The search for truth - Orthodox portal. Darvaza: Is there Hell on Earth
If there is a hell in the world, then it is most likely located in the very center of the cradle of mankind - the African continent. Here, on the territory of about 623 thousand square kilometers, bloody conflicts, religious and civil wars, coups and revolutions. Slave trade and uprisings repeatedly almost completely devastated these lands.
For enlightened Europe, the Central African Republic until the 19th century remained a blank spot on the maps due to its remoteness from the oceans and difficult terrain, although the first mention of it is found in the written sources of the ancient Egyptians. This cruel world is the CAR.
Photo source: Wikipedia States of slaves and slave traders
Judging by archaeological finds, people settled in this area in the Neolithic era. In ancient times, the migration routes of many African peoples passed through this land, but its first inhabitants, most likely, were pygmies - representatives of a short black people. On the monuments ancient egypt records have been preserved of the distant country of Uam, inhabited by "black dwarfs".
Later, various early states. One of them was formed by rebellious slaves, who, judging by the symbolism on the artifacts found, were Christians. Later, the inhabitants of central Africa experienced the invasion of the Arabs and forced Islamization.
The Sudanese peoples who resisted the Muslims were forced to hide in deep, inaccessible areas. An ancient caravan route passed through the present territory of the Central African Republic (CAR) to Egypt. Merchants delivered ivory and slaves along it to the Middle East. Arab slave hunters practically devastated these places by the middle of the 18th century.
Photo source: Wikipedia Colony of France
The first representatives of European peoples who fell into late XIX century in these places, were the French and Belgians. In 1889, Fort Bangui was founded at the rapids of the Ubangi River. Four years later, the first Catholic mission arose near him.
The modern eastern and western borders of the current CAR appeared as a result of agreements between France, Germany and England on the delimitation of colonial possessions in 1894 and 1897. In fierce battles, by 1903 the country was conquered and received the status of the colonial territory of Ubangi-Shari, which belonged to the French.
The indigenous population continued to resist even after this, but a series of uprisings between 1907 and 1931 were brutally suppressed. The French authorities reduced the population of certain areas by 60-80% by their actions. It was only after the Second World War that the indigenous population managed to achieve representation in the French parliament. However, MP Barthelemy Boganda, who is considered the founder of the Central African Republic, did not live to see the independence of his homeland. Shortly before her acquisition, he died in a plane crash.
Photo source: Wikipedia Gaining independence and becoming an empire
The independence of the Central African Republic was proclaimed on August 13, 1960. The country became a presidential republic with a single political party- Movement of the social evolution of Black Africa. But the peace of the state did not last long - on January 1, 1966, a military coup took place, which brought Colonel Jean-Bedel Bokassa to power. He dissolved parliament, repealed the constitution, and appointed himself president, head of government, and chairman of the only party.
Bokassa ruled for more than 13 years, plunging the country into monstrous corruption, renaming it an empire and crowning himself in December 1976. Against the backdrop of a serious aggravation of the situation and the beginning of popular unrest in September 1979, the emperor was overthrown by French paratroopers. After the renunciation of power, it turned out that the ruler of the country could eat people. The chef told him about it. The French military returned power to the president, and the republic was restored.
Photo source: Wikipedia channel Civil and religious wars
However, peace was not restored in the country. Two years later, another revolution took place. Several more followed. The economic situation was getting worse. The Central African Republic began to be shaken by civil wars and armed clashes between various groups.
Since 2012, they have grown into a religious war - between Christians and Muslims of the country. Against the backdrop of mutual atrocities, murders, rapes, looting and destruction of the infrastructure of the state, the UN Security Council in January 2013 authorized the entry of French and African Union peacekeeping troops into the territory of the Central African Republic. However, this only led to an aggravation of the inter-religious conflict.
Only from 5 to 8 December 2013 in the capital - Bangui - killed about 400 civilians. Peacekeepers from Chad were accused by local Christians of supporting Muslims. Thousands of minors appeared in the ranks of the fighting opponents, cases of ritual cannibalism began, and in front of the soldiers of the peacekeeping contingent.
In 2014, about 160 thousand people left the capital - almost half of the population. At the beginning of this year, the sending of peacekeepers to the CAR was announced in the EU countries. After several murders of medical workers in the country, representatives of the organization "Doctors Without Borders" temporarily suspended their work. Only at the end of July 2014 was it possible to achieve the signing of a ceasefire agreement between representatives of the Muslim and Christian forces. But the war could not be stopped - until now, the peace agreement has been constantly violated, armed clashes, terrorist attacks and reprisals against the civilian population have been taking place.
