Mysterious well of initiation. The minaret is a well turned inside out A deep well turned inside out

In the 8th century, one of the largest and most mysterious wells in the world was built in India.

There is a strange building in the small town of Abaneri, in the Indian state of Rajasthan. The locals call it Chand Baori. It is one of the deepest step wells in India. Today's researchers have not decided why such a complex stone structure was built, because it is possible to get water from the depths easier, and Chand Baori looks more like a palace than a well.

It has the shape of a square and is surrounded by compound terraces, with an entrance on the north side. On the southern, eastern and western sides, double rows of steps are carved on each tier. On the north side, steps lead to multi-story pavilions at the rear of the structure.

In two special niches, you can find images of the goddess Durga and the god Ganesha. And according to the fragments of the surviving sculptures and frescoes covering the walls and vaults of the galleries, it can be assumed that the main patron of Chand Baori is the god Vishnu.

The giant stone funnel of this masterpiece of architecture consists of 13 tiers connected by 3500 stone steps. There are versions that this design helped to collect rainwater in the well, and on stone terraces and steps, local residents found shelter on hot days, because the air temperature in the well is always 5-6 degrees lower than on the surface.

Legend has it that Chand Baori was erected overnight by a raja named Chand, a Rajput demon from the Chahmana dynasty, who ruled the ancient city of Abbha-Nagari (or Abaneri) in the VTII-IX centuries AD.

Is it so? Looking at this structure, it is difficult to get rid of the thought that it could not have done without the intervention of higher powers. Or maybe this is one of the mysterious, scattered around our planet pyramids? Just turned inside out and thus hidden from the descendants of an ancient mighty civilization. Who knows...

shouted something in Turkmen. The bag floated up. The well began to hew the walls. When the bag returned, he started digging again. This went on for an hour or two. Finally, he wiped away the beads of sweat from his forehead.

Why? - I was surprised. It was fresh and cool at the thirty-meter well depth. What made the master stop working?

Sapar didn't answer right away. His narrow brown face was stern and inscrutable.

As you take, so you will receive, - he said slowly, as if filtering the words. - Water must be taken carefully, carefully. You dig deeper, and the walls may not withstand, crumble. Seventy centimeters is enough. Now let's drive the nails into the wall, braid them with a net, and you can start facing.

Difficult and long way to underground water in deserts. “Suvtapanaji”, “ussa-kui” - this is how masters of desert wells were respectfully called in Central Asia. Successful digging of a well requires ingenuity, sober calculation, experience, intuition, patience and a little luck.

How to find an underground lens of water by the bushes of sandy grass of the se-lily, the composition of the sands, the slope of the takyr, and determine its size? What to make the lining of the well so that it does not rot and deteriorate? How to weave a filter? Few knew about this, and for the uninitiated, the art of well-making seemed mysterious and incomprehensible.

There are about twenty thousand wells in the Karakum and Kyzylkum. The traveler's imagination is especially struck by super-deep well shafts.

In Central Asia, it is not for nothing that the minaret is called a well turned inside out. However, even the height of the highest minarets seems dwarfed compared to the depth of some desert wells. In the South-Eastern Karakum there is a well, the depth of which reaches 270 meters. Long months and even years of work were required to reach the water.

No less experience and patience is required from the master to dig a horizontal water conduit - kyariz underground. I was introduced to this underground structure by Durdy Hilliev, the master-kya-

sacristan from the Turkmen collective farm Zakhmet. Underground in a cramped gallery, Durda feels like a fish in water. His movements are precise and fluid. Habitually resting his elbow on his side, the master holds a lamp in front of him. The flame is shaggy, its reflections splashing on a dark face. I never manage to turn around in a narrow, one and a half meters high passage. I take small steps back.

Water hits the hips with elastic shocks, the current becomes gusty and biting. Probably, in the place where we stopped, there was a collapse, and the clay rock narrowed the passage. I feel: a little more - I can’t stand it and sit on the bottom to straighten my stiff legs. Durdy encourages me:

A little more, now we will reach the fork - we will rest there.

