I first heard this legend a long time ago. I heard it in Azov and Rostov, Semikarakorsk and Volgograd. I’ve never been to Astrakhan, but I’ve also heard this legend from Astrakhan residents. This is the legend of the Golden Horse of Genghis Khan. Don't get me wrong, but we are not talking about Batu's two horses and not about Kublai's four.
To the east of the ruins of Sarkel, on the left bank of the river, the name of which in Turkic languages is consonant with the name of the Hunnic leader, in a tent town, more like a nomadic camp, there was a holiday. If you can call it a holiday, an event that brought variety to the everyday life of nomads.
Merchants from the East arrived. In addition to the goods, rare and necessary, they put up for sale several girls, each of whom was considered a rare beauty even in their homeland, and to the steppe people the beauties from the Caucasus and Byzantium seemed a real curiosity.
There were about a dozen and a half people willing to buy a bride. Therefore, it was decided to hold a competition in which the “groom” and the puberty of the bride were simultaneously determined.
It was done like this.
At a signal from the senior merchant, the girls rushed to run into the steppe, and a little later, a horde of horsemen in love. It was necessary to hit the bride with a hat. Lamb hats, similar to Turkmen ones, heavy, and even with wire reinforcement, were a serious “projectile” in the hand of a strong warrior.
The girl who ran last fell, knocked down by a heavy blow from her hat. The merchant took her away, rudely consoling her. It’s too early for this one to get married, let her grow up. Three more were taken away by their suitors.
The last green-eyed Slav turned out to be more agile than her friends. It was difficult for the suitors, with their crooked legs of herdsmen, to catch up with her. Then they organized a living “venter” - a crescent, the edges of which were quite close to the river. Two hats hit the girl at the same time, two horsemen grabbed her by the arms.
An ugly fight took place. The grooms were immediately flogged and forced to their knees. And the green-eyed one quietly moved away from the crowd, improving the moment, ran up to the pier and threw herself into the water. They searched for her for a long time, rummaged along the bottom with poles, gradually going downstream. Then they left this activity. They decided that she had drowned. This has happened to Slavic women before. But the fugitive did not drown. Hiding under the pier, she waited until it was dark and swam to the other side of the river, holding on to a sheaf of reeds that she picked up on the shore. Nomads used such sheaves when crossing rivers. They were waiting for her on the right bank. Even when the merchant caravan approached the crossing, she felt the presence of her relatives, the Don Slavs. More precisely, scouts. There must be a gang somewhere nearby. Most likely, it was led by the Slavic woman’s father. Brothers should also be in the gang. And also, she hoped, among her friends there should be one white-headed one with childish eyes, a thin waist and the arms of a hero. That's exactly what happened. Her father brought the gang, hoping to recapture her back in the steppe. However, it is difficult to pursue nomads in their native element. Only the scouts managed to catch up with the merchants, and only at the end of the journey.
From the moment the girl found herself among her own people, the goal of the campaign was achieved, but it was decided to commit an act of retaliation, so that they would remember how to steal girls.
In the second half of the night the Slavs were already on the left bank. We moved towards the Sacred Tent. Lonely Horde members, awakened by the barking of dogs, were slaughtered and chopped down without pity. There was a fierce battle in and around the tent. They pulled out the Golden Horse, cast in honor of the Spirit of Luck by order of Genghis Khan. And they dragged it to the shore. They loaded us onto the raft and set sail into the darkness. The Horde tried to use their famous long-range bows, but it was difficult to do this in the dark.
On the right bank they divided into several groups and began to go in different directions, mounting horses. The horse was loaded onto a cart and headed towards the Kuma-Manych depression. This route was the most dangerous, so the leader of the gang took mainly relatives and friends into the group.
Then there was a hike. There were clashes with the traveling Horde. If the Slavs were stronger in hand-to-hand combat, then the Horde could successfully use long-range bows. Most likely, the Slavs who made a diversionary maneuver all died. And those who survived will never know the burial place of the Golden Horse. And the main group reached a system of lakes, rivers, and swamps stretching from the Caspian Sea to the Don.
They sailed on rafts, mostly at night, less often during the day, but when the Horde patrol discovered them, they sank their horse in a small lake, spotted a place and continued on their way lightly.
