposedly, a large, advanced civilization lived here, strangely similar to the ancient Greek cities, full of all sorts of treasures and riches. According to a manuscript dating back to the 16th century (also known as Manuscript 512), the city was inhabited by white inhabitants and female warriors. But as much as mythical cities may seem like fiction, the existence of this city does not seem to be so unlikely. In South America there were vast, unexplored lands that are now buried deep underground, so that modern researchers have practically no chance of finding out what is buried in the jungle.

One of the most famous people who went in search of this city and disappeared without a trace was Colonel Percy Fawcett. The colonel, who kept his intended route secret to prevent his rivals from finding the mythical city first, disappeared into the Amazon jungle in 1925. His expedition and subsequent disappearance are shrouded in mystery, and his cryptic letters and deliberately false coordinates allow several different explanations for all this. One theory that some researchers have insisted on is that the famous explorer actually went into the jungle not to search for the lost city of Z, but to found a new one based on the basic principles of the cult that his son worshiped. , accompanying him on that expedition.

Although the above assumptions are far-fetched, one very real thing in this whole story remains the city itself. Modern satellite images showed that Fawcett was looking for a city very close to where he said it would be. Fawcett believed that the entrance to the mythical city was located somewhere in the Amazon basin between its tributaries Xingu and Tapajos, and more than 200 clay structures stretching along the Brazilian border of Bolivia suggest that his theory was very close to the truth. Modern scholars have estimated that some structures date back to 200 AD, while others are relatively recent, dating back to the 13th century. The entrance to Fawcett's massive, glittering city was probably only a little further southwest from where he was last seen.

Before new information was received, it had long been assumed that the Amazon jungle did not allow large-scale agriculture to be carried out on its territory, much less build a giant city of this size. However, calculations show that City Z was once home to about 60,000 people. Not only small buildings were built on its territory - some of the monuments built here were much larger in size than the Egyptian pyramids.

7. Shambhala

The mythical land of Shambhala is perhaps best known in the Western world as the fictional paradise from which the stories of Shangri-La were created. According to Buddhist legends, Shambhala is a secret kingdom where Buddhist values and traditions are observed. The utopian world is also home to the great warrior Geser, who leads hordes of righteous people who eventually travel to the human world to fight our demons.

Today many people talk about visiting Shambhala. They say that Shambhala can be entered through a long-forgotten guard post created by Alexander the Great, Russia's Mount Belukha, the settlement of the Afghan Sufi Sarmun brotherhood and the ancient city of Balkh, bordering Tibet in the Himalayas, as well as through the Sutlej Valley in India. Heinrich Himmler was convinced that Shambhala was the abode of the Aryan race, and even organized seven expeditions to search for it.

However, entering Shambhala is much more difficult than it seems. According to the Dalai Lama, you will not be able to see the entrance until you achieve a state of purity similar to that of the mystical city. Many people believe that this means that the entrance is not a physical place or point on a map, but a state of mind, which means that all of the above entrances could very well be real.

6. Yomi

The legend of Yomi (or Yomi No Kuni) is part of Japanese mythology that predates widespread Buddhism. According to the myth, all the creations of the world were created by a god named Izanagi and his goddess, his wife Izanami. After Izanami died giving birth to fire, her grief-stricken husband went to the underworld to bring her back.

This legend has striking similarities with other myths, because it also says that a determined husband discovered a dark and gloomy place underground, where souls trying to preserve their mortal bodies are doomed to rot forever. Izanagi was forbidden to look at his wife until they reached the surface, but like many of his mythological counterparts, he glimpsed her rotting, worm-ridden body before the end of the journey. Angered that he dared to look at her in such a state, Izanami sent hideous demons after him to pursue him until he returned back to the underworld forever, but he managed to escape from there and sealed the entrance to Yomi with a giant boulder. In response, Izanami promised to take 1,000 lives into the underworld every day, and Izanagi vowed to create another 1,005 new ones every day.