Photo source: Wikipedia Currently, the CAR remains one of the most sparsely populated countries in Africa and perhaps the most dangerous region in the world. Despite the deposits of diamonds, uranium, gold, oil, the presence of significant forest and hydropower resources, the republic is among the poorest states on the planet.
Infant mortality here, according to the latest data, is more than 10%, the average life expectancy for men is 48 years, for women - 51 years. According to 2007 estimates, infection with the immunodeficiency virus is above 6%. The greatest danger to the stability of the state is still the almost total banditry of various groups. Human life, in fact, is worth nothing in the Central African Republic.
On July 31, it became known that three Russian journalists were killed in the Central African Republic - Orkhan Dzhemal, cameraman Kirill Radchenko and director Alexander Rastorguev. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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Does Hell exist and where is it located?
I think that Hell is our very life on Earth. Earth is the place where Hell is located. Why did you decide so? Firstly, our souls are shackled in bodies and without specialized practices - teachings it is impossible to leave it. Suicide is despised and punished in every possible way. Suicides are not even buried, although what difference does it make, in the eyes of God we are all children. Just as a child is a child for us, so any grandparents who have grown old in body, but not in soul, are children in the eyes of God. If a person has stumbled, will he not be forgiven? Oddly enough, but we see the opposite phenomenon, and this is possible only in places not so remote, where an escaped criminal is punished, and they try to punish suicides, but why? Yes, because by killing himself, the person tried to break out of the shackles of the physical body and escape, but the term was not given for this, in order to run. Therefore, all suicides are despised in Christianity, but what is interesting is that criminals and bandits who killed thousands of people can be buried freely and easily. Here is the quote:
The Russian Orthodox Church does not approve of suicide and does not bury suicides. Fundamentally. But solemnly funerals of killers. "Authorities", murderers and bandits, are buried magnificently, solemnly, in the news almost always a priest flickers at the coffin ...
Of course, it is clear that in a different world, where God exists, the laws of being are unlikely to converge with the rules of the religious system. We will not discuss all this, because the purpose of reflection is to show where Hell is approximately located, and so, we argue further:
Secondly, A man is born and immediately cries. Who among us has not cried, has not been upset, has not been offended, has not suffered or does not suffer? We are limited in freedom of choice, that is, the entire choice is necessarily dictated by someone, we can only choose from what was given. We cannot, with all our will, jump over the roof. Here, on our planet, we receive punishment and work it out. Punishment is all kinds of zones. Any state is a large zone, within which there are other zones. Everything is divided into zones, where we receive punishments in the form of all sorts of hardships. Someone toils in slavery at a brick factory in Daghistan, someone is in prison, other people rob millions of people, then they are killed, and someone dies of poverty, someone will be punished with a ruble.
Further: The entire food chain is designed to eat each other. Every living thing on Earth eats each other. I don't think this is God's plan. A person closes the food chain and eats everyone, but at the end of life, being in a knocked-up box - a coffin, worms eat our flesh.
Fourthly: Not a day goes by that someone is not killed. 1941-45: concentration camps - Buchenwald, Auschwitz. They killed people, burned them alive in furnaces. in 1945, Japanese doctors worked diligently, killing thousands of people, experimenting on them, infecting them with diseases and training to remove internal organs, then burned the corpses in furnaces.
There has never been a year of truces on the globe - there have always been wars. The Americans dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - hundreds of thousands of dead and sick so far.
If you look deeper into history, then the whole life of mankind is a bloody mess that continues today. Our Earth is a place of Hell. The same Crusaders, the Germans under the banner of Christ, others under other Banners, gathered troops and conquered neighboring countries - hundreds of thousands of killed, raped, mutilated innocent, innocent people. Remember the Battle of the Ice, and the revolution of 1905-17, where the Christians themselves rebelled against religion, sweeping away everything in their path? This is history, you can’t return everything back and you can’t replay it, but the wars continue, I don’t think God needs it, as everyone says in God’s hands, but Hell is Hell - a penal colony.
