It was in 1907. Academician Vladimir Afanasyevich Obruchev - then just a young scientist - walked with his party of geologists through deserts and mountains Central Asia, not far from the border of Kazakhstan.
Once, when the sun was already sinking, the caravan suddenly found itself on some deserted street in an unknown city, which Obruchev had never heard of. Countries
but ... Probably, this is one of the ancient cities long ago destroyed and abandoned by the inhabitants. Here are the ruins old castle, the fortress, round cannonballs of old cannons are stuck in the massive walls, and broken glass is lying underfoot.
Vladimir Afanasyevich would very much like to take a closer look at these ruins, but the sun was already setting, and a place for the night had not yet been chosen, he needed water, he needed to water the horses. No, you can't linger!
And when the next morning came, I had to go further, not to come back for some ruins, because the purpose of the expedition, its tasks are not archaeological, but geological ... I would still like to ... However, Vladimir Afanasyevich did not have time to think out his idea to the end, as I saw ahead again the ancient ruins, very similar to yesterday's! I saw and immediately understood everything!
So that's it! This means that in front of him lay a city that had never been a city, people had never lived in it, and it was not built by human hands. The city that he saw last night was the same ... It was created by the forces of nature: wind and water, heat and cold!
... Once upon a time, a very long time ago, there were mountains of the most common form, mountains like mountains, and they did not resemble anything except mountains. They were built mainly from soft rocks, from soft sandstones, from sandy clays, yellow, pink, greenish. These rocks are easily weathering.
The climate in ancient times was more humid here, mountain rivers and streams rolled their waters with a roar; they made their way through the pliable rocks and grinded them down. Centuries passed, the climate became drier, the fast rivers gradually dried up.
And, like a memory of themselves, these rivers left the channels they had laid. These channels later turned into the streets of the dead city.
Meanwhile, other forces of nature, heat and cold, also worked diligently. During the day, the sun heats up the stone strongly, it expands, at night it cools down a lot and bursts with a noise and crash, like a hot glass bursts when cold water is poured into it. Cracks form in the rocks, they cover it everywhere, become wider and deeper from the constant change of heat and cold. And in winter, when the sun stops heating, or rather, it heats very weakly, water and ice are taken to work. Since autumn, all the cracks are filled with water droplets, in winter the water turns into ice and pushes the cracks apart. After all, the water, freezing, is distributed.
Try to fill the bottle with water, seal it tightly and put it out in the cold. The water will turn to ice and break the bottle.
So from year to year, from century to century, heat and cold, water and ice destroy the stone.
But the final finishing is done by the wind. He climbs into all cracks and crevices, with force sweeps out crumbling fragments, sharp grains of sand. Undercut rocks, ready to crumble, are finally destroyed by the wind, and stubborn, harder, he grinds with sharp grains of sand, grinds them.
This is where the round cannonballs of ancient cannons stuck in the walls of the dead city came from.
The wind sweeps away streaks of white transparent plaster, and then it seems as if fragments of broken glass are lying on the ground.
Wind is the main builder, the main architect of the bizarre rocks. That is why Vladimir Afanasyevich Obruchev called the amazing city he discovered Aeolian, that is, the city created by the wind. Aeolus is a poetic name for the wind, it came to us from Ancient Greece, so they called the god of the winds, the lord of the winds. The venerable academician was never a stranger to the subtle sense of poetry, and therefore he gave his bizarre city the name of the god of the winds - Aeolus!
In different parts of the world, there are rocks that look like giant mushrooms with caps on high thin legs, sometimes these caps are famously shifted to one side and it is impossible to look at them without a smile. Sometimes the rocks take the form of pyramids or some kind of giant needles; sometimes they look like towers, like castles ... But you can rarely see such a cluster of weathered rocks, reminiscent of a real city built by human hands.
The diligent Aeolus has done a great job here. On a large space, he created not only castles and fortresses, but also various sculptures. You might think that real sculptors got down to business, carving various works of art out of stone. Here is a statue resembling egyptian sphinx... Here is an armchair, and a man sits in an armchair, only Aeolus has not yet had time to sculpt his head. Here is a giant figure of a kneeling woman in a wide skirt and a bonnet on her head.
And on the outskirts of the Aeolian city, the god of the winds created a semblance of an old cemetery with mausoleums, giant coffins-sarcophagi, like the ancient Egyptians, and even put up a small house-chapel, as they once did in ancient cemeteries.
