Masha had died, still trying to escape. Inside the mine, the catacombs turned, forked, and led Masha further from the entrance. You'd think they'd have them boarded or locked up pretty tight to avoid homeless people getting lost down there. [citation needed], There have been various reports of people walking into the catacombs, getting lost and then eventually dying of dehydration. But when cause of death was found, they identified him as someone who had been murdered. Everyone wanted to see where poor Masha had met her end. Today, there are dozens of semi-professional catacomb explorer groups that venture into the Odessa catacombs. To put things into perspective: the Roman tunnels are about 170 km (105.63 miles) long, and the Paris ones about 300 km (186.41 miles). In 1961, the Search (Poisk) club was created, headed by Constantine Pronin of the Paleontological Museum of OSU, and became the first official catacomb exploration unit, meant to explore the catacombs and help document the history of the partisan movement. I'm reminded of the infamous video of the guy supposedly wandering lost through the Paris catacombs - although I think I heard somewhere that was ultimately a hoax as well. No one is exactly sure how she died, but it could have been dehydration or hypothermia. Nov 7, 2017 Kate Bulo. Follow us on Twitter to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. [3] Many of the tunnels have been filled up with earth, concrete or sand by construction companies, and are no longer accessible. Then he added that a young boy had just been lost in an accident, and his body was still missing. As is the nature of people, and urban explorers, tunnels and caves outside of the trusted zone serve as an exhilarating adventure. Even after the "Masha," episode, Lata continued to explore the catacombs. Masha and a group of friends thought it would be fun to go out, party, and celebrate at the Stone Mines. The image, it's said, is of a girl who went missing in the catacombs of Odessa, Ukraine a girl, it's said, named Masha or Mashenka, who went down into the twisting tunnels beneath the city in which she lived for a party, but got lost while she was down there. They admitted that they had gone to the Stone Mines, and maybe, just maybe Masha had gone inside. Odessa Catacombs: Day 1 Odessa, Ukraine. The Catacombs are on three levels and reach a depth of 60 metres (200ft) below sea level. It can be really dangerous," he wrote, adding "here are some new pictures of our catacombs. list of hair dyes that contain metallic salts; eglin afb housing floor plans. Pearl did interview another man, Kostya Pugovkin, who claimed to have dragged the corpse in the photograph up and to a police station in the hope of getting a reward; Pugovkin stated that he was told by others that the dead person was "a Satanist who got lost". "The diggers determined it was a Satanist who got lost.". They tried to ignore the malnutrition and malaria which afflicted many of them. Underrated Cinematic Survival Competitions, Great Movies About Missions Doomed from the Start, Survival Myths to Unlearn Before It's Too Late, Must-See Newer Survival Movies and TV Series, Great Movies About Kids Trying to Stay Alive, People Believe A Girl Died In The Endless Odessa Catacombs, But The Mystery Goes Much Deeper, the group had continued to explore the catacombs, a man was sentenced to 13 years in prison for killing a girl in the catacombs. Imagine a glass you can bend and then watch it return to its original form. What started as an ancient Greek colony, in time turned into a metropolis a crucial seaport and an economic hub. (To get a sense of how much tunnel system that really is, it is only 2138 kilometers from Odessa to Paris.). The catacombs also contain natural caves and span over 1,500 miles. It wasnt until six months later that Masha was found. A subreddit dedicated to the unresolved mysteries of the world. She was headed into the Odessa catacombs, the 2,500 kilometers of dark rocky tunnels which run underneath the city. Clearly, this was a bad idea. And some are full-fledged poems, written in the delicate Cyrillic cursive script, their authors lost to time. They decided to do this inthe Odessa catacombs, where they could have some privacy, drink, and have fun with a little added creep factor. Part of the tunnels, only under the city, were turned into bomb shelters in the Cold War. Jules Suzdaltsev contributed reporting to this piece. Another urban legend, far more popular, is the story of the lost treasure. Eventually the majority of the group managed to find their way back out but Masha never did. Oddly, Lata told us the person responsible for the official Catacombs websiteand the one calling him a liaris "one of the most experienced Odessa catacombs explorers and my best friend." The tunnels would become a safe haven for a plethora of different characters, most of them shady . ", Personally, I find this story absolutely terrifying; the thought of stumbling around lost in 