Today, tourists coming to the Japanese city of Matsue can visit the boulder, which, according to legend, Izanagi used to forever close the entrance to the underworld. Yomotsu Hirasaka (the official name for the entrance to the abode of the dead) is supposedly located behind one of the boulders near the Iya Shrin Shinto shrine. It is not yet clear which boulder hides the legendary entrance, which may be for the better. As for Izanami’s grave, it is also located not far from the shrine built in her honor.

5. Xibalba

At the height of its power, the Mayan Empire stretched across Mexico and Central America, and its people's belief in the other world was stronger than ever. Their final resting place was the other world known as Xibalba, where only the dead could enter, and then only after their soul had overcome all sorts of obstacles, ranging from crossing a river of scorpions, pus, being chased by a flock of bats, and ending with escaping from a dog, able to see in the dark.

As we mentioned earlier, there are several different entrances to Xibalba, and researchers recently discovered another one in the Yucatan Peninsula. Here are the subterranean and partially underwater ruins of a large labyrinth of caves, within which are several grim indicators of what the Mayans believed would await them at its end.

Archaeologists have discovered 11 different temples in these caves, as well as signs of human sacrifice. There are a number of artifacts left as offerings to the dead, including pottery, carved stones, and pottery. Archaeological excavations in the caves also revealed huge stone columns and structures built underwater, testifying to the time, effort and dedication the Mayans took to create their shrine. Although it still remains unclear whether the myth of Xibalba was created after the discovery of these caves or, conversely, the caves are proof of the reality of this legend, one thing is certain - they were definitely connected with each other.

4. Gates of Gehenna

According to the basic postulates of Voodoo, passage through the Gates of Gehenna resembles something similar to the transition of the soul from life to death. Since Voodoo traditions differ from each other, so do the descriptions of this gate. According to Voodoo practiced in New Orleans, Gehenna is a spirit that exists in the afterlife, often described as an intermediate state between life and death. The Gate of Gehenna is a portal to the afterlife, consisting of seven gates. It takes seven days for a soul to pass through all the gates, and if it fails, it may return to Earth as a zombie. Some Voodoo practitioners believe that the seven gates are located in seven different cemeteries in New Orleans, although the exact location and numerical order of the gates is a closely guarded secret. Scattered throughout the city and its cemeteries, clues left here for those knowledgeable enough to decipher them often resemble the symbols of certain Voodoo deities.

Gates are supposedly easier to find and open on holidays like Mardi Gras and All Hallows' Day, but finding them is only the beginning of the problem. The gates must be similar, open in the correct order, and each has a guard who requires the appropriate sacrifice. But, according to legends, opening the gates in the wrong order or not fulfilling all the requirements of the guards can cause the appearance of evil and dangerous spirits who will leave another world in order to enter ours.

3. Garden guarded by the Hesperides

According to Greek mythology, Geia (note the goddess of the earth) presented Hera with a wedding gift in the form of trees whose fruits were golden apples. The latter were given to the Garden of the Hesperides for storage. Hercules was given the task of stealing one such apple, which became his eleventh labor. And he completed his task, taking the place of Atlas and raising the Earth, while the Titan got him one of the golden fruits.

Traditions say that the entrance to the garden was located in modern Lixus, a coastal city in Morocco. Once a bustling Roman port, it is now made entirely of crumbling walls and buildings resembling ruins. They also include the remains of one of the city's largest commodity manufacturing industries, as well as a factory that created a paste from fermented fish intestines. The garden and its location are mentioned in the texts of sea songs dating back to Hellenistic Greece, but there are other speculations about its possible location. For example, they concern the city of Cyrene and one of the islands off the coast of Libya.

2. Newgrange

Newgrange is a massive tomb built in Ireland's Boyne Valley over 5,000 years ago. This is not only an impressive display of the incredible skill of our ancestors, but also one of the entrances to the other world, according to Celtic mythology. The latter tells that the gods once moved back and forth between the earthly and their own worlds through specially prepared and consecrated mounds like Newgrange.