I will show a small clipping in the dates from the life of only Russi. This is of course a small part of our history, it makes no sense to write everything, I think everything is clear
10th century
945 - Revolt of the Drevlyans
964-972 - Campaigns of Svyatoslav
988 - Mass baptism of the people of Kiev. Adoption of Christianity by Russia
beginning of XII- the end of the XV century - Feudal fragmentation of Rus'
XIII century
May 31, 1223 - Battle with the Mongol-Tatars on the Kalka River
1237-1240 - The conquest of Rus' by the Mongol-Tatars
July 15, 1240 - Battle of the Neva
April 5, 1242 - Battle on the Ice
1276 - Formation of the Moscow principality
14th century
September 8, 1380 - Battle of Kulikovo
16th century
1550 - Sudebnik of Ivan IV the Terrible
1558-1583 - Livonian War
1565-1572 - Oprichnina
17th century
1606-1607 - Revolt led by Ivan Bolotnikov
1610-1613 - Seven Boyars
October 26, 1612 - The liberation of Moscow by the militia of K. Minin and D. Pozharsky
1649 - Adoption of the cathedral code. The establishment of serfdom.
1662 Copper Riot in Moscow
1670-1671 - The uprising led by Stepan Razin
1676-1681 - War with Turkey
1686 - "Eternal peace" with Poland
1695 and 1696 - Azov campaigns of Peter I
1696 - decree on the creation of a fleet in Russia
1696-1698 - Grand embassy to Western Europe
1699 - establishment of the first Russian order
We are not only roasted and burned in Hell's furnaces, but simply killed in various ways, making it so that they would kill themselves, with their own hands. Of course this is not simple system, but very intricate and thought out to the smallest detail.
It is quite real that Jesus visited our Hell trying to save our souls - they became immortal. Apparently saved, now we are able to leave Hell even after physical death and acquire eternal life in the spirit. Of course, we are trying to expiate the guilt for being born and alive, but, of course, not everyone succeeds. Muslim God brings Muslims out of Hell, Christian Christians. Other messengers, perhaps Angels, lead other nations out of Hell. Perhaps there is only one God, but the messengers on His behalf may be different, but it can be much more serious, tragic and more complicated than I wrote. So everything is relative in this world.
Whose views are different, please treat mine favorably. At this period of my life, I have such views as described above.
Well, as promised, we are watching the film: "What a slave or cattle should not know"
P/S There are also Circles of Hell, one of them is Hell of the soul, imposed by conscience, but the concept of conscience is brought up by society (for example, walking without panties is a trifling matter in many African tribes, but in Europe it’s a shame - conscience does not allow), and globalizers rule the society, and idealizers soothe, therefore I will finish writing with the words:
Heaven and hell in heaven," say the bigots.
I, looking into myself, was convinced of a lie:
Hell and heaven are not circles in the palace of the universe,
Hell and heaven are two halves of the soul.
© Omar Khayyam.
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Almost everyone who has already managed to decently trample on our "sinful" Earth, regardless of whether he is a believer or an atheist, at least once in his life thought about what is beyond the last line?
Do Heaven and Hell exist?
Well, the expressions "Hellfire", "Burn in Hell", "Go through all the circles of Hell" and so on, for sure, everyone has heard.
When I watched this video, I thought that if Hell exists, then it might look something like this:
And, indeed, the locals call this place - "Gate to Hell". It lies in the heart of the Karakum desert, in a place called Darvaza(Turkmenistan). It is symbolic that Darvaza means "door", and the Karakum is translated as "black sands".
"The Door to the Black Sands" is an appropriate name for the place, and indeed, somewhat reminiscent of the gate to the underworld...
Imagine - a deserted place where you will not meet a single living soul for tens of kilometers around - the nearest village of Erbent is located at a distance of 90 km.
And suddenly ... a huge crater in the ground with a diameter of 60 meters and a depth of about 20 meters, from which flames burst out with a roar and a roar. Impressive?!
Reluctantly comes to mind "The Divine Comedy" Dante Alighieri , where he presented Hell as a huge funnel, consisting of concentric circles, and resting with a narrow end on the very center of the earth.
However, there is nothing Divine in the origin of this fire-breathing phenomenon! This "miracle of nature" was created by people. Yes, with your own hands!
In 1971, geologists discovered an accumulation of underground gas in the area of the village Darvaza. During exploratory drilling, they unexpectedly stumbled upon an underground void (cavity), into which all the exploration equipment fell. Luckily, none of the expedition members were hurt. But at the site of the collapse, a man-made "hole" was formed, which quickly filled with gas oozing from the cracks between the layers of the earth.