2,500KM of tunnels with no lights and eventually dying alone is a kind of terror I hope to never experience. Last month, a guy in his 20s was sentenced for reportedly murdering his teenage girlfriend in the catacombs with an ax. However, that hasn't stopped many people from making the same trip Masha apparently made. [7], Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}463248N 303750E / 46.54667N 30.63056E / 46.54667; 30.63056, "People Believe a Girl Died in the Endless Odessa Catacombs, but the Mystery Goes Much Deeper", "Dark secrets of Odessa's vast catacomb labyrinth", "Subterranea of Ukraine: Odessa Catacombs", "The Enduring Legend of the Girl Who Died in Odessa's Catacombs", "The Odesa catacombs. Believing this to be the best explanation for her absence, the group agreed and they left. The group had to come clean. His recollection is different from Lata's. Creepy stories about the Odessa catacombs range fromdead bodies found in catacombs, topeople who have gotten lost in catacombs and were never seen again. The catacombs once served as the preferred hideout for rebels, criminals, and during World War II, air-raid shelters. It was a foggy night with temperatures hovering around freezing. Odessa, just outside of Ukraine's capital, Kiev, is home to one of the largest catacombs in the entire world. There also would have been nowhere to stay warm, since that area is also not deep enough for it to have been much warmer than the chilly surface weather that night. On January 1st 2005, a young Ukranian teenage girl named Masha put on her make-up, packed up some champagne, and headed out for her New Years Eve nights party. Unfortunately for Masha, this was not the case. The tunnels have been cited as the reason why such a subway system has never been built in Odesa. Rebuilt remains of a temple to Roman god Mithras. Ukraine. View all photos. They became a hiding place for Soviet partisans. There's no way any one person could ever witness the true scale of the Odessa Catacombs; explore all 2,500km of tunnel. Murderer never found, the body ever identified. But without knowing the mind boggling extent of these catacombs, their efforts proved largely fruitless. The legend goes a little something like this: In 2005, a group of teenagers headed out on New Year's Eve (or New Year's Day, depending on the source) to have a little party. Rifles, machine guns, equipment and personal items all were discovered lost or abandoned in virtually pristine condition. The sheer size of the catacombs meant a refuge for all walks of life that sought to hide. Here they lived slept, cooked, organized raids, and fought. In 2009, a post was made on the urban exploration website UER which first brought forth Masha's story, and a photo of the purported body (warning: graphic) was posted in which three (possibly four) young urban explorers appear to have discovered her remains. ( eliosdnepr /Adobe Stock). In 1961, the Search (Poisk) club was created, led by Constantine Pronin of the Paleontological Museum of OSU, and became the first official catacomb exploration unit. If she was lucky, she died quickly from the cold . masha who died in the catacombs. No purchase necessary. It would have been utterly black. -, Press J to jump to the feed. His descriptions of his journeys into the dark were tantalizing tales of adventure. [Online] Available at: http://odesskiy.com/chisto-fakti-iz-zhizni-i-istorii/istorija-vozniknovenija-odesskih-katakomb.html, Richter, D. 2013. There was no light in the catacombs besides whatever she might have had on her, and it is believed she wandered in pitch blackness. The very old skeleton of a partisan or smuggler. Some sections regularly flood with groundwater, others have ceilings precariously propped up with ad-hoc support beams, or they've had their ventilation systems completely dismantled. . If it was too warm to freeze, and she was exerting herself trying to survive, dehydration would have become severe in perhaps only two days before the symptoms became debilitating. The Stone Mines, part of the Odessa Catacombs, were closed and sealed off in 1917. Did Masha really exist and meet her fate in the catacombs, or is the whole story just someone's idea of a morbid practical joke? She lies on her left side, legs curled like she's sleeping, while the upper half of her decomposing body has lost its form. By the age of 10, most children in the United States have been taught all 50 states that make up the country. But at some point in the night Masha decided to explore the catacombs. Though Masha wasnt particularly interested in going to the mine, she went anyway, wanting to be with her friends more. [5], Only one small portion of the catacombs is open to the public, within the "Museum of Partisan Glory" in Nerubayskoye, north of Odesa. Such bomb shelters supposed to be refuge for civilians in case of nuclear strike or gas attack. [citation needed], The city has a large population of over 1 million people, which some believe would benefit from