Erzi village. Tower village of the 15th century Erzi

We were traveling to Ingushetia through Chechnya. As soon as we arrived on the territory of Chechnya, we were struck by the absence of garbage and billboards along the highway. There are new roads in cities and villages, everything is being built everywhere, but most of it has already been built. Traffic cops, unfortunately, like everywhere else. And why indicate the region on the numbers??? It turns out, only to make it easier to rob people :)
In Ingushetia we were greeted with ancient Caucasian hospitality and sent to the Erzi Nature Reserve. This is the hundredth reserve in Russia, which was created in 2000. The reserve is famous for its medieval (XII-XVII) tower complexes. The concentration of these structures is especially high on the territory of the reserve, but some also exist outside the boundaries of the reserve. Each complex belongs to a specific genus (precisely in the present tense, since living descendants know their ancestral settlements). Almost all structures consist of low residential towers (3-4 levels), a high defensive tower (there are from one to 5-6 of them) and a crypt. Everything is located very compactly. Neighboring buildings are often literally a few hundred meters away.
Ozig. Ancestral settlement of the Barkinkhoevs. By the way, the director of the reserve Erzi Barkinkhoev B.U. Taken on a previous trip in June.

Despite the fact that these are architectural monuments, they are often used on the farm, as pens for livestock or the like. Some even live in them.

Famous Vovnushki. In 2008 tower complex Vovnushki became a finalist in the competitive project Seven Wonders of Russia.

I liked Targim better.

But the strongest impression I had was from meeting red-bellied redstarts. I've never seen these birds before. It was not possible to really remove it, but still.

Red-bellied redstarts descend from the mountains into the river valley. Assa only in winter. In summer, stone ruins are happily used for nesting by common wheatears and black redstarts.

Federal State Budgetary Institution "State Natural Reserve "Erzi" of the Ministry natural resources and ecology Russian Federation is an environmental institution with research and environmental education areas.

The creation of a state nature reserve makes it possible to preserve the typical landscapes of the northern slope of the Main Caucasus Range, as well as a number of unique relict, endemic and endangered species and communities of plants and animals, geological and geomorphological objects, archaeological and architectural monuments ancient cultures southern Russian steppes, the Caucasus and Western Asia.

This territory serves the purpose of maintaining ecological balance and improving the environment for human life.

The creation of the Erzi Federal State Budgetary Institution was preceded by long-term public work on the need for its creation, numerous scientific and scientific-journalistic works of various scientists and public figures. The former chairman of the State Committee for Ecology of the Republic of Ingushetia played a major role in the opening of the reserve. Honored Ecologist of the Russian Federation - B.U.-G.Barkinkhoev. Based on the Law of the Republic of Ingushetia No. 572-R dated April 23, 1994 “On Specially Protected natural areas"Resolution of the Government of the Republic of Ingushetia No. 326 dated September 23, 1999, “On the creation of the Erzi State Natural Reserve” was adopted. Based on this decree of the Government of the Russian Federation, Decree No. 992 of December 21, 2000 was issued “On the establishment of the Erzi State Nature Reserve.” Thus, the 100th State Nature Reserve was created in Russia, which began functioning in 2001.

The total area of ​​the protected area is 69,366 hectares, including the territory of the Erzi State Nature Reserve, which has an area of ​​35,292 hectares, and the Ingush Federal Nature Reserve, which has an area of ​​34,074 hectares.

