Volkonsky dolmen what. Volkonsky dolmen - stone doctor. Where is the Volkonsky dolmen and how to get there
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The Volkonsky dolmen is one of the amazing attractions of the Lazarevsky district. A unique architectural monument protected by the state. It is located near the village of Volkonka, not far from the federal highway Sochi-Novorossiys in the gorge of the Godlik River.
These ancient megaliths are more than one thousand years old. They are considered the same age as the Egyptian pyramids. According to scientists, dolmens once served as religious buildings, possibly burial places, where various kinds of ceremonies and rituals were held.
The word dolmen is translated from ancient British as “stone table”. Where did this name come from? The fact is that dolmens, as a rule, were built according to one model: four stone walls or pillars and a massive table-like stone lid on top. In different countries, dolmens look different. For example, Irish dolmens look more like stone tables, while our Caucasian ones look more like the houses of some fairy-tale creatures. The entrance to the dolmen is a small round hole with a diameter of about 50 cm, into which a child can easily crawl. Perhaps that is why the Circassians called dolmens with the word “ispun”, which means “houses of dwarfs”.
Dolmens are monolithic, trough-shaped, composite, tiled and well-shaped. Most of the dolmens in the Caucasus are composite and only one, Volkonsky, is monolithic. The chamber of this dolmen was carved into a large block of irregularly shaped stone. The rock is officially considered sandstone, but contains many inclusions of quartz. Quartz is not usually found in sandstone, but there was unexpectedly much of it in this rock. The inside of the chamber is dome-shaped. The walls are not sanded, which may indicate that the construction process is incomplete. The ceiling height is about 1.5 m. The dolmen is 16 m long and about 8 m wide. Not far from the entrance there is a funnel-shaped depression in the floor. Perhaps it was intended to drain water or had some kind of ritual purpose. On the back side of the dolmen wall there is another round hole, which was also probably used during rituals. The round entrance hole is well preserved, but the plug, like most dolmens, has been lost. To look inside the dolmen, you need to climb to the platform, which is located at a height of 4 meters above the ground. An interesting fact is that the front wall of the dolmen is hollowed out in such a way that it seems as if it is attached, like in the case of composite type dolmens. To the right of the entrance, something like a seat is hollowed out from the outside, and there is also a small hole in the stone immediately before the entrance to the dolmen. Nowadays, one can only guess what the meaning of all these numerous bowls and recesses is.
According to some data, the age of the Volkonsky dolmen is 7-8 thousand years.
The dolmen was named Volkonsky in honor of Princess Volkonskaya, who often visited it and loved to be in these places. Nowadays, thousands of tourists come to see this wonder. Many people consider dolmens to be places of power and visit them for the purpose of healing from illnesses or fulfilling desires. Others like to touch the ancient secret, because until now scientists have not been able to determine exactly who and why these stone structures were built. In any case, visiting a dolmen is an encounter with the unknown. In addition, dolmens are always located in very picturesque places. This also applies to the Volkonsky dolmen. If you go a little further behind the dolmen along an equipped forest path, you can admire the “Two Brothers” rock and swim in a spring with mineral sulfur-hydrogen water.
How to get to the Volkonsky dolmen
Getting to the dolmen is not difficult. Option one - by car. If you drive from Tuapse, then 2 (two) km after the village of Soloniki you will see a parking lot on the right of the road. A road goes down from it, which after 200 (two hundred) m will lead you to the dolmen. If you drive from the direction of Sochi, then 3 (three) km after the village of Volkonka there will be the same sign and parking on the left.
Option two: take regular bus No. 155 “Sochi-Lazarevskoye” to the “Volkonsky Dolmen” stop.
Third option: by train Adler-Tuapse. You need to get to the Volkonka station. Once on the platform, go to the opposite side of the train and go up the stairs. You will be taken to the village of Volkonka. You need to go through the village, reach the Godlik River and climb along it to the entrance to the dolmen, where there is a ticket office and a barrier. You can get from Volkonka by route bus No. 147 Lazarevskoye-Bolshoy Kichmay to the Glinishche stop. From the stop 15 (fifteen) minutes. walking along the road down to the dolmen.
The facility is located on the territory of the Sochi National Park. Entrance to the dolmen is paid. As of 2016, the cost is 100 (one hundred) rubles per person for an adult ticket. All federal benefits apply.
