Artificial caves of Divnogorye (Russia). Gunko Alexey, Kondratyeva Sofya
ARTIFICIAL CAVES OF DIVNOGORYE
Alexey Gunko1, Sofya Kondratyeva2
1Russian geographic society, Naberezhnye Chelny, Russia, gunko.a@mail.ru
2Natural architectural and archaeological museum-reserve «Divnogorye», Voronezh, Russia, kosofia@yandex.ru
Divnogorye is a chalk upland, which is situated on the right bank of the river Don in Liski district of Voronezh region. Museum-reserve “Divnogorye” was founded in 1991 for conservation of landscapes and unique cultural heritage. There are 5 sacred caves and cave complexes. For the first time they were mentioned in documents in the middle of the XVII-th century. It is also expected that caves could be done in XIV-th century. Main cave complexes were created in the XVII-XIX-th centuries. After Revolution 1917 they were despoiled and partly ruined. Up to the present moment cave complex in Malie (Small) Divy (Divnogorskiy-1), Bolshie (Big) Divy (Divnogorskiy-2) Selyavninskiy (Divnogorskiy-3) and Shatrischegorskiy have been remained. There are also two small caves and fragment of the bell-tower which was cut out in the cliff.
In the caves of Divnogorye there is a great amount of functional parts such as underground churches and crypts, long roundabout galleries, stair flights between the tiers, living quarters, sepulchral vault. Caves are decorated with architectural elements, such as imitation of intersecting vault. In some caves there are unknown terrains which are partitioned by gob caving.
To the west of Liski village chalk quarry are located. They were developed at the turn of the XIX-XX-th centuries. It was manual chalk excavation by the means of scraper. That’s why unique by morphology roundish cavity were formed. Today 10 grooves with the total length of over 140 m are available.