Ancestral towers of North Ossetia. My roads Caucasian watchtowers
“The builder of the tower, before placing the stone in the wall, turned it a hundred times. And when he found the face of a stone, he put it so that it looked outward, ”the ancient legend says.
Looking at the Ossetian towers, you begin to believe this. Only with such an attitude to work, they were able to stand for seven centuries. Not just standing, but still surprisingly level. But, after all, the stones just lie on top of each other, they are stacked without cement!
2. The savings on building materials can be explained. Firstly, lime, eggs and sour cream, from which the solution was made in those years, still need to be extracted in the mountains. Secondly, during the attack, the tower itself was used as a weapon - loose stones were thrown from above on the heads.
3. We are in the village of Lirsi in the Mamison gorge. 14 towers, of which seven survived, and many outbuildings created a small labyrinth town.
4. Come in, study, the place is not crowded - the paths are not even trodden in the grass.
5. Neither guards, nor tickets, nor even ribbons "No entry" and signs "Do not touch with your hands."
6. They lived and defended themselves in the towers. They usually had three or four floors. On the first - cattle, on the second - a hearth and a bedroom, above - a guest room and storerooms.
7. Later towers were built with a binder solution. I climbed into this one from below, where the sheep entered, and the gap above is the door, to which the ladder was attached.
8. The towers had everything they needed, they could withstand a long siege, and even setting them on fire was useless.
9. But by the 18th century the Ossetians had moved to the plain and the mountainous regions were empty.
10. Nobody built new ones - they could no longer resist modern weapons. And by that time, the first brick factories had already appeared in Vladikavkaz, which greatly simplified construction.
11. Processing this photo in the evening, I increased the light in the shadows and was scared - there is a head! But I was all alone inside! Phew ... it's me ...
12. Rock cave fortresses are another amazing type of Ossetian structures.
13. Higher in the mountains, in an inaccessible place around the caves, fortresses were built.
14. Dangerous paths carved into the rocks connected the structures, and the entrance was rope ladders.
15. Dzivgis fortress - the largest in the Caucasus, there could have been dozens of soldiers.
16. Here, too, you will be told a legend. About the cat that was released in the fortress and how it came out along the cave passages on the other side of the ridge.
17. How she was scared that she did not come back, how they understood that this was the cat and how someone on the other side could meet her, history is silent.
The most beautiful historical building of Vovnushka got its name from the Ingush village of the same name in the Dzheyrakh region. The defensive castle was built by the ancient Ingush clan of the Ozdoevs, for whom the village was a family nest.
By ear, the name is perceived too frivolously for a place where a lot of blood was shed at one time. But in the local dialect it is pronounced like "vauvnushke" with an emphasis on the first syllable. Literally translated, it means "place of battle towers."
The first reliable descriptions of Vovnushki date back to the beginning of the 18th century. At that time, the ancestral castle of the Ozdoevs played an important strategic role. The fact is that the neighboring Assin Gorge at that time was the only direct and relatively convenient passage through Caucasian ridge... On this route, caravans constantly went, which were raided by robbers. Vovnushki served as a refuge and protection for travelers.
From time to time, the castle was raided, not to mention local conflicts. But it was built like this good location that could withstand the longest siege. The mountain slopes were reliably protected from uninvited guests.
If an ignorant person is shown a photo of the castle and asked what kind of place it is, he will surely name some European country without hesitation. “A typical building for the late Middle Ages,” historians say. Strange, but none of them can tell the exact time of the creation of the castle. Presumably this is the 17th - 18th centuries, but possibly even earlier. Most likely, when the castle was being built, Christians still lived on the territory of Ingushetia. Islam began to spread among the local population in the 18th century and has not yet had time to leave its mark on appearance local buildings.
The cult of stone - this is how you can briefly describe the very essence of this structure. It's amazing, but two are massive battle towers were erected without any foundation. In fact, they stand on shale rocks. Quite widespread construction technology of that time: milk was poured on the proposed construction site, on the ground. All the soil through which it seeped was removed and poured further - until the milk ceased to be absorbed. After that, the very first stones of huge sizes, larger than human growth, were placed, which ensured the stability of the structure. “With amazing slenderness, proportionality and quite high altitude, they are stable and durable, ”the artist Shcheblykin wrote about the military Ingush towers, leaving quite a lot of research about this place and sketches of local structures. A special lifting gate was used to transport the stones.
And in Caucasian legends there is a mention that the stones for the base of the tower were pulled by nine pairs of bulls, and twelve horses could not budge.
- Before starting the construction of a castle or a tower, a sacrifice was necessarily made. The site of the future building was sprinkled with the blood of a sacrificial ram, and only after that work could begin.
In addition to the construction method, the technology of preparing a solution for fastening stones to each other on the upper tiers of the tower is also surprising. One of its main components, judging by the results of laboratory studies, is casein (a protein that is formed when milk is sour). In fact, the solution is a mixture of lime, sand and milk. He still holds the clutch "tightly".
