Punkva caves - walking and boat tours, main halls, discovery history. Syanovskie caves Punkev caves on the map

People are always drawn to secrets, and where can there be more of them than in dungeons? Many are well aware of the catacombs of Rome, Paris or Odessa. The Greek word "catacombs" can be translated as "maze" or "interlacing of underground passages." These places retain their age-old charm and attract many tourists, although visiting these artificial caves is associated with certain risks. Often there is a message that someone got lost there, and rescuers are searching for days.

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Syany - artificial caves

The Moscow region also has its own catacombs. These are Syany or Syanovskie quarries - a system of artificially created caves. They are located near the village of Starosyanovo, on the left bank of the Pakhra River, 12 km from the Moscow Ring Road. The length of drifts approaches 20 km, their main direction is east and northeast. The height of the passages is from 0.4 m to 3.5 m. The appearance of all artificial caves is associated with human activity. From the quarries near Moscow, sandstone was brought for the construction of Moscow churches and cathedrals, starting from the 17th century. Stone mining was especially active in the 19th century and finally stopped only at the beginning of the 20th.

Previously, there were several entrances to the caves, but in 1974 they were all filled up. Allegedly, the boy climbed into the quarry and disappeared there.

In 1988, students of Moscow universities, at their own peril and risk, dug out one of the entrances to the cat's hole cave. Since the pilgrimage to these places was already gaining momentum, in 2007 the same enthusiasts strengthened and expanded the entrance, welded a metal staircase.

Sights in Xian

The second Sunday of September is the day of the grand opening of the caves. It gathers up to 2 thousand people. Beginners undergo a kind of "initiation" at Aristarchus. It's an old jumpsuit with a skull head. A peculiar subculture with myths, traditions and rituals has developed around the object. Aristarchus is the chief guardian of the caves. They bring him gifts - money, cigarettes and so on. Further, the "neophytes" must crawl into the narrowest manholes, which are called " pike" And " Pocket". Overweight beginners cannot handle such a task, they remain uninitiated. And rightly so, overeating is bad.

Regulars to help beginners drew maps of moves and marked "points of interest". In addition to those already mentioned Aristarchus, pike And Karmana, There is Milky- grotto black from soot. Drops of water create picturesque stains on the soot, reminiscent of moiré embossing. On one of the walls of the grotto, a naked woman flies on a broom - margarita. Venus Laz- a narrow passage in the form of the Latin letter V, connecting the two halls. Only a girl with the figure of the goddess mentioned in the title can climb into it. Trains only- crossroads of the main moves. Visitors like to gather here to chat and eat. There are tables and chairs in the cave.

The most famous myth is the story of the White Speleologist, who helps good people and harms bad people, circling them around caves for a long time, luring them to dangerous places.

Safety system

The security system is well thought out. There is a visit log at the entrance to Xiang. In this notebook, everyone should write down the name, surname and address, so that if a person is lost, the rescuers immediately begin the search. It is forbidden to burn fires; during combustion, carbon dioxide is released, which disturbs the microclimate of the cave. The rules of decency prescribe to say hello, not to leave garbage and not to shine a flashlight in the face of an oncoming one.

Summing up, we can say that Syany can be considered an unusual tourist site, suitable for visiting both extreme sportsmen and ordinary people, however, not very demanding on comfort.

Syanovskie quarries attracted us for a long time, especially after a walk through the Staritsa caves. They are located not far from Moscow - in the Domodedovo district, the network of passages is branched and extended, on weekends there are a lot of people there.

And when we came across an ad that you can take a tour of Syan with a guide, we decided to take advantage of this opportunity.

And so, on Sunday morning, on bus 439, we drove off from the Domodedovskaya metro station. You need to get off at the bus stop "School" in the village of Novlenskaya. Then you need to go to the Pakhra River, cross the dam and follow the path to the left. In a large funnel-depression, at the very bottom, there is a bus stop with a pile of garbage. Under the roof of the stop is the so-called. "Cat's hole" - the entrance to the caves, opened in 1988. Prior to this, all the entrances to the quarries were filled with concrete or destroyed. Until now, the "Cat's hole" is the only place to enter the Syanovsky quarries.

Descent into the quarry - "Cat's hole"

I want to warn you right away: the tour is carried out at a fairly fast pace and lasts about 4 hours. Most of the way I have to walk on half-bent legs, sometimes with a goose step, so that the next day my legs hurt noticeably. In some places we climbed on the bellies, one after the other. Somewhere they pulled themselves up, somewhere they climbed forward with their feet. They all came out dirty as pigs. But very satisfied.

