Kashkulak cave in Khakassia: reviews and photos. Kashkulak cave or the secret of the “black devil” Video - secrets of the Kashkulak cave
In the spurs of the Kuznetsk Alatau, in Khakassia, on the southeastern slope of Mount Nash Kulan (“hos khulakh” translated from Khakassian - “two ears”) there is a cave, which local residents nicknamed the Cave of the Black Devil. Some encyclopedias call it one of the most terrible places on earth. And there are good reasons for this.
For the first time, the anomalies of the Kashkulak cave became widely known after a group of Moscow geologists accidentally stumbled upon this natural object in 1959. According to the memoirs of one of the participants in that expedition, Yegor Barkovsky, who two decades later organized a new expedition to Kashkulak. Geologists managed to stay in the mysterious cave for no more than ten minutes. Seized by inexplicable fear, they were literally pushed out of there by some unknown force. When the expedition returned to the nearby village of Shira, local residents explained to the geologists that the spirits of the cave did not want to see people in their stone sanctuary.
The old-timers told the guests that in ancient times, not far from Mount Kashkulak, the Golden Stream flowed, along which the souls of the dead floated from the world of the living to the world of the dead. Next to him lived the powerful shaman of the Golden Brook, who had accompanied the souls of his fellow tribesmen to the land of shadows for centuries. But the day came and the shaman died. According to local beliefs, the shaman’s body was set on fire, and his golden clothes were taken deep into the cave in which he performed his magical rituals during his lifetime. Since then, a gate to the other world has opened in the cave.
For this reason, in very ancient times, frail old people and sick fellow Khakass tribesmen went there to complete their earthly journey. Later, during the times of “endless wars” (III-VI centuries AD), the great priests of the Sarmatians lived in the Kashkulak cave, who sacrificed people and animals to their powerful gods...
The Legend of the Black Shaman
The most common legend among local residents and guests of the Kashkulak cave is the legend of the Black Shaman. One of the Khakass legends tells that at the beginning of the 20th century, not far from the Cave of the Black Devil, there lived an old shaman, whom local residents greatly respected and feared. It was said that this shaman was so powerful that he could revive animals, move giant boulders with the power of his gaze, and turn stones into gold bars. In the early 1920s, when the Civil War was going on in Eastern Siberia, a gang under the command of Ataman Solovyov appeared in those places.
One day, the cruel “father” grabbed the old shaman and demanded from him gold, which, according to rumors, was stored in countless quantities in the secret places of the Kashkulak cave. The shaman not only did not reveal to the ataman where the treasures were kept, but also predicted his imminent death. By order of Solovyov the old shaman was thrown from a cliff into a deep abyss. And soon the ataman’s detachment was ambushed by the Uzhur Chonovites (in whose ranks the future writer Arkady Gaidar served) and was completely destroyed. Since that time, as local legends tell, the ghost of the shaman appears every time. to uninvited guests of the cave, terrifying them, depriving them of reason, and sometimes even life.
The fact of the existence of the ghost of a shaman is mentioned by Konstantin Vakulin, an employee of the Novosibirsk Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine. who, as part of a group of researchers in 1985, visited the Kash-Local shaman kulak cave. Suddenly, at some point, he felt someone's gaze on him. The next moment he was overcome with heat, and then an inexplicable panic seized him. As if under hypnosis, the man turned his head and about five meters away he saw a male figure in flowing robes and a furry hat with horns. The shaman, whose eyes glowed with a bluish fire, beckoned Vakulin towards him with his hand. The researcher took several hesitant steps, when suddenly he suddenly remembered a prayer that he had known since childhood and began to whisper it. The shaman began to back away and soon disappeared into the stone wall without a trace...
Mysterious repeater
Since the late 1970s, numerous expeditions of researchers have been trying to provide a scientific explanation for the paranormal phenomena occurring in the Kashkulak cave. Every time, finding themselves in this mysterious place, scientists record a number of similar phenomena: a feeling of inexplicable fear and the feeling that there is someone invisible in the cave; visual mirages in the form of human figures and mythological creatures; auditory and tactile hallucinations. The first detailed description of these phenomena was made by members of the 1985 expedition. At the same time, researchers installed equipment that measured the electromagnetic field in the Enthusiasts Grotto, which is distinguished by the abundance of charred human and animal bones found there. To the surprise of scientists, the instruments recorded a strange pattern; As soon as a person stepped inside the grotto, a real electromagnetic storm arose there. In addition, impartial equipment picked up a single signal coming from somewhere underground.
Already in the early 1990s, a group led by Novosibirsk scientist Alexander Trofimov, using more advanced equipment, established a connection between unusual phenomena occurring in the cave and disturbances in the electromagnetic field. The researchers also made an unambiguous conclusion that strange pulses appearing at a certain frequency are clearly of artificial origin, and the source of these pulses may be a certain generator located deep underground.