Role in nature conservation

The reserve was established to preserve and study typical and unique mountain natural complexes southeastern part of the Republic of Ingushetia

Role in recreational activities

Taking into account the special scientific aesthetic and educational value among the landscapes of this territory, it is advisable to highlight the following unique natural objects for visiting:

Gorge near the former village. Furtoug with a waterfall and walnut plantings;
Olgetinsky gorge with mountain broad-leaved forests;
Trog valley in the Amalchoch gorge;
Shoan glacier with the sources of the Armkhi River;
A section of high-mountainous dry steppe near the village. Lie down;
Forest area along Tetris-Tskhali above the former village. Hamhi;
Forest area near the former village of Targim and along Thabakhro;
Nelkh River Gorge;
Sea buckthorn grove in the Targim Basin.
The ridge of the Rocky Range from the city of Khakhalgi to the gorge of the Assy River (the habitat of the endemic Ingushetia - Ingush cinquefoil);
A section of beech-hornbeam forest on the right side of the Assy River gorge with an undergrowth of Caucasian blueberries.
On the territory of the reserve there are four natural monuments of republican significance:

Armkhi (Lezhginsky) waterfall - located in the Armkhi gorge on the Lezhgi River, 1.5 km from its confluence with the Armkhi River, 4 km east of the former Armkhi resort. The waterfall is located in a deep overgrown forest gorge and falls down from steep cliffs in two cascades from a height of 15 km. The waterfall is a magnificent sight and is relatively accessible to visitors.

Armkhinskaya pine grove- located on the left bank of the Armkhi River on the territory of the Armkhi forestry. At the beginning of the twentieth century, forest crops of Crimean pine were planted here - its only place in mountainous Ingushetia. Average height - 12 meters, diameter - 20 cm, fullness 0.6-0.7. Undergrowth: cordifolia linden, Norway maple. Undergrowth: various types of rose hips, hazel.

An array of hooked pine in the upper reaches of the Myagi-khi River is located on its right bank, 2.5 km from its confluence with the Salgi-khi River, on its western slope at the top of one of the spurs of the Side Range at an altitude of 1600 m above sea level. On the same peak is the Myagi-Erda sanctuary. The tree stand is clean, density 0.5, height up to 20 m, age 100-150 years, high crowns, trunks, covered with mosses and lichens.

The spring on the Bisht pass is located 4 km west of the village. Guli, 50 m from the Dzheirakh-Targim highway, is located at an altitude of 2100 m above sea level in the belt of subalpine meadows. It is characterized by high organoleptic properties and high flow rate. The spring water has a fairly high content of silver ions and therefore the water can be stored for a long time, maintaining its high quality. The spring is used by the local population for self-medication and is considered “sacred”. The approaches to it are landscaped.

The territory contains 160 historical and cultural monuments of varying value and in varying degrees of preservation. Monuments of medieval culture are conventionally divided into several groups according to their functional significance:

Sanctuaries, temples and other places of worship;
Tower communities and free-standing residential towers;
Battle towers;
Necropolises and crypts;
Sacred groves.

The most interesting and unique in their appearance are religious buildings. Among them, a special place is occupied by the Mai-Lam complex of sanctuaries, a chain stretching along the Tsoi-Lam ridge (Rocky Ridge). It includes the once majestic temple-sanctuaries of Metsil, Myager-Dela, Suso-Dela. “Myatzel” has reached our time in its best preserved form.
There are other religious buildings built in ancient times: the temples of Gal-Erdy, Magi-Erdy, Malar-Erdy and others, various sanctuaries in the form of stone buildings, pillar-shaped stone structures, stone heaps, sacred stones. All these buildings date back to the period of pagan beliefs.
The largest concentration of monuments is located in the northern part, located in a strip of 5-6 km and south of the Rocky Range from the village of Erzi in the west to the settlements of Tsori and Osag in the east.

Particularly valuable natural objects

Description

Russia, North Caucasus. The reserve is located in the mountains of the North Caucasus on the territory of the Dzheirakh and Sunzhensky districts of the Republic of Ingushetia. The territory borders with the Chechen Republic, the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, and along the Main Caucasus Range with the Republic of Georgia.

I continue the series “Travels around the USSR”. We are moving from to Ingushetia.
I give the floor to my father, a photographer with 55 years of experience and the author of the presented slides,
Anatoly Sirota ( turnepsik ).
Slides done in 1980 on color reversible film ORWO CHROM, produced in the GDR.
The slides were scanned by me in 2016 on a Plustek OpticFilm 7600i slide scanner.