It is not surprising that the skill of stone handling in those days was highly valued. For centuries, the practice of building stone castles was passed from family to generation, and all the prominent masters in this business were known by their names. For the successors of traditions, a matter of honor was not only the quality of the construction, but also the observance of the construction deadlines. The master was given exactly one year, and if for some reason he did not meet the deadlines, a shameful stain fell on his entire family, and the tower itself was dismantled to the ground and the order was given to others. As a rule, the masters always did well. In any case, the Vovnushki castle is a clear confirmation of the skill and punctuality of its creators.
- The Ingush believed that all troubles were caused by hunger. Therefore, the duties of the customer included a daily dense diet for builders and masons. If the master fell from the tower from dizziness, the owner was accused of greed and expelled from the aul.
Vovnushki, 1910
In the Middle Ages in the North Caucasus, the main unit of the organization was tribal associations - teips. The defense and watchtowers in Vovnushki were erected by the respected old teip Ozda (Ozdoevy).
Life and customs of the inhabitants of the castle
Previously, the two towers were connected by a suspension bridge, and in the event of a siege, women, old people and children moved to a safer tower. If we talk about the height, then we can draw a parallel with the seven-story building (the architects of that time, as a rule, did not erect combat towers higher than 30 meters).
You could get inside only through the second floor, it was there that Entrance door- this deprived enemies of the opportunity to use a ram during a siege. The first floor, without windows or doors, served both as a storage place for food and as a basement for prisoners. On the second floor, as a rule, there was the most valuable thing that the inhabitants of the military towers possessed - the fraternal cauldron: a large container on a thick chain. The cauldron was endowed with magical qualities and was worshiped as a shrine (it was believed that the souls of the dead hovered over it). Even if the bloodline, fleeing from pursuit, managed to run inside the tower and touch sacred cauldron, he was not touched until he was far enough from the shrine.
The upper floors were residential. The inhabitants of the towers moved between floors by ladders. And the uppermost one was used as an attic, where weapons, building materials and other things needed in everyday life were kept.
Features of the burials of Ingush soldiers
Crypt structures were usually built not far from battle castles. Vovnushki is no exception: if you climb a little up the gorge, you can find an ancient crypt and a mausoleum, which has a very curious cannonball shape. In the Middle Ages, overground crypts were often erected in Ingushetia, where the dead were laid on shelves in several rows, and their bodies were subjected to the so-called "natural mummification".
The medieval castle complex "Vovnushki" is one of the most exotic and striking monuments in the country. It delights not only tourists, but also architects who pay tribute to the Ingush, who knew how not only to defend themselves well, but also to build magnificently. It is no coincidence that this castle is one of the wonders of the Caucasus, and even periodically claims to be ranked among the wonders of the world. His greatness obliges. After all, the self-name of the Ingush is galgai, which means the inhabitants of the towers.
The foundation of the castle was the ridges of the slate rocks of the Gulai-khi river gorge. The fortress consists of two detached castles, once connected by a suspension bridge. The base of each is one and two combat four-tier towers with flat roofs and a parapet.
"Vovnushki" are part of the Dzheyrakh-Assinovsky Museum-Reserve. Historians and art critics consider it one of the masterpieces of medieval architecture, but in general the ethnocultural traces of the Ingush go back to the New Stone Age. Sightseers accompanied by detailed story a guide about events related to this unusual castle, well imagine how these towers at one time met the trade caravans of the Great Silk Road and reflected the raids of greedy robbers.
They say that the highlanders built this castle on a non-random place. It was determined with the help of milk that was poured onto the ground. They began to build where it was not absorbed into the soil. Moreover, with the help of milk, they made a solution that has been holding the stones of the building for five centuries, and will keep it, apparently, forever. Such strong masonry is not found anywhere else in the world. The peculiarity of the territory on which "Vovnushki" is located is a lively, unceasing wind. Free and fresh, like the character of the highlanders. No wonder they are so proud of themselves and their historical monuments.
Very little is known about the time of the construction of the towers of the Vovnushki complex, but we can confidently assume that each of the towers was built within one year, like other ancestral towers of the Vainakhs. It was considered obligatory to meet the construction of the tower within 365 days. If it was not possible to complete the construction of the tower within a year, then it was not completed, but dismantled into stones or left abandoned. The very fact was a weak spot on the teip who was building the tower.
Many legends are associated with Vovnushki, but one of them looks like a true story. The essence of the legend is simple: once during the siege of the towers, a Vainakh woman saved many babies. When one of the towers was set on fire, she dragged the cradles with the kids, miraculously managing to run several times along the rope left over from the destroyed by the enemies suspension bridge between the two towers of Vovnushki.
In 2008, the Vovnushki tower complex became a finalist of the competition project Seven Wonders of Russia, organized by the Izvestia newspaper, the Rossiya TV channel and the Mayak radio station.
In 2009, the image of the Vovnushki tower complex appeared on the Russian Post stamp “Republic of Ingushetia” in the “Regions” series.
In 2010, the Bank of Russia in the series “Architectural Monuments” of commemorative coins of Russia issued 10,000 copies of a silver coin depicting one of the watchtowers of the “Vovnushki” complex with a denomination of 3 rubles and a weight of 31.1 grams.
Since ancient times, the towers have attracted the attention of historians, travelers and ethnographers. One of the most enduring types of structures, they have appeared in the cultures of various peoples over the centuries. These are complex and expensive pieces of architecture.