In general, the people live there cheerfully - and some, indeed, spend there for several days, almost weeks. All the time along the way there are various signs, such as: Stop of the first carriage, Korolev (our guide announced: and now we are under Korolev). On a stone suspended on chains lies a dressed skeleton named Aristarchus - "the spirit of the cave." There are numerous examples of rock art on the walls.

triangular manhole

Aristarchus - the spirit of the cave

First went

Narrow manholes (each with its own name) alternate with large halls. There are also dining rooms with tables and gas stoves, rookeries, a "column" hall with a pole in the middle - for discos. There is also a temple with frescoes on the walls, icons and burning candles. They say that the Satanists also gathered in the cave for some time, laid out a certain sign from the stones, and installed a magic stone in the center - but were eventually evicted from the caves.

The passage looks narrow, but it is not the narrowest place we climbed.

Temple in Syan

"Frescoes"

Prayer text

Disco with a pole in the middle

Somewhere in the cave water oozes and collects in a trough - this water is used as drinking water.

In one of the halls, sitting around the table, we had lunch.

Dining room

Since it was Sunday, there were a lot of people in the cave. From time to time we stumbled upon some group, and even individual visitors. In one place people lay and smoked a hookah. And we didn’t hit the famous “skin der” Shchuchka, as some large group passed it. They say that after passing Pike, people remembered how they were born into this world.

But we went through a baptism of fire in Gromov's hole. It is necessary to tuck into the hole with your feet forward. First you screw into a horizontal hole, then it turns into a vertical one. Your legs are hanging in the air, and your hands have nothing to hold on to. They tell you from below: to the ground nearby. And then you plop down and find yourself in a narrow horizontal cavity. Getting out of it is much more difficult, since there is nothing to rest your feet on and the size of the crevice does not allow you to turn around. In general, everyone in agony was torn out of the insidious manhole.

There was also a triangular hole on our route, and it was necessary to take a triangular shape, and then, in the direction of travel, dodge so that the legs were in front, and slide down with the legs forward. And there was another hole where we crawled on our stomachs one after another. I can't even imagine what's going on at Shchuchka - it seemed to me that in this hole we could hardly squeeze forward. Backpacks, of course, were removed, they were moved ahead of them.

Some images

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Vacation in the dungeon

Vacation is not only a time of relaxation and well-deserved doing nothing. It is also an opportunity to get a lot of new experiences. For example, in ... caves. Yes, yes, it is very exciting to explore the underground depths. And to help tourists, experts have compiled a list of the five most famous and beautiful caves in Russia. At the same time, one of them is located quite close to us - in neighboring Khakassia. But first things first.

Akhshtyrskaya cave. Adler

Akhshtyrskaya cave is the most significant cave near the Sochi coast, which is popular with tourists. Both an adult and a child can get to it - the cave is located on a rock above Mzymta. A narrow winding path leads to the cave itself, sandwiched between a rock and a cliff.

Why is this cave on everyone's lips, and not some other? Yes, because only here you can see a clearly expressed cultural stratification of ancient times. At least two human ancestors once lived in the Akhshtyrskaya cave - Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons. Getting here is like visiting a museum of the history of the Caucasian race. According to scientists, the first settlers began to settle here 70 thousand years ago. True, after about 20 thousand years, due to a natural disaster, the Neanderthals left their native land. On the other hand, the sharp drop in temperature was hardly noticed by the bears, who became full-fledged owners of the cave for the next fifteen thousand years. The return of upright primates took place in the Early Bronze Age. Their intellectual level has grown, and this is reflected in the quality of everyday life. All the details of the life of the Cro-Magnons were told by a five-meter “cultural layer”, mastered by archaeologists in the last century.

At the same time, in addition to historical significance, the cave is quite picturesque. Spacious halls give way to narrow, oppressive corridors.

Vorontsovskaya cave. Sochi

The Vorontsov cave system is a real underground miracle, created by nature millions of years ago. The beauty and grandeur of this place attract a huge number of tourists who come to rest in Sochi. The caves are located in the Khostinsky district, and anyone can get to them today. The complex owes its name to the village of Vorontsovka, which is located nearby.

The Vorontsov caves in Sochi are the third longest caves in Russia. The total length of the entire system is 12 kilometers. It includes several caves: Vorontsovskaya cave (its length reaches four kilometers), Labyrinth (3.8 kilometers), Kabanya (2.3 kilometers) and Dolgaya (despite the name, the shortest of the Vorontsov caves is one and a half kilometers in length).

Once upon a time, on the site where the Vorontsov caves are now located, there was a huge ancient ocean called Tethys. Millions of years ago, terrible cataclysms occurred on our planet: the seas dried up, the continents collapsed, and mountains, on the contrary, rose from the depths of the sea. So once the territory of the Caucasus rose to its present height, and the seabed of the dried up ocean turned into mountain ranges. Even today, layers of marine sediments, particles of petrified marine life: shells and hedgehogs are clearly visible in the caves. Each of the layers can tell a lot of interesting things about its era. At different times, saber-toothed tigers, woolly rhinos, cave bears, wolves, wild boars, and even leopards lived in the Vorontsov caves at different times. Researchers and archaeologists found in the caves the remains of hearths, traces of sites and rookeries of the most ancient tribes.