So that people and livestock are not poisoned, GAS SET ON FIRE, in the expectation that it will gradually burn out and the fire will go out in a few days. And... miscalculated!!! The huge fire is still blazing!
Gas flows from the earth's layers, instantly igniting and dividing into hundreds of blazing torches that poison the entire area not only with toxic fumes, but also with combustion products! Tongues of flame sometimes reach 10-15 meters! It is hard to imagine how many billions of cubic meters of the most valuable raw materials have burned down in a natural "burner" over all these years!
And what harm is done environment and I don't want to talk! The already deserted place has become completely lifeless ... The earth is loose and constantly crumbles. In addition, high temperature, hot gas and almost no oxygen. Animals, sensing mortal danger, bypass it.
And only curious tourists visit this "wonder of nature", created by the hands of HUMAN!!!
The Door to Hell - Road to Hell call this fiery crater in the English-speaking world!
What do they think, standing at the gate OF THE PRESENT earthly hell?
By the way, two more craters of man-made origin are located very close. As long as the gas pressure in them is much weaker, they do not burn. At the bottom of one of them is a bubbling gray goo,
the other is full of accumulated brine,
which simply catches the eye with unrealistically bright turquoise.
Yes-ah-ah ... Are we not looking into the face of the future, as it is now fashionable to say, ecological disaster?
“My foolish mind, why are you sending me all these vile and cruel thoughts?
— I need to know that you distinguish darkness from light and make a choice consciously… (from internal dialogue)
Self-conceit, in union with the mind, creates a difference between the internal and external observer, and this difference is called "I". From selfishness, the desire to possess is born. If such a desire is not satisfied, the mind falls into a state of anger, and if satisfied, then satiety occurs.
Anger causes a form of delusion called delusion. The mind, which is in darkness, leads the soul to madness and suffering. I wrote about how to break the vicious circle of illusions earlier in the material, and today we will talk about this: if all people experience desires and suffer from their dissatisfaction, does it mean that the earth is hell? Everyone, without exception, is immersed in illusions from birth, and everyone suffers in one way or another. Yes, I also live mostly in a non-enlightened state and this material is a description of my feelings about the social ignorance, suffering and pain of this world.
The text was written after I became a casual listener to a story about the rape and subsequent brutal murder of a girl. It turned out that this was a sensational story on the Internet, since the criminals were the children of high-ranking officials and they managed to avoid responsibility. It is sometimes difficult for me to digest such information and thoughts arise about possible causes similar phenomena. They lie in the fact that many do not understand the pain of others. At the same time, the reason is very deep and has roots in the upbringing itself.
The fact that modern parents leave their children to be raised by TV is already practically the norm, and schools ... The education program provides for algebra, geometry, physics, chemistry and other sciences, but there is no subject that teaches you to be a person. Children are not taught virtues, and on the contrary, they are deprived of their natural conscience. So, I recently saw the following picture in the supermarket, reflecting the essence of the problem:
A father with a little daughter of 5 years old were shopping and the girl saw a can of canned food on the floor, which someone had dropped. She said in a serious tone:
- Dad, please pick up the jar and put it on the shelf!
“For what reason?” I didn't touch it, it was someone else who dropped it.
"Daddy, get up!" (took a jar and tries to reach the shelf herself)
“Stop, I’m telling you, she’s dirty!” (took it away, threw it back on the floor and pulled the crying child to the cash registers with force)
In the end, I myself picked up this jar and put it in its place. The case seemed to me quite interesting, instructive and, unfortunately, quite typical for our society. I also saw several times how parents in the company of children, passing by a tree, broke off a green branch from it simply out of boredom, and then gave it to the child, who immediately threw it away. Is it worth talking about the church holiday called “Palm Sunday”, when poor trees are mutilated everywhere for no reason. First, children are taught to ignore the suffering of trees, then animals, and then people. Thus, from the inability to feel the pain of others, violence, perversion and aggression arise.
Unfortunately, few people understood my material about the meaning of life, which was written in a state of enlightenment, which means that now we will discuss more mundane things. I am sometimes disturbed by social injustice and ignorance, although in fact I often realize that the world is sacred and everything that happens in it is part of a plan that we are not able to comprehend. In any case, we must strive to become better, and for this we first need to accept who we are and realize the pain of others.
Is earth hell?