In the North Caucasus, the towers carried both a residential function and a defensive function, which is why they were most often patrimonial sentries. Due to enemy invasions, most of these structures have not survived. Some of the towers were family-owned. According to custom, the tower had to be built no more than a year, otherwise the clan might be considered unfavorable; it was usually erected near the settlement. The early watchtowers (XV-XVII centuries) differed from the ancestral watchtowers in height and location.
The village of Itzari
On the outskirts of the plateau, near the Dagestan village of Itzari, there is a round patrimonial watchtower. Local residents erected it on the outskirts of the village to protect themselves from the raids of the neighboring community. A decorative hanging cornice is placed in the tower, copying the hinged loopholes for vertical shelling of the enemy. The entrance is located on the second floor level. The wall thickness decreases towards the top. The tower was assembled from chipped stones, smeared with clay mortar. Small stones were used to level the masonry. This type of construction is typical for Dagestan.
The village of Musrukh
The seven-storey patrimonial watchtower at the steep slope of the mountain in the village of Musrukh was built by the Keleb community. She was needed to defend against the tribal communities of the Gidatl Valley. The tower, installed in the central part of the village, occupies a dominant position both in it and in the basin of the Keleb Valley. The height of the structure and its placement on a rocky site provided excellent visibility.
Aul Hulam
In Balkaria, in the upper reaches of the Cherek-Balkar and Khulamo-Bezengi gorges, the towers were built at strategically important points. They were a perfectly thought-out defensive system. The Khulam patrimonial watchtower is located above the Khulam aul, on the left side of the Khulamo-Bezengi gorge. It was erected on an inaccessible horizontal site. One could get to the tower only along a dangerous mountain path, which ended with a barrier wall between the rocks.
Mamiya-Kala Tower
The Khuzruk three-story tower (Mamiya-Kala) was erected on the top of Mount Kala-Basha. The arched entrance is located on the ground floor level. Communication between the floors was carried out by ladders through hatches in the inter-level ceilings. Mamiya-Kala has a square base. The walls are composed of perfectly adjoining hewn stones, smeared with a lime mixture. On the walls of each level there are ledges for interfloor beams. Near the entrance there is a well carved into the wall and lined with stones. It was used to store food supplies and fuel.
Amirkhan tower
The Amirkhan Tower near the ancient village of Shkanty is an outpost of the defensive system of the Cherek-Balkar Gorge. It was built on a five-meter boulder, of hewn stones, smeared with lime mortar. According to the assumption of the historian I. M. Miziev, the tower consisted of two floors.
Bolat-Kala complex
The main attraction of the village of Upper Balkaria is the Bolat-Kala tower complex, which is considered the most powerful defensive structure of the Cherek-Balkaria gorge. Initially, it was a single-chamber building with a fortified barrier wall. Then a two-chamber annex was erected at the main tower; through its windows and loophole, the entire surrounding area was clearly visible. The entrance to the complex is in a wall opening adjacent to the cliff. Several wells in the corner of the main tower were used for household needs.
Erzi complex
The largest and best preserved is the Erzi castle complex in the Dzheyrakhsky region of Ingushetia. It consists of nine combat towers, twenty residential towers and two semi-combat towers. Archaeologists believe that the complex was created from hewn boulders in the XIV-XVII centuries. The towers have no foundations, they are located on a rocky terrace, behind them rise Mountain peaks... The five-tiered battle towers have survived almost entirely to this day.
Towers as a symbol
Many tower complexes and family watchtowers are found in the eastern part of Balkaria, near the border with North Ossetia.
The North Caucasian towers symbolize the honor of the family, solidarity and courage, being the pinnacle of the construction and architectural skill of the highlanders of the North Caucasus.
April 13, 2015 6:44 pmI'll start the post with arguments from one LJ, which I accidentally stumbled upon while looking for information on this topic. Moreover, the author has exactly the same questions as me.
Tower of Kurt and Taga in Kurtat gorge
"I am not a historian, not an archaeologist, I am a photographer. I have been engaged in photography for a long time and, as some believe, successfully. Most of my archive consists of photographs of various places in North Ossetia, my homeland. Naturally, my collection also contains a section dedicated to the medieval architecture of Ossetia. After all, our unique tower complexes, lonely medieval towers and crypts are not the decoration of the republic, but its face, and even, to some extent, the philosophy of our life.
Tsmyti is the most beautiful tower complex in Ossetia
While traveling and filming the towers, admiring the boldness of the architectural and engineering solutions of our ancestors, given their modest technical capabilities, you involuntarily ask yourself the question - “For what? For what purpose?". As a child, when, without hesitation, I believed everything that was said by the elders, I was quite happy with the military-defensive version of the construction of these towers. Lighting fires, throwing stones at attackers, a sentry post, climb into an inaccessible place and wait ... But, judge for yourself. Why it was necessary to build a heavy architectural structure only in order to make a fire on it in a moment of danger, when there is a suitable stone or rock nearby and it is enough to build a light shed for storing brushwood. For defense, many of the medieval towers (from the point of view of modern man) are also not suitable. I climbed many of them, tried to imagine myself as a medieval warrior…. Well, it is very inconvenient, standing at the top, pouring boiling water down (it will cool down in the wind anyway), throwing large stones at passers-by, or dragging molten lead upward. And to shoot from a firearm, in my opinion, is much more convenient from the side of a mountain, hiding behind a boulder. "Hide and wait", but many towers "stuck" into the rocks have such a small usable area that even two have nowhere to turn around, and only a professional climber with a set of pitches and ropes can climb to the saving bastion. And it was necessary to hide and protect venerable elders, obese women and small children. In general, the military-defensive version of the origin of the towers raises doubts for me.