In 2003, Abakan psychic Dmitry Ivanov, who visited the Kashkulak cave three times, stated that at a depth of 500 meters under Mount Kashkulak there is a repeater installed in this place approximately 400 thousand years ago by representatives of a highly developed extraterrestrial civilization. Nowadays, the device sends signals in the direction of the Orion constellation, in which some important information is encrypted. Also, according to Ivanov, the Kashkulak relay may well serve as a kind of beacon for alien creatures, with the help of which they navigate in near-Earth space.
Scary facts
Dmitry Ivanov believes that the complex energy structure of the information field of the Kashkulak cave is extremely dangerous for people who are at a low level of spiritual development and have bad thoughts and intentions. Evidence of this is a number of facts when uninvited guests of the Black Devil's cave went crazy. or even died under unclear circumstances.
In Khakassia they still remember the story of how in 1960 a group of twenty students visited the cave. Only two scared to death girls, who were picked up by local hunters, were able to get to the surface. Later, one of the survivors died in a psychiatric clinic; the fate of the second lover of underground travel remained unknown.
Already in 1996, five Kemerovo enthusiastic researchers disappeared without a trace in the cave. The only one
the young man, who then managed to get out of the cave, muttered inaudibly about some furry monsters and a fiery door in the stone floor, into which he almost fell. The guy was exhausted, and he was admitted to the hospital, where he died a couple of weeks later from an unknown disease...
Today, the Kashkulak cave is a place of pilgrimage for followers of neo-pagan cults, who organize ritual ceremonies on the slopes of the mountain with all kinds of sacrifices. According to shamans practicing today in different regions of Siberia, such behavior not only indicates a lack of true culture among self-proclaimed pagans, but also threatens many troubles that the angry spirits of the mountains can bring down on their foolish heads.
In the area of the Efremkino-Kommunar highway, at the foot of the cliff there is the entrance to the Cross Cave. The name is associated with the shape of the entrance to the cave, which resembles a trapezoid (also called a funnel), along the diagonals of which a cross can be seen. The entrance dimensions are 10 by 12 meters.
The Cross Cave is a mine, at the entrance to which a glacier has formed, which sinks to the bottom. The bottom of the cave is covered with ice 4 meters thick, its depth is 30 meters. In one direction there is a corridor into a large inclined grotto, called the “Hades” grotto, and in the other - galleries, smaller grottoes and wells are lined up one after another. The “Hades” grotto (100 by 30 meters), there are many stalactites, stalagmites, coralites (crystalline formations) and helictites (stone “branches” growing in different directions), at the bottom there are large blocks of limestone. The cave is extremely picturesque and is recognized as a geological natural monument. The total length of the corridors (passages) is 230 meters, their depth is 65 meters. Average temperature +3°C.
A site of ancient people was discovered inside the cave. Nowadays, only bats live in it.
The Cross Cave is open to visits by groups of speleologists with certain training (difficulty category 2a).
Kashkulakskaya Cave
The Kashkulak cave is a karst formation that formed in the northern part of the Kuznetsky Alatau mountain range. The depth of this karst cave is 49 meters, and the total length of all underground passages is about 820 meters. In past centuries, this cave was used as a cult place by local shamans. You can still find the remains of sacrificial animals and traces of fires inside. It is popularly called the Black Devil's Cave due to the fact that some highly sensitive people experience hallucinations there. To this day, local shamans and sorcerers perform their rituals there!
Cave "Vinogradovsky failure"
The Vinogradovsky failure is, in fact, an abyss 96 meters deep. with a side fault - the grotto of Bats, located at a depth of 50 meters. Caves of such rip are called mines or sinkholes. The Vinogradovsky failure also has other names - Syyskaya or Efremkinskaya Mine - 6.
More recently, at a depth of about 20 meters, the entrance shaft was blocked by a snow-ice plug, but in recent years it has melted, and now nothing prevents one from entering the cave. The Vinogradovsky failure is quite difficult to pass and requires special training. There are practically no sinter formations in the main cave, but in the Bat Grotto there are corallites (white crystalline formations) on the walls and in the bottom area. Due to the fact that the grotto is located away from the main descent route, it has been preserved in its original form and is very picturesque. The breed of bats that have settled in a colony in the Vinogradovsky gap is called long-eared bats. A distinctive feature, as you might guess, is long ears; they are also characterized by wide, short wings and a sharp, loud cry.
Rockfalls are common in the cave, so you need to be very careful when passing through it and try to avoid visiting in large groups.
Cave "Pandora's Box"
In the Kuznetsky Alatau nature reserve, in a part located on the territory of Khakassia, on the left bank of the Bely Iyus River, a huge cave was discovered in 1970, which was called Pandora’s Box. The total length of the passages is 11 kilometers, the depth is 180 meters, the average temperature is +5 degrees Celsius.
