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Kitezh – The Russian Lost Atlantis

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The first reference to Kitezh comes in an anonymous late 18th century book known as the Kitezh Chronicle which was thought to have originated among the Old Believers of Russia.

In the early 13th century, Grand Prince of Vladimir, Georgy II, first built the town of Maly Kitezh (Little Kitezh) on the Volga River (today’s Krasny Kholm).
Later on, the prince crossed the rivers of Uzola, Sanda, and Kerzhenets, and found a beautiful spot on the shores of Lake Svetloyar near Nizhny Novgorod, where he decided to build the town of Bolshoy Kitezh (Big Kitezh).
Residents of Nizhny Novgorod are sure that the legends of their Kitezh date from the earliest days of Rus’, but the first mention of this sacred city dates back to the modern times.
The death of Prince Georgy Vsevolodovich under the walls of Kitezh walls was outlined in the Kitezh Chronicle, which was created by Old Believers in the 1780s. The Chronicle does not mention the disappearance of the city into the lake – just that it disappeared after it was destroyed and all its inhabitants killed.
According to legend, after having conquered some of the Russian lands, Batu Khan of Mongol Empire, leader of the Golden Horde, heard of Kitezh and ordered his army to advance towards it.
The Mongols soon captured Maly Kitezh, forcing Georgy to retreat into the woods towards Bolshoy Kitezh. One of the prisoners told the Mongols about some secret paths to Lake Svetloyar.
The Invisible Town of Kitezh (1913) by Konstantin Gorbatov
The Invisible Town of Kitezh (1913) by Konstantin Gorbatov
The army of the Golden Horde followed Georgy and soon reached the walls of the town. To the surprise of the Mongols, the town had no fortifications whatsoever. Its citizens didn’t even intend to defend themselves and were engaged in fervent praying, asking God for their salvation.
On seeing this, the Mongols rushed to the attack, but then stopped. Suddenly, they saw countless fountains of water bursting from under the ground all around them. The attackers fell back and watched the town submerge into the lake. The last thing they saw was a glaring dome of a cathedral with a cross on top of it. Soon only waves remained.
In 1968, scientists led by renowned archaeologists Mark Barinov and Tatiana Makarova began searching for the lost city and examined every corner of the lake shores; the divers explored even the topography of the lake bottom. Sadly, no artifacts more ancient than the 19th century were found.
As a result, scientists for many years held the view that Kitezh never actually existed outside of legend. However, in 2006 the Vetluzhsky archaeological expedition decided to take another look.
It started an investigation of Krestovozdvizhensky Hill, where an old chapel stood that had not been sufficiently examined by previous expeditions. Six year later, at the Svetloyar Lake, archaeologists have found traces of an unknown medieval settlement that became a prototype for Kitezh, the “Russian Atlantis.”
Thousands of shards of pottery, fragments of iron knives, pieces of harness, a millstone and a tinderbox is practically all that is left of the Rusich, who lived six centuries ago on the shores of Svetloyar Lake. But there is something else – the remains of log cabins, found at a half-meter depth below the surface of the lake.
“Most likely, this was not a city but an odnodvorka – a house with outbuildings that housed 10-15 people,” said Evgeny Chetvertakov, head of the Vetluzhsky archaeological expedition.
“Perhaps, in reality, this settlement was larger, but then part of it was taken by landslides into Svetloyar, and that formed the basis of legends about the mysterious disappearance of the city of Kitezh.”
The lost city of Kitezh is also mentioned, among many other references to Russian folklore, in “Monday Begins on Saturday”, a novel by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky and Charodey film and film script.
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh” and “the Maiden Fevroniya” (1907) is based on the legend of Kitezh. Kitezh is a central part of the plot in the 2015 video game Rise of the Tomb Raider.
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Mysterious disappearance of a woman who fell into a well

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A very strange case occurred in Mexico when people heard a woman’s
scream coming from a well, but rescuers did not find anyone there. And
now they suspect it was a ghost.

The
creepiest thing is that the screaming woman was heard both by those who
called the rescuers and by the rescuers themselves. And this woman
answered their questions.

The incident happened a few days ago in
the Mexican city of Saltillo. From a narrow sewer well located on the
territory of a certain colony, a local resident heard women’s screams.

And this happened, as stated, at 3:30 am. This time – 3 am or 3:30 am in the culture of many nations is called the Devil’s Hour.

Then
this man came to the nearest hospital, saying that a woman had fallen
into a well and was asking for help. He said the woman told him her name
was Juanita.

Employees
of the “Violet” security group, who are constantly on duty at this
hospital, immediately went to the scene of the incident. They reached
the indicated well, the depth of which was 6 meters, and one of them
shouted into the dark depths, asking the name of the victim. Everyone
heard a woman’s voice answer “Juanita” from the depths.

After
this, the rescuers began to shine their lanterns into the well, but they
could not see the person there. Then they called the fire department
and within a few minutes firefighters arrived with special equipment.

