The catacombs of Mariupol: Ghosts and a huge snake

In the mysterious catacombs near Mariupol, according to rumors, strange and sometimes inexplicable things happened. Together with the Mariupol stalkers, the Segodnya journalist walked through the dark corridors of either a secret laboratory or a military base.


Everyone knows about the" Tunnel "or" nursery", as the residents of the nearby villages of Granitnoye and Chermalyk call it, except scientists. We have not been able to find any archival records that would lift the veil of secrecy. It remained only to listen to local old-timers who assured of the truth of their words and did not look exalted fans of the series "the X-files".

"You know, there is no smoke without fire. They said that there was a serpentarium (a room for keeping snakes in order to get poison from them - ed.), but something did not work out there, some kind of failure, either an accident, or someone escaped. In General, the object was preserved, " says local resident Roman Valeryevich.

He adds: his grandfather told us that in the 50s and 60s of the last century, the KGB equipped its laboratories in artificial caves that were many kilometers long, where they studied the effects of radiation and subsequent mutation on reptiles and even on people. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the object was strictly classified, the forbidden territory was securely fenced with barbed wire. However, this did not prevent the villagers from visiting this direction, until someone started a rumor that the "Adit" is nothing but a uranium mine. However, no one has ever seen the miners on it, as well as the soldiers who guarded the"ban".

"Once hooligans got into the habit of throwing stones at a woman on the roof-they beat the slate," Vladimir, a resident of Chermalyk, told us. So the older guys are here, sitting at home, waiting to teach the hooligans a lesson,and it's nighttime. They hear the gate creak, then a knock on the roof, so they run after the unknown, and the unknown man in the reeds-and started running across the field, towards the "Tunnel". In General, they drove the scoundrel to the clearing, shining a flashlight: there is a shadow, but there is no person!»

"Today" managed to find a former soldier who shared his memories of the "Tunnel".

"It was in the mid-' 80s. Our platoon was loaded onto trucks and drove for several hours. No one understood where we were going or why, and they didn't explain anything. And I'm a local, my grandmother lived here, I was perfectly oriented when, before reaching Mariupol, we turned off the highway. When we arrived here, we were put on guard, told not to let anyone through, and surprisingly, not to let anyone out. And if something happens-act according to the Charter. We had live ammunition... For five hours I heard cars coming and going. Then we were loaded back into the truck and brought to the unit."

A URANIUM MINE OR A LABORATORY?


There are many mysterious and colorful stories about this object in nearby villages. They say that in the Soviet years, the "Tunnel" was built by prisoners and that for a long time there was mined uranium, and then the radioactive mine was converted into a secret research laboratory, where experiments were conducted on people and animals. However, no matter how diverse the stories are, everyone agrees that this object was strictly classified and it was almost impossible for an ordinary person to get into the depths of caves that go several kilometers underground.


Today, only 400 meters of the catacombs from the entrance have been preserved, everything else is covered with a thick layer of concrete.

"ADIT": GHOSTS AND THE BRIDE'S DRESS


On the old Soviet military map near the "Adit" there is a mark, as it should be at a working mine. However, none of the local residents worked here.

"I was told that there seemed to be tested mining machines. Then, after the collapse of the Union, bandits settled there — they set up a shooting range for themselves, " a former party official told us. According to him, everyone who came here had a lot of questions. For example, why such secrecy? Why are mining machines being tested here, and not in Donetsk, where there were all the conditions for this? What was the point of taking mining equipment for testing this far?


There are fewer answers than riddles. So, the locals saw with their own eyes how snakes crawled out of the tunnel EN masse, 1.5—2 times more than usual. "One evening, my father and I were driving in the car, and then my father cursed and slammed on the brakes. We thought that some smart guy put a thick hose across the road, with a diameter somewhere like a fire hose, the car already jumped when it was run over, - says a resident of the village of Vladimir. — We stopped to remove this 'hose'. We get out of the car, look, and it winds like a bindweed on the road, hisses — and in the direction of the "Nursery" draughty. We jumped into the car and hit the gas…»

There were also strange breeds of rodents that resembled rats that ran out of the site, and unnatural-sized insects that often frightened villagers in their gardens.


Mariupol stalkers have been studying The "gallery-nursery" for several years. They don't really believe in local stories, but they trust their own eyes and cameras. They took the journalist "Today" through the stone caves.


At the entrance to the cave, you can immediately feel the temperature difference. In the ceiling, there are sometimes sealed vents and narrow pipes connecting tunnels. Here, in the catacombs, you can find anything — from the remains of equipment (according to stalkers, not mine, but rather automobile) to an unknown wedding dress, cut in the 1970s and 80s. Which bride had the idea to celebrate a celebration in this place? Whose summer Shoe from the same time remained here forever and, by the way, where is the second one?

Stalkers can't answer these questions. They say what they haven't seen is not worth talking about. Of their own finds, they have only... photo of a Ghost.

"We've been visiting the Adit for three years, and we've heard a lot of stories about giant snakes. We don't know if it's true or not. We also managed to photograph the Ghost. We left the camera here for a long exposure, and in the picture at the end of the tunnel we can clearly see the silhouette of a man, although we know that there was no one there, " said Stalker Zakhar Berkut.

But to find this picture in their archive stalkers could not, they say, mysteriously lost.


As it turned out, ghosts near the tunnel are much more common than mutated snakes. Local schoolchildren have a peculiar tradition — to come to the prom and arrange festivities near the catacombs.

"At the graduation party, my brother, along with his classmates, came here, walked around the clearing and in the undergrowth," says Vladimir, a resident of Chermalyk. Everyone became a crowd, what was the surprise when one of the pictures behind the group revealed the pale face of a stranger. And this is where it is impossible to meet a random passer-by, and someone could not sneak up unnoticed and then just disappear. The girls were hysterical at the time — the evening was completely ruined."

THE INHABITANTS OF THE DUNGEON


Two tunnels "Adits" — almost the complete opposite of each other. The walls of the left tunnel are completely concrete, giving a clear echo. The right-hand tunnel is completely destroyed — because of looters who plundered metal supports, and concrete slabs collapsed, and with them the roof of the cave is constantly collapsing. Locals are afraid to come here.

"As I remember, I still get goosebumps," says Igor krinichny, a local resident of the village of Granitnoye. — A few years ago, I went to the right cave to argue with my friends. The condition was to take a picture against the far wall. I made my way deep with a lighter, respectively, no visibility, barely saw where to put my foot. After about two hundred meters, I heard a rustle. I stopped to look at it, held up the lighter, and it hit me like an electric shock — a few meters away, two huge eyes stared at me, like an insect's. I pulled as hard as I could, and the thing hissed — and behind me, I could hear it moving the stones with its body."