Here and further: Erzi tower complex in Ingushetia. Slides from 1980

After a trip to Grozny in 1969, when fog prevented me from photographing a watchtower in a Chechen village, I dreamed for several years of seeing the Erzi tower complex in Ingushetia. As far as I could tell, Erzi is the same unique phenomenon in the Caucasus, like . Free-standing towers are found “in the Vainakh country” quite often, but they do not make such a strong impression as Erzi - dozens of towers standing on a small mountain plateau.

When, during my next business trip to Grozny (somewhere in the mid-70s), I learned that the traditional banquet after defending my dissertation was supposed to be held in the fresh air, I suggested doing it in Erzi. While the “public” was conjuring their magic over the barbecue on the banks of the local river, I went up to the towers and photographed them in detail, fortunately there was no fog this time. Upon returning to Moscow, I looked forward to the autumn cooling of the water in the water supply - an indispensable condition for developing reversible films at home. And now I already see the towers “in the negative”. But then someone called on the phone... and for the first time in my life I ruined the film: I hopelessly overexposed it to the color developer! Unique slides are dead!

A few years later, in 1980, I visited Grozny again and again asked to be taken to Erzi. But this time there were some troubles: I dropped my favorite universal removable viewfinder for the “Kyiv” camera, again for the first time in my life, and watched in numbness as it accelerated and rolled towards the edge of the abyss. I did not dare to pursue him, and before my eyes he fell into the abyss! I had to buy a new camera at a thrift store: the viewfinder for the “Kyiv” was not sold separately. It was as if some mountain spirits were guarding the towers from persistent photographers!

And quite recently new confirmation of this was found. When I tried to start scanning the slides made in Erzi in 1980, it turned out that the box with the inscription “Erzi” was empty. Almost a month passed in anguish and in vain searches before the slides were accidentally discovered in a completely different box.

It remains to add that since 2000, the Erzi tower complex has been part of the state nature reserve. Now let's interrupt our story and read the guidebook together "In the country of the Vainakhs" Vladimir Ivanovich Markovin from the famous "yellow series". For many travelers, this modest little book, published in 1968, first revealed the architecture of the mountain villages of Chechnya and Ingushetia. The text is given with abbreviations.

“In the village of Erzi, there are nine military and twenty-two residential towers. The residential towers “gala” are wide, low and narrow slightly at the top. The residential towers are located between the combat towers, occupying the entire area of ​​the slightly sloping terrace. The combat tower is called “vou”. Combat towers enclose the village on all sides, one of them, leaning against the layers of slate, stands at the entrance to the village. The towers are made mainly of river boulders and only in the corners are there massive hewn blocks.

Tower buildings do not have a foundation; they are placed directly on a rock or shale base - the mainland. The Vainakhs had a custom - the place selected for the tower was watered with milk. If the milk did not seep into the ground, then such a site was considered good, and then construction began. When constructing the towers, the craftsmen did not use external scaffolding. The towers were built from the inside. As the building grew, planks were laid. The work was carried out using a special gate; it was used to lift stone blocks and slate slabs.

Residential towers "gala" rarely reached a height of more than 10 m (their usual base size is 9-10 m x 8-9 m). They were two- and three-story. For storey floors, there were special wall projections and recessed niches into which beams were inserted. In the center of large towers, a column was very often installed, rather a supporting tetrahedral pillar with a massive base and stone pillows located at different heights. Resting on the pillar cushions, ledges and niches of the walls, rested the ceilings of the floors - beams with a flooring made of slate and brushwood.

Door and window openings end with semicircular arches of a fairly regular shape. They were carved either in whole monolithic stones, or in two massive stones moved closer to each other. In cold weather and at night, doors and windows were covered with board shields. The roof of the residential towers was flat, it was smeared with clay and compacted with a stone cylindrical roller. The walls of the tower rose above the roof in the form of a parapet. Livestock was usually housed in the lower floor, household supplies were stored, and people lived in the upper rooms.
The walls were full of niches in which pottery and metal utensils were stored. Felt carpets decorated the floors and walls. The room was heated by a fireplace. Sometimes residential towers are equipped with loopholes and machicolated balconies.