Although at first it didn't seem that big. Until 1981, the size of the accessible cave was limited to the Shiroky Grotto. In 1981, entrances to the upper levels of the cave were opened. The name Pandora's Box was proposed by the biologist from Novosibirsk Mironycheva-Tokareva, along with others, after which lots were cast, who chose it.
Pandora's Box is a labyrinth of numerous large halls, wells, cave lakes, and multi-level galleries. Like many caves, Pandora's Box is home to a colony of bats. Exploring such a vast and deep cave is extremely dangerous, as memorial plaques at the entrance with the names of fallen explorers remind us.
The cave is open to the public and is being actively explored by both speleologists and archaeologists, as well as amateur speleologists.
Cave "Archaeological"
The Republic of Khakassia and in particular the Shirinsky district is a real paradise for speleologists of various levels of training. There are a lot of caves here that have been fully or partially explored, which attracts lovers of studying the underground kingdom from all over the world. One of the caves is called “Archaeological” and it is located a kilometer from the village of Malaya Syya.
The Archaeological Cave was discovered in the 60s by a group of schoolchildren led by speleologist Viktor Stotsenko. This happened almost by accident, after the guys cleared away the rubble at its entrance. The cave consists of two large halls with a system of circular passages, with a total length of 560 m and a depth of 39 m. It received the name “Archaeological” because closer to the middle, traces of ancient people were found in it: fireplaces, animal bones, ceramic shards and even bronze tips. The parking lot was buried under the collapse of the entrance vault. Now you can get into it only through a low hole about 5 meters long, after passing through which you find yourself in a small inclined grotto, and from it there is an exit to the main grotto of the cave.
Nowadays, only bats live in the cave, and in huge numbers - about 5,000 individuals. You can better see them in winter, when all this gang is in hibernation.
The Archaeological Cave is recognized as a natural monument and is protected by the state. It is assigned category 1 of difficulty, which means that it has no difficult sections, and it is quite suitable for visiting by unprepared tourists. The average air temperature is from 2 to 4 degrees Celsius.
Sights of Abakan
The Kashkulak cave, located in the northern part of Khakassia, is one of the most terrible places on the planet. The local residents call it the Cave of the Black Devil or the Cave of the Black Shaman. Each of the names has its own explanation. (website)
The cave as a cult place of the ancient Khakass
This place was a cult place among the ancient Khakass; in particular, here they worshiped the black devil. To appease him, the pagans sacrificed animals and people. This is evidenced by the ancient fireplace and altar found in the cave, which are arranged around a stalagmite in the shape of a phallus, as well as animal bones and human remains. According to legend, the dark energy of ancient shamans is accumulated here, which periodically splashes out on overly curious visitors.
In 1960, a student group of twenty people went into an ominous cave, and only two girls managed to get out of it a day later, and hunters found one of them in an insane, violent state not far from the cave. She screamed something incoherent and bit. The second girl was accidentally discovered by a police squad from the village of Shira. With gray hair, a deathly face and blood-bitten lips, she wandered along the dark street of the village. The girl was clutching some kind of stone figurine in her hands, which she did not want to part with. Both students ended up in a psychiatric clinic, where they soon died from an unknown illness. The doctors were unable to make a diagnosis; according to all medical indicators, the patients were healthy.
Black shaman - owner of the cave
Another tragedy occurred when a group of schoolchildren descended into the cave. It was led by experienced archaeologists. However, for unknown reasons, people hastily left the place, and later one of the boys committed unexpected suicide. The schoolboy left a suicide note mentioning the devil in a stone hole. At the end of this strange note, in someone’s childish handwriting, was written: “... die and remember the stones.”
...In 1983, the local grottoes were examined by a group of speleologists. They stayed in the cave for several hours and headed towards the exit. The trailing one, by the name of Bakulin, was already preparing to climb, when suddenly he saw two lights glowing in absolute darkness. The man felt as if his body was frozen with horror. A barely noticeable human figure moved in the darkness, and the speleologist saw a shaman: he was calling Bakulin with a gesture of his hand. The man did not have the strength to resist this call... He only managed to pull the rope and thereby give a sign to be lifted. Bakulin was pulled out, and for a long time he could not come to his senses, and after that he never visited the Kashkulak cave again...
There were other similar stories, some of which made it onto the pages of newspapers. Novosibirsk experts became interested in the anomalous object and arrived to establish how the cave affects the human psyche.
Scientists examined the cave
Having summarized the information received, the researchers suggested that the hallucinations and unaccountable panic that arise in the cave are not the machinations of evil spirits, but the result of a very real influence from the outside.
It is known that infrasound, which has a frequency of about six hertz, causes indescribable horror in people. Scientists have determined that a sound pulse of a given frequency appears steadily in the Kashkulak cave. It could be single, or it could go in “bundles”. It happened that the signal disappeared for several days, but then invariably returned. The main thing is that the impulses were recorded precisely when people began to feel nervous and depressed, turning into real horror.
