MOSCOW, January 23. /TASS Correspondent Natalia Kazakovtseva/. People began inhabiting the territory of the modern Komi Region about 120-100 thousand years ago. The most ancient human sites - Mammoth Kurya in the middle reaches of the Usa River, and Byzovaya near the city of Pechora - are 36,000 and 30,000 years old, respectively. The ancient Komi believed in good God Yen, his opposite brother Omel, and in numerous spirits. Many legends about the region's mysterious and magical places have survived to this day.

Sacred Mountains

"Whatever weird natural things - lonely stones, mountains, a very round lake or an unusually shaped lake, a strange stream or forest - have attracted human attention. Ancient people tried to comprehend and explain them by endowing objects with magical powers," a well-known Komi scientist, ethnographer and folklorist Oleg Ulyashev said.

Komi gave special power to stones. "According to the Komi-Zyryan mythology, two brothers having opposite powers, two deities - Yen and Omel - created the Earth from a grain of sand (silt), which they had mined at the bottom of the boundless ocean. Omel made stones grow, and they were growing until they could touch the sky. Since the sky was in danger, it was Yen's turn to cast the spell, and he stopped the growing stones. This is how mountains were formed, and on that foundation the creators made the life: rivers, lakes, forests, animals, and humans," the ethnographer said.

Both Komi, Ugrians, and Samoyeds said the Urals was the ridge or the base of the Earth.

"Komi compare the human spine with the stone ridge, hence the saying "if there is a bone, meat would grow" and the riddle "There is an earthen city on the stone city, a wooden city is on the earthen city, on the wooden city is taiga, and in the taiga are fierce animals." The answer to the riddle is a human (bones, meat, head, hair and, sorry, lice)," the scientist continued.

Komi treated stone, stone formations, and rocks with great respect, considering stone to be one of the earliest materials, one of the elements. No wonder they have many myths and legends about the sacred mountains. The most famous of them, to which tourist trails have been laid, are the Manpupuner Plateau, Sablyaiz (Mount Sablya, the highest point of the Sablya Range in the Circumpolar Urals), Sanaiz (the Rosomakha (wolverine) Range in the Circumpolar Urals), and the Torre-Porre-Iz Plateau.

We know legends from Komi hunters who traveled in teams beyond the Urals to hunt there for two or three months. Such campaigns continued until the 1940s, the last teams hunted there right before the Great Patriotic War (World War II). There are many folklore stories about skirmishes between Komi and Khanty for loot.

Seven brothers who turned into stones

Komi hunters kept legends about the famous Telpoziz, or Tevpoziz - a peak on the border of the Northern and Circumpolar Urals ("tev" in Komi means "wind", "poz" - "nest", "iz" - "stone", that is, the mountain's name is "nest of winds").

All existing winds "live" on Telpoziz, like Shua, the son of Voipel, the God of Winds and Cold, Komi myths say. No noise was allowed near the mountain: no shouting, whistling or loud talk. It was believed that a storm may rise from every sneeze or whistle, so hunting teams tried to either walk very quietly or go very far around this place. The ban was common for all the ethnic groups - Komi, Khanty and Mansi.

"Similar beliefs are associated with the Mortyuriz ("human head"), a rock on the Mortyur River, a tributary of the Ilych River. Raised voice nearby would raise a strong wind, and nobody must speak disrespectfully about the rock not to cause trouble. My grandfather passed on to me a legend about how seven brothers, who were hunters, went beyond the Urals. When they reached the Mortyuriz, the brothers began to brag that they could jump over a stone. So they argued, one jumped, then the second, the third, and eventually each of them turned into a stone. Near this mountain you can really see seven big stones," the scientist said.

Nor have the Komi people ignored stones on plains - for example, the giant stone balls in the village of Maloe Galovo in the Izhema District. "We now know that large rocks were brought in during the great glaciation, they were rolled in, and, as we know both the Vychegda and the Kama Rivers' upper reaches were in the ice column, which stood higher than the Ural Mountains. Our ancestors were not aware of this, and they endowed the stones with a miraculous origin, associating their appearance with saints and deities. Komi and Komi-Permians have sacrificial stones on which, according to legends, pagan ancestors sacrificed various animals to their deities or sprinkled stones with their blood," the scientist continued.

