14 man-made tunnels were found under the Astrakhan monastery using georadars

Under the Churkinsky Monastery in the Astrakhan region, with the help of georadars, man-made tunnels were discovered, the height of the largest of which reaches 10 m. Excavation of the tunnels is planned to begin in the spring.

“We found 14 man-made cavities under the monastery. They are empty, that is, not filled with water, located on different planes, at a depth of 12 meters. The size of the largest of them is 78 m in length and 10 m in height, that is, these are the dimensions of a metro station,” said the chairman of the regional branch of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society, Alexander Solovyov, in an interview with State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company “Lotus”.

The head of the Innotech XXI charitable foundation believes that lost shrines may be located in the discovered tunnels.

The first church on the territory of the Vysokogorskaya Assumption-Nikolaevskaya Churkinsky Hermitage appeared in the 16th century. According to monastic legend, in the second half of the 17th century, the repentant executioner Larka settled in the desert, executing the holy martyr Joseph. He dug himself a cave in a hillock, where he lived until his death. His followers who appeared after the death of the former executioner began to equip themselves with the same caves.

The Churkinskaya Hermitage became an independent monastery in 1762; before that it was the metochion of the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery. At the beginning of the 20th century, after the October Revolution, it was closed and partially destroyed. Restoration work began in 2004.

Evgeny Belousov