Fortress of "warm water"
Frame from the filmstrip "The Tale of Dahanago" (1957)
“What should we do? We answered ourselves
When they entered the battle with heaven:
Than we live in slavery and endure shame,
It’s better for everyone to die with glory.”
Such was the end of the courageous Narts.
Let the world remember the exploits of their military "
"The Last Battle", from the epic of the Narts
History and culture. And it was so that in childhood my parents very often showed filmstrips to me. One of them, “The Tale of Dakhanago”, I especially remember. And how could it be otherwise, because the heroine there was such a beautiful girl with long golden hair. It turns out that Narts lived in the Caucasus a long time ago - ancient mythical relatives of such peoples as Kabardians, Ossetians, Balkars, in a word, those who inhabited the Kuban and the North Caucasus, lived on the coast of the Black and Caspian Seas, near Elbrus and Kazbek, along the banks of the rivers Don and Terek, and built the city of Derbent. But I found out all this later. In the meantime, sledges, so sledges - the main thing is that the girl there was very beautiful.
Another frame from the filmstrip "The Legend of Dakhanago", which shows how Yapanes fights with Dahanago. I always wanted them to finish the fight as soon as possible and sit down at the wedding table
Many years passed and it turned out that I ended up in places directly connected with the ancient legends of the Narts, and which the Adygs called "Psyfabe" (warm water), and today there is a resort Goryachiy Klyuch. Resting at a resort is always useful, but far from always interesting from a cognitive point of view - you lead yourself a kind of semi-vegetative existence, eat, drink, sleep and get wet in mineral water. However, any recreation also has a cognitive side, especially if you walk around the neighborhood of the place where you ended up.
Beautiful, isn't it?
And the places are really amazing. And beautiful in a special way, in autumn. Rocks, water and a ghostly, autumn sky are very beautiful in their own right. But it’s curious - where does this path lead, or, say, that one over there. I went and ... it turns out that this place is not at all easy. Actually, it has always been not easy, because the foothills of the North Caucasus have always attracted immigrants here.
Rocks, water and orange leaves. Where are you, Monet?
And who just did not settle here before the same Adygs. Scythians and Sarmatians, Meotians and Greeks, and also Goths, Huns, Avars, Kasogs - in a word, a whole set of tribes and cultures. And someone passed by the local mountains, in a hurry to occupy the fertile plains, and someone climbed here specifically to find shelter from numerous enemies.
What's left of the fort...
And here, on the western slope of the Abadzekh mountain, a little higher than the Petushok rock (“Rock of Salvation”), archaeological excavations that began in the fall of 1989 discovered the remains of the foundations of an ancient fortress.
Photo of excavations in 1989
Path carved into the rock
The excavations uncovered not only the remains of the walls and bastions of the fortress, but also the pavement, religious structures, and samples of local ceramics. It was established that Psyfabe is a Zikh-Fat fortress founded in the XNUMXth-XNUMXth centuries. and lasted until the XIII-XVI centuries.
Of course, one should not think that if you come to this place, then ruins will open to you, like those that were unearthed in ancient Knossos. Of course not. But even what is is better than nothing, especially if nature has endowed you with fantasy. Then this is really cool!
Needless to say, an assault of such steepness would have been given to the enemy with considerable difficulty, if he even wanted to contact him. I personally wouldn't...
Apparently, this platform above the Cockerel rock as a naturally protected place has attracted people since the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age (1 BC), that is, pre-Ottoic time (first centuries AD). This is evidenced by the finds of ceramics in the fortress, exhibited in the local museum, as well as precious jewelry, coins and weapon Bosporan and Byzantine times, which were brought by the inhabitants of the Psekup valley as sacrifices to a mineral spring near the Abadzekh mountain.
In other words, even then people noticed that “warm waters” have a healing effect, and if it is curative, then this, of course, is from the gods, and the latter need to be thanked and appeased.