The battle towers in the village of Erzi are especially beautiful. These towers, unlike residential ones, reach 18-20 m in height; their base area is 5x5 m, and they become very narrow towards the top. Wow towers were built with four and five floors. The battle tower has one entrance opening, rarely two, and they lead directly to the second and third floors. This was done for defensive purposes, but the extension ladder - a beam with notches - could be raised up at any time. Inside the tower, passages were arranged in the corners and arranged in a zigzag pattern. “Vou” are covered either with a flat roof with parapet projections at the corners, or more often with a stepped pyramidal roof with a spire in the center. Combat towers are always equipped with a mass of loopholes - narrow slits, and at the very top - combat machicolations. The loopholes are well suited for shooting from bows and flintlocks. Sometimes wells were made in such towers to raise water, and small underground passages were installed under the tower.

Earthquakes are frequent in the mountains, but the tower buildings, despite the seeming primitiveness of the masonry, still stand. This depends, first of all, on the fact that the towers are built, as a rule, on rocky platforms and shales, the petals of which act as a shock-absorbing force. The walls of the towers on the inside are well connected with each other by corner stones; on the outside, the side blocks are always well selected and hewn. By the way, let us point out that the cost of laying the corner stone was equal to the cost of a sheep.

The construction of the combat and residential towers was arranged very solemnly. The first rows of stones were stained with the blood of a sacrificial ram. All construction was to last no more than a year. The customer of the tower had to feed the master well. According to Vainakh beliefs, hunger brings all misfortunes. And if the master fell from the tower from dizziness, the owner of the tower was accused of deliberate greed and expelled from the village. The skill of tower builders was passed on from father to son. The most difficult operation was considered to be the construction of the stepped roof of the tower. When it was necessary to finish covering the vault and install the keystone, a ladder was placed on the machiculi, tied with ropes attached to a pillar placed temporarily in the upper floor. The master tied himself with a belt to this ladder, climbed to the dome of the tower and finished the work. A horse or bull was given for installing a keystone.

Undoubtedly, tower-type buildings appeared a very long time ago. And, of course, residential towers, simple in design, arose earlier than military towers. It is difficult to name the exact time of their appearance, but judging by the manner of their masonry, the design of door and window openings, residential towers existed in the 10th-12th centuries. Finds of coins and fragments of dishes from the 13th-14th centuries in Ingushetia and Chechnya, in the area of ​​tower buildings, suggest that the construction of towers was carried out especially intensively during the offensive of the Tatar-Mongol hordes (stories about the fact that the Ingush heroically defended themselves from Batu’s troops have long were considered a legend, but later archaeologists proved it - M.A.).

Residents also took refuge in the battle towers later, during periods of endless strife between families, the main reason for which was blood feud (“dou”). Intrafamily murders (a father killed his son, brother, or vice versa) did not cause blood feud, but if the killer and the murdered were not relatives, then the relatives of the murdered man had to kill either the murderer or his closest relative. The injured relatives gathered together, forming a kind of army - “bo”, and then moved “war” (“tuom”) to the house of the killer. The besieged took refuge in the “vou” battle tower. In case of blood feud, the “war” at the tower was sometimes waged only formally; the besieged were afraid to kill one of the besiegers, this would increase the feud and worsen their position. But the killing of one of the besieged, on the contrary, could lead to a relative truce. In the future, the killer could receive for a ransom (in the form of bulls) the right to safely roam the territory of his estate, but no further. Sooner or later a punishing blow overtook him, for in the Middle Ages the price of blood was blood."

