With his heart set on a possible reward, Pugovkin says he crawled into the depths and eventually stumbled upon what he called "bone soup." Case in point its really, really, really easy to get lost, as one poor girl discovered after a party in Odessa. Murderer never found, the body ever identified. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. The city of Odessa was expanding rapidly at that time, and the stone mined here was used in the construction of buildings. But the story of Masha the missing girl in the Odessa catacombs may not be everything it appears to be not on the surface, at least. Previously: The I-17 Mystery Christmas Tree. If the area near School 56 had no groundwateror clandestine wine or mushroomsthere would have been nothing for her to eat or drink. The girl lost in the Odessa Catacombs So there is a story that does the internet rounds about Masha, a Ukrainian girl who at New Year in 2005 went into the catacombs under Odessa with friends to drink and party and got lost. Today we find ourselves wandering the largest catacomb system in the world. She appeared to be on her hands and knees, in a crawling position. All photos by Wikimedia Commons user . She didn't make it out alive, it's said. Odessas catacomb system dates back at least to the 19th century roughly the 1830s, per the BBC, when the current incarnation of the city was established (although some sources posit that theyre even older, going back perhaps to the 17th century). The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". But some places just arent meant to be explored. The company is family owned and highly values relationships often going beyond the call of duty to help a customer. Part of it, Im sure, is the existence of the photograph; like the video footage of the man who was allegedly lost in the Paris catacombs, it seems to function as proof of the storys veracity, even if its just as suspect as everything else about the tale. 24TV later reported that he was never located. As fun as it is to explore catacombs, some people prefer to stay above ground and explore. 15 Creepy, Scary Phone Numbers To Call That Actually Work (UPDATED For 2023), The Backrooms, Explained: How To Make Sense Of The Internets Favorite Non-Reality, Bloody Mary & Other Games We Shouldnt Play. However, that hasn't stopped many people from making the same trip Masha apparently made. 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. In the end, she might have crawled. | Even if they managed to find an entrance that was accessible, they were not to venture inside. They became a hiding place for Soviet partisans. It would be a strange, unfunnny practical joke. Instead, it belonged to a girl who was never identified. In 2011, a body was found in the catacombs that had been dead for several months. Drinking and debauchery went on that night, and for reasons unknown a young woman named Masha got separated from her friends and disappeared into the abyss. You can see it here, if you really think you need to. After he piled the bone soup in a bedsheet and dragged it out of the catacombs and to the police medical examiners office, though, a DNA test found that the remains werent a match for the missing Stendzenieks. Parts of the mines are still active, but the majority of the tunnels remain closed to the public. Let the sad story be a warning to all would-be urban explorers if you decide to crawl into the Earths hidden places, make sure you go with a friend, tell others where you are, and dont stray from the path. Pugovkin told us the elder Stendzenieks was offering a reward to anyone who could find his son, and some people he called "diggers"manual laborershad tipped off the authorities about a body two to three miles from an entrance to the catacombs. Dangerous Games To Play In The Dark Is Now Available From Chronicle Books! In a post from 2010, he claimed that he used to take trips that lasted over a week, and that he'd fill his "catacombs bag" with food, camping equipment, diving gear, and mapmaking tools to prepare for long trips. Required fields are marked *. The teens are said to have stayed down there all night. Odessa is built from the catacomb coquina. They didnt go inside, heeding the warnings their parents had given them. Lata says he was there when that photo was taken, but he can't retrace the photo to its origin. By 2012, he had begun to sound less like the internet's ambassador to the catacombs. 31 Days of Halloween: On Atlas Obscura this month, every day is Halloween. The absolute most famous photoone that Lata told VICE in a contact he had been involved with takingshows three blank-faced males whom appear to be they are inside their very very early teenagers, posing like they will have simply came across your body in a slim, curved area of the cavern. Above ground, the Fasciest Germans and Romanians would identify random catacomb exits and seal them off, hoping to trap them inside. Of course parents saying not to do something usually encourages kids to do that very thing. "Besides the original photographer," a post says, "there isn't one person, civilian or law enforcement, that can confirm the story. "I wrapped it in a bedsheet, and dragged it back," he told VICE through a translator. Initially, police believed that he had simply gotten lost and died, as Mashahad supposedly done. But unlike, say, the Paris catacombs (which has its own missing person mystery), the Odessa catacombs werent built for use as an ossuary or burial site. Investigating the mysterious death of a young woman who wandered into an underground tunnel and never came outbut lives on as an internet rumor. Before long, the other teens gave up looking for her and left, figuring she'd already gotten out, or would get out on her own soon. Then he added that a young boy had just been lost in an accident, and his body was still missing. Our people value honesty, integrity and other family values that are often missing in newer or larger companies. 