Once upon a time, on the territory of the ancient Parthian state with a noisy and colorful capital, Nisa, there lived a brave and savvy artisan people. Who came up with the idea to deliver water from the loose foothills to cities and villages scorched by the heat of the black sands by underground? Who supervised the construction of underground water conduits? The name of the master is unknown, but the ancient chroniclers claim that the first kyarizes were built here, seventy kilometers west of Ashgabat.

Accumulating in the porous rocks of the foothills, water is not able to seep through the clay soil of lower areas and irrigate cotton plantations. Masters-kyarizniki, skillfully and accurately determining the places of laying and the direction of water conduits, dig three-four-kilometer tunnels deep underground, through which water runs by gravity. Dikan wells are brought up at certain intervals.

Wells in villages are sources of drinking water. Wells have been drilled in some places of the region, but the people of Baharden prefer the water of the karez. Green tea brewed with kyariz water is the most delicious. Soup-shurpa, cooked on water from karez, you will lick your fingers. And in a field that is irrigated with water from an underground irrigation system, not a single reed will grow, not a single weed will break through. This is what the elders of the Zakhmet collective farm say. Experts agree with their opinion.

A well with spiral walls seems to go to an inaccessible depth and is called the Inverted Tower or the Well of Initiation. Many tourists, going on a trip to Portugal, put themselves visiting the palace complex in a mandatory schedule.

Once this place was an ordinary estate with classical buildings owned by a baroness, but at the end of the 19th century, the property was bought by millionaire Carvalho Monteiro, who got rich selling Brazilian coffee and decided to settle in Portugal. There he acquired the Quinta da Regaleira estate in order to turn it into a completely unusual example of Masonic architecture for ordinary people.

The palace itself, the chapel and household buildings did not differ in anything remarkable, but many gloomy tunnels ran through the territory, connecting buildings, a pond, and artificial grottoes. Monteiro was a Freemason, and therefore everything that surrounded him endowed with a certain symbolism with deep meaning.

For example, the tunnel system symbolized the boundary between darkness and light, between heat and cold. And a person descending into these tunnels had to be aware of this transition, feel it on his body, see with his eyes, feel it.

The system of tunnels, it must be said, was confusing and resembled a labyrinth, because some passages ended in nothing and one could get lost inside.

But still, the most unusual of all that exists on the territory of the complex is the so-called inverted tower or well of Initiation. That's where the deep meaning just rolls over.

It is believed that it was in this well that the Masons could accept a newcomer into their ranks, giving him a number of tasks and forcing him to go through the “9 circles of hell”, which, in fact, depict flights of stairs encircling a 30-meter-deep well in a spiral.

The well is not so easy to find on the territory, because it was skillfully hidden under mossy stones, which seemed to have been lying here all their lives. Being 5 meters from the entrance, tourists may not understand that they are standing next to the main attraction. If you look inside the well, then, indeed, associations with a tower come to mind, which they turned inside out and stuck into the ground.

At the very bottom on the floor you can see the famous Templar cross, but here it is framed by an eight-pointed star, on one of the walls you can see a triangle - a classic sign of Freemasonry. And having gone down the stairs to the bottom, you find yourself in front of the entrance to the tunnel, which, as we remember, is a labyrinth - go and get out into the light.

It is noteworthy that Carvalho Monteneiro also built a tomb for himself, all decorated with symbols, but it is unlocked only with the key that could open the palace on this estate and Monteneiro's house in the capital.

© G.Altov. "Pionerskaya Pravda", 11/18/1980. - C.4.
TURN INSIDE OUT

Once Nasreddin was asked: "What is the best way to build a mosque?" Nasreddin replied: "We must dig a deep and narrow well, and then turn it inside out ..." In the theory of invention, this technique is called inversion ("do the opposite").

Recall the problem of replacing burnt-out lamps on tall poles. Instead of lifting the fitter up, it's easier to lower the lamp down. To do this, the lamp (together with the protective glass) must be suspended on a cable passing inside the tubular column. "If the lamp has burned out, the fitter will come up, lower the lamp, change the lamp and raise the lamp again," writes a girl from Saraktash, Orenburg Region. The correct answers were sent by schoolchildren from the city of Barnaul, the city of Dolgoprudny, Moscow Region. A schoolboy from Chelyabinsk proposes to make a lamp with six hairs: one burns out, the other turns on automatically. Here, however, a technical contradiction arises: it will really be necessary to change the lamp six times less often, but the cost of such a lamp (with automatic equipment) will increase ten times, no less ... A schoolboy from the city of Evpatoria writes: "We need a small helicopter ... "A technical contradiction again! The gain will be much less than the cost: a helicopter (even a small one) will cost a lot...