the introduction of a subway system. Lets unravel the story of these vast catacombs that lie untouched beneath one of Ukraines largest towns. "There were four of us on the day when these pics were taken," he wrote, "and I really don't know where I can find these guys nowadays." A 2009 forum post on the Urban Explorer's Resource (UER) site, by someone named Eugene Lata, put the tale into English, detailing everything from Masha's backstory to the grim discovery the group had made. One popular myth is the story of the White Hunter a catacomb explorer of some notoriety who apparently never came out and most likely died while in the catacombs. But that has not stopped outsiders, or even local, daring, teenagers who are curious about, or even set on finding, the legendary treasures they contain. They go on expeditions into the mines that can last several days, and document and map the area. The teens are said to have stayed down there all night. The catacombs are on three levels, and reach a depth of 200ft (60 meters) below sea level. The ancient Greeks were no different. Their goal was to explore the catacombs and document the history of the partisan movement. Beneath its streets, under the slowly unraveling everyday lives of its citizens, lies a sprawling network of tunnels and catacombs, an enigmatic web of dark corridors that built up a reputation of macabre proportions. Aside from the TV episode which aired the segment (which you can find on YouTube), I've been unable to locate the supposed full video, nor can I find any footage of the video which wasn't taken from that TV show. But we do know that the confirmed tales of the catacombs, as well as its history, are still filled with gloom, death, and horror. The post featured a graphic photo of what appeared to be a decaying corpse in the catacombs, which Lata claimed was Masha's body. One of the reasons the catacombs of Odessa stand out is because they are by far the worlds longest catacombs. After three days in total darkness without food or water, Masha collapsed and died from dehydration. Mauritius Square, Ukraine: What is this Giant Crab-like Earthworks? ( gorinov /Adobe Stock). Our story begins sometime early in 2005, when a party (possibly for New Years) was allegedly held within the catacombs by a group of young adults. In the case of the Odessa Catacombs, they are a labyrinth-like network of tunnels under the city of Odessa. Sign up for our newsletter and enter to win the second edition of our book. What you may not know, is that the largest catacomb system in the world is the Odessa Catacombs in Ukraine. They could have been looking for treasures that night, considering there are rumors that somewhere below School 56 there's a solid gold replica of the Titanic a few inches long. Lata wrote a widely circulated online post stating that he and other explorers had found the body of a local student named Masha, who on New Year's Eve in 2005 had wandered into the catacombs with her friends after drinking. Whether that person is an innocent partygoer, a Satanist, or a Ukrainian drunk who took a few steps too many into the darkness, it sends imaginations soaring because it conjures the exact kind of nightmarish, lonely death everyone fears the most. Old Odessa catacombs . All rights reserved. 2019. Winner will be selected at random on 04/01/2023. With over 1,500 miles of subterranean tunnels, Odessa's catacombs even beat out the well-known Paris Catacombs in terms of length. During WWII, although the Soviets had been forced out of the city, they left behind dozens of soviet-organized Ukrainian rebel groups hidden below the city in the expansive catacombs. When I was a teenager I was a tour guide at a local cave and at the end of the day someone had to walk to the back of the cave (45 minutes one way!) Masha always struck me as an urban legend. [citation needed], After the Russian Revolution of 1917, stone mining was banned within the central part of Odesa (inside the Porto-Franko zone, bounded by Old Port Franko and Panteleymonovskaya streets). Layer by Layer: A Mexico City Culinary Adventure, Sacred Granaries, Kasbahs and Feasts in Morocco, Monster of the Month: The Hopkinsville Goblins, Writing the Food Memoir: A Workshop With Gina Rae La Cerva, Reading the Urban Landscape With Annie Novak, How to Grow a Dye Garden With Aaron Sanders Head, Making Scents: Experimental Perfumery With Saskia Wilson-Brown, Indigenous Desserts of Turtle Island With Mariah Gladstone, University of Massachusetts Entomology Collection, The Frozen Banana Stands of Balboa Island, The Paratethys Sea Was the Largest Lake in Earths History, How Communities Are Uncovering Untold Black Histories, The Medieval Thieves Who Used Cats, Apes, and Turtles as Accomplices, 10 of the World's Most Disorienting Places, http://odessitclub.org/en/archives/dallin/chapter_6.html#Catacombs. While most of the time the bodies found are from long ago, stumbling across old bones of soldiers and smugglers from more recent accidents