| Odessa Catacombs |
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| Written by i j |
| Wednesday, 16 December 2009 09:27 |
Today we are going to write about what’s its believed to be the largest catacombs in the World, we going to talk about…
The Odessa Catacombs (Ukraine)
UPDATE: 29-1-2011: Eugene from Odessa contacted us a few weeks ago, (You can read it in the comments below). He claims to be the author of the photos that you will see in this article, and we thank him for allowing us to use them. But more important than that is that he is an Odessa catacombs explorer, so in case you are planning on expending your vacation somewhere near Odessa and want to take a walk in here you have a contact for doing it safely: I leave you with his e-mail in case you want to contact him for getting any further information about the catacombs or as a contact for exploring the catacombs... As you will find reading this article, exploring the catacombs is done at your own risk, no one is going to take responsibility of any harm you could suffer so... consider yourself warned:
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE: (I corrected a lot of errors that I found while reading the article today, hope that my English is improving each day because this article was full (and bet it still is) of grammatical errors). Before starting this article I want to warn that in the end of it there are a few images that could hurt your feelings, so please in case you feel you could have problems watching hard pictures stop reading when told to do so (I’ll warn again with enough time to stop reading).
As I said, Odessa Catacombs are believed to be the largest catacombs in the world (although I no see way you could be sure about such affirmation), they are located in Odessa (Ukraine) and that’s obviously where their name came from.
Its believed that the catacombs are formed by more than 2.5 kilometres (about 1.55 miles) of small corridors and chambers of several sizes that form a huge labyrinth, those corridors where formed by the activity of miners that extracted cheap stone for construction during the 19th century.
In deed most Ukraine houses during 19th century were made with this class of stone, some time later the mines where getting abandoned and they where used by local outlaws as refuge.
With time, outlaws modernised themselves and nowadays they live in houses so today those tunnels have very few uses, some sections are used as sewers and you might find some human constructions for the study of the local geodesy, but other than that their only use is as tourist attraction for caving expeditions, or crazy tourists… as we will see this place is DANGEROUS (consider yourself warned).
As a curiosity let me state that the existence of these catacombs is the main reason why a metro system was never made in Odessa. For ending today’s history lesson lets say that during the 19th century, the extraction of underground stone created some stability problems in the surface constructions and so, extraction of such stone just under the city was forbidden. Some years later, during 2nd world war, these catacombs where used as refuge and hiding place for the soviet partisans, they resisted here for over a year. If you want a detailed narration of what happened there during those years you should read “The Waves of the Black Sea”. Well we have learned enough about this catacombs history, lets take a look inside, good news is that cave exploration at our own risk is legal in Ukraine (although that seems to be changing in 2010), so if you feel so and you find a entrance to the underground no one is going to stop you from going inside. I said “if you find an entrance” because finding a entrance is not that easy as it could seem, government, worried about the amount of people that get lost and eventually die inside, is blocking all entrances they find, but lets be realistic, with such a big complex its impossible that they ever manage to close them all.
Next good new is that exploration of this catacombs could lead us to find some really interesting stuff, this complex has been used as refuge in the past, that means that you could find some human made rests in the dark (some barrels are still full).
Next new (not sure if good or bad) is that there is live in the tunnels, we have said that some parts of the catacombs are used as sewers, and what lives in sewers? Exactly rats of several sizes, luckily or not that’s not the only inhabitants of this place:
There is also room for flora, this is an illegal plantation of mushrooms, I don’t know what kind of mushrooms could live down there, but it’s clear that the owner of this stuff used to care a lot about his little mushrooms... not any longer.
Odessa people is proud to have the biggest catacombs in world, and well, they know how to have fun with them, do you know any other cave/catacomb that you could explore… driving your car?
But we have said that this article contains some hard images… that moment had to come sooner or later so in case you are faint hearted y recommend you to stop reading here, if not…. Keep reading. ... ..
(A little below)
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As we have said, this catacombs were used by partisans during the 2nd World war, and there were some combats in their tunnels, that lead that in occasions you could find some human remains…
But we also said that this place is dangerous even if you are not being shot… it was 1st January 2005 when a group of friends decided to celebrate the new year inside the catacombs, next morning they emerged from the dark with the rest of a huge drunkenness… and with one less member… A girl were abandoned inside by her friends, in the complete dark she spent her last days trying to find an exit, eventually she died of dehydration in a cold corridor (about 3 days later)
Some expeditions went inside for finding them but couldn’t locate her because in her wandering she ended about 5 kilometres far from the entrance, finally she were found in April 2005, police were told about her location but it wasn’t until mid 2007 when authorities took her remains out for giving her a proper burial (that could give you an idea of the kind of help you could expect of Ukrainian authorities in case you get lost inside).
Comments (6)
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| Last Updated on Saturday, 29 January 2011 09:39 |
These sort of places are just fascinating. I can read shit about them for ages without growing tired. And the lust to experience the places myself!
Good post, anyway