Scary stories and mystical stories. White speleologist from Sablinskiye caves (4 photos) According to cave laws
The Legend of the White Speleologist
Somewhere in the twenties, a young guy came into the system. Nobody remembers his first or last name anymore. I only remember that he always went underground in white overalls. Very soon he already knew the system like the back of his hand, treated it with respect and it paid him back in kind. And in general he was a good person. Something just happened to him - the guy was killed. They killed in caves, no one really knows by whom and why. But he didn’t leave the system, he still walks around it in his white overalls. That's why he was given the nickname - White Speleologist, or simply White.
Bely became the guardian of the caves, helping those in distress. He really doesn't like it when someone says they saw him. He sets a condition for those who are saved to remain silent about meeting him. If the condition is not met, a person can be “sprinkled” anywhere, even in an underground passage. In general, Bely does not like it when people wag their tongues; he severely punishes liars and braggarts. He does not tolerate drunkenness and sloppiness in the system, he is angry. And to make him angry means either getting lost, or breaking something, or completely fall into a collapse.
The Legend of the White Speleologist
It happened in the Caucasus mountains. In one of the villages there lived a boy. Herding cattle. And then one night he came across a cave in the mountains. No one in these places had even heard of its existence. And he decided to explore it. I took a flashlight, string, chalk, food, drink and went there. He began to visit the cave every day and soon studied it thoroughly. Several years passed like this. One day, people from the capital came to their village and asked the villagers if anyone could become their guide in the mountains. The elders consulted and asked this boy to lead them through the mountains. For several days they climbed in the surrounding area. Here people from the capital ask:
Is there any cave in these mountains?
The boy thought and said:
Yes, there really is one cave here, and tomorrow I can take you there.
And so they did.
They had been walking underground for a long time: judging by the clock, the day was approaching evening. It was time to go out. But then one of the capital’s residents wanted to inspect the well. They secured the rope, and the boy was the first to descend. And either the ledge in the wall collapsed, or he himself was already tired, but he somehow unsuccessfully sank to the bottom of the well and seriously hurt his leg.
What's happened? - the capital shouted from above.
There’s something wrong with my leg, I can’t get up.
The people from the capital conferred, threw down a backpack with a supply of food, drink and candles for several days, and they themselves went to the exit. Either they wanted to call for help, and then for some reason they got scared, or something else, but only the next morning there was no trace of them in the village. The boy's mother was the first to sound the alarm. The villagers abandoned their work and went in search. Several days passed. It was all in vain.
Here one guy, a friend of our hero, says:
Listen, there’s a cave nearby, maybe they’re there?
How many years have we lived here, we have never heard of any cave.
No, there is - and he led them there.
People stocked up on everything they needed, and the search began. After some time, they found a coil of rope and an untouched backpack in one of the wells. There was no one else there.
Since then, the White Speleologist appeared in the caves. He can be in any cave, helping the lost and desperate. He revives life in them when, it would seem, everything is over, and becomes a guiding light of salvation. But if you are a scoundrel and a bastard, then no one will help you. And death will await you from hunger and darkness, from fear and loneliness and from the punishing hand of the White speleologist.
The Tale of Two-Face
Once upon a time there lived a gentleman. His serfs mined pebbles in the quarries. The work, of course, was such that people soon began to grumble. Especially those who are younger. Well, one guy chatted away - it was the master who chained him in the quarry. That guy had a girlfriend, she stayed with him in the caves, and there, they say, she disappeared. And then strange things began to happen at the quarry, frequent collapses began, the rock became junk... The master went bankrupt...
Now, if a person in the system is left without light - well, there, the last candle has gone out or the lantern has broken - and is completely alone, then there is nothing you can do about it - sit and wait. Either the search party will find you, or - remember your name. It is in such desperate moments that a naked girl with a candle appears in front of the lost person. And silently he beckons, like, let’s go, I’ll take you out. And it really does lead out, only at the very exit it turns into a rotted corpse, and the man dies from a broken heart.
Therefore, if you are going to go with her, then not to the very end. As soon as the familiar places begin, you need to turn your back to Two-Face and say: “Thank you, then I’ll go on my own...” Not everyone, however, manages to understand that the exit is not far away. In the early nineties, in Byaki (one of the cave systems near Moscow) they found a guy - a marine. He didn’t make it about twenty meters to the exit; he died of a broken heart. They didn't find any light on him. And at the same time, the guy was well known in Byaki - he was in excellent health and did not drink...