It was popularly said that the supposed entrance to the magnificent banquet hall of the so-called Lords of Light, Newgrange, led to a land where no one ever died, grew old, or became sick. There is an endless supply of food and drink, as well as magical trees that continually bear fruit. The oldest collections of myths concerning Newgrange call it the home of an otherworldly manifestation of the River Boyne, as well as a well that is the source of all wisdom in the world. The trees near the well drop their nuts into the water, which releases the knowledge they contain into the real human world.

The next otherworldly inhabitant associated with the legends of Newgrange is the Dagda - one of the oldest Irish gods, who is often associated with knowledge, the Sun and the sky. His son, Aengus, is closely associated with Newgrange, for according to legend he was born in just one day, which was stopped by the power of the barrow, which had collected the power of the last nine months. Later, Aengus tricked the Dagda into giving him the tomb, which represents the entrance to the other world, which he guards to this day.

1. Schoolmanse (or Scholomance)

The Schoolmanse is a mythical school whose existence was only remembered in Romanian folklore until all the stories about it were written down by an English writer named Emily Gerard. According to Gerard, the Schoolmans accepted only 10 students at a time, and the devil himself was in charge of their training. Here they learned all about his spells and tricks, including learning how to communicate with animals and control the weather. After this unique curriculum was completed, only nine students graduated from the school. The latter remained with the devil as payment for lessons for the whole class, after which he sent him into an infinitely deep lake, where he lived until the devil called him to himself to create even more lightning.

Gerard's version of Scholomance differs slightly from the traditional Romanian legend, which has been mistranslated. In Romanian folklore, this school is called Solomanari and is located in a fictional world that exists parallel to ours. After reading Gerard's work, Bram Stoker used the idea of Scholomance in Dracula to explain how Dracula's family learned of their demonic powers.

The lake where the devil's dragon sleeps and the school where he teaches is said to be high in the Carpathian Mountains, near the Romanian city of Sibiu, which, according to old legends, experiences thunderstorms every day. Those who are looking for the devil's lake know that they have found it when they see a pile of stones covering the shoreline of the reservoir. It marks the place where unfortunate travelers die and fall directly under the lightning of the devil.

+ Schlaraffenland

Schlaraffenland, otherwise known as Cockayne, was a utopian mythological city of lazy people. Those who managed to find their way there found everything they could dream of, especially when it came to food. The walls of the houses here are made of large pieces of bacon, the roofs are made of pies and pancakes, and the fences are made of sausages. Wine flows in all the fountains, milk flows in the rivers instead of water, and the trees in Slaraffenland bear mince pies and fruit buns instead of pine cones. Even the weather here is made of food: snow is made of sugar, and hail falls on its inhabitants in the form of pellets. In addition, here you can also earn money literally in your sleep.

Unlike many mythical places, Slaraffenland is not accessible only to those who were extremely good or righteous people, and those who dream of getting there must also be extremely hungry. The legends said that in order to get there, you need to go towards North Hommelen (a city located near the northern border of France) and look for the gallows. The entrance to the world of lazy people is a massive mountain of porridge, and it can be unmistakably found. Those seeking to enter this city must literally eat their way through the mountains, so a big appetite is welcome.

The material was prepared by Natalya Zakalyk - based on an article from listverse.com

P.S. My name is Alexander. This is my personal, independent project. I am very glad if you liked the article. Want to help the site? Just look at the advertisement below for what you were recently looking for.

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Is this what you were looking for? Perhaps this is something you couldn’t find for so long?

“People sometimes dream about blue cities: for some it’s Moscow, for others it’s Paris...” is sung in a popular Soviet song. But somewhere on earth, perhaps mysterious places shrouded in myths and legends are hidden from us.

No one has been there, but they talk a lot about them. No one has seen them, but a lot is known about what they look like... In someone's mind, it is these mysterious parallel worlds that appear through the haze of inexplicable dreams...

