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0:00 Dargavs basin 0:38 The village of Dargavs 0:50 City of the Dead 1:23 General information of Dargavs 2:00 Founding legend 2:57 Info of City of the Dead 3:27 How crypts were usually closed 3:56 Open burials 4:14 Cholera epidemic 4:40 The inscription on the crypt 5:15 Tourists and burials 6:09 Unique monument Whoever ventures into the crypt out of idle curiosity will pay with his life. This belief has always existed in the mountain village of Dargavs. The village is located in North Ossetia in the Dargavs basin between the Karmadon and Fiagdon gorges at an altitude of one and a half thousand meters above sea level. Up to one and a half hundred people live in Dargavs. What does the word “Dargavs“ mean? Translated from Ossetian it means “long clearing“. Near the village of Dargavs is the so-called City of the Dead. The locals never come to the City of the Dead after sunset. Only in daylight and only to cut the grass around the crypts. And they DO NOT even look inside so as not to disturb the souls of the dead. Tourists are much more careless and brazen in this respect. The “City of the Dead“, also known as Dargavs Crypt, is a complex of above-ground and semi-underground crypts built between the 14th and 18th centuries. It is the largest complex of its kind in the North Caucasus. In general, in North Ossetia there are only about 150 above-ground crypts scattered all over the republic, but most of them are concentrated here, in Dargavs, in the “City of the Dead“. The legend says that once a girl of unprecedented beauty came to the village of Dargavs. All the men of the village forgot their families and fought among themselves for the right to possess the beauty. The angry women demanded that the witch be expelled from the village, but the men decided to act on the principle of “no one gets it that way,“ and killed the beauty. After that, the village of Dargavs was hit by a punishment from above, a cruel plague epidemic. Even the earth would not accept the bodies of the dead, so the survivors had to make earth burials. The burial ground was laid out chaotically and without planning, the buildings were erected next to the previously built tombs as needed, leaving only a passage between them. The crypts were usually closed with a wooden door or a suitable stone to prevent the penetration of moisture and animals, while the device of a bolt with an internal lock on the door remains a mystery to this day. It is only known that these square holes on the right side of the shaft were used to insert a hand to open or close the bolt. Originally, the burials were open (without coffins) - the body of the deceased was brought in through a shaft and placed on a wooden deck or on already abandoned bodies. Later, open burials were replaced by burials in boat-shaped decks. In the nineteenth century, when a cholera epidemic raged in the Dargavs region, the sick voluntarily went into the crypts so as not to infect their relatives, and spent their last days there. According to one version, this stone shelf on the wall of the tomb was used to leave food on it for the relatives who visited the dying. It is said that during the epidemic an inscription in red in Ossetian language appeared on one of the tombs: “Look at us with love. We were like you, you will be like us“. Unfortunately, the inscription has not been preserved until today: The workers who carried out restoration works in the 90s of the 20th century considered them vandalic scribbles and painted over them with lime. LINKS Walk around Vladikavkaz. Russia. North Ossetia - First day: North Ossetia mountains. Karmadon. Russia. Full HD - North Ossetia mountains. Dargavs. City of the Dead. Russia. Full HD - North Ossetia mountains. Midagrabin Gorge - North Ossetia mountains. Dzivgis rock fortress. Ring waterfall. Russia - Second day: North Ossetia mountains. Alagir Gorge. Uastyrdzy - North Ossetia mountains. Tsey Gorge - North Ossetia mountains. Mamison Gorge - Third day: North Ossetia mountains. Akhsinta gorge. Matsuta - North Ossetia mountains. Fasnal. Underground Gallery - North Ossetia of Kamunta - North Ossetia of Galiat - North Ossetia mountains. Zadaleski Nana -