When solving inventive problems, be aware of technical contradictions. It is necessary not only to obtain this or that result, but also to achieve it by simple and cheap means.

DROPLETS OF LIGHT

In the previous issue there was a problem about checking souvenir samovars. Filling the samovar with water tinted with black paint, the inspectors watched to see if a dark drop was leaking somewhere ... But you might not notice it. It is necessary to organize the check differently. But how?

We received letters with various proposals. Many solutions are close to the correct answer.

“We need to put out the light, and insert an electric light bulb inside the samovar,” writes
student from st. Parafyanovo, Vitebsk region - The light will penetrate through the holes. "The same decision was sent from the city of Frunze, the city of Dalnegorsk, guys from the 4th detachment of the Ocher special school, from the village of Zvezdny, Irkutsk region, from the village of Tyutyunnitsa, Chernihiv region. The proposal, in general, But souvenir samovars are small, there is a pipe inside the case, so it is not so easy to put a lamp inside.

"We need to pour luminous sea water into samovars," suggests a student from Tyumen. Great idea! But sea water glows thanks to special microorganisms, and they may not survive long-term storage. "In ordinary water," writes a schoolgirl from the village of Polazna, Perm Region, "we must put phosphorus." Phosphorus is insoluble in water and is highly toxic. The most valuable thing in the girl's proposal is not the mention of phosphorus, but the idea that luminous water must be obtained artificially. "Use luminous paints," suggests a schoolgirl from the city of Roshal, Moscow Region. And schoolchildren from Moscow clarify: "Luminescent paints." Right! They should be used for control. Good answers were also sent from the village. Pump station of the Azerbaijan SSR, Uyar, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Kirovo-Chepetsk, Chu, Dzhambul Region, Voskresensk, Moscow Region. and other guys. And for the first time this invention was made by employees of the Institute of Physics of the Belarusian Academy of Sciences. Only they checked not souvenir samovars, but more complex units of refrigeration machines.

August is coming to an end, marked by three Spas, summing up the fruitful year, in which water and wells occupy a special place. The First Savior, Wet, is associated with the miraculous effect of water, the Third Savior - with the time of cleansing the wells.

It is customary to set up and consecrate wells on the First Savior: August is the hottest month, when the water reaches a minimum, then it’s time to set up and clean the wells. In all religions, wells were considered a sacred place. In Christianity, holy springs are places of pilgrimage and special arrangements; miraculous and healing power comes from them.

The well is associated with the human soul, which should be protected and kept clean; with the entrance to the other world; with infinity and mystery, with depth and paradise; with a native home and the unity of people. Finally, with eroticism, where the well symbolizes the female vagina, and the closed well symbolizes virginity. There were legends and fairy tales, parables and sayings, poems and poems about wells. Here, for example, is a parable from Athos monks:

“The man was digging a well. Dug ten meters - no water. Stopped digging. Started digging elsewhere. Digging, digging - everything is dry again. I left this place and left completely. And another man came to his first well. He sees that the well is deep, but there is no water. Went down into it. I dug three meters and water came out. I was very glad. If you want to enter the depths of the heart, you need to go to the end, making efforts only for this, leaving everything else.

And this is an example of a legend: in the Slovak city of Trencin there is a castle standing on a high mountain. There is a well in it, which got its name from the legend that exists here. Once the owner of this castle, having won a victory over the Turks, brought many prisoners from the campaign, and among them - the beautiful Fatima. After some time, the bridegroom of the beauty came to the castle and began to ask the owner of the castle to release the prisoners and his beloved, for which he offered a large ransom and exchange of prisoners.

The owner gave everyone except Fatima, setting a condition for Omar: he will give her if he gets water. Omar worked for three years and, finally, at a depth of 79 meters, he found precious moisture. So a well appeared in the castle, which made it impregnable, and Omar got his beloved. So the dug out source received the name "Well of Beloved".