has been known to happen. Assuming Masha brought a battery-powered flashlight or lantern down into the depths, it would have died after a few hours, making it harder to continue the search for warmth and water. It took a full two years before the police were able to locate her body and retrieve it from the catacombs. Everywhere, hidden in the niches and the stone nooks, lie scribbled and faded poems, warnings and pleas. Many regions (such as the notorious 'K-29' network) remain largely unexplored to this day. Perhaps the most popular of catacombs is beneath the city of Paris, France. During New Year's Eve celebrations in 2005, she and her friends had one drink too . Disturbing Tales of the Mysterious Catacombs Beneath Odessa. They began to drink, and occasionally worked up the courage to go inside the mine, taking a few steps in before turning around and running back out. A massive search effort was launched but they werent able to find her among the 2,500 kilometers of often unmapped tunnels. In hopes to counter the threat of the partisans, Romanian Axis troops attempted to seal several tunnel exits, as well as tossing poison gas into the tunnels. See. Eager to escape, she ran through the tunnels, not knowing she was heading the wrong direction. Numerous reports exist of partially mummified human remains and skeletons that have been found inside the catacombs. According to Pugovkin, someone else had vanished in 2004: Janis Stendzenieks, the son of a newspaper magnate named Armand Stendzenieks. Some objects are especially prized because the story about them is so precious. Fake? Go to the left, go to the right, Youll only meet the darkness of the night, Another poem tells of the loneliness inside the tunnels: Sing not, oh nightingale, against my cell, and dont interrupt my prayer, oh, nightingale.. Everyone at Odessas School Number 56 had talked about there being a working entrance to the mine, just outside of school property. It does seem to be a urban legend but it's still creepy as hell! In the case of the Odessa Catacombs, they are a labyrinth-like network of tunnels under the city of Odessa. There are still hundreds of kilometers of tunnels that no one has been able to see all of we can only speculate about what kind of gruesome secrets still dwell deep within. [citation needed], In 1961 the "Search" (Poisk) club was created in order to explore the history of partisan movement among the catacombs. By bringing together top experts and authors, this archaeology website explores lost civilizations, examines sacred writings, tours ancient places, investigates ancient discoveries and questions mysterious happenings. Film Footage Provides Intimate View of HMS Gloucester Shipwreck, Top 8 Legendary Parties - Iconic Celebrations in Ancient History, The Spanish Inquisition: The Truth Behind the Black Legend (Part II), The Spanish Inquisition: The Truth behind the Dark Legend (Part I), Bloodthirsty Buddhists: The Sohei Warrior Monks of Feudal Japan, Two Centuries Of Naval Espionage In Europe, Human Origins According to Ancient Greek Mythology, The Curious Apparitions of Pagan Goddesses to the German Knights Templar, Research Confirms That 20% of the Neanderthal Genome Can Be Found In Modern Humans, The Truth Behind the Christ Myth: Ancient Origins of the Often Used Legend Part I, Evidence that Noahs Ark Landed on a Mountain 17 Miles South of Ararat, Theyre Alive! The post featured a graphic photo of what appeared to be a decaying corpse in the catacombs, which Lata claimed was Masha's body. Hundreds of partisans, or rebels, took to hiding in the catacombs. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Parents in the area warned their children to stay away. Stories say that an ancient Roman glassmaker had the technology to create a flexible glass, vitrium flexile, but a certain emperor decided the invention should not be. Thats when they learned that she had never returned home her parents had assumed she was with them. Any chamber used as a burial place is a catacomb, although the word is most commonly associated with the Roman Empire. After a short time, they called off the search, saying that Masha would have to find her own way out, it wasnt safe for them to look for her any longer. Is it easy to get access to the catacombs? Perhaps they will never be. These catacombs are the result of stone mining, particularly coquina (a soft limestone of broken shells), and consist of a network of basements, bunkers, drainage tunnels and storm drains. 2023 Atlas Obscura. ( onyx124 /Adobe Stock). ( CC BY SA 4.0 ). [1] The system of Odesa Catacombs consists of a network of basements, bunkers, drainage tunnels and storm drains as well as natural caves. [4] It is thought that most (9597%) of the catacombs are former coquina multilevel mines from which stone was extracted to construct the city above. And while some people may seem content with the story as it stands, our view is that there existcountless mysteries, scientific anomalies and surprising artifacts thathave yet to be discovered and explained. 