The major religions claim that the earth is a kind of purgatory. Souls here determine for themselves the further path, up or down. In fact, I will tell you that there is both hell and heaven on earth. Living in a country that has been at war for more than a year, and having left my hometown after certain bloody events, described in the media very untruthfully, it seems to me that I have seen the very limits of hell. Other people, living, say, in Switzerland, will disagree with me and say that the earth is a wonderful place. I think there are more hellish places on the planet ... So, let's move on to thoughts on this topic.
In the Vedic texts, Krishna stated that the soul, even while in hell, finds pleasure there and clings to life with all its might. Many, living in the most terrible places, do not know the alternative and believe that this is how it should be and that the whole Universe is arranged in the same way. But in reality, things are different.
When people experience severe suffering or die in agony, they consider the Almighty to be evil. It is not uncommon for a very religious person who prays to God every day, after the death of a loved one, falls into madness and blames the Almighty for everything. He believes that for his prayers and good deeds he deserves only good, peace and pleasure. Such a person does not see anything further than his nose, his religiosity resembles trade, where repentance serves as money, and various benefits and goods serve as goods. immortal life in Paradise.
Any suffering sent to us is rather a gift from the Almighty, but people often cannot understand this. The fool will now begin to recite a list of the most unfair, in his opinion, events and deaths and argue that the people on whose heads these sufferings were sent did not deserve such a fate. Listen to me carefully. Maybe I should not give this knowledge to an unprepared mind, but I expect that people who follow the path of spiritual development will read me.
Few people are able to see in a child, a poor old woman or an abandoned kitten, not an innocent creature, but an immortal spirit, but this is true, all animals and people have an immortal beginning. What form he takes is determined by his actions in past incarnations. Now I will not talk about what terrible things I have personally seen, what I can imagine, and I hope that you, too, will not describe corners of hell unknown to me, but we will talk about the opportunities that hell provides to our immortal soul.
Indeed, earth is not the most pleasant place in some regions, but whatever you are told on TV and in church, hell is not forever. If for crimes the soul was thrown there forever, it would be extremely unfair. For any crime, punishment will follow, but if the person who committed the crime himself repented and devoted his whole future life to atonement, would it be fair to punish him forever? It turns out that the crime was committed by one person, and they will be punished by a completely different person ...
What will happen if we have the reverse situation? Someone has committed a grave crime and does not repent of it at all and, moreover, does not see his guilt. Does it make sense to punish him if he does not understand what his fault is? Such a person will only become embittered and convinced that everything is decided by force. He will only regret that he was too weak and allowed himself to be caught by harsh and unjust judges. Think carefully about these two situations. If these two people were your own children, which we are for the Almighty, would you begin to act unfairly with your own child?
There is no point in punishing someone if he does not realize his guilt. Such a child must be taught to see the difference between darkness and light, and only then can he make his own choice between them. It makes sense to punish only a repentant person, because suffering will bring him redemption. And those who do not see the difference between light and darkness should simply be isolated. Of course, some souls are like real devils, and the Almighty has to place them with pain in the heart on the most distant hellish planets, hoping that those, seeing other people's pain and experiencing their own, will change.
The soul goes through a cycle of rebirths, and there are an infinite number of worlds, so there is a suitable place for everyone. When a negative event happens to you and you feel that you have been treated unfairly, consider whether you have been fair to others. I'm not just talking about people. Maybe you think that paying for the killing and torment of animals, buying sausage in the store, you do not bring pain and suffering? Perhaps you think that cows and other animals are incapable of suffering? Then why do they cry and scream at the moment of killing, is it not because they feel pain in the same way as people? No, my dear ones, by participating in the killing of innocent beings, you bring suffering and pain into this world, but whether you repent of your crimes or not, you know better.
If in doubt, then remember how you passed by a kitten abandoned in winter or a wounded dog. Didn't your hearts feel pain and sadness at the sight of their torment? Remember yourself as a child, didn't you feel sorry for these creatures? Didn't their suffering touch you until your ignorant parents forced indifference on you. Inflicting pain on animals is just as bad as hurting people. So think next time why you are in trouble.
Personally, when I get into trouble, I never complain to others, because I know enough about myself and try to become better every day. Of course, I would be very pleased to see similar impulses from others, that is why I am writing this text. Even if this material brings even one of the many out of ignorance, it will be a good achievement.
Fools tell me that plants also suffer and I should stop consuming them and eat solar energy. I'm really sorry that their poor and evil mind doesn't see the difference between an apple and a cow, a cucumber and a dog, a potato and a pig.