Full text of the book by V.I. Markovin "In the Country of the Vainakhs" can be read at this link:
http://www.rulit.me/books/v-strane-vajnahov-read-293899-1.html

I had the opportunity to find out that medieval customs of blood feud also existed in the Soviet republic of Checheno-Ingushetia. During our very first trip to the mountains with a local native in 1969, our car was blocked by a herd of cows. And one of them, frightened by the car, almost fell into the abyss. Immediately, the face of a shepherd squeezed into the window of the car, who said something, from which our accompanying person immediately became very serious, got out of the car and had a long conversation with the shepherd before we moved on. In response to our questions, he replied that the shepherd said: “If even one cow falls into the abyss, look for a place in the mountains.” This meant declaring a blood feud. Our companion explained that ancient customs are still alive and told how he saw the terrible scene with his own eyes. Without noticing each other, two Chechens entered from different sides onto a narrow bridge in the form of a plank thrown across the river. They met in the middle, and neither of them could turn around and go back: this would mean losing face. There was no other choice but murder. One of them pulled out a dagger and stabbed the other. The dead man fell into the river, and the killer continued on his way.

According to one version, the self-name of the Ingush “Galgai” is translated as “tower builders”. However, not only the Ingush deserve this title, but also... the Italians! Many years later, in Italy, I again encountered the ancestral towers in which Italian feudal lords escaped the revenge of their enemies. It is surprising that in such remote regions that did not communicate with each other, different peoples under similar historical conditions (European and Asian feudalism) arose architecture similar in function and form - an interesting illustration of the controversial problem of historical patterns.

San Gimignano (Tuscany)

In 13th-century Florence, there were one and a half hundred tower houses that could easily and quickly be barricaded from the inside. The height of some of them reached 60 meters, but in 1250 a law was passed stating that the height of the tower should not exceed 25 meters, and many towers had their tops cut off. The construction of a sixty-meter tower took from three to ten years. There are almost no towers left in Florence - they were destroyed by the rulers of the city in order to weaken the constantly warring feudal lords, but the towers have been preserved in many cities of Italy: Bologna, Albenga, Bergamo , Lucca, Noli . .. The town of San Gimignano in Tuscany, surrounded by mountains, is especially famous for its towers: how could I not remember the Erzi tower complex, which I had been trying to photograph for so long!

Ancestral towers in San Gimignano

Ancestral towers in Albenga (Liguria)

Ancestral Tower in Bologna (Emilia-Romagna)

Ancestral towers of Asinelli and Garisenda in Bologna

Ancestral tower in Noli (Liguria)

Ancestral tower in Bergamo (Lombardy)

Other stories from the series "Travels around the USSR"

The Erzi tower complex consists of eight military and several dozen residential towers. The height of some structures reaches 30 meters. In the Dzheirakh region of Ingushetia there is the medieval Erzi tower complex. Erzi translated into Russian means “eagle”. According to one of the local legends, one day the inhabitants of the village of Kerbit came to this place and cut down a tree. On it they saw an eagle's nest with chicks. So the settlement that appeared on this place began to be called Erzi. The eagle apparently became a sacred bird for the local population. Thus, during research in the 19th century, a bronze incense burner was found in the Erzi sanctuary, made in the form of an eagle figure 38 centimeters high. The object was dated to the 8th century AD. e. However, it is possible that the object ended up in the village by chance, since it apparently was made far outside the settlement. Nearby was the Alan Gate gorge, an important passage through the Main Caucasus Range. Perhaps the object was in one of the trade caravans passing through the gorge.

According to the latest information, it was a part of a military standard. Erzi was once a large village. Its wealth can be judged by the large stone towers that have survived to this day. There are many towers on the territory of Ingushetia, but Erzi has the most of them. The complex consists of eight combat towers, two semi-combat ones and the remains of about 50 small residential towers and walls. Particularly impressive, of course, are the majestic combat towers, the height of which reaches 30 meters. Unlike other battle towers found in the Caucasus, the battle towers in Ingushetia are narrower. The structures have a square base of 5x5 meters.

