High in the mountains of North Ossetia, not far from the village of Dargavs, there is one of the most mysterious places in the Caucasus – the so-called “City of the Dead”.
City of the Dead, Ossetia
Small village Dargavs was once a rather large settlement in Ossetia, but today there are only about ten residential buildings here. Not far from this village, among stunning landscapes, mountain ranges and wide gorges, there is one of the most mysterious mysteries of Ossetia – the “City of the Dead”.
City of the Dead, Ossetia. Photo 1 in the mountains of North Ossetia” />
City of the Dead, Ossetia. Photo 2
This necropolis consists of 95 crypts on Mount Raminirakh. All tombs can be divided into three types: with a roof in the form of a stepped pyramid made of slate tiles, with a roof with a gable ceiling, and the third – rectangular chambers half dug into the ground.
City of the Dead, Ossetia. Photo 3 in the mountains of North Ossetia” />
City of the Dead, Ossetia. Photo 4
The crypts have a square hole through which the dead were placed inside the crypt. Remarkably, some of the corpses were neatly stacked in a kind of boats, carved from a single piece of wood. It is reliably known that the then locals did not have boats, since there are no large bodies of water nearby.
City of the Dead, Ossetia. Photo 5
City of the Dead, Ossetia. Photo 6
There are many legends associated with this place, and local residents have always preferred to bypass this place, because there is a belief that everyone who entered the necropolis never returned from it.
City of the Dead, Dargavs
According to one of the versions, these tombs were a kind of home for the victims of the plague that swept across Ossetia in the 17th century. According to this version, infected people lived in these crypts, eating modest offerings from the village. When they died, their bodies remained in their crypts, as evidenced by the remains that have survived to this day.
City of the Dead, Dargavs. Photo 1 in the mountains of North Ossetia” />
City of the Dead, Dargavs. Photo 2 in the mountains of North Ossetia” />
City of the Dead, Dargavs. Photo 3 in the mountains of North Ossetia” />
City of the Dead, Dargavs. Photo 4 in the mountains of North Ossetia” />
City of the Dead, Dargavs. Photo 5
City of the Dead, Dargavs. Photo 6 in the mountains of North Ossetia” />
City of the Dead, Dargavs. Photo 7 in the mountains of North Ossetia” />
City of the dead, Dargavs. Photo 8
City of the Dead, Dargavs. Photo 9 in the mountains of North Ossetia” />
City of the Dead, Dargavs. Photo 10
City of the Dead, Dargavs. Photo 11 in the mountains of North Ossetia” />
City of the Dead, Dargavs. Photo 12 in the mountains of North Ossetia” />
City of the Dead, Dargavs. Photo 12 in the mountains of North Ossetia” />
City of the Dead, Dargavs. Photo 13 in the mountains of North Ossetia” />
City of the Dead, Dargavs. Photo 14