Almost inaccessible tower in the village. Zintsar (Os-Bagator castle)
What were they built for? And why are towers being built today? At the temples, at the entrance to the village, at the entrance to the alpine camp, in your yard? For defense? - no, for storing utensils? - no, it is unlikely to attract tourists. So in the XII-XIV centuries ", perhaps, on the territory of our republic there was also a custom (fashion, if you like). Each self-respecting surname had to perpetuate its family with such a monument. It is not without reason that many towers are family towers. Or a monument - the tower was erected in honor of any significant event, like the tower of Kurt and Tag in the Kurtatin gorge. Our ancestors amused their "I."
Taken from the Journal of Vladimir Mayorov.
The mystery of the Svan towers (Georgia)
First of all, Svaneti is famous for its towers. There are a great many of them here, Mestia and Ushguli, generally represent a continuous forest of towers. There are towers in every courtyard. Namely, in order to look at the towers, huge crowds of tourists come here.
But what is interesting, at the moment, no one knows for certain, neither how these towers were built, nor why.
In general, the tower is a structure of regular shape, with smooth walls, two to three stories high. The time of the construction of most of the towers dates back to the XII-XIII centuries.
The main theory of the emergence of towers is combat, they say, they were built for defense, which makes sense, because the tower. But the trouble is, there were no internal wars in Svaneti, and most of the towers were built during the "golden age", when no one invaded Svaneti. So why build towers? Backlog for the future? May be. That's just, the towers, in their current state, are not very suitable for defense, a simple example is that most towers have windows on only one side, and most interestingly, often, these windows look in the opposite direction from the likely place of the enemy's appearance. Agree that it looks silly for a battle tower. True, on the upper floors, there are often windows looking at the foot of the tower, but they look more like observation windows than loopholes, while they are narrow enough so that something significant can be dropped from them, perhaps pouring resin ...
Another theory is living quarters. But this theory is very weak, all the locals unanimously argued that no one had ever lived in the towers. And this is very similar to the truth, for one simple reason - there is no fireplace in the tower. And this, given the harsh climate of Svaneti, is a very serious argument.
Some say that supplies were kept in the towers. But then it is not clear why the tower? Why do we need vertical, smooth walls and windows that look so much like loopholes? But the fact that food was sometimes stored in the towers is true.
Also interesting is the fact that when the village was captured, the towers were most often demolished? What for? After all, if this is a defensive structure, wouldn't it be better to use it for your own purposes?
In general, in the history of the Svan towers, there is much that is mysterious, and the most mysterious is that no one knows exactly why they were needed. And while scientists are guessing, the towers continue to stand, empty, like many centuries before.
Vainakh towers in Chechnya and Ingushetia
The lands of Chechnya and Ingushetia are often called the “country of the Vainakhs”. The Vainakhs are the common ancestors of the Chechens and Ingush, from whom they inherited a single language (with different dialects) and culture. For many centuries, this people lived on the territory between Ossetia and Dagestan, along the Main Caucasian ridge.
Here, in the valleys of turbulent rivers and between high mountain ranges, he left behind a great architectural heritage: pagan sanctuaries, temples, ancestral crypts and towers.
"Towers of two rivals" in Ingushetia
In the mountainous Dzheyrakhsky region of Ingushetia and the adjacent mountainous regions of Chechnya, there are hundreds of medieval stone tower complexes, villages, just detached towers. The practice of building towers dates back to the 5th century.
Almost all of them are located on hills. Many of them are poorly studied, but striking in their magnificence. The fact that they are little known is a consequence of their actual inaccessibility. In other words, the passage to them is extremely difficult and dangerous.
Twin Towers from Ushkaloy, Argun Gorge
It is believed that these towers are divided into combat and residential. Maybe later they were already adapted for these purposes, but for what purpose they were built, it is not known.
Ingush towers
The most famous tower complex in Ingushetia is Vovnushki. Standing in the picturesque gorge of the Guloy-Khi River, the stone towers look like a natural continuation of the rocks. Tower complex Vovnushki in 2008 became a finalist of the "Seven Wonders of Russia" competition.
Oddly enough, but the towers of the North Caucasus bear similarities with the towers from the Sichuan province in China and with the towers of the Anasazi Indians in California.
Towers of tibet
In Tibet and in the Chinese province of Sichuan, there are also strange ribbed towers, some with ten-story buildings. There are more than a thousand such ancient structures in the southwest of China. The local population does not know who, when and why created them. The very first towers are said to have been built in these places as early as 1700 BC.
Unlike the Ingush towers, the towers of the Sichuan province are star-shaped: some represent an eight-pointed star in plan, others a twelve-pointed one.