An ordinary person who has never wandered underground, and if he has been in a cave, then only under the strict supervision of some guide, will never understand and feel what we feel. Even if it’s difficult to call our hobby extreme, we get no less impressions and emotions than, for example, climbers.
That day I received confirmation of the rule that I had so carelessly neglected. "Hope for the best and prepare for the worst." This story, as you probably already guessed, happened to me in the caves, an avid visitor of which I am.
Bravely walking along the drifts I knew, I didn’t even dare to think that I could get into some unpleasant, much less dangerous, situation, but by coincidence, it happened to me. The batteries on my only flashlight were dead. Can you imagine what it means to be left without light underground? All my chances of getting to the surface decreased significantly, but still they were not zero, because I had my lighter in my pocket.
I must say that this lighter was simple and more suitable for lighting a cigarette than for walking a many-kilometer route underground, but I had no choice and I began my slow journey to the surface.
I walked in complete darkness, only occasionally illuminating my path with a lighter, and at the same time I thought how I could get into this situation. I definitely remembered that I had inserted completely new batteries into the flashlight, but they still failed me at the most inopportune moment.
I can’t say exactly how long my “walk” lasted, because the concept of “time” does not exist underground, but I can say with complete confidence that I felt uneasy. I immediately began to remember various things: ghosts, spirits and demons, which speleologists had repeatedly told me about, and even my skepticism could not drive away the fears from me.
What have I not seen or heard during this time? I tried to assure myself that it was all just my imagination, coupled with fear, that painted these pictures. I tried to overcome myself and stop being afraid, but no matter what. I was unable to control my fear.
When I saw a tiny point of light ahead, I was already on the verge of panic and you can probably imagine my joy. Without thinking about anything, I went to where my salvation was.
A man in a white overall and with a white helmet on his head was sitting near the wall. He was busy dripping a new passage, and there were many candles around him.
“Good morning,” I greeted the man in white.
Looking up from what he was doing for a minute, but without saying a word, he took a flashlight out of his pocket and handed it to me. I took it, turned it on and walked forward, lighting my path with a flashlight. After walking a dozen steps, I turned around and looked at the place where my savior had just been sitting. There was nothing there: no spatula, no candles, not the man himself. I smiled and moved on.
Now I knew for sure that I would leave the System. The man who gave me the lantern was probably known to everyone who had ever been downstairs. Legends were told about him, but only a few saw him with their own eyes. He was called the White Speleologist and he was a spirit who helped all those who were in danger. He was loved and revered. A glass was always raised in his honor.
I got out of the caves safely and after I arrived home, I decided to paint this miniature. I decided to write it in honor of Bely, who saved my life.
Perhaps you may ask, did I lose the desire to wander through caves after that incident? No, because now I knew for sure that I had a friend and helper, and if I suddenly got into trouble underground, he would always help me.
It is impossible to imagine the natural habitat of man without sunlight, but this does not mean that man refused to explore the world of the underground.
Here are the famous ones Sablinskie caves near St. Petersburg they are not empty: they are chosen by speleologists, tourists, lovers of esotericism and... ghosts. The most famous inhabitant of this underground kingdom is White speleologist.
Just 40 kilometers from St. Petersburg along the Moscow highway, and you find yourself in the amazingly picturesque places of the Sablinsky Nature Reserve. Here, on an area of 220 hectares, unique for the plains are concentrated
terrain reliefs - canyons and waterfalls. And along the bank of the Tosna River there are entrances to the famous Sablinsky caves.
All of them are of artificial origin and were formed as a result of the extraction of quartz sand on the banks of Tosna. Even 150 years ago, during the time of Catherine II, the glass industry began to develop in Russia, and intensive development of quartz sand has been carried out in Sablino since 1860.
It was hard labor, when sand was carried in baskets to the mouth of the mine and sent along the Tosna River to glass factories. Later, trolleys appeared, and the sand was sent to the railway station. Three wagons of sand were mined per day, and workers were paid 80 kopecks per day.
This is how the Sablinsky caves appeared - ancient mine workings resembling adits. The method of sand extraction here was special - chamber-and-pillar, when during excavation, pillars-columns were left as fastenings, which alternated with chambers where the main extraction was carried out.
The sand was mined of excellent quality, and the famous imperial crystal was made from it, which received the highest marks at international exhibitions. One of the most respected clients was the court of His Imperial Majesty. In 1924, the last miner left the caves, and Mother Nature began to work on them.