“A person needs to eat meat,” a girl with an operated intestine once told me ... Stop spreading this heresy, a person can live perfectly without eating carrion. Now is not the ice age and the question of survival is no longer worth it. With a reasonable approach, you can easily create a complete diet for yourself, taking into account all the needs of the body. If you can’t live without meat at all, then go for fish, it at least has a simpler nervous system and experiences much less pain when killed.
If you don't want to give up your carnivorous lifestyle, then don't complain that you yourself are suffering. I don’t criticize people at all now, I don’t need it. Animals that are killed work off their karma and move on to the next spiritual stage. But do not think that you can be executioners forever and do not have to pay.
Now I am able to understand all the pain that I caused to animals and people before I became a conscious person. I am well aware of the approximate list of my crimes in this and past lives, and being immersed in suffering, I do not complain about God, but only thank him for showing my soul a bright path. Yes, I've committed enough crimes to see the darkness in my heart, and yes, I hate it. I renounce it and I advise you to do the same before it's too late.
There is a lot of good in our world, but it is not enough for everyone. Love, understanding, kindness, in fact, is present more in the thoughts than in the deeds of people. If you doubt that the earth is very close to hell, then make queries in the search engine like: “war”, “brutal rape”, “pedophilia”, “incest”, “Nazism” ... The list goes on, but in my opinion it’s already clear , what in good location things like that just can't happen. Think about your behavior, about the suffering that you inflict on people and animals, intentionally or out of stupidity. You will understand that you are here for a reason.
Even if you take into account popular religions and live with the belief that the earth is not hell at all, think carefully, because the earth is far from heaven. Dig half a meter and be careful not to fall into a dark abyss. Yes, hell is very close and every day you either dig a hole for yourself, or stand still, or rise above yourself.
Do not worry, all people, even the righteous, sooner or later go to hell, this is normal, because in a comfortable paradise the soul does not develop and degrades. Only after visiting the underworld, you can feel the difference and build your own paradise, the main thing is to realize your behavior and thoughts in time.
Many people do good deeds in order to buy a "stairway to heaven" for them. But don't you see the difference between virtue and mere trading? Is it possible to pay for happiness with hypocrisy? No you can not. People who do good deeds sincerely represent happiness in themselves. A person who commits evil deeds, even if he did not receive punishment for them immediately, has already sowed anxiety and fear in his mind. Even if he was able to acquire wealth by fraud, will he be happy? No, without realizing it, he laid the foundation of his own hell. I wrote this article to help you figure it out. Don't be indifferent to someone else's pain.
I advise you to act now. Maybe for a start it is worth making a bird feeder out of a plastic can and hanging it outside the window?
Think how cold and hungry they are now, bring them hope and faith in people. And one more thing, the next time you see a hungry dog, don't chase it away, but share the food. For you, a piece of bread is usually a trifle, but for a dog it may be the last chance to survive or save the life of his offspring. Such little things are called virtuous deeds. They do not lead to happiness at all, they are happiness in themselves.
An area where rubbish from all over Cairo is manually disposed of.
Location
On the globe there are plenty of places that some war, pestilence or the rise to power of a black goggle-eyed dictator have made unsuitable for human habitation. However, all of the above is still a temporary phenomenon, while hell is eternal, and therefore terrible. We decided that only places where surrealistically terrible living conditions have developed historically and no changes are foreseen can claim a place on our list. Egyptian garbage slums in this sense, the perfect hell. The locals have no way out of here, and they can't imagine any other life.
On the one hand, there are some indications modern city, such as concrete houses with balconies, streets, cars. On the other hand, there is a clear imprint of the apocalypse on all this, since all the sidewalks, roofs of houses and the notorious balconies are littered to the brim with garbage. There is no water supply, sewerage and electricity. Piles of plastic burn in the streets and pigs roam, eating everything that can be devoured in the mountains of waste. And on the sidewalks and inside the concrete box houses, people, adults and children, sit and rummage through the garbage heaps. This is the Zabbali, an Egyptian caste that has been disposing of Cairo's waste for over a century. They pick up garbage from the city for free, bring it to their slums and sort it, choosing everything that can be recycled, and feed the organic matter to the pigs.
Zabbali are capable of recycling up to 80% of waste, while for industrial sorting plants this figure does not exceed 25%. It would seem impossible to imagine that life in these slums could become even worse. However, this has happened recently. In 2009, the authorities ordered the slaughter of all local pigs, fearing the spread of swine flu. This led to the accumulation of huge mountains of rotting organic garbage in the streets of Mokattam, and indeed Cairo itself. So now the pigs seem to have been returned to their place, and the garbage slums appear in all their original splendor.