Scientists had no doubt that pulses of a given frequency with a constant oscillation amplitude could only be generated by an artificial emitter. However, where does it come from here, in the taiga dungeon? The entire cave was carefully examined, experts examined its most hidden corners - all to no avail. It has been suggested that the strange source of infrasound is not in the cave itself, but underneath it. But who installed it there? And why?..
As for the visions, scientists explained them as hallucinations, which could be caused by the presence of some unusual and not yet studied chemical mixture in the cave air. However, it may well be of artificial origin...
The main question that interested everyone in connection with the new discoveries of scientists: why does the vision come to different people in the form of a shaman? The researchers were never able to answer it. One scientific expedition was unable to shed light on the secrets of the Kashkulak cave; this required full-scale research. Unfortunately, the beginning of perestroika and the subsequent collapse of the USSR raised much more pressing questions. And therefore, it still keeps its dark secrets, attracts numerous tourists and, no, no, but collects new victims of human curiosity and frivolity...
THE MENTION of the Koshkulak cave in an interview with the “white” shaman Tatyana Kobezhikova (“AiF on the Yenisei”, No. 32) interested many of our readers who live outside of Khakassia, but have already heard about the mysterious dungeon. Their request is to tell us more about it. Freelance correspondent for AiF on the Yenisei, Viktor Melnikov, has long been collecting interesting observations from visitors to the mysterious cave.
THIS place is known all over the world. It is officially included in the top five “most terrible” places on the globe. Anomalous scientists call this mysterious void in the mountain range somewhat pompously: the cave of the black devil. Its geographical name does not sound so menacing - Koshkulak Cave. The name was given to it by one of the peaks of the spurs of the Kuznetsk Alatau - Koshkulak. From the village of Shira it is a little more than 20 kilometers.
Young "old lady"
I first heard about this cave about 15 years ago from my acquaintances, speleologists, brothers Nikolai and Vladimir Savchenko. Returning from another trip to the caves of the Kuznetsk Alatau, they told me terrible stories about half-decayed human bones found in the cave, about the shadows and sounds of a shaman’s tambourine, about the causeless horror that they experienced while passing a certain section of this cave. The brothers also told a story that they, in turn, heard on the hike: “In the 1960s, a group of 20 students climbed into this damn hole. Only two students came out of it. And then one girl, in a violent, insane state, was picked up by hunters not far from the cave. She was biting and screaming something incoherently. She was immediately put in a “psychiatric hospital.” The second student “quietly” discovered her at night, with a lifeless face, her lips bitten in blood. walked along the dark streets of the village. In her hands, the girl clutched some kind of stone figurine, which she did not want to give up for anything, without stopping for a second, she whispered something very quickly and passionately. And this girl was assigned to the house of grief. Within a month, she had been “burned out” by some mysterious disease. Doctors were unable to establish the cause of death - although the rapidly losing weight patient was insane, she was absolutely healthy. Under the mattress of the young “old woman” who had breathed her last, the nurse discovered a small stone figurine. .."
Fox hat with horns
I CONFESS - I didn’t believe the storytellers then. He even mocked them, accompanying their story with what seemed to me witty comments: how much did the brothers drink before listening to such tales? However, about six months passed, and my friends again went on another trip to Koshkulak. The group of 30 people were mostly schoolchildren - it was the November holidays. Our tourists spent about three days near the cave. The first two expeditions underground went smoothly. The schoolchildren, who had heard about the horrors of Koshkulak and dreamed of thrills, were disappointed. On the third day, before breaking up the camp, they asked the adults to “run through the cave” for the last time. After they walked around all the grottoes, including the Grotto of Skeletons, where, according to eyewitnesses, the incredible usually happens, the guys were already getting ready to go upstairs. At this moment, everyone suddenly felt a chilling surge of horror. The schoolchildren rushed to the exit, pushing away equally frightened parents and teachers... Already in the light of the sun, when fear had subsided, the pioneers and their guides began vying with each other to share what they had imagined in the depths of the cave. Each, as it turned out, had its own “appearance” of horror. Some saw a creepy monster with the body of a bear and a bloody human skull instead of a head, others saw huge crows sitting on a pile of bones, the third “appeared” (to my acquaintances as speleologists) a disgusting old shaman in a dirty fox hat with horns, beating a tambourine and making intricate body movements. With gestures, he seemed to be calling to him... Some time after the group returned home, one of the participants in the hike, a sixth-grader, was found hanged in the attic of his own house. He left a posthumous note with very strange content. The boy wrote about some kind of stone devil, about dark holes and madness. And at the end: "... die, but remember the stones." The parents of the deceased boy claimed that this phrase was written in a different handwriting.