At the top they end with pyramidal stepped roofs, although there are also towers with a flat roof. The roof of the pyramidal-step towers was made of slate slabs, with a large cone-shaped stone installed on top. The construction of the towers was approached with special care. First, they chose the place where the structure would be built. Such towers did not have a foundation as such. At the site where the structure was supposed to be built, the soil was first torn off and watered with milk. This was done until the milk stopped being absorbed. When constructing Ingush towers, the proximity of the future structure to a river or spring was taken into account. The construction of the tower was carried out by one of the clans of the village. The richer the family, the higher and safer the tower. The tower was built in such a way that at least one more tower was visible from its loopholes. First, several large stone blocks larger than human height were laid. Each such stone was valued as one bull. The block was hewn by four stonemasons over 12 days.

Getting the stone up the slope was also a challenge. For this purpose, 12 bulls were harnessed. The towers in Erzi were made of river boulders; only the craftsmen placed massive hewn stones in the corners. The cost of one corner stone was equal to the cost of a sheep. The laying of the tower was accompanied by ritual actions. When the first rows of stones were laid, they were sprinkled with the blood of a sacrificed ram. Starting from the second floor, the stones were laid from the inside. In the 12th-13th centuries, highlanders did without mortar, carefully adjusting the stones. Later they used lime mortar. Sometimes architects left petroglyphs on the stones. The tower was erected over the course of a year. If construction was delayed, it was a great shame for the family. The tower, which was not built on time, was not completed. The village of Erzi is known for its wealthy families. From this village came a large number of famous families of Ingushetia. During his heyday, Erzi could field more than 60 horsemen in full armor. The fame of local builders spread far beyond the Dzheyrakh Gorge. Craftsmen were invited to build towers on the territory of neighboring states. However, local craftsmen were prohibited from erecting battle towers outside their homeland. They were allowed to build only semi-combat and residential towers. Combat towers were significantly higher than residential ones. They had narrow passages and were better suited for defense. The stones for combat towers were processed more carefully than for residential ones. Since the towers were quite high, a stone vault was made at the level of the fifth floor to strengthen the structure. This also prevented the spread of fire in case of arson.

All combat towers had a conical shape. It was possible to climb to the upper floors only with the help of ladders. They could be raised at any time. We passed between floors through hatches located in the corners of the tower. The entrance to the tower was at the second floor level. This made the use of a ram useless. The entrance was closed from the inside with wooden doors and locked with a wooden beam. Prisoners were sometimes housed on the ground floor. There were also storage facilities here. At the top of the tower, stones for throwing, bows, arrows and other weapons were prepared. The tower had narrow loopholes and viewing slits, and at the top there were combat machicolations. During armed conflicts, there were women and children at the bottom of the towers - soldiers fought on the upper floors.

Local residents were prepared for a siege, so wells and underground passages under the tower were often installed in the towers. The walls of the towers should not have any protrusions so that the enemy could not climb them. Battle towers in Ingushetia were built over several centuries. The last such towers were erected here in the 18th century. Now these medieval monuments are not in the best condition. In 2012, a project to reconstruct the towers was launched in Ingushetia.

In the Dzheirakh Gorge and its environs, it is difficult to find a point from which you cannot see at least one tower or ancient burial ground: now, after the deportation and mass resettlement of the mountaineers to the plain, these places have become sparsely populated, but it was here that once historical homeland the strongest Ingush teips.

Several centuries ago, the Ingush were divided into several teip associations - shahars: Dzheirakhs, Tsorins, Metskhals, Khamkhas . They stand apart Orstkhoys, whom both Ingush and Chechens consider as their own, and sometimes even distinguish them as a separate nationality.