2014. By 2012, he had begun to sound less like the internet's ambassador to the catacombs. One interesting aspect of the tunnels is the fact that they are subject to a variety of highly imaginative urban legends. The complete length of the Odessa catacombs comes up to around astonishing 2500 km (1553.43 miles)! Fine Art? The group ventured deep inside and soon enough they got lost. As of 2019, there are more than 1,000 known entrances to the tunnels. "Besides the original photographer," a post says, "there isn't one person, civilian or law enforcement, that can confirm the story. Lata says he was there when that photo was taken, but he can't retrace the photo to its origin. But even though the city fell, its citizens didnt give up the fight. Her body had been partially mummified by the cold cool air. The Iliad can provide new insights on the role of motherhood among the ancient Greek gods, and by extension, amongst ancient mortal Greek women themselves. In his last post, he wrote that the place was pretty much charted, and claimed that there's not much left to explore. Every culture has an explanation about how we got here. The date of the earliest catacombs in Odessa is difficult to determine (as they were all widened at a later date), but they likely date back to the 1600s, if not farther. But some like to say that the earliest form of the catacombs dates to centuries before that, to 1600s or possibly before and thats plausible. Atlas Obscura. And what awaits is a journey that comes so eerily close to something from the pages of Metro 2033 or the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. When we think of catacombs, we think of underground tunnels and chambers, locations where bodies were stored in lieu of a cemetery. But he [Pugovkin] claims that when Armand Stendzenieks ordered a DNA test, it wasn't a match. The rumors said it was deep underground, but from what they had seen, the body appeared to be fresh. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. An Unbreakable Story: The Lost Roman Invention of Flexible Glass, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Unleashing the End of the World, Alleged Sighting of the Mythical Manananggal in the Philippines Causes Public Anxiety, What is Shambhala? The Odessa catacombs are a very complicated system of natural tunnels, mines, bunkers, and caves that are predominantly a result of mining with the earliest excavations beginning in the 19th century. But one thing that this city of one million citizens hides, and a fact that many who visit it are totally unaware of, are the sprawling catacombs beneath its streets. The eerie burnt-out remains of a prominent building where 30 protestors lost their lives. Still left for anyone to roam freely, these tunnels are used just as several decades before by anyone who needs or wants to descend into its depths. (Author provided). Two years passed, and no one retrieved the body, Lata claims. Several attempts at thorough exploration were made over the years. This myth has led many treasure hunters to enter the darkness of the catacombs in search of wealth. The catacombs were once the preferred hideout of rebels, criminals, and eccentrics. Enjoy.". Irish Urban Explorations. Like Atlas Obscura and get our latest and greatest stories in your Facebook feed. But some tourism still relates to them. As I said earlier, a lot of people lost and even dead under Odessa. Replies analysing and speculating over the mystery and possible explanations are encouraged. The Moora Mystery: What Happened When a Girl Stepped into the Moor 2,500 Years Ago? 13th Floor. The complete length of these catacombs is more than half of the width of the North American continent. Part of the catacomb network, Odessa, Ukraine . Norimitsu Odachi: Who Could Have Possibly Wielded This Enormous 15th Century Japanese Sword? She didn't make it out alive, it's said. masha odessa catacombs photo. In 2011, a male murder victim was found by chance in the catacombs after he had been dead for three to six months. Hiding in the catacombs for as much as 13 months, literally below the noses and feet of the Nazis above, the rebels waited for a chance to strike or relay information. Do you have any more information about the body that was found? These catacombs are the result of stone mining, particularly coquina (a soft limestone of broken shells), and consist of a network of basements, bunkers, drainage tunnels and storm drains. See. "The diggers determined it was a Satanist who got lost.". In 2011, a body was found in the catacombs that had been dead for several months. They have rescued a number of children who have wandered into the catacombs. She lies on her left side, legs curled like she's sleeping, while the upper half of her decomposing body has lost its form altogether, and has begun to turn indistinguishable from the cavern's yellow limestone floor.

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