These mysterious structures were called differently in different regions of the world: “stone table”, “changing share”, “heroic hut” and even “dwarf’s house”. It is quite difficult to understand what we are talking about. Meanwhile, the scientific world calls them even more dryly - megalithic structures of antiquity. And most often simply - dolmens. People believe in their unusual properties. And, it should be noted, not without reason.Mysterious "houses"
A classic dolmen is a massive structure, something like a house, built from heavy hewn stones. However, there are dolmens in the shape of a trough. Most often made of sandstone, sometimes granite. But the most unusual and mysterious dolmens are carved into the body of the rock. Our story will be about some of them, and in particular Volkonsky.
It is located at the bottom of a river valley in the village of Volkonka (district of Greater Sochi) not far from the highway connecting Sochi with Novorossiysk. The features of this most primitive dolmen baffle scientists. For example, how did our ancestors know how to fit blocks weighing 10 or 20 tons so tightly together that a knife blade couldn’t fit into the gap between them?! And the method of carving a dolmen is also incredible. There is a discordant version that first a circle with a diameter of half a meter was hollowed out in the rock. Then it was expanded from the inside to the size of a small sanctuary. Considering that some structures were built 7-8 thousand years ago, it is not clear where the craftsmen could get the tools necessary for this. Iron was then inaccessible to them, and bronze or copper would have immediately bent under excessive load.
It is interesting that dolmens are scattered all over the world: Japan, Korea, Bulgaria, Corsica, Israel, Spain, Great Britain... They are also in our country. Most often, dolmens are found in the Urals and the Caucasus Mountains. So far, scientists have clarified only one pattern in their location: dolmens were erected in places of tectonic faults in the earth's crust. How the ancients were able to find these faults is unclear. At the same time, dolmens were always built next to a reservoir.
The first attempt to study the dolmen took place back in 1660. The Dutch priest Johan Picardt from the province of Drenthe hypothesized that dolmens are houses for the offspring of mythical giants. This version was quite suitable for the Dutch authorities for the “legal” seizure of dolmen stone slabs for the construction of dams. But already in 1734, the landscape department of Drenthe took care of the protection of these monuments.
In the 19th century, scientists divided dolmens into tiled, composite and monolithic. Some experts decided that these structures were used as tombs for the nobility. Which to some extent made them similar to the ancient Egyptian pyramids. True, it later turned out that in those dolmens where the skeletons were found, the age of the remains was much younger than the tomb itself. So, most likely, the dead occupied sanctuaries built many centuries before their birth.
Dwarfs who enslaved giants
As already mentioned, the rarest and most mysterious dolmens are monolithic. Only one such dolmen is known in Russia - Volkonsky. It is located, as already mentioned, not far from Sochi. In general, there are 2,308 dolmens in the foothills of the Caucasus. True, they are mostly tiled. Local residents - Circassians - believe that once upon a time evil and cunning dwarfs lived in these places. And kind and simple-minded giants settled nearby. As a result, the dwarfs forced the strong men to build them those very stone huts near the reservoirs. Using hares instead of horses, the dwarfs, sitting on their backs, immediately jumped into the round holes of the dolmens. Here they spent the night under the protection of thick stone walls.
Although the Volkonsky dolmen is similar in shape to the hut from the legend, its size is such that not only a dwarf can live in it. This is a piece of rock six meters high and eight meters wide. Its length is 17 meters. The monolithic structure is one of a kind. Another feature of the Volkonsky dolmen is that its internal cavity is carved inside a huge stone through a round hole. The height of the chamber from the flat floor to the arch is about 1.5 meters. The walls of the cell are not polished. It is possible that they simply did not have time to finish it. Although even without that, according to experts, the construction of such a structure by the forces of the ancients could take up to 10 years and require the participation of at least 150 stonemasons.
There is a hole in the floor at the entrance to the dolmen for water drainage. If you speak loudly nearby, a booming echo will immediately echo in the cell. By the way, there is a version that the Volkonsky dolmen was used as a harbinger of earthquakes. A day before the disaster, it began to buzz, which was a signal for people. Another version says that the Volkonsky dolmen could be a temple where the chosen ones came to receive sacred knowledge. Local sorcerers selected a child based on certain characteristics, placed him in a cell and sealed him with a cork for several days. After the expiration of the term, the child (if he survived) became the bearer of “higher knowledge” and ensured prosperity for the tribe.
By the way, a stone plug is an integral attribute of most dolmens. This is quite logical if you agree with the funerary purpose of the structure. This way, reliable protection of the grave from vandals could be ensured. Another theory says that dolmens, including Volkonsky, were used as observatories. After all, their openings are oriented towards sunrise or sunset, and constellations are carved on the walls of some. It is interesting that from behind the Volkonsky dolmen looks like the face of an elephant with indented eyes. True, no one knows whether there were elephants in the Caucasus.
