Comments on: sunken cities

sunken cities

languagehat — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 13:46:36 -0800

When the Mongols invaded Russia in the 13th century, legend has it that when they reached the northern city of Kitezh, the citizens, rather than defending themselves, "engaged in fervent praying, asking god for their redemption. On seeing this, the Mongols rushed to the attack, but then stopped. Suddenly, they saw countless fountains of water bursting from under the ground all around them. The attackers fell back and watched the town submerge into the lake." Ever since, Kitezh has provided Russians "a platform for imagining what their culture might have been like, had it not been stamped by authoritarian rule." And it gave Rimsky-Korsakov the plot of his opera the Tale of the Invisible City of Kitezh. [More inside.]

By: languagehat

languagehat — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 13:47:17 -0800

Interestingly, not far to the west of the supposed site of Kitezh, at the turn of the Volga in the region of Yaroslavl, is an actual sunken city, Mologa, inundated by the creation of the Rybinsk Reservoir in the early 1940s; there's a whole site devoted to memorializing the city. And legends of sunken cities aren't just a Russian thing—there's a whole series of Celtic ones. And there may be more to come...

By: Artw

Artw — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 14:10:30 -0800

I wonder if theres a similar, communist city that magically esacped being over-run by Vulture Capitalists.

By: freebird

freebird — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 14:10:41 -0800

Don't forget the unwelcoming neighbors of Baucis and Philemon in compiling sunken settlement stories!

By: stavrogin

stavrogin — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 14:14:26 -0800

This would be a good Miyazaki movie.

By: ducksauce

ducksauce — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 14:41:05 -0800

This is an awesome post -- thank you! It reminded me of the discovery of this sunken city off the coast of India in 2002. I think this city was legendary until they actual found it using sonar. It also reminded me of "Mirage Village" from Final Fantasy V. =)

By: Substrata

Substrata — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 14:48:12 -0800

More Kitezh + watch Andrei Tarkovsky - Andrei Rublev

By: uni verse

uni verse — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 14:49:05 -0800

stavrogin: I see it! The water river spirit returns and defeats the oily, blob-like figures.

By: dgaicun

dgaicun — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 14:57:09 -0800

So the town prayed for salvation, and in reverse Faustian fashion, got "saved" from the Mongols by God drowning the entire town first? Bravo! And, of course, we now have the authority of SCIENCE to prove God punishes those who petition Him in prayer:

Patients who received prayers were marginally more likely to develop complications (52.5 to 50.9 percent) and substantially more likely to develop major complications (18.0 to 13.4 percent) than patients who received none. You can't blame the major-complication gap on psychology, since both groups were told that they might or might not be prayed for. . . Warning: The surgeon general may determine that prayer is hazardous to your health. That's what can happen when faith sets out to prove its power through science.

By: Bugbread

Bugbread — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 15:13:40 -0800

dgaicun : "So the town prayed for salvation, and in reverse Faustian fashion, got 'saved' from the Mongols by God drowning the entire town first?" To be fair, from what I remember of the behaviour of the Mongols, no, God drowning the city would not be anywhere close to the best possible option, but it was probably an improvement on letting the Mongols take the city.

By: Vaska

Vaska — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 15:15:55 -0800

One thing you hear is that the 'true' orthodox believers (Those that cross themselves with correct amount of fingers) can still hear the church bells of Kitzeh ringing in the deep.

By: grex

grex — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 15:42:14 -0800

I've always thought that Rimsky-Korsakov sounded more like a company that sells arms , than a guy who wrote opera's.

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 16:43:46 -0800

this post is why I read metafilter. awesome.

By: blahblahblah

blahblahblah — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 18:41:39 -0800

Great post! Thanks.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 19:22:45 -0800

And legends of sunken cities aren't just a Russian thing—there's a whole series of Celtic ones. Cities? Bah. How about Atlantis?

By: horsewithnoname

horsewithnoname — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 19:40:15 -0800

Atlantis? How about New Orleans?

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 19:52:02 -0800

ba-ZING!

By: wilful

wilful — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 22:31:37 -0800

That is totally strange. Last night I was reading Natasha's Dance by Orlando Figes, and came across that story for the first time in my life. And here it is today in the blue. Synchronicity.

By: matteo

matteo — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 02:08:53 -0800

thanks for the post!|

By: posadnitsa

posadnitsa — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 05:39:31 -0800

The Celtic link missed out Lyonesse. And thank you for the post-- I'd never heard of Kitezh before.

By: OmieWise

OmieWise — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 05:58:29 -0800

Excellent, I'd never heard of the city, but I also immediately thought of Andrie Rublev, which I was lucky enough to see on film a year or so ago. I went to a college where three of the housing areas-Enfield, Greenwich and Prescott-are named after towns drowned by the Quabbin Reservoir.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 08:17:57 -0800

Heh—as a newly fledged citizen of Massachusetts, I thought about including the Quabbin Reservoir, but decided the post was too overcrowded already. But I'm curious about the Andrei Rublev connection; I've seen the movie, and I don't remember any reference to Kitezh (although of course there are invading Tatars). What am I forgetting? (And yes, it would be a good Miyazaki movie.)

By: OmieWise

OmieWise — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 08:52:52 -0800

Nothing specific, just Mother Russia and the hordes.