Large settlements of strong shahars - impressive agglomerations of ancestral towers - by medieval standards can be considered real cities. A few are especially large and spectacular - such as Erzi, Targim and Egikal. Unfortunately, due to lack of time, I did not have the opportunity to properly examine them all (however, I managed to see both Targim and Egikal from the road on the way to Thaba-Erdy). So the next morning, having slept to my heart’s content in the large kunatskaya in the nazir’s yard with the rain pattering on the roof, I decided to move to Erzi, which of the “first-class” ancient villages of the gorge is closest to modern Dzheirakh.

Once upon a time Erzi (translated as “Eagle”) belonged to the Metskhal shahar - a strong society, which included several other large villages. Now the village is located downstairs, right next to the road - in the old place, in the towers, when I arrived there was only a shepherd's cat left (Nazir even went specifically to ask the locals if there were dogs tied up at the top - you have to be afraid of them much more than people here).

Most of the surviving buildings of Erzi are residential towers, squat and wide at the base, called in Ingush gIala. But first of all, the predatory and slender ones that dominate them catch the eye. inIou- combat towers.

There are nine battle towers in Erzi - only the foundations of some remain, and one was rebuilt quite recently.

The construction of a "voe", adapted exclusively for defense, required more skill from the architect, and was much more expensive; Not every teip could afford their own battle tower. Accordingly, the builders of such towers were famous far beyond the borders of their shahars. The family of Nazir, who received me as a guest in Dzheirakh, belongs to the Lyanov teip - Detsa Lyanov, one of the few tower builders whose name remains in history, also came from it.

“The Vainakhs had a custom,” wrote Markovin, “the place selected for the tower was watered with milk. If the milk did not seep into the ground, then such a site was considered good and then construction began. When constructing the towers, the craftsmen did not use external scaffolding. They were built from the inside. As the building grew, planks were laid using a special gate - “chegyrk”; stone blocks and slate slabs were lifted with it.”

I managed to climb inside one of the “woos” - I was impressed by the interesting cross vault:

At a distance is the unchanged crypt necropolis. Islam came to these mountains, let us remember, quite recently - pagan funeral traditions in these parts were eliminated only in the 19th century, if not later.

The rain finally drove me out of the ruins - again, Nazir promised to pick me up at the appointed time below (the option “it’s a couple of kilometers, I can easily walk there” absolutely did not work). Later, after taking a short rest at his house and saying goodbye to my entire large family, I got ready to head back to the Georgian Military Road - and then to Tbilisi.

Nazir and his family were going to a neighboring village for a funeral, and, after making a short detour, they took me to the Ossetian post. Soon, after standing on the highway for a short time and exchanging words with the fat Ossetian policeman on duty, I was already in Upper Lars, at the border.

The border guard girl, seeing the Kyiv stamps for January and February in my passport, did not fail to call the special officers - soon a young man with an inconspicuous but insightful face appeared and began asking me if I knew that VGTRK journalists had recently died in the Donbass (it was the end June) and what emotions I feel about this - at the same time probing me with his gaze. To end the questioning with passion, I had to wave my editorial ID at the young man, after which the question was dropped. Georgian customs, as always, went through without a hitch.

By that time, the road had barely been cleared of mudflows: in May a catastrophic landslide descended from Kazbek, and traffic between Russia and Georgia was completely blocked for a month and a half. I was lucky: after my trip, a second derailment occurred, again blocking the road for a long time.

Kazbegi, renamed Stepantsminda under Saakashvili, has changed a lot in the nine years since I first got there - a bunch of guesthouses and restaurants have appeared, crowds of backpackers and trekkers are on the streets. I leave the city on foot, planning to walk to the ancient basilica in Sioni, about five kilometers from the city - on the mountain near this 10th century temple, on our first visit to Georgia, we once spent the night under open air, snacking on peaches and puri bread, which the altar boy treated us to.

A passing car stopping straight to Tbilisi with a nice Russian-speaking Czech guy, an OSCE worker, upset my plans - I decided not to refuse such an opportunity and move straight to the capital. But about Tbilisi - some other time.

Ingushetia-Georgia-Azerbaijan-Dagestan, summer 2014