Burning look
BACK in the 1980s, scientists from the Novosibirsk Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine became interested in the Koshkulak Cave and rumors about ghosts that lived in its depths. Expeditions were sent to study the phenomenon of the cave. Perhaps for the first time, scientists recognized that the visions were not just the fantasies of excursionists afraid of the dark. In 1985, an employee of the institute, Konstantin Vakulin, and a group of speleologists examined the grottoes. After several hours of work, people flocked to the exit. Konstantin was the last to go. I secured the rope to a special belt and prepared to climb. And suddenly I felt a gaze on me. The scientist was overcome with heat. The first impulse is to run! But my legs didn’t obey me. It was incredibly scary to see what was going on behind my back. And yet, as if in a state of hypnosis, obeying someone else’s will, he turned his head and saw about five meters away from him... an elderly shaman. The same thing, from the stories of my speleologist friends: flowing clothes; a shaggy hat with horns, burning eyes and smooth, inviting movements of his hands - they say, come, follow me! Not succumbing to the “persuasions” of the cave shaman, he quite possibly avoided the fate of those who had once died or lost their minds. Another member of the expedition, Nikolai Kamanov, witnessed almost the same visions.
Having summarized the evidence received, scientists have suggested that all these hallucinations, unconscious, panicky fear, of course, are not the machinations of a dark force, but the result of a completely material external influence. It is known, for example, that infrasound with a frequency of about 6 hertz can cause a feeling of indescribable horror. A special laboratory was set up in one of the grottoes of the black devil’s cave. Researchers conducted experiments there and carried out various measurements. As a result, a geomagnetic anomaly was identified. The electromagnetic field in the cave is constantly fluctuating. Even at the initial stage of the study, scientists noticed that among other signals a strictly defined impulse was steadily breaking through. Sometimes it was recorded as single, but sometimes it came in “bundles”. And always with the same amplitude. It happened that the signal disappeared for two or three days, or even a week, but then invariably returned.
Mysterious lighthouse
SCIENTISTS wondered: where do these strange impulses come from? After a series of experiments, it was established that they were making their way from the depths of the cave. It was decided to check whether these impulses were connected with eerie visions appearing to those who found themselves in the cave. The time at which the impulses were recorded coincided exactly with the moment when people became nervous and depressed, turning into panic.
The pulses, as scientists expected, turned out to be low-frequency. The very ones that are not perceived by the human ear, but have an impact on all living things, including the human psyche. But where are they coming from? The institute's staff has no doubt that only an artificial emitter can generate pulses of such a frequency with a stable oscillation amplitude. But where does it come from in the remote taiga, deep underground? Scientists examined the entire cave, went down to the most hidden corners - in vain. The search for an artificial emitter was unsuccessful. The mysterious lighthouse, if it exists in nature, is located even deeper.
As for hallucinations (and scientists consider creepy visions to be just harmless “glitches”), the study participants agreed on this version: the perception of non-existent objects as real can be caused by some unusual chemical mixture present in the air filling the cave. However, what kind of mixture this is and how much it has been studied is not yet known. The following question remains open: why does the vision “come” to many in the guise of a shaman? With hallucinations this should not be the case - this, like dreams, is an “exclusive” phenomenon. However, one-time expeditions probably could not dispel all the myths. The perestroika that began at that time raised much more pressing questions. So the solution to the secrets of the black devil’s cave is probably ahead. In the meantime, in the absence of a materialistic justification for what is happening in the dungeon, ancient legends are passed down from mouth to mouth, along with heartbreaking stories.
Shaman's revenge?
ONE of them was shared in the previous issue of “AiF on the Yenisei” by the “white” shaman Tatyana Kobezhikova. Once upon a time, a shaman was buried not far from this cave. People disturbed his peace, and he punishes them by appearing to them in a dream, or even in reality, in the form of a man in strange clothes, dragging them along with him. According to local rumors, the spirit of an ancient Khakass shaman lives in the Grotto of Ghosts, which is adjacent to the Grotto of Skeletons.
According to another legend, the Koshkulak cave was a cult place among the ancient Khakassians. Here the pagans worshiped not only the phallus as a symbol of procreation - an ancient fire pit was preserved around a natural stalagmite in the shape of a phallus. Here, according to legend, the ancestors of the Khakass worshiped the black devil and made sacrifices to their gods, including human ones. This legend is supported by the ancient altar that has survived to this day. Those who believe in this legend believe that over the centuries the cave has absorbed the dark energy of ancient shamans, which, guarding its secrets, spills out from time to time on overly curious guests of the cave.
Victor MELNIKOV, Abakan
Kolchak's Gold
MYTHS associated with the Koshkulak cave not only do not die, but are also born. In booklets for tourists, for example, they will share with you assumptions that Kolchak’s gold is hidden in one of the grottoes of the black devil’s cave, that the secret weapons warehouse of “father” Solovyov is lost here. Faithful Leninists cannot help but be touched by this version: the young commander of the Uzhur Chonovites, Arkasha Golikov, received his legendary nickname Gaidar at the entrance to this cave.