Aeolian city - dead city, there are no greenery, no animals, no birds, you will never see fast lizards, even small insects - unless by chance a bug blows in the wind.
The Aeolian city seems to be an enchanted sleeping kingdom on clear nights, when the two-horned silver moon floats among the stars. Quiet. Silently. But ... what is it? It rustled, rustled ... Small sandy whirlwinds rushed like a propeller through the streets and lanes.
It is ruled by the ancient Aeolus, the lord of the winds, the main builder of the bizarre city, discovered by Vladimir Afanasyevich Obruchev.
/ A city created by nature
03.09.2015
A city created by nature
An amazing creation of nature - "Aeolian city" - is located in the vicinity of the village of Kug, Khiva district of Dagestan.
"Aeolian city". This is the name of the creations of nature that resemble man-made ones in their forms. The name comes from the name of the ancient Greek god of the winds Aeolus. In other words, heat, frost, water and wind, like builders erect buildings. In such cities there are certain halls, rooms and bridges. And the inhabitants of these extraordinary " settlements”Are snakes, hares, nightingales, foxes and a variety of insects.
"Aeolian city" is located on the southern slope of one of the spurs of the Karasyrt ridge, separating Vnutrigorny Dagestan from Piedmont in the upper reaches of the Korchagsu River, the right tributary of the Rubaschay River, in 
Khiva district, in the vicinity of the aul Kug.
Two pillar-shaped outliers attract the most attention. They are located close to each other and, towering above the forest thickets, are clearly visible from the village of Kug. One pillar can be climbed without any equipment, since the height of this formation is about ten meters. The top of this pillar is flat, its area is about forty meters, and the walls of the formation are covered with juniper and barberry. The second pillar reaches a height of seventeen meters, it looks like a cylinder, with a diameter of twelve meters.
There are many caves on the territory of the "aeolian city", the most round of them is located in its eastern part. A survey of the karst topography of this area in recent years has shown that there are more than 10 interconnected caves.
On summer days, when the air on the surface of the plateau warms up to 25-30 degrees, the temperature in the caves does not rise above 10-12 degrees. Locals ice is harvested in winter and stored here almost all summer.
The originality of the area has given rise among the local population to many legends and beliefs about 
the origin of this interesting corner nature. In the past, at the top of one of the outliers, residents performed religious rituals, made sacrifices to evil spirits in order to get rid of natural disasters and ailments. Some bizarre shapes relief to superstitious people seemed to be traces of fantastic animals, and the whole area was considered a gathering place for unclean spirits. Even today, some residents of the Kug aul call this area a "sacred forest", attributing the most fantastic properties to it.
Of course, it is not difficult to prove the inconsistency of these inventions, which is what local history teachers do, who, together with their students, make excursions, local history trips to the "aeolian city" and reveal its secrets. 
Local caves are the most popular among tourists. They all arose as a result of exposure to wind and water. The main cave has a lot of labyrinths in which everyone can get lost. Therefore, in search of adventure, it is better to go with an experienced guide and clay.
Today the "aeolian city" is very popular among travelers who prefer not to spend in expensive
five star hotels, and surrounded by nature. Tourists who come here can count on a quiet vacation, which has nothing to do with noisy, smoky megacities, here you can feel like a part of nature and forget about the achievements of civilization.
Aeolian means wind, from the Greek word aeolus - wind. Aeolian city is a city created by the forces, the work of the wind. And the reader has the right to ask: how can the wind create a city?
A city is a collection of buildings of various shapes, sizes and purposes, located on the sides of streets, lanes, squares, gardens and parks, often decorated with monuments in honor of remarkable people or events. The city is built by man from various materials for the joint life of many people in a confined space. In the aeolian city, the creative art of man is completely replaced by the forces of nature - the work of the wind, which is helped by heat and frost, drops of rain and trickles of water, using the peculiarities of the composition, structure and conditions of bedding of rocks and, as a result, creating forms that are more or less similar to human structures. We find such forms, created by the forces of nature, quite often.