Anasazi Indian towers whose culture developed in the southwest North America in the beginning. III-XV centuries, also resemble the towers of the Caucasus.
Desert View Watchtower, a replica of Indian towers, built in 1932.
Round towers of Ireland
Ireland is literally dotted with incomprehensible towers that are not found anywhere else. More precisely, there are two more in Scotland and one on the Isle of Man. For three centuries, historians and architects have not been able to explain their purpose. There are 65 such towers throughout the island. And 23 more fully or partially destroyed towers.
The towers were obviously built according to the same technology, they differ only in diameter and height. The height ranges from 18 to 34 meters. The walls of the tower are lined with little processed stone and lime mortar. The tower has two walls - an internal and an external one. The inner one goes straight, and the outer one with a slight slope towards the top. The space between the walls is filled with mortar.
The stone dome of the towers, which has a conical shape, also raises questions. Why is it so complex and massive?
It is interesting that the entrance to the tower is located at a height of 1.5 to 7 meters above the base. The builders did not foresee any steps leading to this entrance. The towers were erected over 5 centuries, from 700 to 1200.
The first written mention of these towers appears in the XII century. It wrote that the towers symbolize the yearning of people for God. Well, what else could write in those years, the prelate of the church, about incomprehensible buildings?
Only in the era of the Enlightenment in the 17th century, the assumption arose that these towers had nothing to do with the church. And a diametrically opposite version emerged - the towers were erected by the Vikings to control the local population. But the Vikings, then, would have to build such towers not only in Ireland. Yes, and in the central part of the island, there are towers, but there are no traces of the Vikings. So it’s not the Vikings after all.
The latest official version says that the towers were built to shelter in them during the Viking raids. Indeed, the towers are located near Christian churches. And the high entrance allowed people to climb the ladder and hide during the raids. And the lime mortar began to be used only in the days of Christianity.
But as it turned out, lime mortar was used on the island in the Bronze Age. This is evidenced by a crypt discovered by archaeologists in Belfast, from the Bronze Age. And how much a shelter like a tower could protect from the Vikings?
It seems that the purpose of these towers has not been fully revealed.
Fantastic towers of Bologna
Of all the antiquities, Bologna's towers are the most impressive. Especially in the center of Torre Asinelli and Torre Garisenda.
With a height of 97.2 m, the tower is the tallest structure historic center Bologna and the tallest of the "leaning towers". Even during the construction, the tower began to deviate, and today this slope is 1.3 °, with an offset of 2.2 m in the upper part. And the neighboring Garisenda tower was shortened three times due to its slope by 3 m, and today its height is 48 m.
There is no exact date for the construction of the Asinelli Tower, but construction is believed to have begun between 1109 and 1119. However, the first document mentioning the Asinelli Tower only dates back to 1185, almost seventy years after the supposed date of construction. The name of the tower comes from the family traditionally attributed to the construction of this structure.
According to legend, in the Middle Ages, there was an unspoken competition among the richest families in Bologna: whoever builds a tower higher than others deserves the highest honor.
In the XIV century, the city authorities became the owners of the Asinelli tower. Since then, the tower has been used both as a prison and as a fortress.
And they also write that then, in the 12th century, such towers were built by all wealthy families, so that Bologna in those years resembled Manhattan. It was then which towers themselves collapsed, which ones were dismantled, so that only a few survived to this day.
San Gimignano: the city of "one hundred towers".
In another Italian little San Gimignano, the concentration of towers is so high that it feels like a little man among skyscrapers.
Why is it, why? But, again, they write "in order to show their wealth and power, the family built towers, so in the XIV century there were 72 towers, of which 14 have survived."
"Medieval skyscrapers"
Towers Central Asia and the Middle East
Many will say that there is nothing unusual about them - these are minarets, but ...
Burana Tower, Kyrgyzstan, circa 10th century.
For some reason, the entrance is not at ground level. Didn't the builders look for easy solutions?
The original height of the tower was at least 40 m, its upper part was thrown off by an earthquake. Today the height is just over 21 meters.
Inside the tower
Swastika ligature
Near the Burana tower there is an ancient settlement covered by soil.
Qaboos Tower (Iran), built in 1006-1007. We see the same massive conical roof as in Ireland.
This is how the tower looked before restoration
Sanbenito. Minaret of al Malwiyah, Iraq. The approximate date of construction is 849.
The quality of stone blocks processing is amazing.
Jam minaret in Afghanistan.
In one of the remote and desolate corners of Afghanistan, there is a mysterious tower. An altitude of more than 1500 meters above sea level and rocks made it difficult to access, and this is what allowed it to survive to this day. For a long time this tower was forgotten, until in 1957 it was reopened.
The top of the first tier contains the text from the Koran. There is also another inscription indicating that this minaret was built by Giyas-ud-Din Muhammad ibn Sam, who is one of the leading rulers of the Gurid Empire. According to the same inscription, it is believed that the Jamsky minaret was built in 1194.
And its mystery also lies in the fact that the entrance to this structure was not found. Now his role is played by the passage that has already been punched in our time.
These are just some of the towers - minarets, as modern historians believe. Maybe this is one of their assignments, but I think not the initial one.