But what about the fortress can be read directly at the place where it stood
However, quite archaic remains of ceramics of the Early Bronze Age, that is, the time of the Maikop culture tribes that once inhabited the valley of the river, were found in the fortress. Psekups. However, the place is really not only beautiful, but also convenient, and most importantly - people came here to heal, well, they paid the owners of the fortress for the right to drink local water and bathe in its source!
And now let's add some natural beauty, which, as you know, is eternal, and let's go get acquainted with the rusty iron of past eras ...
During the Great Migration of Peoples, in order to protect themselves from the raids of the Huns and Avars of the 1,5th-XNUMXth centuries. the site on the mountain was also surrounded by a moat, cut into a rock XNUMX m deep; behind which three walls and several polygonal towers were erected at once.
Together with the watch tower, this brought its dimensions to 62 m in length and 43 m in width. At the same time, the walls of the fortress had a thickness of 3,5 m, and were built from blocks cut from sandstone and fastened with clay mortar. It is interesting that the wall construction technology here was exactly the same as that used in the construction of western knightly castles: that is, two walls were built - external (40-50 cm thick) and internal (30 cm thick), and all the space between them was covered with chipped stone.
Circassian daggers. Well, how could it be without them here in the Caucasus?
It is interesting that in the constructions of Psyfabe there is a purely Caucasian tradition - the construction of a fortress in a place that nature itself created impregnable and ... the construction of towers, bastions and walls in the Byzantine style. In the ruins of the fortress, the remains of a solar pagan temple were also found, which was then converted into a Christian temple (it is known that Byzantium from the XNUMXth century spread Christianity among the Zikhs and Kasogs).
The plan of the fortress, compiled by the archaeologist N. Lovpache
And this is him, with the same card
It is quite possible, therefore, that the temple in Psyfabe is the northernmost Christian sanctuary found in the territory of the North Caucasus and functioned long before the baptism of Rus' in the XNUMXth century - that's even how!
Moreover, archaeologists suggest that Psyfabe was not only a citadel for the Adyghe population, but also a feudal castle of the Khamysheevsky prince Lavristan, who is known as the most active opponent of the Avars. And maybe there was a border here, beyond which the Avars never passed?
Traces of human activity are everywhere. You walk and remember for some reason ... "Hagakure" - "Sheltered under the leaves" ...
Half-filled cave today. It is believed that earlier, when it was of natural size, supplies were stored in it in a cool
The museum has quite a lot of interesting exhibits, although the misfortune and scourge of our museums is their poverty. Only a specialist can be interested in terribly rusty pieces of iron, in which there is no iron left, and one can only guess about their original form. Here, for example, are the arrowheads and spearheads found here.
Tips: 1-2. Spearheads, 3th–4th centuries 5. Knife for cutting leather. 6. Spearhead (copper). 7. Arrowhead, XII-XIII centuries. 8. Arrowhead (bronze), village Martanskaya. 9. Arrowhead (iron). 10. Knife (fragment), XII-XIV centuries. XNUMX. Arrowhead, XII-XIII centuries. XNUMX. The tip of the ancient Russian arrow "srezen", X-XII centuries.
Axes and broken pots in all museums are almost the same
But here's what seemed really interesting to me: this shield with a umbon and a very well-preserved helmet. Probably not made of iron, that's why it looks like that.
Shield, umbon XIII-XIV centuries.
Helmet of the Adyghe warrior. I wish they could turn it into a completely new product, like a shield, put it on a beautiful male mannequin and put it somewhere in a conspicuous place so that people could take pictures next to it!
In general, as they say, although "a trifle, but nice." It is gratifying that they are digging, it is joyful that our history is being collected bit by bit, that there is one more place on the map of our country where, standing and looking around, you can feel the inexorable passage of time. Well, going to the local museum, you can see artifacts that are interesting for everyone who is attracted by Russian history.
Diorama overlooking the Psyfabe fortress
PS
The diorama in the museum was my favorite. It is made very realistic, which is especially noticeable when you return from a walk around these places.
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