UNDERGROUND PEARL
Currently, there are four large caves in Sablino - Levoberezhnaya (“Trash”), “Pearl”, “Pants”, “Rope”, as well as several smaller caves: “Trekhglazka”, “Beach”, “Dream”, “Santa” Maria", "Count's Grotto", "Fox Holes". All caves look very colorful due to the fact that the walls are made of white and red sandstone, and the vaults are made of green glauconitic limestone.
The so-called “Trash” is rich in underground lakes up to three meters deep and with an area of many hundreds of square meters. These lakes are unique in their own way, and all thanks to anomalies associated with water filtration. For example, Pearl Lake either lasts for years or disappears within a day. There are floods here, and they start so abruptly that if this happens, you need to get out of here quickly, otherwise there will be trouble.
In general, Sablinsky caves are famous for their unpredictability. So, for example, sometimes spontaneous changes in the configuration of underground rooms occur, passages appear or disappear, and collapses occur. But these are flowers. After several hours of being in caves, hallucinations can easily begin: some people are “lucky enough” to hear distant female voices, others imagine different melodies.
One of the speleologists claimed to have heard a male choir singing the song “Varyag”. Experienced speleologists say: it’s better not to wait for visual hallucinations; once they come, they may never leave. But this is far from the only danger that awaits neophytes in the dungeon.
TEST OF STRENGTH
The most famous underground character of the Sablinsky caves is the so-called White speleologist. They say that this is not at all an ethereal shadow like other, often harmless, ghosts. The white speleologist keeps order in the caves and mercilessly deals with those who disturb their peace, coming here “with his own charter.” One day, a teenager decided to walk alone through the labyrinths of the “Pants” cave, where, according to legend, the grave of the White speleologist is located.
The invisible lord of the cave lured the guy into the farthest corridor and confused him. As a result, the boy got lost and was never able to get out of the trap. Only a few days later, a group of rescuers discovered a barely alive teenager and helped him get out. What did the young dungeon explorer do wrong? They say he decided to smoke there, but the cave spirit didn’t like it.
The story about the White speleologist has become overgrown with fables and legends over the years; it is now difficult to figure out what is true in it. It all started with the fact that a certain dungeon lover decided to go down into the caves alone. It was winter, when the entrances to the underground cavities were covered with solid ice.
The unfortunate speleologist slipped and went down at great speed. Hitting his head against the wall of the catacomb, he broke his cervical vertebra and died instantly.
It is not known who buried him in the underground gallery of the “Pants” cave and placed a metal cross on the grave mound, but since then speleologists have made sure that there is a helmet on the grave, and on the mound itself - matches, lighters, cigarettes, money and even a flask with water. You cannot touch these things, because they belong to the White Speleologist.
Despite the restless spirit of the Sablinsky Caves, they are very popular. The St. Petersburg School of Speleology was even opened on their basis. Schoolchildren, geologists and geographers undergo internships here. But inexperienced neophytes will not even step foot into the dungeon without the supervision of experienced adult comrades. One story is passed down from mouth to mouth.
One day, the scientific supervisor responded to the persistent requests of the students to arrange a meeting with the unknown. At the bottom of the gallery the man placed an overturned bucket and a lit candle on it.
The observers sat to the side and stared at the fire for half an hour. Suddenly the bucket tilted, confident, quick steps were heard, and the candle suddenly floated through the air. Crowding each other, everyone who was underground jumped out like a cork. Since then, no one has had the desire to disturb the spirit of the Sablinsky Caves in vain.
ACCORDING TO CAVE LAWS
In the foreseeable future, Sablinsky caves will become a place of unique scientific experiments. One of the remote underground galleries will be isolated from the outside world, which will allow scientists to observe the natural course of natural processes occurring underground.
Why were the Sablinsky caves chosen as the site for the scientific experiment? The location of the Sablinsky caves is unique in itself. 500 million years ago there was an ocean shore here, and therefore now animal fossils are often found on natural limestone slabs. Scientists hope to discover many more interesting and unknown things here.
Sablinsky caves also have a special temperature regime: all year round the air temperature there is at 7-8 degrees Celsius. This circumstance largely explains the special love that representatives of the animal world have for these caves: bats and butterflies gather here for the winter.
The atmospheric conditions in the cave are such that the tree placed by speleologists for last New Year retains its appearance for almost a whole year. Perhaps observations of the processes occurring in the Sablinsky caves will allow scientists to open new horizons in science and technology.
Sergey SHAPOVALOV
In any region where there are mountains or abandoned dungeons, there will be people who are ready to talk about meeting with a “white speleologist.” He restores order and sometimes severely punishes those who, having penetrated the underground labyrinths, violate their unwritten laws.