With the support of Nikon, in the fall of 2015, Nikon Ambassador Alexander Zheleznyak made an extensive research trip to the Caucasus to find the descendants of the builders of the famous ancestral towers of North Ossetia. Upon his return, Alexander told an amazing story about this photo expedition, the reasons for the trip to this amazing land, as well as what he managed to see and capture in the pictures.
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Camera: Nikon D800
In my childhood there was a magazine "Soviet Photo". I then reviewed all the files at my grandfather's, I was madly in love with the photographs. And somehow I came across a report from North Ossetia with these harsh mountains and battlements of dilapidated turrets. And when I found myself in the Digorsky gorge for the first time five years ago, I suddenly realized that this is the very place that I saw in my childhood in that magazine. We have many undervalued places in terms of tourism, and North Ossetia is definitely worth the trip.
My main goal, as with any journey, was to film a good human story. That is, not just a single photo to show later: “Oh, look at what shot!”, But a whole reportage, where there are heroes and the space in which they live. The shot itself is often just luck. But pulling out stories, characters, human stories is, it seems to me, more important. Every photographer, of course, wants to shoot something that no one else has filmed, that no one else has seen. And, by and large, if we talk about nature - probably almost everything has been filmed. A lot of things have already been recorded and documented.
What can we surprise people with now? Only with a new emotion that you convey through the frame. Towers for me are material evidence of the existence of a person in this space many centuries ago. They have been here for so long that they have already merged with nature. It is like an extension of the mountain, carrying the spirit of history, the spirit of the people who once lived here. It is also interesting that the historical owners are returning here now. And I was just hoping to find those towers where people still live, and find those families who are restoring their ancestral towers. I have always won over when a family keeps its history, knows its roots. In the era of globalism, which mercilessly blurs cultural differences, these towers are a kind of opposition to globalization. Something that you can hold on to and preserve history and traditions.
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Camera: Nikon D800
There are many amazing things in Digoria beautiful places which, with skillful management, will become popular tourist routes... Now there is a need for such tourism - our people have traveled around the world and now they want to receive such services at home. And in North Ossetia there are more than enough textures. Digoria is considered one of the most pristine gorges in the North Caucasus. Only now a normal road has been built here, it will allow tourists to come here, and not just off-road fans in off-road vehicles. Higher up the gorge begins national park Alanya, and the development of ecotourism will definitely be in demand here.
When entering North Ossetia, all guides in Digoria first show the Devil's Bridge. The location is really impressive! They even jump from the bridge with a bungee, but I would, frankly, be afraid. The Devil's Bridge is located in the narrowest part of the gorge, where the river has cut a narrow passage into the plain. And from above, a great shot opens up for the first shot. When you stand at the top of the shooting, a beautiful composition is almost always obtained from this angle. I was too lazy to take a tripod with me, so I used the railing to capture the long exposure view and smudge the texture of the water. Due to the difference in the texture of the water and the rocky relief, the river protrudes directly into the frame, as if drawn.
This is how our report begins: we found a car, a driver, a horseman and drove to the Digorskoye gorge. A good driver and a good car are, by the way, very important conditions for successful travel photography. In general, organizational moments very often either draw out a reportage, or kill. Therefore, thinking over a trip, you need to look not just for a formal driver on a killed car, but always for a fan of the region who knows local residents, how to communicate correctly, and he himself is fired up with the idea of making a good photo. And, of course, the car should not be afraid of mountain roads or their absence.
We arrived in North Ossetia in early October, when autumn is just beginning and the larches turn a little yellow. A great time for photography is at the end of October, when the mountain slopes and terraces burn with the yellow-red fire of autumn foliage. But you can not guess with the weather. We, of course, also lacked the sun at some points, but in short trip you always use the weather that is today - maybe tomorrow the rain will fall like a wall, and in general there will be no visibility, let alone landscapes. In some places, I deliberately stayed a little longer to wait for the sun to highlight the top with the tower and get a beautiful shot. At such moments, I recall the stories of the master of Soviet landscape photography Vadim Evgenievich Gippenreiter, who told me how he spent a week in a tent on the banks of the Lena River in anticipation of that very light ...
Aperture: f / 5.6
Exposure: 1/3200
ISO: 200
Focal length: 80mm
Camera: Nikon D800
AF-S VR NIKKOR 80-400mm f / 4.5-5.6G ED
For landscape photography, first of all, it is important that the composition has a multidimensional character, so that the picture turns out to be three-dimensional, deep in content. Then you start thinking about light and color. Sometimes there are no differences in depth, relief, but unexpected light spots complement and make the picture deep. In the foreground, we have, for example, a river that glistens with a silver snake. On the second, there is a ridge with many towers. And then there are several more ridges, and the most jagged peak at the top is the Greater Caucasus Range, behind it is Georgia. A very rich landscape is obtained. Such pictures can be taken for a very long time, because the light changes, the wind drives the clouds, then the rays break through. Serious landscape photography is, of course, time consuming.
But you will not be full of landscapes, and therefore it is worth taking a separate time local cuisine... Not in terms of consumption, but in the quality of reportage photography. Any region has established culinary traditions, and when you find yourself in the kitchen, where the hostess is preparing something completely ordinary in her opinion, then for you it turns out to be the very case when the hero is busy and he has no time to pose for the camera.