But in world archeology sometimes real sensations happen. So, a little more than 10 years ago, in the early 2000s, the mythical cities of Heraklion, Canopus and Menoutis, known only from ancient Greek tragedies and legends, were discovered at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea by an international group of archaeologists. By that time, scientists had been exploring the coastal region of Alexandria for three years. Who knows, perhaps very soon a solution to the mystery of the ancient Shangrila, the sunken Atlantis and Kitezh will be found, and the underground Agharti will be discovered.

Shambhala is a mythical country in Tibet.

Shambhala in Tibet (or other surrounding regions of Asia) is mentioned in several ancient treatises. According to some of them, the Hindu messiah Kalka was born here. The first mention of Shambhala is found in the Kalachakra Tantra (10th century. The text states that the city has been preserved since the time of the king of Shambhala, Suchandra. According to another legend, Shambhala was a kingdom in Central Asia. After the Muslim invasion of Central Asia in the 9th century, the kingdom of Shambhala has become invisible to human eyes, and only the pure in heart can find the way to it.

Tibetologist Bronislav Kuznetsov (1931-1985) and orientalist Lev Gumilyov (1912-1992), working on the issue, came to the conclusion that Shambhala is a real place. Moreover, it is depicted on an ancient Tibetan map published in the Tibetan-Shangshung dictionary. According to their interpretation, the author of the map reflected on it the era of domination of Syria, led by the Macedonian conquerors. Syria is called Sham in Persian, and the word "Bolo" means "top", "surface". Consequently, Shambhala is translated as “Dominion of Syria,” which corresponded to reality in the period of the 3rd - 2nd centuries BC. e.

In the works of Nicholas and Helena Roerich, the idea of Shambhala is important. Nicholas Roerich, who traveled through Central Asia in the years 24-28 of the last century, stated that he personally heard countless stories about this place. On the basis of the religious and philosophical teachings of the Roerichs, a new movement “Agni Yoga” (living ethics) arose, which has the veneration of Shambhala as one of its most important foundations. In the novella “Lost Horizon” by science fiction writer James Hilton, the country of Shangri-La became the literary allegory of Shambhala.

Kitezh - Russian Atlantis.

At one time, the writer Pavel Melnikov - Pechersk, inspired by Lake Svetloyar, told its legend in the novel “In the Woods”, as well as in the story “Grisha”. The lake was visited by Maxim Gorky (essay "Bugrov"), Vladimir Korolenko (essay cycle "in desert places"), Mikhail Prishvin (essay "bright lake". Nikolai Rimsky - Korsakov wrote an opera about the mysterious city. "The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh". Painted by artists Nikolai Romadin, Ilya Glazunov and many others, the poets Akhmatova and Tsvetaeva also mention the city in their works.

Today, more and more science fiction writers are interested in the legend of Kitezh. Among works of this kind, we can name, for example, the story “The Hammers of Kitezh” by Nik Perumov and “Red Shift” by Evgeny Gulakovsky. In the Soviet film "Sorcerers", which was based on the Strugatskys' novel "Monday Begins on Saturday", a worker at a musical instrument factory travels to the fairytale Kitezh.

Remember Atlantis, the continent that sank into the ocean: this is how the gods punished the local population for their sins. So, there is a similar story in Rus' - the legend of Kitezh. It has nothing to do with sins; on the contrary, the reasons for the flooding of the city should be sought in the spiritual purity of its inhabitants. And only the righteous and saints can see this city. Many Orthodox Christians gather for a pilgrimage to the lake, where they believe Kitezh is buried.

The only hints about its real existence are in the book "Kitezh Chronicler". According to scientists, this book was written at the end of the 17th century. Thus, according to her, the city was built by the great Russian prince Yuri Vsevolodovich of Vladimir at the end of the 12th century. Returning from a trip to Novgorod, along the way I stopped to rest near Lake Svetloyar. He was captivated by the beauty of those places and later ordered a large kitezh to be built on the shore of the city.

The length of the built city was 200 fathoms (straight fathom - the distance between the ends of the fingers, arms outstretched in different directions, is approximately 1.6 meters), width - 100. Several churches were also built, and on the occasion the best masters began to “Paint the Image”. During the Mongol invasion - Tarar, in order not to be defeated, the island miraculously sank into the waters of the lake.

