Dargaws
Village
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Dargaws ( Russian Даргавс , Ossetian Дӕргъӕвс ) is a village in the Russian republic of North Ossetia-Alania . Dargaws is located in Prigorodny district and is the eponymous place of the administrative unit Rural Settlement Dargaws, which also includes the villages of Fazikau ( Russian Фазикау ), Lamardon ( Russian Ламардон ), Dschimara ( Russian Джимакра ) and Kakadur ( Russian азикау ). Dargaws is located about 30 kilometers southwest of the capital Vladikavkaz in the valley of the Gizeldon River, not far from the border with Georgia in the North Caucasus . Dargaws is known for the Dargaws necropolis , a centuries-old city of the dead, right next to the village .
Origin of name
There are various attempts to explain the origin of the name. The Ossetian word “дуаргӕс” (for example “duargaes”) means “gatekeeper / defender of the gorge” in German. Another interpretation of the name refers to the Ossetian terms “даргъ” (“darg”, German 'lang' ) and 'фӕз' ('faes', German 'meadow' ).
history
First traces of settlement in the area were backdated during excavations to the 8th and 9th century, when the people of the Alans the territory of the North Caucasus opened up. Preserved buildings, such as multi-story medieval residential and defense towers, are evidence that wealthy families settled in Dargaws and the surrounding area.
Due to the unrest in the area during the Chechen wars, the area around Dargaws has hardly been developed for tourism.
Dargaw Necropolis
history
Dargaws necropolis is located on a mountainside right next to the village . The beginnings of this city of the dead are dated to the 14th century. Dargaw residents buried their dead in above-ground tombs . Some of the dead were buried in improvised wooden boats. Since there is no navigable river in the vicinity of Dargaw, archaeologists interpret this with the belief at the time that the immortal soul of man had to cross a river on the way to heaven. The bodies in the houses of the dead were always clothed and usually buried with additions. When the plague broke out in the area in the 17th century , the houses of the dead were also used as quarantine stations: those infected left the village and went to a crypt, where they usually died of the disease. If there were still living family members of the people suffering from the plague, some of the sick were provided with food in the tombs; If the infected survived the epidemic, they left the crypt and returned to the village. A multi-storey watchtower, the Alikow Tower, which has been preserved to this day, was erected above the death houses. According to old stories, he watches over the peace of the dead. The Dargaw necropolis is one of the largest necropolis in the North Caucasus.
architecture
The Dargaw necropolis consists of almost 100 houses of the dead. The tombs are made of stone and mostly contain wooden shelves for storing the dead. Under each building there is a partially multi-storey crypt , into which the bodies were placed when there was no more space in the crypt above. The houses each have a small window; the incident light was used to place the dead. Due to the location of the city of the dead on the mountainside, the window also meant that the wind always blew into the tombs and that some corpses were mummified . The houses of the dead have different roof shapes, for example pyramid , cone and gable roofs have been preserved. Smaller tombs have simple flat roofs.
Legends
Various myths and legends have grown up about the Dargaw necropolis and its origins.
An old legend about the origins of the necropolis tells that there was once a beautiful girl in the Dargaws area that every man wanted to win over. A quarrel broke out among the men, which even the elders could not resolve because they too had fallen for the girl. It was decided that it would be best to kill the girl for the sake of peace. However, this act angered the gods, and the men were punished with a rare disease. To escape this torment, the men tried to bury themselves alive, but the earth spat their bodies again. According to legend, the first houses of the dead were built at Dargaws to lock the damned in and let them die.
In front of many of the houses of the dead there are small fountains in which archaeologists often discovered coins. This reflects an old Ossetian belief. If a person died, the relatives tossed a coin into the well. If she landed on a stone, it meant for the dead man's soul that she could ascend to heaven.
The necropolis is cursed by today's residents of the area. There is a legend that you could enter the city of the dead, but not leave it alive.
gallery
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ According to another version of the legend, the beautiful girl did not come from Dargaws, but was kidnapped there by warriors.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Federal Service for State Statistics of the Russian Federation: Итоги Всероссийская перепись населения 2010 года по РСО-Алания. (Results of the 2010 North Ossetia-Alania National Census) . ( Website with official census documents ).
- ↑ Alexandre Sladkevich: Tower settlements in the Caucasus . Spiegel Online , May 16, 2015
- ↑ Alexandre Sladkevich: Fascinating Archeology: In the Necropolis of the Caucasus . Spiegel Online , May 16, 2015
- ↑ a b Даргавс - «город мертвых» (Dargaws - "City of Death"). turizm.ru, accessed on September 6, 2016 .
- ↑ a b In the necropolis of the Caucasus. In: Spiegel Online . May 16, 2015, accessed September 6, 2016 .
- ↑ Kathy Benjamin: Off to the box . 1st edition. Blanvalet Verlag, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-7341-0243-1 , pp. 17th f . ( Reading sample [PDF; 5.8 MB ] Original title: Funerals To Die For . 2013.).
- ↑ The scariest village in Russia. In: Travelbook.de. September 1, 2016, accessed September 6, 2016 .