Sablinskie caves
Most often, the “white speleologist” is encountered near St. Petersburg in the famous Sablinsky quarries. More than 10 man-made caves stretch along the valley of the Tosna River, formed after the extraction of quartz sand for glass factories. Sablinsky quarries are perhaps the most picturesque artificial caves in Russia. The combination of white and red sandstone walls and greenish limestone composing the vaults gives them amazing color. After sand mining stopped in 1924, water entered the quarries. It formed several deep lakes in the Left Bank cave with an area of many hundreds of square meters.
This is how geologist and famous cave expert Yuri Likhnitsky from St. Petersburg tells the story of the appearance of a “white speleologist” in the Sablinsky quarries: “Many years ago, a certain gentleman decided to explore the caves alone. It was in winter, when the entrances to the underground cavities were covered with solid ice. The unfortunate speleologist slipped and went down at great speed. Hitting his head on the wall of the catacomb, he broke his cervical vertebra and died instantly. Unknown, (one hundred buried him in the underground gallery of the “Pants” cave, putting a cross on the grave mound. But since then the spirit of the “white speleologist” hovers throughout all the caves.”
The mysterious creature of the Sablinsky caves not only hovers around, but also jokes. Moreover, they are evil and deadly. So, recently a 16-year-old boy decided to climb stone labyrinths alone. He chose the "Pants" cave for a walk - the same one where the grave of the "white speleologist" is located. As a result, the frivolous brave man was found barely alive in the farthest corridor of the ten-kilometer labyrinth. After this incident, an inscription frightening “underground tourists” appeared over the grave of the “white speleologist”: “Vengeance awaits everyone!”
New Athos
There is also a “white speleologist” in the New Athos cave located near the Black Sea. True, no one knows where his grave is. An old legend says that even before the revolution, a certain daredevil decided to penetrate the “heart” of the mountain. I collected ropes in the village, took candles with me and climbed to the very top. Here there is a sinkhole known to all surrounding residents that goes deep down. The brave guy began to descend.
At first people heard his voice, then there was silence. He never appeared in the light of day again. Many years later, it was through this failure, turning into a whole cascade of wells, that speleologists first descended into the underground system, consisting of huge halls and narrow galleries, covered with amazingly beautiful stone deposits. When the number of speleological groups that visited the New Athos cave exceeded a couple of dozen, rumors spread among speleologists about a “white speleologist” protecting its beauty from plunder. Members of one Moscow group (which, I confess, included me) say that they staked out the road for a day and eventually set up camp in the Collapse Hall of the New Athos Cave.
At that time, enthusiasts of underground adventures had an unwritten law: drips, crystals, cave pearls and other curiosities of the underground world should not be taken out of caves. An exception was made only for samples taken for geological research. But the photographer Sasha, who first found himself in the most beautiful of the caves of the Caucasus, became greedy.
Already lying in the tent, he boasted of several magnificent corallites - cave formations very reminiscent of sea corals. Like, he accidentally knocked them over with his helmet; if you don’t leave such beauty underfoot, they’ll definitely trample them. Everyone wanted to sleep for a long time, and there was no strength to argue with the “robber”. Suddenly, at the other end of the hall, about fifty meters from the tent, some noise was heard. Everyone instantly woke up from their slumber in the cave, except for the speleologists, there was no one there.
The noise came closer, someone's confident steps could be clearly heard. One of the Muscovites opened the tent's canopy and shone a powerful flashlight into the darkness. A beam of light ran across the floor of the cave, “feeling” every suspicious place, but found nothing. The lantern went out, and distinct footsteps were heard again. “Probably, this is a “white speleologist,” Valera, an expert on the underworld, said lazily. He doesn’t like it when caves are robbed.” The steps stopped a few meters from the tent and then began to move away. In the morning, the frightened Sasha hurried to take the corallites to the grotto where they had been broken out.
Caucasian residents have another version of the appearance of a “white speleologist” in their caves. In a mountain village located near the Kellasuri River, there lived a shepherd who grazed a flock of sheep in the mountains. While the sheep grazed on the lawns, he liked to climb the nearby rocks. One day the young man came across a cave that no one in his village had heard of, and decided to explore it. He fell in love with this cave and looked into it almost every day, each time discovering unexplored corners in it.
Once, guests from the capital appeared in the village and asked to introduce them to the mountains. The elder gave them that same shepherd boy as their guide. For several days the young man showed the guests beautiful waterfalls, steep rocks, deep gorges, and then decided to show off “his” cave. After wandering around it for several hours, the guests were about to go back, but then someone wanted to inspect another well. The boy began to descend first. He was already at the bottom when a stone fell from the wall and broke his leg. The capital's visitors told the boy that they would go to the village for help.