In the Urals, some locals associate stones with the name of Pera the Hero. One legend says that Pera and his brother Mizey enjoyed competing in strength: they would throw stones instead of balls. One day, Pera threw a stone that reached Pashkyba, which is 3 km from the village of Medgort. For a long time, no one could move it, until a tractor driver rolled the stone closer to the village of Soyga, where it remains now.

The hero, as the legend says, threw the second boulder in a northwesterly direction, and it fell into the Lupya River, where it still lies, covered with moss and mud. Svetlana Koroleva and Elena Chetina of the Perm State National Research University mention certain "healing properties of both stones."

Oleg Ulyashev, the historian, notes that stones are also found on forest edges, where Komi people used to leave bread, salt, and tobacco to appease the forest deity. Komi have stones of Virgin Mary, several Stefan stones, on which, according to legends, St. Stephen of Perm traveled against the river current. Some stories say unbaptized locals did not want to help Stefan cross the river, and he crossed the water from shore to shore, standing on a stone.

Stone Blockheads of Manpupuner

Many people know the Manpupuner Plateau. It is a geological monument on the territory of the Pechora-Ilych Nature Reserve in Komi (translated from Mansi as "small mountain of idols"). It is one of Russia's Seven Wonders. Some 200 million years ago, there used to be high mountains, but due to the wind and water, only seven remains from 30 to 42m high can be observed now. They stand on a clear plateau and can be seen from afar from all sides.

The Mansi people worship these stone idols. Climbing the plateau was the greatest sin, as only shamans could do so. One legend says that a giant, who wanted to take beautiful girl Aim by force, and his warriors turned into stone. Another legend claims it was the shaman who turned giant warriors into stones as they wanted to conquer Mansi.

"Khanty and Mansi, who are closer to the mountains on the other side, have more legends about this place. There is a story about brothers of a beautiful woman whom a bear wanted to capture. Other stories are about the beautiful girl's brothers who were fighting the shaman, and the supreme god got tired of it, and punished them by turning into stones," the scientist added.

Pagan grove near the village of Kortkeros

On the left side of the Kortvis River (translated from Komi as "iron river"), some 4 km from the village of Kortkeros, there is a pagan grove, or "wander forest". It is described as a gloomy place full of strange trees with twisted trunks, birch fused with spruce there are about 400 years old.

"This fashion emerged in the 1990s, when so many people wanted to find "places of power", or twisted trees and "witch brooms". I have seen a few places of the kind: imagine an ordinary forest where all of a sudden in one particular place every tree is twisted. This is how the Earth's magnetic forces work, where the lines of force twist tree trunks. Or, this may happen on very heavy soils. Thus, it is a purely natural phenomenon or a combination of a few such factors. Kortkeros is the place where, according to a legend, Kort Aika, the iron robber, lived, and this is why the pagan grove at Kortkeros is that much famous, which adds mysticism to this place. Honestly speaking, such places are quite many," the ethnographer said.

Another attractive location in the Komi Region is the Okean Nature Reserve in the Ust-Tsilma District. It is the largest swamp in Europe, with an area of 178,975 hectares. The locals bypass it because of the quagmire. From a scientific point of view, this is a unique natural complex where Red Data Book plants grow and Red Data Book animals live. It is a natural filter that supplies fresh water to the Pechora - a biggest river in the Russian North.

Imagine a perfectly round lake. Lake Vad in the Sysola District is a natural monument near the village of Vizinga. Some beliefs say the lake has no bottom: instead, in the lake's center there is a funnel with a circular current. Other beliefs claim the lake has a bottom of algae, however that bottom is false, and the real depth is more than 20 m. It is also believed that trunks that have been lying in the lake for a long time become rot-resistant.

Some say, the lake was formed by a fallen meteorite, others are sure it is a karst lake that formed as groundwater was destroying rocks.

The Komi Region is rich in unique and virtually virgin natural territories, including pristine forests on the UNESCO World Heritage List, majestic, sometimes chilling mountains, stormy rivers and amazing landscapes with inaccessible places - they require and await serious study, the scientist said in conclusion.