Newspaper "Arguments of Success"
ROAD TO HELL
One of the most mysterious places in Khakassia is the Koshkulak cave. This mysterious place is located high in the mountains near the remote taiga village of Topanovo, Shirinsky district. It is dangerous to enter the cave without an experienced speleologist or a local guide - no joke - an almost vertical descent of about three hundred meters. And getting to the cave is not so easy - not every car can handle the poor gravel road. Then you have to walk up the mountain on foot through the taiga. And in those places there are all kinds of living creatures in bulk. Whether you will meet the soul of a shaman or not is another question, but it’s easy to see a brown bear.
I tried to persuade some of the local residents to take me to this cave - it was useless. You don't need any money. They say that if a black shaman drags you in, he won’t let you go.
Koshkulak is considered a cult place. Some say that people were once sacrificed in this cave (children or young women were killed there - no one can say for sure), and now this place has a very bad reputation. They say that the lost souls cannot find peace and take revenge on the living for their joyless existence.
More than one scientific expedition visited there, some even saw this very black shaman, about whom the locals talk. One researcher, who did not want to be identified, told the following story: “Our group went down to Koshkulak to check. The cave is not the deepest; in the Shirinsky district there are deeper and more beautiful ones. And this one is really kind of black; we didn’t find any human bones there, but there were a lot of animal bones there. Maybe they come here to die. The sensations in this cave were not pleasant, but we did not notice any obvious manifestations of anything special. Almost our entire group went upstairs. I was the last in the chain and was left alone in the cave for some time. Suddenly I felt someone's gaze on me. He turned around and was stunned: a creature separated from the wall - either a man or an animal - a body that looked like a human, on his face there was something like a black mask, and on his head there were twisted horns. This creature looks at me and beckons with its finger. As if spellbound, I reached for the rope to untie the knot. At this time, someone from above called out to me, I woke up and pulled the rope with all my might. What was it - a dream or reality? But I continued to walk under the impression for a long time. Sometimes this shaman (this is how locals describe a black shaman) later appeared in my dreams. No, I won’t go into this cave again.”
THE SECRET OF KOSHKULAK CAVE
How do you feel about the stories about the Koshkulak cave? Many of its visitors experience nightmarish visions and, interestingly, completely different people testify to the same thing: that they allegedly saw a shaman. They tried to explain this phenomenon in different ways from a scientific point of view, what do you say?
The Koshkulak cave is considered the ancestral cave of the Chusteevs, Kobezhikovs, Obdins, and Kokovs. Now people come there on noisy excursions, hence all the troubles. Once upon a time, a shaman was buried not far from this cave. People disturbed his peace, and therefore his spirit began to appear more and more often in recent years. The cave is the entrance to the womb of mother earth. And we use its power incorrectly. In the cave, you can perform a rebirth ritual: imagine yourself as a small, small egg, and then try to be “born” as another person, with the qualities that you would like to have, and leave everything negative in your “old life”. Of course, this must be done alone, or better yet, with the help of a shaman. You cannot go into this cave with bad thoughts or fears. It will return your feelings to you: everyone sees and feels in it exactly what they themselves are made of.
In the north of Khakassia there is also the Kashkulak cave... Nastya Chusteeva, a resident of Abakan, whose childhood was spent in the Shirinsky district, recalls:
All local residents had a kind of taboo on this cave - they never went there. Adults explained to us from the cradle that it was dangerous to be near this place. There were no daredevils to experience this danger even among the most desperate boys. We didn’t know exactly why people were afraid to be near these places - we just heard talk that spirits could drag them away and about a black shaman. But, naturally, this was enough for us, and we never violated the ban.
Yes, local residents have a special, neutral attitude towards the Kashkulak cave: “You don’t touch the spirits, and they won’t touch them.” However, the legends associated with it are always frightening.