They threw down a backpack with a supply of food, drink and candles for several days, and left. But on the way they changed their minds: who knows how the mountaineers will react to their action? After all, in fact, the boy was abandoned alone in the mountains. As a result, the guests considered it best to quickly pack their things and quietly leave the village. The next morning the boy's mother sounded the alarm. The villagers searched all the caves and tunnels. They searched for several days, but in vain. And then the boy’s friend remembered the cave that he loved to go to.
They examined every corner of it and found a coil of rope and an untouched backpack in one of the wells. And the young man himself disappeared. Since then, a “white speleologist” has appeared in the caves of the Caucasus. He. helps the lost and despairing, becomes a guiding light of salvation. However, he hates people who are capable of abandoning his comrades in trouble. They will die from hunger and darkness, from fear and loneliness.
There is a “white speleologist” who helps cave explorers in the Zhiguli Mountains who find themselves in trouble. Experienced cavemen love to tell newcomers stories about unexpected help that sometimes saved their lives. Here's one such story. A group of speleologists was emerging from a not very complex cave. Everyone was already on the surface. Only one guy couldn’t get to the exit - it was too high. And suddenly someone’s calm voice said: “Stand on my shoulder, but don’t crush my neck!” The young man, thanking the invisible savior, safely climbed to the surface. And only at the top I saw that the whole group had already risen. He was the only one left below! Who helped him remained a mystery until the guys remembered the “white speleologist” and the strange pillars of light that sometimes burst out from the bottom of the wells. What if this glow from the caves is a sign of his presence?
Alexander the Great Gorge
The “white speleologist” can also be found in the Central Asian mountains. Not far from the city of Andijan, in the limestone massif there is a deep gorge. An ancient legend says that once King Alexander the Great himself, having encountered this obstacle on the way of the army, split the massif with his sword and made a road. At the same time, he unsealed the entrance to a cave with petrified trees Chil-Ustun (Forty Columns). The entrance to Chil-Ustun is located at an altitude of a quarter of a kilometer, almost on a sheer cliff. However, the trail is not overgrown. There is an ancient belief that if sins are heavy, they will fall into the abyss. Anyone who walks along the steep rocky slope and returns to the foot unharmed will have all bad deeds forgiven.
However, woe to the climber who decides to spend the night under the stone arches of Chil-Ustun! Granting atonement for sins, the Almighty will doom him to remain in the cave forever, turning him into its invisible guardian. Samarkand speleologists were recently convinced that such an invisible guardian really exists. In the middle of the night they were awakened by footsteps approaching their cedar mountain camp. People jumped up and turned on their flashlights. No one came into the light, and the footsteps began to move away. When the researchers tried to catch up with the person leaving, a collapse occurred at the entrance. Blocks weighing hundreds of kilograms fell onto the spread sleeping bags. If the travelers had not woken up and jumped out in time to the sound of footsteps, everyone would have died.
Podmoskovnye Syans
There are about a hundred old underground quarries in the Moscow region, but the “white speleologist” is found only in one in Syany, the length of which is more than 40 kilometers. There is even a grotto called “White”, and in it there is a stone grave with the inscription: “White is among us.” Among Moscow speleologists, you can find many eyewitnesses who say that they met a “white speleologist” coming out of the stone walls, blowing out or, conversely, lighting candles.
In December 2000, several people immediately saw a “guy in white” emerging from one wall of the “RF” drift and then entering another stone. Here, another group heard a heart-rending female scream from a grotto adjacent to the drift, where there was no one.
Versions
What do people still face underground? Legends and eyewitness accounts would seem to indicate that underground adventure seekers encounter the ghosts of people who died in caves. And there are many hypotheses that explain the very existence of ghosts: here are “ethereal bodies”, and “memory of place”, and energy essences, etc. But it is quite possible that what was seen in the caves is a material phenomenon that has not yet received a proper scientific explanation.
It is probably associated with fluctuations in physical, including electromagnetic, fields, which can cause light effects mistaken for ghosts and the “white caver.” Geophysicist, candidate of technical sciences V. Bondarenko wrote that he more than once saw moving vertical luminous pillars and ropes in caves in the Crimea and the Urals, which quickly changed along underground corridors. With a lot of imagination, frightened people could easily mistake these extraordinary phenomena for a “white caver.”
"Interesting newspaper. Magic and mysticism" No. 23 2013