What to see nearby
After watching all sorts of nasty things, it's nice to look at something beautiful, for contrast. We also took care of this. In fairness, it should be said that in the same Egypt there are also extremely magical corners, far from the tourist trails. For example, the white beaches of Sidi Abdel Rahman, located on the Mediterranean coast, 132 kilometers from Alexandria. There is a five-star hotel for lovers of comfort and a Bedouin village for haters of civilization. The sea is blue and clean. The only thing that is practically absent here is Russian tourists.
chemical sea
A giant septic tank of a chemical plant in the Russian outback.
Location
Let's not belittle the achievements of our native land. In Russia, too, there are places that can easily claim to appear on our list. Firstly, it is, of course, Norilsk with its iridescent smog and snowdrifts in public transport. But we will not follow the well-worn paths: everyone knows about Norilsk. And we will take the "second" - the city of Dzerzhinsk, which in 2006, together with Norilsk, was included by the American Blacksmith Institute in the top ten dirty cities peace. IN Soviet time this city was considered the chemical capital of the Union: about forty large chemical industries are located here. Naturally, all this economy gave out and in some places still gives out a huge amount of waste, which is distributed around the neighborhood. Perhaps the most picturesque neighborhood in this sense is the village of Igumnovo, which stands on the shores of the "White Sea" - a giant sludge collector of the Kaprolactam plant *.
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Sludge is water with a suspension of insoluble substances. Caprolactam - the basis for the manufacture of plastics, and not what you thought
»
The authorities claim that the "sea" is filled with "chemical waste of the lowest hazard category", but just in case, access to it is prohibited. However, not for local residents who are happy to fish in the nearby stinky river. The natives are also famous for a simple and effective way of recycling industrial graphite impregnated with toxic compounds of lead, chlorine and sulfur: they heat the furnace with it. A graphite machine can be bought from the factory for only a thousand rubles. In the mornings, instead of fog, the chemical village is often enveloped in smog from the enterprise - here this is an everyday matter. And in the land where the inhabitants of Igumnov garden, the concentration of heavy metals is so high that the gardeners should have died long ago. Some do die - suddenly and for no apparent reason. But there are those who lived almost to eighty years. A scoundrel-man gets used to everything ...
What to see nearby
In the same Nizhny Novgorod region, there are also places of pristine beauty. We recommend the "Russian Atlantis" - the city of Kitezh, or rather, what is left of it: Lake Svetloyar. According to legend, the inhabitants of Kitezh, instead of killing the attacking Tatars, meekly prayed. And their prayer was answered. God did not give his flock to the Tatars: he drowned them. Thus, a picturesque lake 40 meters deep appeared on the site of the city. Such an unusual depth interested scientists, and in 1968 divers examined the bottom of Svetloyar. Probably, God mistook them for the Tatars and again hid the city to hell, since the divers did not find any traces of it.
leper village
A colony of patients with leprosy in the center of China.
Location
Leprosy is an ancient Chinese curse. Scientists have established that this disease first appeared in China*. However, they began to separate patients from society relatively recently, in the 50s of the last century. Then a real epidemic raged in the country: China was the leader in the number of patients. Leper villages were organized throughout the country. Those who got there, as well as their children (although few of the kids inherited the disease, after all, 95% of people have a natural immunity to leprosy) had no chance of getting out of this ghetto. In the 1980s, the WHO distributed a cheap and effective leprosy medicine for free around the world, and the epidemic in China stopped. However, the villages remained. Ordinary Chinese are still afraid and do not accept their inhabitants into their society. Perhaps because even cured patients look intimidating. Many of them lost their eyes, as well as their toes and fingers, which rotted from infection or were eaten by rats at night - after leprosy, the limbs completely lose sensitivity, and the owner simply does not notice their loss.
* - Note Phacochoerus "a Funtik:
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There is a version that leprosy originated simultaneously in China, India and Egypt.
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However, Daingpan is not exactly a classic leper village. To be honest, we chose it because there are a huge number of colorful photographs from there, which were taken in 2003 by a Taiwanese journalist. She also succeeded in building a school in Daingpan. And in an ordinary leper Chinese village there is no school, journalists and photographers. There is nothing there but desperate legless, blind and armless cripples trying to somehow survive, and their neglected children.