They
lowered a ladder into the well and one of the firefighters went down on
it, but only discovered that it was completely empty and there were no
signs of human presence.

At the bottom of the well there was only a
narrow channel for water, through which even a child, let alone an
adult, could not crawl.

A subsequent search of the area, including
a nearby sewer, for the alleged victim turned up nothing. The rescuers
left the place in complete bewilderment.

When news of this
incident appeared in the media, local paranormal investigator Roberto
Avila claimed that Juanita was the ghost of a woman who had once died
here.

“We
were told that a person died here several years ago. Perhaps this
person still does not realize that he is no longer in the world of the
living, and his spirit still continues to cry out for help.”

Avila
also has a theory that in the well there was a “lower being from the
astral plane” who, with his screams, tried to provoke an accident on the
road that passes nearby.

“The lower entity from the astral plane
sits in a place where black waters pass. In these places, portals
regularly appear, which are gates to other dimensions,” says Avila.

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“Cursed charity shop painting ruined my life”, says British woman

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A British woman purchased a portrait of a young girl from a charity shop and now asserts that the picture is cursed, reports mirror.co.uk.

Zoe
Elliot-Brown, aged 36, spotted an artwork by an unfamiliar artist at
the Hastings Advice Representation Center in St Leonards-on-Sea, East
Sussex, a month ago.

Simultaneously, the seller cautioned Zoe
about the painting possibly being cursed, revealing that a prior
purchaser of the same artwork had returned it to the store with the
statement “it ruined my life.”

Out of curiosity, Zoe captured an
image of the painting on her smartphone and shared the photo with her
68-year-old mother, Jane Elliot-Brown. Her mother seemed to be entranced
by the painting.

Instantly,
she began urging Zoe to acquire the painting. Yielding to her mother’s
persuasion, Zoe paid £20 for the artwork. However, as soon as she
introduced it into her home, strange occurrences commenced taking place.

As
Zoe entered her home and positioned the painting in the living room,
their dog named Cilla leaped up and started growling at the artwork.
Cilla deliberately kept her distance, refraining from approaching the
picture. Subsequently, Zoe’s mother’s health took a sharp decline. She
began experiencing alternating spells of fever and chills, requiring her
to wear four sweaters to keep warm.

Concurrently, Zoe’s mother
seemed to be captivated by the painting. She continuously gazed at it
and even caressed the painted girl’s cheek. During the night, she heard
peculiar knocks emanating from the room where the picture hung, despite
the room being unoccupied.

Zoe managed to persuade her mother that
the painting held negative energy and was cursed. However, Jane
staunchly defended the painting, reluctant to part with it.

“I’ve
never seen my mother yearn for something so intensely. She was
entranced by it, but not in a positive manner. She guarded it. She
frequently gazed at it. She ran her fingers over the painted girl’s
cheeks and polished the surface, although the painting didn’t require
polishing.”

“Each time I mentioned disposing of the painting, she
became exceedingly irritable. It transformed into a sort of family
heirloom for her, something she began cherishing.”

“My mother
flatly refused to get rid of the painting. I think it’s a bit like the
magic power of the Lord of the Rings ring. It definitely works in an
attractive and charming way, it seems to pull you towards it.

“My mother became a bit like Gollum from The Lord of the Rings,” says Zoe.

Jane
herself says that it seems to her that the painted girl is very unhappy
and she stroked her to comfort her. She also does not attribute the
deterioration of her health to the purchase of the painting.

At
the same time, she admits that there were several cases when someone
seemed to knock on the door, and when she opened it, there was no one on
the threshold.

One day, Jane became so ill that she fainted right
in the bathroom. Zoe called 911, but her mother refused to go to the
hospital and was eventually left at home.

One morning, Zoe entered
the living room and saw her mother standing and stroking the painted
girl on her cheeks. And the mother could not remember how she ended up
in the living room and what she did at night.

“It
was strange behavior, especially for my mom. She couldn’t remember
anything from what happened last night. My mom is still very weird and
distracted and doesn’t want to discuss it.”

And then something
even more frightening happened. Zoe and her friend Ben went for a walk
on a hill during a thunderstorm and suddenly saw a “creepy black figure”
that suddenly appeared in front of them.

They do not know if this
is related to the painting, but they immediately ran back in fear.
Deciding to get rid of the cursed painting, Zoey eventually took it and
took it to the same shop where she bought it.

And when she drove
up to the store, she saw that in one of the tires of the car, brand new,
someone stuck a screw. She gave the painting to the seller, but then
changed her mind and took it back.

She
didn’t want someone else to buy the painting and get hurt because of
it. Now Zoe wants to give the picture only to someone who understands
damn things.

Now the painting is kept in Zoya’s house in a box filled with sage (it is believed that sage helps against evil spirits).

She also hung sage in every corner of the house, although Zoya’s mother was very unhappy with this.

“I
thought knowing my luck some idiot will go and get it and try and burn
it and I don’t really want to be left with the remainder of whatever the
hell has been going on. Technically I was the last owner. [I want it]
dealt with properly. […]”

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