In the mountains, there are individual cliffs that look like towers, sometimes even whole castles. On the ridges of mountains and hills, especially in deserts, where the aeolus reaches the greatest strength and works more often and longer, sometimes we find rocks very similar to pillars, tables, needles, mushrooms, pyramids, balls, which attract the attention of the traveler with their shape and cause surprise by their resemblance with works of human hands. In addition to all such forms that can be called positive, the forces of nature also create negative ones: in the form of depressions of various sizes - from small cells that make the surface of a cliff look like a honeycomb, to large niches in which a person can sit or stand, sometimes connected deep one against the other and representing galleries with windows separated by columns.
But nowhere in nature and in descriptions have I found such a combination of forms of various nature in such a quantity and on such a large area that an idea of an Aeolian city could arise, with the exception of the one described below.
This aeolian city is located in the Chinese Dzungaria, on the banks of the Dam River. Dzungaria is northern part Xinjiang Province of the Republic of China, located between the mountain systems of the Eastern Tien Shan in the south, the Mongolian Altai in the north and the Dzungar Alatau in the west. On three sides, the vast Dzungaria depression is limited by these high mountain ranges but in one place, in the northwest corner, these mountains are greatly understood and thinned out; here, in the interval between the Dzhungar Alatau and the Mongolian Altai, from the steppe, which was called the Kirghiz steppe there (now it became part of the Kazakh SSR), the less high chains of Tarbagatai and Saura are being introduced into Dzungaria quite far. The ridges Barlyk, Urkashar and Semistay adjoin them from the south; A little to the south is the Maili-Dzhair chain, which constitutes the continuation of the Dzungar Alatau to the east, separated from the latter by a deep valley called the Dzungar gate. These mountain ranges are separated from one another by more or less wide valleys, along which one can drive from the Soviet Union to the Republic of China without overcoming any high passes, steep ascents and descents. Only in some places there are small areas of the desert
That is why we sometimes hear the sad voice of the nymph Echo in the forest. And Pushkin, captivated by the poetry of the forest echo, created wonderful poems about him:
Does the beast roar in the deaf forest,
Is the horn blowing, is the thunder thundering
Does the maiden over the hill sing
To every sound, your response in the empty air
You will suddenly give birth.
Aeolian city
It was in 1907. Academician Vladimir Afanasyevich Obruchev - then just a young scientist - walked with his party of geologists through the deserts and mountains of Central Asia, not far from the border of Kazakhstan.
Once, when the sun was already sinking, the caravan suddenly found itself on some deserted street in an unknown city, which Obruchev had never heard of. Strange ... Probably, this is one of the ancient cities long ago destroyed and abandoned by the inhabitants. Here are the ruins of an ancient castle, a fortress, round cannonballs of ancient cannons are stuck in massive walls, and broken glass is lying underfoot.
Vladimir Afanasyevich would very much like to take a closer look at these ruins, but the sun was already setting, and a place for the night had not yet been chosen, he needed water, he needed to water the horses. No, you can't linger!
And when the next morning came, I had to go further, not to come back for some ruins, because the purpose of the expedition, its tasks are not archaeological, but geological ... I would still like to ... However, Vladimir Afanasyevich did not have time to think out his idea to the end, as I saw ahead again the ancient ruins, very similar to yesterday's! I saw and immediately understood everything!
So that's it! This means that in front of him lay a city that had never been a city, people had never lived in it, and it was not built by human hands. The city that he saw last night was the same ... It was created by the forces of nature: wind and water, heat and cold!
... Once upon a time, a very long time ago, there were mountains of the most common form, mountains like mountains, and they did not resemble anything except mountains. They were built mainly from soft rocks, from soft sandstones, from sandy clays, yellow, pink, greenish. These rocks are easily weathering.
The climate in ancient times was more humid here, mountain rivers and streams rolled their waters with a roar; they made their way through the pliable rocks and grinded them down. Centuries passed, the climate became drier, the fast rivers gradually dried up.
And, like a memory of themselves, these rivers left the channels they had laid. These channels later turned into the streets of the dead city.
Meanwhile, other forces of nature, heat and cold, also worked diligently. During the day, the sun heats up the stone strongly, it expands, at night it cools down a lot and bursts with a noise and crash, like a hot glass bursts when cold water is poured into it. Cracks form in the rocks, they cover it everywhere, become wider and deeper from the constant change of heat and cold. And in winter, when the sun stops heating, or rather, it heats very weakly, water and ice are taken to work. Since autumn, all the cracks are filled with water droplets, in winter the water turns into ice and pushes the cracks apart. After all, the water, freezing, is distributed.
