Tavria tour
In "Tavriya" there are a lot of famous and remarkable places! And the first point of our traveling is going to be unique and amazing place called "Stone Tomb". People have lived here since 20000 -24000 years B.C! So it much older than the Stonehenge! Through out the history they had used it like sanctuary place for spiritual rituals. There are 87 caves. And in 65 of it there are thousands of ancient petroglyphs! You will not be able to finde the same place! Because it has the biggest amount of ancient petroglyphs of th World!. Some of the researcher approve that these petroglyphs is the oldest writing in the World! It is older than Sumerian writing! But researchers decided to save those petroglyphs for the future generations. So they filled the caves by sand. Next to the Stone Tomb there is a museum where you can see the copies of those petroglyphs. Or you can buy the books with a lot of pictures of those petroglyphs and different historical information.
This is very interesting place for researchers of traditional or alternative history. For people who practice different kind of religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism etc. And as a proof of it I have to tell you that a few years ago Tibetan Dalai Lama had visited the Stone Tomb. After meditation there for a few hours he told that this is really unique place with a lot of positive energy! And this is really the place of power!
Also next to the Stone Tomb you will see the ancient sculptures called "Kurgan stelae". In Zaporozhye area, where I`m living, there have been about 5.5 thousand hills which the Scythians made like a graves for their kings. These hills called "Scythian Kurgan" or "Scythian burial grounds". On the top of the Scythian kurgan the Scythians mounted the Kurgan stelae. This stelae was a symbol of relation between Earth and Heaven. My friend, university professor Todd Hughes and I started independent research of this subjects. But even official historians declare that the age some of the stelae more then 8 thousand years!
Stone Tomb and Kurgan stelae
Khortytsia- the Cossack capital of the XVI – XVIII centuries
The next point of our traveling is going to be the island called Khortytsia. This is a big island in the river called Dnieper next to Zaporozhye city. Through out thousands years Khortytsia has used like sacred place. On the island there are a lot of amazing places such as ancient sanctuaries, ancient burial mounds, Scythian settlement, and finally Zaporizhzhya Sich – the capital of the Cossack lands. In modern time Zaporizhzhya Cossacks is one of the main point of Ukrainian identity.
Through out the years Zaporizhzhya Sich was very important military and political place. It was created for struggling against Tatars. Sich used in the European struggle against Turkish aggression. Cossack used this place for campaigns against the Crimean khanate and the Ottoman Empire.
At the end of the XVIII century. The Sich began to lose political and military value and was liquidated by the Russian government in 1775.
In modern time Khortytsia is a national reserve. And Zaporizhzhya Sich was recreated like a memorial and a museum where people can meet with Zaporizhzhya Cossack`s life. You can see how they lived and how they fought. The modern Cossacks will show you incredible tricks with their horses and weapons!
Scythian burial grounds
As I mentioned in this region there are about 5.5 thousand Scythian burial grounds! And you can see it very easily! They are everywhere, just on the fields! Some of them had robbed in ancient time. But some of them didn`t. Researchers found a lot of amazing and beautiful things there. For example unique golden jewelry, weapon and armor of ancient warriors, household items etc! Most of them now are in the Hermitage in Saintpetersburg. But a lot of Scythian burial grounds still store their incredible secrets! But may be you can solve them!
My friend, professor of Vanderbilt university, Todd Hughes (Nashville, Tennessee) and I started our research of history of the Scythian burial grounds.hen he traveled in Ireland he visited the place called "Hill of Tara". On the top of that hill is mounted a stone stela. It looks completely the same like Scythian burial grounds and some of Kurgan stelae here in Tavria. And we wondered, what the deal was? Why so different nations which are so far from each other built absolutely the same monuments? Than he found some source of information. We were surprised! And the story of this research will be continued on the next page.
Popov`s Castle
The next point of our travel will be Popov Castle. This is unique place because it is the only once old castle in this area. It was built between 1864 and 1884 by Vasili Popov Jr. The project of this castle created architect from Melitopol A. N. Ageenko. Unfortunately the main building of the castle was destroyed in Soviet time. There are still only a few outbuildings and a huge horse stable. But even they are impressive! You can imagine how majestic looked the main building! It had four floors and few towers. The size of the building was 45 meters of long and 42 meters of wide! On the top of the one towers there was a telescope. Inside of the house there were a huge rooms, art gallery etc. At the bottom there were a wine cellar and a bathhouse.
Now there created a museum where you can see some of those stuff of that time and a model of that house.
Next to Popov castle is living very interesting guy. He created his own private zoo. But this is not just average, usual one. This is the zoo of lions!
His name is Alexander Pylyshenko. He really loves the lions! And creating the zoo was his childhood dream. When he was young Alexander had read a book about friendship of man and lion. He was impressed very much! And one day he decided to implement his childhood dream. In the beginning it was very hard because two lions lived in his house with his family. So the lions needed a special place for living. He started to build it but he didn't have enough money. And that is why he decided to take a risk to attract a rich people to help him. Alexander started his dangerous experiment to live in the cage with lions for 35 days! And he has done it! This is recorded in the Guinness book of records! It was possible because he could make a real friendship with lions. And they have been living together as friends.
Private zoo
In June 23-23th ancient Slavic people people celebrated a holiday called 'Kupala Night" or "Ivana-Kupala". They celebrated the day of summer solstice. They believed in forces of nature. And the main point of this holiday was a water. People associated a water like a part of fertility and ritual purification.
On Kupala Night, young people jump over the flames of bonfires in a ritual test of bravery and faith. They believed if the couple of young people were unable to hold their arms while they were jumping probably they were going to give up.
Girls may float wreaths of flowers (often lit with candles) on river. They would try to gain foresight about their relationship fortunes from the flow patterns of the flowers on the river. Men tried to capture the wreaths, in the hope of capturing the interest of the woman who floated the wreath.
In our time enthusiastic people restored this holiday. And everyone can come here and to see it or even to participate in ancient rituals!
Scythian golden jewelry
Hill of Tara. Ireland
Scythian burial ground. Ukraine
Compare these two pictures
Ancient sanctuaries and Scythians settlement
These places are especially interesting for people who practicing Buddhism Hinduism etc. In Khortitsa there are about 10 ancient sanctuaries. Archaeologists have found them during many years. They had been deep under the ground. So archaeologists spent a lot of time and effort to research them. And it took a lot of time to make them ready for visitors.
Archaeological research of ancient subjects of Khortitsa
Archaeological maps some of the ancient sanctuaries
To be continued...