Miraculous properties
It is not known for certain what exact function the Volkonsky dolmen performed, but rumor has long attributed miraculous properties to it. It was noted that the structure has a positive effect on the health of visitors. In former times, mountain healers, sorcerers and shamans often performed their rituals here, staying in a cell for several days. Fortunately, half a century ago the dolmen was not a place of pilgrimage for tourists. True, now everything has changed.
Already in the 20th century, it was established that in the chamber of the Volkonsky dolmen the clock rate changes and the hands of measuring instruments begin to rush. Well, the unusually booming echo is something out of the realm of science fiction. Experts from the Department of Acoustics of the Southern Federal University found that the chamber of the Volkonsky dolmen is an acoustic device with a resonating frequency of 2.8 hertz, which the human ear cannot detect. This corresponds to the delta rhythm of the electroencephalogram during deep sleep or drug trance, as well as coma.
But biophysicists from Moscow State University conducted a different experiment. They left a container of distilled water in the dolmen’s chamber for several days. They managed to find out that when watered with “dolmen” water, plants grow twice as fast as when watered with simply distilled water. So the point is that from time immemorial local residents have carried water and amulets to the dolmen to “recharge,” of course.
And finally, an experiment carried out by Candidate of Medical Sciences Oleg Tatkov showed that after people spend about four hours at the dolmen, their levels of platelets and glucose in the blood increase, and their blood pressure rises to the highest limit of normal. Apparently, the dolmen has a harmonizing and slightly stimulating effect on the body.
After such conclusions, it is not difficult to believe in the words of Buddhist monks that dolmens are structures for people with an awakened consciousness, that is, enlightened ones. Essentially a portal to another dimension.
However, academic science does not tolerate esoteric explanations. But it has not yet been possible to explain the qualities of the Volkonsky dolmen even from the standpoint of modern physics. But, in addition to the physical one, there is also a historical mystery - who, when and why built such a structure. Alas, there are still more questions about the Volkonsky dolmen than answers.
Our short forays into the mountains in the vicinity of the Lazarevsky district of the city of Sochi could not ignore the Volkonsky dolmen and the gorge, which are located near the village of Volkonka. Drive from Lazarevskoye for 15 minutes along the E97 highway to the Volkonsky Dolmen sign, without stopping at Volkonka. Recreational territory, a very large dolmen, rhizomes, a hydrogen sulfide spring from which gastroenterological maniacs drink and the gorge is an accessible and nice place to visit with children (and without guides)
Road
Drive from Lazarevskoye for 15 minutes along the E97 highway to the Volkonsky Dolmen sign, without stopping at Volkonka (correct)
We (thanks to Yandex.Navigator) drove through the village of Volkonka itself (incorrectly) along Olkhovaya Street almost to the bridge over the Godlikh River, left the car there and walked on foot. It won't be long to go.
Recreation facility
In the Sochi National Park, which includes all the natural attractions of the Greater Sochi region, tourism facilities are usually called recreational. Therefore, as a rule, after the ticket offices installed at the entrance, there are signs indicating the beginning of the recreational route. And about the end of the route after the main attraction.
It is worth noting that often the most interesting things begin just after the end of the recreational route :)
So, at the beginning of the recreational route to the Volkonsky dolmen and the gorge, there are figures of animals carved out of wood
Volkonsky Dolmen
Probably the Volkonsky dolmen is the largest dolmen we have seen. We saw enough of them in Pshad, near Gelendzhik and in other places. The Volkonsky dolmen deserves attention.
It is not difficult to walk to the dolmen; neither an adult nor a child encounters any climbs or other difficulties on the way. But then, it is very difficult to pull children away from the dolmen - it evokes a storm of emotions and a desire to climb inside.
Hydrogen sulfide water source
In close proximity to the dolmen there is a source of water enriched with hydrogen sulfide.
Water source next to the dolmen
There is a sign nearby telling us that drinking this water is not recommended, however, we noticed people who were not stopped by this warning. A blackberry bush grows above a hydrogen sulfide spring. You can climb a little higher and, of course, get scratched and eat some berries.
Rhizomes and the path to the gorge
Behind the dolmen there is a path to the Volkonsky Gorge, where you can see tree rhizomes protruding from the ground. This will certainly add color to your journey. These rhizomes are very interesting to climb and take pictures of. The kids, again, love it.
These rhizomes are very interesting for children to climb.
The trail is not difficult, as you can see, we walked easily with a five-year-old child
Volkon Gorge
The trail, as we mentioned, leads to the Volkonsky Gorge, formed by two or three huge boulders. You can climb over the boulders, walk around the gorge, and the gorge itself is cool and nice. In general, it’s worth getting to the gorge, especially since it’s a very short walk. A very picturesque place.