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. measures of center and variation worksheet; power bi difference between two dates; leather bags made in san francisco; assyrian torture methods; death notices nampa, idaho; Catal Follow us on Twitter to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. One of them recalled hearing her say she had to use the bathroom, and assumed, since she wasnt there, that she had gone home. The maps of the Odessa Catacombs look like some fractal Borgesian nightmare, like something an obsessive compulsive Dungeons and Dragons player might draw. We believe it is just a practical joke and the corpse is fake. The remains of a different man were also located within the Odessa catacombs just a month later, in March of 2021, reported Dumskaya. What's worse is that it's believed she walked away from the entrance, farther underground, so that the temperatures dropped even lower. The body is real though, it belonged to a man 40 to 60 years, who was killed in the catacombs. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Login. But while its magnificent. 2023 Atlas Obscura. [citation needed], There have been various reports of people walking into the catacombs, getting lost and then eventually dying of dehydration. The group supposedly went to the police, but they were still reluctant to go in to retrieve the body because it was literally miles from the entrance. It wasnt until six months later that Masha was found. But catacombs can be more than religious passageways or burial grounds. Based on what was later found, it is believed that Masha stumbled around in the catacombs for at least three days, starving, thirsty, alone, and in the dark. There are even tales of Nazi executionsand cultists, not to mention a ghost story or two; however, the most famous of thecatacomb legends is probably that of agirl named Masha, who went into the maze of passagesand wasn't found until years later. It does not store any personal data. [Photos via (1, 2, 3), /Wikimedia Commons, available under CC BY 2.5 and CC BY-SA 4.0 Creative Commons licenses; chiefhardy/Pixabay], Filed Under: Places, Tales Tagged With: Catacombs, legend tripping, Masha, Odessa, Odessa catacombs, the internet, Ukraine, Unresolved, unresolved mysteries, urban legends, Your email address will not be published. Every weekday we compile our most wondrous stories and deliver them straight to you. With over 1,000 known entrances, exploration is exceptionally dangerous. Lata then told Pearl that the person behind Katakomby.odessa.ua who, just to underline the point, stated unequivocally that they thought the photo of Mashas remains was a fake is one of the most experienced Odessa catacombs explorers and my best friend. When asked why such a close friend would say he was lying, Lata told Pearl that his friends organization probably prefers to stay out of this business, just as I do., (Worth noting: As of this writing, the FAQ post about Masha is no longer present on Katacomby.odessa.ua; indeed, every mention of the girl, usually rendered as , or Mashenka, seems to have been scrubbed from the site. Featured in one of the most iconic scenes in cinema history. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. Every story is true, and each one is a real place you can visit. And theres this, too: The story has never been independently confirmed. Her body was far from the exit. The official Odesa Catacombs website, however, calls the story a hoax. We use cookies to give you the best online experience. Perhaps the most popular of catacombs is beneath the city of Paris, France. And in 2014, a 22-year-old man killed a 17-year-old girl and hid her remains in the catacombs. The whole story of Masha might actually just be an urban legend. She ventured farther down the tunnels and quickly got turned around. It is one of the world's largest urban labyrinths, running up to 2,500 kilometres (1,600mi). The Coli - The Best Hip Hop, Rap, Sports Forum and Message Board. Officially, the Odesa Catacombs comprise at. Just Masha; no surname is given. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Browse 81 ODESA CATACOMBS stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. Follow us on Twitter to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. Proudly powered by WordPress However, professionals can be hired at the cost of 250 hryvnia per person, depending on the time spent underground, the complexity and length of the route, the number of tourists, and options for delivery to the site entrance to the underground area. They're the backdrop for the tragic tale of Masha, an innocent partygoer who ventured down into the depths with some friends, took a wrong turn or two, and got lost forever. As I said earlier, a lot of people lost and even dead under Odessa. Inside, they saw a flight of stairs leading down into the catacombs. Get drunk and wander through a pitch black labrynth bruhs. He may have died by suicide, although it remains unknown whether this was the case. Once the war was over, the catacombs became home to numerous smuggling and criminal groups, who widened and created new tunnel systems of their own. She had no food and no water, and the catacombs were freezing cold and dry. Today there is an entire Ukrainian subculture of catacomb explorers with dozens of semiprofessional groups, often quite competitive, exploring the catacombs. Any chamber used as a burial place is a catacomb, although the word is most commonly associated with the Roman Empire. Maybe her path forked a few times, and she lost track of the pattern. She made the decision to venture down into the mine for privacy sake. The mystery person was of no value at all, Pugovkin says. Knowing this, its not hard to see why a story about someone going missing down there would capture the publics imagination and why such a story might come across as so believable, even in the absence of any verifiable proof. One of the teens was a girl named Masha, and she was simply going with the rest of her crew to have a good time. [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. However, it's not te only creepy story - in 2012 group of students went below and one was lost. According to Pugovkin, someone else had vanished in 2004: Janis Stendzenieks, the son of a newspaper magnate named Armand Stendzenieks. 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. They admitted that they had gone to the Stone Mines, and maybe, just maybe Masha had gone inside. I can only assume that its operators got to the point where they didnt want to engage with the story at all anymore not even as a legend so as not to legitimize what they feel is misinformation. In September 1995, in honor of the 200th anniversary of Odessa, the longest underground journey in the catacombs was recorded. She had not only gotten separated, but also lost, and subsequently never made it out of the catacombs. While they were down there, one of their number, a 19-year-old girl, somehow got separated from the group and when they re-emerged onto the surface, she wasnt with them. Though Masha wasnt particularly interested in going to the mine, she went anyway, wanting to be with her friends more. Last month, a guy in his 20s was sentenced for reportedly murdering his teenage girlfriend in the catacombs with an ax. In 2011, a male murder victim was found by chance in the catacombs after he had been dead for three to six months. Enter your email to receive blog posts and updates by email. Even after the "Masha," episode, Lata continued to explore the catacombs. Over time, the alleged missing girl has come to be called Masha. Based on the 2009 forum post on Urban Explorer's Resource (UER) with a catacombs explorer called Eugene Lata, whom brought Masha's tale to your English-speaking globe, the tale starts later on brand New 12 months's time (or maybe New 12 months's Eve) in 2005. 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. Or here. 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. What followed for Masha was a three day trek from hell. Bedroom of a Partisan living in the tunnels. With tunnels that run up to 2,500 kilometers, the Odessa Catacombs are considered the world's largest urban labyrinth, significantly larger than the one in Paris, among others. JavaScript is disabled. [4] In his work The Waves of The Black Sea, Valentin Kataev described the battle between Soviet partisans against Axis forces, underneath Odesa and its nearby suburb Usatove. 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." By Ukraine by Locals. [citation needed] Perhaps the most famous story dates back to claims made in 2009 by Ukrainian catacombs explorer Eugene Lata. 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. Home Uncategorized masha odessa catacombs photo masha odessa catacombs photo. Like most information about these catacombs, only Ukrainian cave explorers even claim to know the details. 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. In September 1995, in honor of the 200th anniversary of Odessa, the record for the longest underground journey in the catacombs was broken by a 27-hour continuos journey of over 40 kilometers. Unfortunately, what they often find inside is far more grim than that. The very old skeleton of a partisan or smuggler. We don't know for sure what Masha was looking for when she went into the catacombs with her friends. While you may have never heard of the Odessa catacombs, they are filled with legends and dark tales that you'll never forget. Gather round, because it wants to tell you strange stories, take you on haunted journeys, and make you jump at unexpected noises. However, in the drunken revelry a member of the group, a girl named Masha, became separated and lost in the catacombs. [1] It's not clear what the journalist wrote, but Lata claims the government got moving and removed the body less than 24 hours later. [3] Many of the tunnels have been filled up with earth, concrete or sand by construction companies, and are no longer accessible. These men and women remained hidden, living in the catacombs. [6] Other caves attract extreme tourists, who explore the tunnels despite the dangers involved. 