What to see nearby
As you probably guess, the Sichuan province also has its own heavenly places (by the way, there are almost more of them than in the rest of China). We recommend Huanglong Nature Reserve, or "Yellow Dragon". It is a cascade of natural travertine terraces (these are such cute round baths filled with turquoise water) descending from the mountain. When viewed from above on a sunny day, when the rays are reflected in the water, the baths look like the scales of a huge dragon. Yes, and there, nearby, is the only place on Earth where bamboo pandas live in the wild.
The Indian "capital of death", where corpses from all over the country are burned on the banks of the Ganges.
Location
The Hindus themselves do not at all consider Varanasi terrible. For them it is a city of light, a holy place. By the way, this is one of the most ancient human settlements on Earth, which at some point was a contemporary of Babylon and Luxor. Varanasi is also considered a major cultural center. There are four universities and a good half of Indian cultural figures live here.
However, if you get here directly from the plane, not prepared by the pan-Indian filth and poverty, it will not seem enough to you. According to Hindu belief, a person who died or at least cremated in Varanasi, where the Buddha delivered his first sermon, has a serious chance, without any lifetime meditations and hardships, to stop rebirth, free himself from samsara and achieve what is commonly called nirvana in the European sense.
As a result, the city is filled with terminally ill and dying of old age Indians, and not all of them have enough money for a hotel, so they often plunge into nirvana right on the streets. Add to this a huge number of beggars and scammers who speculate on the soul-saving atmosphere of the place. Also keep in mind that funeral chariots ply the streets, bringing corpses from all over the country for ritual burning on the banks of the Ganges. What remains after the burning, as well as a fair amount of city garbage, is dumped directly into the holy river, where in the morning the local population washes and brushes their teeth. We warn that photographing the ritual cremation and even looking at it is considered a great sin for strangers. So, if you had any chances to get rid of samsara before looking at these photos, now we will definitely drag you away with us!
What to see nearby
You can rest from the horrors of Varanasi, for example, in the state of Sikkim, which in Indian mythology is considered the garden of the god Indra, the patron saint of paradise. Some signs of Eden are indeed observed here. For example, due to the fact that the state is located at different heights at the foot of the Himalayas, on its territory you can find about five thousand species of flowering plants, and not just any buttercups, but various orchids, poinsettias and, God forgive me, rhododendrons. There are crystal clear alpine lakes and a bunch of picturesque Buddhist temples here. And here, as you know, Boris Borisovich Grebenshchikov wanders along the mysterious mountain path.
In 1949, when the economy of the USSR was largely based on labor enthusiasm, some of the enthusiasts of the oil industry came up with a strange idea. Why not settle people who extract oil from the bottom of the Caspian Sea right next to the well, especially since there is a suitable rocky shoal in the neighborhood? Thus was founded the first and only in the world locality on a concrete platform in the open sea. More precisely, not just on the platform, but on complex design from metal beams, concrete slabs and sunken ships connected by overpasses-roads with car traffic. On big land ships and helicopters regularly sailed from the island.
At first, the village of Neftyanye Kamni resembled all Soviet workers' settlements on virgin lands, in permafrost and other desert places: brand new houses, attempts to plant a park, Grand opening own bakery and even a lemonade shop, young specialists, great hopes...
Years passed. Concrete new buildings dilapidated, enthusiasm faded, and production was gradually reduced. The park has deteriorated, only an electrical substation and some water supply remained from the infrastructure. Fewer and fewer people were ready to live with a view of concrete, rusty pipes and dilapidated barracks, and they were no longer young specialists, but quite adult hard workers without much hope.
At the moment, only a third of the industrial complex is operating in Neftyanye Kamny. The sea gradually eroded the platform and began to heat the first floors of the houses. The houses themselves look worse than Khrushchev's five-story buildings in some drunken hinterland: rubbish everywhere, broken glass. Some of the barracks are already completely uninhabited. However, people continue to live in the Oil Rocks as long as there is at least some work on the platform. Actually, this is the only local entertainment.
What to see nearby
Despite the fact that a full-scale ecological catastrophy due to the vast and very neglected oil-producing complex, in this country you can also find pristine, untouched nature. This, for example, is a reserve in the Talysh mountains with the so-called Hyrcanian flora. Scientists claim that its representatives have been growing on Earth for several million years, having appeared long before mankind picked up a stick. Agree, it is curious to look at some hornbeam, under whose great-grandfather the last dinosaur died.