Kashkulakskaya Cave (Black Devil's Cave), Khakassia

She acted as a cult place for shamans, where they worshiped a stalagmite, which is a symbol of procreation and fertility, and also made sacrifices. Now the cave, located just 20 kilometers from the Shire, can be easily accessed with an excursion.

If you have a subtle sensitivity or want to touch the mystery, then you need to visit this mysterious place! Moreover, the cave attracts not only with mystical stories, but also with the few surviving examples of rock art.

The Kashkulak cave greets guests in different ways: it is favorable to some and helps to purify, while it induces horror, fear and hallucinations to others. Someone sees the image of a Shaman in a fox hat, hears the voice of a tambourine, experiences inexplicable fear and even gets lost in time, but many succumb to the influence of this anomalous place. However, paleontologists, geologists and speleologists do not observe any devilry here, but unanimously urge not to burn shaman fires, but to take care of the fragile and unique ecosystem of this amazing natural monument. In its underground galleries, all forms of cave formations are observed - stalactites, stalagmites, growths, limestone influxes. The total length of these labyrinths is eight hundred and twenty meters. The depth also does not bring the Kashkulak cave into the category of champions - forty-nine meters.

Kapova cave (Shulgan-tash), Bashkiria

The Bashkir name of the cave is Shulgan-Tash. The word “tash” in Bashkir means “stone”, and “shulgan” means “disappeared”. To the left of the entrance is the Blue Lake, which is small in size - about three meters in diameter. From it follows the underground river Shulgan, which flows into the Belaya River. At first, this river flows along the surface, disappearing 2.5 kilometers north of the cave entrance. This river can also be found inside the cave.

The length of the Kapova Cave is 3,328 meters (of which 728 meters are under water). Has three floors. Consists of corridors, galleries, huge halls. There are underground lakes. An interesting huge stalagmite is three meters high and about eight meters wide at the base. The length of the first floor of the cave is only about 300 meters. You can climb to the second floor through a vertical well. And on the lower floor, the Shulgan River flows, continuing to form new karst cavities.

Kapova Cave has gained worldwide fame thanks to the Paleolithic drawings. The age of the rock carvings is impressive: about 14-14.5 thousand years. There are 195 images in total, but only about three dozen are relatively well preserved. The size of the drawings is extremely large - from 44 to 112 centimeters. Almost all of the drawings are in red ocher, but there are a few made in charcoal. Our distant ancestors depicted mammoths, horses and other animals in cave grottoes. There are also anthropomorphic figures here, as well as signs that are more difficult to interpret.

Kungurskaya cave, Perm region

The Kungur cave is rightfully considered the most beautiful in Russia. Its entire surface is covered with eternal layers of ice and frost. According to scientists, the age of the ice layers reaches about ten thousand years.

Ice droplets here gather into magnificent crystals, iridescent with many color shades. This is achieved thanks to the lighting system, which is based on laser illumination. There are also man-made ice sculptures.

Surprisingly, despite the eternally reigning cold, a man once lived in the cave. This is evidenced by a hermit's hut discovered here, a dug well, as well as a lost bast shoe.

Accent:

Krasnoyarsk, or rather near our city, has its own reserved dungeons. In particular, the cave Karaulnaya. This is a whole scientific and recreational nature protection complex, which has a lot of interesting things. Those who wish can visit the Guardhouse with a specially organized tour.

Photo hotel-shira.ru

Change. Dear participants! If you need change, please notify the guide in advance. Another option - you can pay for the tour with a 100% prepayment, then there will be no need for calculations on the spot. Thank you! If you warned the guide, but he did not have change -.

What they say about us

Marina Pavlova ( https://vk.com/id329545733): On October 17, we got out with a child of 13 years old in Syany, everything went just fine! This is not our first descent into the ground, we were in the Crimean caves and in the Kerch quarries. Very interesting, but fairly standard excursions. Here everything was perceived in a completely different way. One entry is worth it :)! We prepared in advance: we looked on the Internet for information, reviews, but we received no less pleasure and unexpected impressions. Many thanks to the organizer Nikita and the conductor Sergey (especially for Pike :))))).

Vadim Ivanov ( https://vk.com/id137661753): Great tours are offered. I was in a quarry in Syany and in the Neglinka collector. I liked it very much. In fact, it’s hard to realize that you are “crawling” like a “savage” right under the very center of the capital: under Tsvetnoy Boulevard, under Red Square. Well, in the quarries one wonders that not so long ago here civilian peasants in bast shoes shipped stone for the construction of Moscow, and now you are wandering around here.

Yuri Okunev: Went today 11/15. A very original place and a peculiar atmosphere. During the tour, they crawled on their belly and climbed into such narrow places where I myself would never climb. At the same time, there was no obligation - everyone climbed of their own free will. Special thanks to the young but professional guide, with whom it is easy to find a common language. Satisfied with the tour. Thank you!