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. Theyve also never been fully mapped, and its common for sections to flood, or collapse, or suffer any number of structural issues. We may not even have any way to confirm the story. Come for the severed heads, stay for the book bound in human skin. TheOdessa catacomb death legend has been supported by witnesses, as well as photos and even a few news articles, but there's not much as far as hard facts go. The Soviets suffered malnutrition, and even malaria. Consider supporting our work by becoming a member for as little as $5 a month. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison for the crime in 2015, per Global Investigative Journalism Network affiliate NikCenter. Despite the best efforts of officials to keep adventurous folks out of the Catacombs, the tunnels proved to be a popular spot for teenagers to hold their wild parties far from the prying eyes of adults. The largest catacomb system in the world. Was this, then, the origin of the stories of Masha? Masha had no food, no drink, and no phone service. This was a mistake. Was a May Day Attack by Pilgrims a Practice Run for a Massacre? It would have been utterly black. 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. (Remember, Lata claimed that the remains stayed where they were until 2007, while Pugovkin says he removed them in 2005.) Winner will be selected at random on 06/01/2023. [citation needed], During World War II the catacombs served as a hiding place for Soviet partisans, in particular the squad of Vladimir Molodtsov. Technically, theyre not even catacombs, which, according to their primary definition, are specifically tombs. The idea of having the end of your own story be one, big question mark is, in a word, terrifying. In the end, we cannot be entirely sure if the story of Masha'sill-fated party, nor her sad demise, is accurate, and that may never change. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. Odessa, just outside of Ukraines capital, Kiev, is home to one of the largest catacombs in the entire world. An eye-opening journey through the history, culture, and places of the culinary world. Enter your email address to subscribe to Week in Weird and receive the latest weird news delivered directly to your inbox! [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. In the morning, they braved the morning cold to get back to hearth and home. masha odessa catacombs picturesr latch using nor gate truth table. He had gotten lost, and there was a reward offered to anyone who could find the young man. After the incident, Lata said that the group had continued to explore the catacombs, and that they would sometimes go down there for days at a time. Nor were her friends able to locate her. With the onset of a global pandemic causing the shutdown of fan conventions all over the world, it was only a matter of time before the cancellations hit the Theres something strange moving through Kentucky like a virus, twisting through the Mammoth Cave system and hovering in the skies above the Appalachian Mountains. Stop by the blog every day this month for true tales of the unquiet dead. She was taken out only in the end of 2007 nd buried. In 2009, an urban explorer known only as Eugene took to UER.com to share a morbid discovery that hed made deep below the Odessa streets. 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. We believe it is just a practical joke and the corpse is fake." For those curious, originally the Catacombs were a series of many mines, mostly Limestone mines (note the cut blocks on the minecart), that eventually grew to connect and intersect as they haphazardly spread out in search of new resources to mine. With over 1,500 miles of subterranean tunnels, Odessas catacombs even beat out the well-known Paris Catacombs in terms of length. ", "That's why I really beg you not to try to walk underground in Odessa itself. Consider supporting our work by becoming a member for as little as $5 a month. "It was hard to get to the top of the shaftit was like nine floors, tiers with skinny ladders between them. According to the 2009 forum post on Urban Explorer's Resource (UER) by a catacombs explorer named Eugene Lata, who brought Masha's story to the English-speaking world, the tale begins late on New Year's Day (or possibly New Year's Eve) in 2005. Their development really took off when Odessa the city was founded by Catherine the Great in the late 1700s. [citation needed], The group of friends, he wrote, had all stayed there overnight, then left the next morning, but abandoned Masha, either accidentally or on purpose, and she was unable to find her way out. 