Old-timers tell the story from mouth to mouth about how they killed a shaman in this cave, but his spirit remained here to take revenge on people - and since then this cave has become cursed.” But legends are legends... You can’t count how many of them have been created during the existence of mankind. And seventy percent are of a mysterious, mystical, terrifying nature. However, the cave has been known to scientists since the beginning of the century, and somehow no one was in a particular hurry to study it. It was only about 20 years ago that speleologists began to practice here. So what? Maybe it was the stories and superstitious fear surrounding the Kashkulak cave that had this effect, but many of the speleologists who descended here experienced a thrill. Some said that on the lower floors of the cave they felt someone’s presence, felt someone’s unkind gaze behind them. And almost everyone noted an inexplicable feeling of fear that arises spontaneously and forces them to leave this “hellish” corner as quickly as possible. All of the above observations prompted scientists from the Novosibirsk Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine of the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences to organize an expedition to the Kashkulak cave. In 1985, the cave was examined, and what is written below was recorded in the archives of this expedition. Impressions of one of the expedition participants: “And suddenly I feel somehow uneasy, an unclear feeling of anxiety arises. Further - more, excitement grows. And here I am, who has never been a coward, shaking all over like a leaf. Panic fear. I don’t know what I’m afraid of.” But there were more sensational discoveries: “Having examined the grottoes at a depth of almost hundreds of meters, the researchers began to climb upward. The last one to prepare to leave was Konstantin Bakulin. He has already secured the belt to a common rope - a bundle. Suddenly, the scientist felt someone’s heavy, piercing gaze on him in the back, and Konstantin was overcome with heat. His legs felt numb and he became numb. As if obeying someone else's will, he turned his head and saw about five meters away from him... a shaman. Flowing clothes, a shaggy hat with roses, burning eyes and smooth, inviting movements of the hands - they say, follow me. Bakulin unconsciously took a few steps after the shaman, but then, waking up from his spell, began desperately tugging at the rope that connected him with his friends who were upstairs. They immediately pulled Constantine to the surface. Bakulin was in a state close to fainting, and for some time he could not utter a word. He did not go down into the cave again, but for a long time in his dreams he saw a shaman beckoning him to follow him. ..” Of course, all this mysticism could be attributed to a disorder of the nervous system, and the visions to eye fatigue due to a long stay in limited light. But then it was established that the electromagnetic field in the cave was constantly fluctuating, and among other signals, an impulse was steadily appearing, coinciding with the appearance of unpleasant sensations in the testers. The evidence of instruments is no longer the emotions of an individual. And the instruments impartially showed that when the electromagnetic field on the daytime surface changes slightly, then a real magnetic storm is raging in the cave at that time. But this is not enough - it turned out that the source of the impulses is located deep in the earth, and these signals have nothing to do with natural ones. Novosibirsk scientists then came to a stunning conclusion: only an artificial emitter can generate pulses of such a frequency with a stable oscillation amplitude! There was even an opinion that this was a radio beacon of space aliens.
But at this point the study of the unique cave was suspended. And all we have now are just versions and guesses:
The same Konstantin Bakulin put forward a hypothesis based on the premise that not only a person has memory, but also the entire space surrounding him. It is known that the Kashkulak cave was a ritual sanctuary in which numerous sacrifices were made, according to some legends - to the Black Devil, according to others - to the phallus (on the top floor of the cave, about 100 meters from the entrance, almost in the center of the grotto, there is a stalagmite shaped like a phallus , 1 meter high).
Human sacrifices also took place here. The stone walls of the caves capture the actions that once took place here, and under certain heliographic conditions they can appear.
Geophysicist Oleg Shmidt, who studied the geophysical features of rocks in the area of the Kashkulakskaya cave and in it itself, expressed a completely logical version that the geological features of the cave seem to multiply the strength of the changing electromagnetic field. This is what shamans used more than two thousand years ago (the date was established as a result of radiocarbon dating of coal from a fire pit around a stalagmite). Schmidt also supports the atheistic version that the underground walls of the cave could record the acts of shamans, and under certain geophysical conditions today they show three-dimensional images of paintings - visions of those times. But, I repeat, these are just versions. One thing is certain - the shamans of those distant times no doubt chose this cave not by chance, knowing full well its exceptional impact on the human psyche. But the mystery of this cave remains unsolved, and the Black Shaman is still, like two thousand years ago, waiting for guests...
SALI-BABA'S CAVE
The mass of sensational reports that appeared in the press after the expedition of Novosibirsk scientists made the Kashkulak cave the most famous cave in Khakassia. People who are not afraid of God or the devil flocked here to tickle their nerves. Not long ago, a tourist route was organized there. This is how the Kashkulak cave is described in the advertising brochure: “38 kilometers of access from Malaya Syya by all-terrain vehicle and 300 meters on foot. This is a cult cave that can be visited by anyone between the ages of 15 and 55. You will see the site of a cult ceremony that took place more than 2 thousand years ago, and beautiful carbonate deposits. Test yourself while descending to the bottom using a rope and climbing up a ladder. The cave is surrounded by legends about the Visions of the shaman’s spirit and is known on the pages of the press as the “Cave of the Black Devil.” Travel all year round."
Tourists flocked in - and after them, as often happens, people wanting to make easy money from them. In fact, Ostap Bender tried to organize the sale of tickets for tourists near the Pyatigorsk failure. And they paid him meekly and did not pay attention to him - after all, union members and the police visited, as we remember, the failure for free. In Khakassia, this textbook story was repeated down to the smallest detail - the administrations of the districts where natural attractions are located lease these lands to entrepreneurs, receiving their profit. How much “money out of thin air” will end up in the pockets of enterprising tenants is completely uncountable. The Kashkulak cave did not escape a sad fate - the administration of the village of Shira leased it to Grigory Artemenko, and at the moment it may well be called not the Cave of the Black Devil, but... the Cave of Sali - the women.