Aperture: f / 4.0
Exposure: 1/1250
ISO: 1250
Focal length: 16mm
Camera: Nikon D800
Lens: AF-S NIKKOR 16-35mm f / 4G ED VR
Then we arrived at the village of Akhsau. Many people know this name from the eponymous mineral water, which is sold throughout Russia. A whole defensive complex of several towers has been preserved in the village. Our guide Fidar says that the complexes were built in the Alan era. Wherever the Alans settled, the construction of residential towers and defensive complexes was carried out. Masuk - defensive towers, ganah - residential. Then household buildings grew around the tower, gradually family towers different families turned into a single fortification. We found one restored tower in Akhsau. At ground level, there was usually a barn and all kinds of economic affairs, higher - a tier with a hearth, even higher - a residential level, then a warehouse, and already on the roof - a signal and defensive platform. There were no cannons in the mountains in those days; battering guns on such a relief had nowhere to turn around. Therefore, in an autonomous mode, such a tower could live and defend itself for at least several months, if there was enough food and water. Towers were built along the entire gorge in such a way that one could see the other. If an enemy approached, a signal fire was made on the roof, and after five minutes the whole gorge knew about the danger when the enemy was just entering the gorge from the plain.
Aperture: f / 10.0
Exposure: 1/125
ISO: 200
Focal length: 16mm
Camera: Nikon D800
Lens: AF-S NIKKOR 16-35mm f / 4G ED VR
Only wealthy families could build ancestral towers. Each processed stone had a considerable price. Again, it was not cheap to deliver materials from the quarry to the construction site along the paths on special devices - carts were not used then, there were no roads for them. One stone could be worth a whole lamb or even a bull. They say to erect Egyptian pyramids it was easier than doing such a construction in the mountains. There were several masters throughout Digoria. In fact, the stones of the tower can be used to calculate what flock of sheep needed to have in order to start building. Depending on the complexity, one tower required from a month to several years of labor.
Aperture: f / 5.6
Exposure: 1/400
ISO: 640
Focal length: 250mm
Camera: Nikon D800
Lens: AF-S VR NIKKOR 80-400mm f / 4.5-5.6G ED
One of the towers in the village of Akhsau belongs to the Buzoev family, or, as they say here, surnames. The entire surname raised funds and was engaged in the restoration on its own. By today's standards, rebuilding a tower, depending on its condition, could cost several million. And the Telokurov family, for example, has a whole castle complex. The number of restored or at least mothballed towers in modern Ossetia is small. The towers are architectural monuments, but in their restoration the names have to rely only on their own strength.
Aperture: f / 4.5
Exposure: 1/250
ISO: 250
Focal length: 16mm
Camera: Nikon D800
Lens: AF-S NIKKOR 16-35mm f / 4G ED VR
Today it is already difficult to say how many towers there were and how many remain in the whole of North Ossetia. The archaeologist and ethnographer of the North Ossetian Research Institute of History, Philology and Economics Vitaly Tmenov published a book on this issue, but even this thorough work did not include all the mountain architectural heritage, which in the old days could have several hundred towers. Turrets are scattered all over mountain gorges North Ossetia. With their help, the mountains became an absolutely controlled territory. They can be compared to modern webcams. Towers are not only about fighting invaders. The danger in the mountains can come from a completely different direction: mudflows, glaciers, earthquakes. Remember the Kolka glacier and the tragedy in the Karmadon Gorge. After all, it is not a one-time, this glacier is constantly growing and breaking off, two or three times in a hundred years.
Aperture: f / 6.3
Exposure: 1/25
ISO: 160
Focal length: 16mm
Camera: Nikon D800
Lens: AF-S NIKKOR 16-35mm f / 4G ED VR
In general, it must be said that the plan for our short expedition was simple. We drove from tower to tower, looked into almost every residential courtyard, talked with people and asked about the fate of families, towers, villages, hoping to find representatives of families who guard architectural treasures. And, of course, just chatting is not about Ossetians. The old men, when they found out that we had arrived for the towers, immediately took us into the house. Then granddaughters came, Ossetian pies and something stronger than tea appeared on the table. They happily talked to the camera, as if it weren't there at all. Each such spontaneous acquaintance with the family ends with a table, lunch, dinner, and, of course, on good trip Ossetia needs not three days, not a week, but a month or two. I had to fight off endless "eat". It usually started like this: “We are happy. Thanks a lot". Then: "We have already overeat, this is no longer possible." And already at the end: "Let's go, let's go, or we'll die here from overeating!"
Aperture: f / 6.3
Exposure: 1/40
ISO: 160
Focal length: 17mm
Camera: Nikon D800
Lens: AF-S NIKKOR 16-35mm f / 4G ED VR
Ossetians, of course, consider the Digorskoye Gorge to be the most beautiful in the Caucasus. And there is a reason, of course. Also, the locals say that Prometheus was chained to the rocks right here. But, to be honest, there are so many "Promethean" rocks in the Caucasus, as if the titan went on tour.
