City of the Dead

The City of the Dead, or Fardyk-Keshene, is a mysterious necropolis on the slopes south of Eltyubyu in Kabardino-Balkaria’s Chegem District. Its stone crypts date from the 10th to the 18th centuries and include both intact and ruined tombs, many associated with families whose male lines still live in the area. Each crypt differs in construction and burial practice, reflecting the architecture and history of the Caucasus. Many tombs have been lost over time. The site is surrounded by theories ranging from Zoroastrian influence to practical responses to burial in mountainous terrain and the traditions of the medieval Alans. It is now protected by the state.

A popular story claims that time behaves strangely in the necropolis and that watches fall several minutes behind the outside world. The claim is impossible to verify, especially because mobile reception is absent in the gorge, leaving modern timekeeping strangely irrelevant among the old crypts and legends.