Vasilisa Kobezhikova, a student at the Faculty of Psychology at Khakass State University, says:
At the beginning of August, our group (20 people) decided to go to the Kashkulak cave. Imagine our surprise when in these practically virgin places we saw traces of civilization. And Hindu. A certain comrade in Indian clothes was sitting near the entrance of the cave and muttering various mantras in a recitative manner; with him were another boy of about ten and a forty-year-old man. Not far from the cave there is a pillar on which hangs a portrait of Sali the woman, and an Orthodox cross. In general, all the sisters deserve earrings... Comrade In Hindu clothes, who turned out to be another missionary of a new religion, enlightened the visiting tourists - Sali is a woman, it turns out, another son of God, and now everyone should worship only him - both Russians and Khakass. Sali himself - the woman - a colorful Hindu man covered in hair in all places - looked dispassionately at us from his portrait. An excursion to the Cave of the Black Devil, as its adherent, a new “Hindu subject,” told us, costs 135 rubles per person. When we replied that we would not pay that kind of money, and that we were here by the right of the indigenous inhabitants (there was also a shaman in our group), he summed up that we could not enter the cave, because, allegedly, our actions and thoughts were unclean, because we eat meat. But here it was clear to a fool - if we had found the money to pay for the excursion (and for 20 people - 2 thousand 700 rubles), then no obstacles would have been put in our way.
This is the story about Sali, the woman and his followers, who pushed even the Black Shaman out of the cave. Scam and fraud pure and simple. “Chance” tried to find out from Nikolai Volkov (assistant to the chairman of the government of the Republic of Khakassia for religious affairs) what kind of religion this is - Salibabism, and how one can generally relate to it. As Volkov answered us, such a movement has not been registered in Khakassia; most likely, it is a neo-Eastern Hindu religion, but little is known about it. According to some reports, followers of this sect communicate with the lower worlds. The Salibabists did not receive any right to be near places of worship in Khakassia, and district administrations also do not have the right to rent out natural places of worship or archaeological sites. Moreover, only organizations of traditional Khakass beliefs have the right to conduct any rituals here. At the moment, it is necessary to passport all places of worship in Khakassia, determine the procedure for use and assign them to scientific or religious institutions.
Kashkulak cave - the cave of the “black devil” or the cave of the “White shaman”
The Kashkulak cave is located in the north of Khakassia in the Shirinsky district in the massif of Mount Koshkulak (Kashkulak, Khoskhulakh), located in the northern spurs of the Kuznetsk Alatau, and is recognized as one of the most terrible places on the planet. Local residents call it the cave of the “black devil” or the cave of the “white shaman” and there is an explanation for this.
The cave has three tiers connected by vertical wells about 20 meters deep. The depth of the cave is 49 meters, the total length of the passages is 820 meters. In the upper tier (the complex of grottoes “Temple”, “Obscurantists”, “Dead Pagoda”) there are calcite sinter formations. The lower tier (the Obvalny grotto) and even partly the middle tier (the Skeleton and Enthusiastov grottoes) are periodically flooded during heavy floods. The entrance part of the cave has been used as a cult place by shamans for the last two thousand years. The floor of the cave is littered with bones of sacrificial animals, trampled into clay, and coal from sacrificial fires. The walls are covered with petrified soot. The main place for sacrifices was the Temple Grotto and the stalagmite located there.
There are many legends associated with the cave. For a long time, strange incidents occurred in the cave (probably there is a “psycho blockade” in the cave). When visiting the cave, many people experienced absolute horror and incredible fear. During the study, its dimensions and proportions were nevertheless established, and a geomagnetic anomaly was also recorded inside the cave.
The entrance part of the cave has been used as a cult place by shamans for the last two thousand years. The floor of the cave is littered with bones of sacrificial animals, trampled into clay, and coal from sacrificial fires. The walls are covered with petrified soot. The main place for sacrifices was the Temple Grotto and the stalagmite located there.
The lower tier (Ovalny grotto) and even partly the middle tier (Skelet and Enthusiastov grottoes) are periodically flooded during strong floods.
The electromagnetic field in the cave is constantly fluctuating. Even at the initial stage of the study, scientists noticed that among other signals a strictly defined impulse was steadily breaking through. Sometimes he was recorded as single, but sometimes he walked in “bundles”. And always with the same amplitude. It happened that the signal disappeared for two or three days, or even a week, but then invariably returned. Perhaps the creepy sensations and visions are connected precisely with this.
Since the beginning of the 2000s. Kashkulak cave is a tourist site. There are several travel companies operating here, regularly making flights from the Lake Shira resort.