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. The Odesa Catacombs are a labyrinth-like network of tunnels (subterranean cavities) located under the city of Odesa and its outskirts in Ukraine, that are mostly (over 90%) the result of stone mining, particularly coquina. Travelers who enjoy history, archeology, and off-beat experiences will enjoy this tour of the Catacombs of Odessa. They have rescued a number of children who have wandered into the catacombs. She would have gotten delirious, convulsed, and slipped irreversibly into a coma around the third day, not that she would have noticed the days passing. 'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); Content copyright 2016 Planet Weird unless otherwise noted. For those interested in exploring the catacombs, with less risk, you can hire a professional to take you down. Like Atlas Obscura and get our latest and greatest stories in your Facebook feed. But, as Pearl put it, [Pugovkins] recollection is different from Latas: First, the body was initially presumed to be those of Janis Stendzenieks, the son of Ukrainian newspaper magnate Armand Stendzenieks; the younger Stendenieks had apparently gone missing in 2004. According to the investigation of the incident, the man was with a group of friends, and had been drinking with the young girl. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. They were used as a source of cheap construction materials. Visitors are permitted only within certain sections through officially-guided tours, although as you might imagine, there are plenty of people willing to take the risk and venture in on their own safety be damned. !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)? As modern urban explorers tend to do, individuals from the group who found the body decided to share their exploits online. Over the years, urban explorers have traveled to Odessa to explore the catacombs, despite only a small portion of them being open to the public. Learn how your comment data is processed. Theres a photograph thats been passed around online for well over a decade now: A photograph of a bunch of young men boys, really in an underground cavern somewhere, with a skeleton clad in rags at their feet. The rumors said it was deep underground, but from what they had seen, the body appeared to be fresh. We depend on ad revenue to craft and curate stories about the worlds hidden wonders. The girls remains were removed from the tunnel in which they had been found and given a proper burial. A group of urban explorers were pushing deeper into the mines, into one of the most unexplored areas, when they came across the body of a woman. Enjoy.". In the 19th century, most houses in Odesa were built of limestone that was mined nearby. But in addition to the quarry-tunnels, other features, both geological and human-made, contribute to the underground network that makes up the Odessa catacombs, including basements, drainage tunnels and storm drains, bunkers, and natural caves, making them substantially more varied in their composition than many other notable catacomb systems throughout the world. Despite this, they were once used by the Soviets who took Nazi soldiers down to be executed. No one is exactly sure how she died, but it could have been dehydration or hypothermia. Thats when they learned that she had never returned home her parents had assumed she was with them. These men and women would play chess, checkers, cook, and listen to Soviet Radio, generally trying to make a normal life below the surface of the city. Today, there are dozens of semi-professional catacomb explorer groups that venture into the Odessa catacombs. It is one of the world's largest urban labyrinths, running up to 2,500 kilometres (1,600 mi). Some time later, when the group was ready to call it a night and head home, they noticed Masha was missing. About four months after New Years in April of 2005, word spread among cave explorers that there was a fresh body down there, Lata wrote in a his UER post in 2009. They were a popular location for murderers to hide bodies, and on at least three occasions, were a location where area kids had ventured inside, never to be seen again. The final resting place for the remains of 143 Habsburg royalty. During WWII, although the Soviets had been forced out of the city, they left behind dozens of. But being murdered and having your body dumped in the catacombs is a vacation compared to what is rumored to have happened to Masha. 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. They did seem to have belonged to a girl but the identity of the person was never confirmed. There you will find the legend of Masha. In Odessa, when someones water line suddenly breaks, or a house settles oddly, or a family pet goes missing, it is not uncommon for Ukrainians to curse about those damn catacombs., They are not being delusional, for underneath their houses run some 2,500 kilometers of catacombs, carved into the limestone that the city is built upon. Her body had been partially mummified by the cold cool air. Masha had died, still trying to escape. Unfortunately, the extreme isolation meant that while you could party in peace, your chances of of dying in peace are also increased exponentially. The Catacombs are on three levels and reach a depth of 60 metres below sea level.
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