In deep wells the water is cold
And the colder it is, the cleaner it is.
The careless shepherd gets drunk from a puddle
And in a puddle he will water his flock,
But the good one will lower the tub into the well,
The rope will be tied tighter to the rope.
A priceless diamond dropped in the night
A slave seeks by the light of a penny candle,
But he looks vigilantly along the dusty roads,
He holds a dry palm with a ladle,
Protecting fire from wind and darkness -
And know: he will return to the halls with a diamond.
(Ivan Bunin, 1915 to the poet)

In ancient Russia, on the day of the winter solstice (at Christmas), girls often wondered: they looked into the wells to see the groom or made small wells from sticks, locked them with a key and said: “Narrowed, mummers, come water the horse, ask me for a key,” they put him under the pillow.

Wells carry a deep metaphysical meaning, personifying a connection with the other worlds, with the world of the dead, with the underworld, with the past, since wells are sources of not only life, but also death. In folklore, you can find a lot of horror stories where a well looks like a grave, in which terrible monsters live, taking life from those who decide to go down to the bottom.

In the Chinese Book of Changes, the well is a symbol of the union of "I" with the subconscious, in the Jewish tradition - wisdom and the Torah itself, in Islam - the entire Muslim civilization originates from the Zemzem well, located in Mecca. According to legend, this well arose magically from the kick of Ishmael, who was thrown on this place by Hagar, who was expelled by Abraham and Sarah.

All pilgrims collect water from this holy well at the end of the Hajj in order to distribute it to their relatives and use it to heal ailments. In the same way, Christians draw water from holy springs to heal and sanctify themselves and their homes. There is a parable in the east: in order to build a minaret, it is necessary to turn a deep well inside out.

The miraculous properties attributed to wells make them a place of fateful meetings. For example, in the Bible, Eleazar, Abraham's messenger to his father's house to find a bride for his son Isaac, meets Isaac's future wife Rebekah at the well. Then Rachel and Jacob find their beloved at the well. And Jesus talks with the Samaritan woman about living water, also at the well,

and the Annunciation for the first time, according to legend, the Virgin Mary learns at the well, and Joseph's brothers threw him into a dry well. In a word, a well is a multi-valued metaphysical and sacred symbol: life and death, the underworld and the subconscious, penetration into the depths of mystery and the source of sacred knowledge.

I thought how can I be with the soul
From mine, not so big:
Whether to close the soul with a castle,
So that I can reasonably
For a drop, a drop of moisture to take
From the dark treasury depths
And sparingly give moisture
A little bit of poetry, a little bit of love!
And to me such a secret
Saved for a hundred long years.

The well was dug a long time ago
The whole bottom is lined with stone,
But the log cabin crumbled and rotted
And the bottom was covered with viscous silt.
Nettles have grown all around
And the very entrance was shut up by a spider.
Breaking down the spider's home
A rotten log house touching slightly,
I put the bucket down there
Where the water glistened dimly.
And scooped up - and was not happy:
Some kind of decay, some kind of stench.

I asked the old man:
- Why did such a well rot?
- And how not to rot him, son,
Though it is in place and deep,
Yes, from which year
People no longer draw.
He is filled with good moisture,
But he is alive as long as the people drink. -
And I realized that he is true,
Great life law:
Who is filled with good moisture,
He is alive as long as the people drink.

And if your spring is bright,
Let him not be so big
You are at the source of the spring
Do not hang from the people of the castle.
Do not conceal spiritual moisture,
But draw deeper and sip!
And saving life days
You don't drive yourself away
No inspiration, no love
But draw deeper and live!
(V. Soloukhin. Well. Excerpt)

April willow silver on red rods.
Here is a full bucket of vowels, a bucket of consonants.
The window of the well is wide open in the underground cold,
And there, to tears, someone is glad to me - how sweet it is drunk! ..

How sweet it is drunk in the depths, where there is a sob of joy,
And trembling in a dripping string, and drops of glances,
When the bucket with the inside of the well kisses
And every rib of logs is sung, drunk.

The soul of the well breathes mist, it tears,
Each layer of water is mirrored, faces are pouring there.
There are no mirrors in the underworld, a well is mirrored,
Where the abyss draws vocals, getting better with a bucket ...
(Yunna Moritz. Well)