Lake Svetloyar is located in the Nizhny Novgorod region near the village of Vladimir Voskresensky district, in the basin of the Lunda, a tributary of the Vetluga River. Its length is 210 meters, width is 175 meters, and the total area is about 12 hectares. There is still no consensus on how the lake came into being. Some insist on the glacial theory of origin, others defend the karst hypothesis. There is a version that the lake appeared after a meteorite fell.

Underground country or agartha agarti.

The mystical center of sacred tradition, located in the East. The literal translation from Sanskrit is “Invulnerable”, “inaccessible”. The French mystic Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveidre first wrote about it in his book “India's Mission to Europe.”

The second mention belongs to Ferdinand of Ossend, who in the book “And Beasts, and Men, and Gods”, from the words of Mongolian lamas, tells a legend about an underground country that controls the destinies of all mankind. In Ossendowski's story, some researchers find borrowings from Saint Yves d'Alveidre. A comparative analysis of both versions of the legend was carried out by the French scientist Rene Guenon in his work “King of the World,” in which he came to the conclusion that they have a common source.

The traditional location of Agartha is considered to be Tibet or the Himalayas. In Agartha live the highest initiates, guardians of tradition, true teachers and rulers of the world. It is impossible for the uninitiated to achieve agartha - it becomes accessible only to the chosen ones.

According to Puranic literature, Aghartha is an island located in the middle of a sea of nectar. Travelers are transported there by a mystical golden bird. Chinese literature reported a tree and a fountain of immortality located in Agartha. Tibetan lamas depicted agartha in the center of an oasis, surrounded by rivers and high mountains.

There are legends about underground passages connecting Agartha with the outside world. F. Ossendowski and N. K. Roerich reported on special underground and aerial vehicles that served its inhabitants for rapid movement.

Ancient Greek cities discovered at the bottom of the sea.

At the beginning of the article, we talked about the sensational discovery of archaeologists at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea - the cities of Heraklion, Canopus and Menoutis, previously known only from ancient Greek legends. From the bottom, a basalt bust of a certain pharaoh, a bust of a deity according to serapis, and coins were raised, which made it possible to date the destruction of the ancient settlement to the 7th - 8th centuries. BC e. but, most importantly, three cities with preserved houses, towers, and piers were discovered.

So, in any case, wrote the historian Herodotus, who visited Egypt in 450 BC. e. He also described the landmark of the city - the Tower of Hercules. It was a rich city, however, it lost its influence after the construction of Alexandria. Scientists suggest that Heraklion was flooded as a result of a strong earthquake. However, he, apparently, suffered almost no harm, but was only forever frozen in time at the bottom of the abyss.

Why did scientists (geophysicists from Stanford University who mapped the seabed using magnetic waves) make a guess about an earthquake? It's all about the nature of the arrangement of the columns and walls of the city, which lay in one direction. It is unknown whether visiting the "Maritime Museums" will ever be available. Nevertheless, it would be very profitable for the state and interesting for tourists.

"Chichaburg": an underground city in Siberia.

Houses underground! Novosibirsk scientists, using special geophysical equipment provided by German colleagues, “enlightened” the mysterious place. The result exceeded all expectations: clear contours of streets, alleys, blocks, and powerful defensive structures appeared on the map. A real city is located on an area of 12-15 hectares.

During a study on the ground, on the outskirts of Chichaburg, something resembling slag was discovered - a dump, which usually remains from a developed metallurgical production. The class stratification of the ancient Siberian city also turned out to be “illuminated”: “elite” stone palaces were adjacent to the stone houses of common people. A fragment of some ancient - hitherto unknown - civilization was emerging from the ground.

According to preliminary excavations, the age of the settlement is VII - VIII centuries BC. e. It turns out that the town on the banks of the Chicha is the same age as the Trojan War? It is not easy for scientists to believe this - after all, such a discovery overturns many established concepts in history, archeology, and ethnography.