!!!Old Watch Towers, Ingushetia

by Sergey Shandin and Stas Sedov,
members of the [AirPano Team|Geography/About/Consortium/AirPano,_Team] that is a member of the [global-geography Consortium|Geography/About/Consortium]. \\

10 November 2017

with kind permission of [AirPano|http://www.AirPano.com]

The decision of visiting Ingushetia turned out to be rather spontaneous.
We packed quickly, left Moscow and headed southwards.The route was
familiar to us, without any surprises, and by the end of the second day,
we had reached Magas. But there were no vacant rooms in hotels because
of the Russian Fighting Championship taking place in the Palace of
Sports.

On our arrival, we were greeted by Hussein Kozdoev, Ingush Light
Aviation Federation President. Our visit coincided with the aviation
gathering in Magas, so we intended to take part in this event, or at
least to take pictures of it. Hussein invited us to the house, we had
supper, watched the championship live broadcast, discussed our plans and
then went to the monument of glory and memory. The southern night falls
quickly, so it was already dark, but the illumination was turned on
especially for us. The heart of the composition is the nine watchtowers
that symbolize the number of nations deported from here in the 1940s. We
captured the memorial from above and from the ground.

[{Image src='01_Old Watch Towers, Ingushetia, Russia.jpg' caption='Old Watch Towers, Ingushetia, Russia' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='507'}]

It was around midnight, and though Hussein warmly invited us to stay in
his house, we chose to sleep in another place. We were taken to the
sports camp in the mountains. The fast river, cicada noise and talks of
fighters that came back after competitions could be heard in the
darkness.

In the morning Hussein came here to take us further into the mountains.
The road was getting thinner and thinner, the cliffs were rising on the
sides. Then the border post appeared before us. The guards checked our
documents and soon their strict faces gave way to smiles. Stories about
abreks, blood feud and tamed bears began. Perhaps, these guys could be
perfect guides! But we had to continue our journey.

[{Image src='02_Old Watch Towers, Ingushetia, Russia.jpg' caption='Old Watch Towers, Ingushetia, Russia' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='648'}]

We reached the ancient settlement of Targim. The mountains are more
impressive here and the first tower complexes appeared before us. Across
the river, there are the towers of Targim, and further away there are
the reconstructed Khamkhi towers and the constructions of Egikal
complex. But we had a long way to go.

Our cars followed the curves of the road and soon we found ourselves in
a cloud. The visibility was around 20 meters. On another turn, we
stopped to watch a tower together with stone vaults. They were
thoroughly destroyed, but there were bones and skulls still lying in the
vault. In the past, people used to come here when they were infected
with different diseases during the epidemics in order not to contaminate
others. The food and water were given to them through a small window
using long poles. In case people recovered, they returned to the
settlement. If not, they stayed here forever.

[{Image src='03_Old Watch Towers, Ingushetia, Russia.jpg' caption='Old Watch Towers, Ingushetia, Russia' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='555'}]

According to ancient beliefs, the afterlife is the resumption of our
earthly lives, with the difference that the sun shines for the dead in
the night. There is a saying that "During the life, the man needs a
tower, in the afterlife he needs a vault", and it reflects the attitude
of the ancient Ingushes towards life and death. These traditions changed
only at the beginning of the 20th century with the adoption of Islam.

The pass offers a beautiful view of the Caucasus mountains, but we could
see only the grey clouds carried with the wind. As we left the pass
behind us and descended into the valley, we came to Armkhi, a beautiful
resort.

Although the tower complex of Erzi is the nearest one and can be seen
from the roadside, it is difficult to get there. At first, we tried to
get there on foot, but soon we were out of breath and understood that it
would be too challenging to walk up there with our equipment. The
following day we decided to make this way using a car. It threw the
stones back, the tires were losing traction and squeaked, but still, we
were pushing forward. Soon the road was interrupted by a gate with a
barbed wire so that horses and flocks of sheep could not enter the
territory of hay fields. I went out, opened the gate and we rode inside.

[{Image src='04_Old Watch Towers, Ingushetia, Russia.jpg' caption='Old Watch Towers, Ingushetia, Russia' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='647'}]

After the Ingush deportation, many towers were destroyed, but some of
them are restored now. In one of the towers, we accidentally met a man
who spent the night there: Alexey was travelling through the territory
of Caucasus, sleeping in a tent or under different shelters. He offered
us a cup of a mountain herbs tea, we had a talk and enjoyed the scene.

One of the most popular places of Ingushetia is the medieval tower
complex of Vovnushki that used to be a watching and defensive
construction. In 2008 it reached the final tour in the Seven Wonders of
Russia competition. Two fortifying towers that stand on both sides of
the valley look truly magnificent. The river Guloykhi flows nearby. At
times border patrols can be met — it's a frontier zone, after all.

[{Image src='05_Old Watch Towers, Ingushetia, Russia.jpg' caption='Old Watch Towers, Ingushetia, Russia' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='601'}]

Lots of legends are related to these towers. According to one of them,
during the siege one of the towers was set on fire and a Nakh woman
saved little babies: she walked on a rope and carried them in a basket.

The tower complexes can fascinate with their ancient beauty: you feel
like you are in a legend, and if a dragon flies over the mountain ridge,
no one will ever wonder. It should be also noticed that all the towers
were built in just one year, and in case the construction was not
finished in time, then the tower was taken to pieces.

[{Image src='06_Old Watch Towers, Ingushetia, Russia.jpg' caption='Old Watch Towers, Ingushetia, Russia' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='421'}]

The unique feature of Ingushetia is the dense concentration of wonderful
natural places and historical sights in this area. Ancient temples,
defensive towers, snowy peaks and mountain rivers, caves that served as
shelters for robbers not so long ago — all these points are located
within dozens of kilometres. Our expedition took place at the moment of
Uraza fasting so that we could hardly meet other tourists on our way,
and this fact enhanced the beauty of this place.

The trip to Ingushetia is not just a travel through the territory, but
it's a time journey as well. Mountains and towers are the guards of the
history, and we also tried to reflect the pieces of this history through
our photos and videos.

\\ \\
[24 Panoramas of Old Watch Towers Ingushetia|Geography/Asia/Russia/Pictures/Panorama_of_Old_Watch_Towers_in_Ingushetia]










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