Try to fill the bottle with water, seal it tightly and put it out in the cold. The water will turn to ice and break the bottle.
So from year to year, from century to century, heat and cold, water and ice destroy the stone.
But the final finishing is done by the wind. He climbs into all cracks and crevices, with force sweeps out crumbling fragments, sharp grains of sand. Undercut rocks, ready to crumble, are finally destroyed by the wind, and stubborn, harder, he grinds with sharp grains of sand, grinds them.
This is where the round cannonballs of ancient cannons stuck in the walls of the dead city came from.
The wind sweeps away streaks of white transparent plaster, and then it seems as if fragments of broken glass are lying on the ground.
Wind is the main builder, the main architect of the bizarre rocks. That is why Vladimir Afanasyevich Obruchev called the amazing city he discovered Aeolian, that is, the city created by the wind. Aeolus is a poetic name for the wind, it came to us from Ancient Greece, so they called the god of the winds, the lord of the winds. The venerable academician has never been a stranger to the subtle sense of poetry and therefore gave his bizarre city the name of the god of the winds - Aeolus!
In different parts of the world, there are rocks that look like giant mushrooms with caps on high thin legs, sometimes these caps are famously shifted to one side and it is impossible to look at them without a smile. Sometimes the rocks take the form of pyramids or some kind of giant needles; sometimes they look like towers, like castles ... But you can rarely see such a cluster of weathered rocks, reminiscent of a real city built by human hands.
The diligent Aeolus has done a great job here. On a large space, he created not only castles and fortresses, but also various sculptures. You might think that real sculptors got down to business, carving various works of art out of stone. Here is a statue that resembles the Egyptian Sphinx. Here is an armchair, and a man sits in an armchair, only Aeolus has not yet had time to sculpt his head. Here is a giant figure of a kneeling woman in a wide skirt and a bonnet on her head.
And on the outskirts of the Aeolian city, the god of the winds created like an old cemetery with mausoleums, giant coffins, sarcophagi, like the ancient Egyptians, and even put up a small house-chapel, as they once did in ancient cemeteries.
The aeolian city is a dead city, there are no greenery, no animals, no birds, you will never see fast lizards, even small insects - unless by chance a bug blows in the wind.
The Aeolian city seems to be an enchanted sleeping kingdom on clear nights, when the two-horned silver moon floats among the stars. Quiet. Silently. But ... what is it? It rustled, rustled ... Small sandy whirlwinds rushed like a propeller through the streets and lanes.
It is ruled by the ancient Aeolus, the lord of the winds, the main builder of the bizarre city, discovered by Vladimir Afanasyevich Obruchev.
Bell in the desert
Once a famous Russian traveler and geographer, a student of the famous Przhevalsky, Vsevolod Ivanovich Roborovsky, traveling through Central Asia, stopped for the night near a small salt lake.
Deserted, lifeless sands spread all around. On the way to the lake, the travelers did not meet a single living soul, except for the occasional antelope. Sometimes shy rodents flashed and a flock of larks flew overhead.
The day was windy. But in the evening the wind died down and silence reigned.
Tired travelers pitched a tent on the shore of the lake, fed the horses, made a fire from the saxaul tree of the desert - and boiled tea.
Roborovsky's guide, Khodjement, sat on the ground with his legs crossed and was delighted to draw a greenish liquid filled with bacon from a bowl. Such tea is drunk in these places, and Roborovsky during his travels got used to it and fell in love with it.
The sun has set long ago. The sky was dark, all with large stars. From the branches of saxaul, a thin stream of fragrant smoke stretched upward, as if incense was smoked in an ancient pagan temple. Silence ... One could only hear the horses crunching nearby.
But what is it? .. As if a bell was ringing? .. It looks like an araba, a local carriage, is going, it has bells. Roborovsky was wary. He looked questioningly at the guide. He sipped his tea calmly.
And the ringing became louder. The horses stopped chewing and moved their ears restlessly.
Do you hear, Khojement? - Roborovsky said quietly.
Khodjement did not answer. The bell rang.
Khodzhement, - again Roborovsky called out to his guide, - why are you silent? Maybe this cart is going and the travelers have lost their way? Maybe we should go out to meet them? - And he made a movement to get up.
But then Khodjement grabbed his hand with force.