In the end, we got to the ancient Galiat, which was once a rich city and where the highest towers of Ossetia stand. On one of them, diapers were quietly drying themselves, as if this monument of the Middle Ages had never interrupted its measured rural life with its everyday life.
Aperture: f / 10.0
Exposure: 1/2000
ISO: 200
Focal length: 220mm
Camera: Nikon D800
Lens: AF-S VR NIKKOR 80-400mm f / 4.5-5.6G ED
The amazing thing about travel is that, even if it is planned, there is always a place for chance encounters and extraordinary things. We visited a modern Galiatz. At his house we saw a photographic reproduction of what the city was like in the 19th century, and literally beyond the threshold we compared how the mountain town had changed over the years. Of course, in Galiat we also ended up at a feast and risked being drunk by the hospitable host to the point of unconsciousness. We arrived in the afternoon, and the last video was filmed in the headlights. But what a feast it was - with conversations about ancient city, Odin, the great Ture Heyerdahl and Roerich ... Sometimes it seemed to me that they had something like a sport - to give a guest a drink. And therefore, you need to know the local traditions of the feast. There is even a special toast. If you need to leave, you need to raise your glass and say: "Over the rapids." This means that after this toast you should be released, because the road awaits you. So it is always better to study the background of the place where you are going, otherwise the shooting, of course, may even be disrupted due to the enthusiasm of the local population. Therefore, working in Ossetia is difficult, but very interesting.
Further, our path lay in the neighboring Dargav gorge, in which the city of the dead Dargavs is located. This is a whole complex of semi-underground crypts. A couple of years ago, they paved here good road, and I highly recommend getting to these places if you travel around Ossetia. These are the perfect views for landscape photography. You climb onto one of the shelves, put on a wide-angle lens and get just crazy shots of the valley from the top angle. The dead in these crypts were not buried in coffins, but left on wooden hollowed out pies. And today it is clearly seen that many generations of the family rest in each crypt. This city of the dead looks like in ancient Greek myths - on the one side of the river there is life, and on the other - the last refuge.
Aperture: f / 4.0
Exposure: 1/30
ISO: 1600
Focal length: 16mm
Camera: Nikon D800
Lens: AF-S NIKKOR 16-35mm f / 4G ED VR
In the Kurtat Gorge, we met with the Alborov-Lazarov family, who restored their tower, and now, on big holidays, they come to her, both young and old. Their tower was destroyed almost to the first floor in the 18th century. And then one day the elders called the backbone of the surname from all over the republic to a meeting, pulled up the youth, and in free time who came to work as best they could. The modern surname has 150 households - more than five hundred people. So they restored their ancestral symbol on their own in three years. Each put his hand to the family shrine. Honestly, I would also like to have such a generic tower. This is such a centuries-old relationship of one family, definitely a reason for pride!
On this tower we were able to climb to the roof, and if it were not for the signal function of the site, I would say that the ancient Ossetians were big fans of landscape photography, because they built ideal high points for shooting.
Aperture: f / 22.0
Exposure: 1/25
ISO: 200
Focal length: 16mm
Camera: Nikon D800
Lens: AF-S NIKKOR 16-35mm f / 4G ED VR
Since we are talking about mountains, I would like to note the survivability and reliability of Nikon equipment in such difficult conditions for it. Even if we are by car, we are on a hike. Mountains are sand, dust, moisture, uneven ground and height. This means, according to the rule of the gun on the wall, the camera will one day experience this height on itself. So, my Nikon D810 can be dropped in the valley, then found - it will work. In case of extreme necessity, you can hammer in nails with this device and then continue to take pictures. Since I wanted to see a lot of places, and the travel time is very limited, it means to wait ideal conditions once. Let's say we got to the tower and got inside, and that's it, the sun went down. Ten years ago, I would have only thrown up my hands, or the hassle with a flash and a tripod would have begun, but now I just raise the ISO to 12000 and continue shooting. In terms of lenses, the AF-S VR NIKKOR 16-35mm f / 4G ED and AF-S VR NIKKOR 80-400mm f / 4.5-5.6G ED were indispensable on this trip. Both lenses are versatile and suitable for both landscape photography and reportage, which is exactly what was needed on this trip so as not to overload yourself with unnecessary technology.
Aperture: f / 7.1
Exposure: 7.3 ''
ISO: 800
Focal length: 35mm
Camera: Nikon D800
Lens: AF-S NIKKOR 16-35mm f / 4G ED VR
The most high point of our trip was the pass from Kurtatinsky to Alagir gorge. I managed to shoot the best panoramic shot there. The higher we climbed the mountains, the more nature changed. Alpine meadows, mountain tundra, shumshi berries, which I had previously met only in the mountains Kola Peninsula and in Kamchatka, dwarf birch, rhododendron fields ... If you find yourself in North Ossetia with a camera at the end of June, then all the slopes will be covered with rhododendrons. Landscape photography is good because at any time of the year or even day it will be completely different colors, different frames. The main thing in the work of a landscape painter is not to be lazy. Get up in the dark, climb a higher mountain, look for shots that will only be yours.
Aperture: f / 4.0
Exposure: 1/250
ISO: 320
Focal length: 16mm
Camera: Nikon D800
Lens: AF-S NIKKOR 16-35mm f / 4G ED VR