When I reached the Don, the speed of movement increased, thanks to the current. We went down the river to Green Island. We decided to spend the night on the island and disappear into the coastal forests at dawn.
The Horde discovered the Slavic camp, and an hour before dawn they attacked, swimming across the channel with blades in their teeth. There was a night battle, cruel and bloody. The Slavs all died. And only White-Head, Green-Eyes and one of the brothers were saved. They swam across the Don, obeying their father’s orders, and found their aunt, the elder sister of the leader of the gang. She was a pagan priestess, one of the last. She owned the secret of the underground passages of the Big Hill, a substantial hill on the right bank. The temple was located underground, hidden from the eyes of the Slav brothers wearing crosses, as well as from the Horde living according to the laws of Islam.
After listening to them, the aunt took a terrible oath from them. The young people swore that they would not reveal the secret of the Golden Horse to any children or relatives. She led them underground. At the beginning it was quite tall, the height of a man, then it narrowed, and at the end there was a hole into which only a thin person could crawl. In the room she gave the last instructions: “The Horde jackals have reliably taken the trail and will soon be here. Sit quietly, try to let your eyes get used to the darkness. My niece and I will light candles at Perun’s, it will be easier for you to see the enemy. Don't swing your clubs, don't jingle your sabers. Remove the heads “affectionately” with Arab cleavers. Take off ten or fifteen heads and leave, strictly this turn. We will meet you there.
Don't worry about the rest of the Horde. The khan will give them to the executioner for the loss of the shrine. Either Perun will rejoice, or there will be a bloody funeral feast for his brother and friends, when dozens of Horde members will go under the curved saber. When it's all over, I'll take you out to my people. And remember the oath, keep your mouth shut so as not to unleash the demon called “human greed.”
The candles were lit. The priestess’s heated recitation was heard:
- The Wise Raven, the living embodiment of the Spirit of Luck, flew away into the blue of heaven. The Great Batyrs and the Great Clans will come together in a bloody battle. The Lame Warrior will appear from the east, and the banners of Perun’s Grandsons will rise in the north. Many languages will fall and rise again. But there will be no Horde!
The guys talked in the dark:
-What is she talking about?
- It seems that we have desecrated a large temple of the Horde. It’s the same as losing the Holy Banner in battle.
-Who is the Lame Warrior?
- I don't know yet. But my aunt won’t lie.
The aunt had a substantial supply of weapons, which once belonged to people who were trying to discover the secret of the underground passages. They all died of hunger, getting lost, or died after running into their aunt’s dagger. I chose two cleavers with an unconventional sharpening. She handed it to the guys: “I repeat, a dozen and a half, no more. Then the blood will squish underfoot. Place your heads in a row against this wall, and place your bodies against this one.”
When the first head appeared, it was removed “affectionately”, and the body was jerked into the room, grabbed by the shoulders on both sides. It's the same with the rest. Then the guys went to their aunt's along the indicated route. The aunt led them along the passages for a long time, and finally brought them to the surface.
The young people told their relatives that they were making a diversionary maneuver.
The Horde member who saw the “room of severed heads” went crazy. And the rest decided that they were dealing with evil spirits and returned to the Volga, where they were executed, considering their story to be the fantasy of a frightened person.
Rostov students, assessing the preliminary puberty of their miniature girlfriends, are wondering whether it is possible to knock down their girlfriend by suddenly covering her between the shoulder blades with a mink or, say, nutria cap. And they even came up with a formula: “You can’t knock your hat off, it’s time to get married.”
Experts in myths talk a lot about anomalous phenomena in the Kobyakov settlement area. And they connect this with the presence of ancient temples and burials there. Others believe that the ancient inhabitants of the Lower Don chose places for temples and burials precisely in geopathogenic zones. And treasure hunters, not afraid of anything, are looking for the Golden Horse. Why should they actually be afraid? Beast lizard? In the Don, catfish are found much larger than alligators. An ancient spell? In the catacombs, the accumulation of natural gas mixed with hydrogen sulfide is also quite a dangerous phenomenon. I would like to believe that all treasure hunters are quite professional in their field. At least to such an extent that with the help of a metal detector you can distinguish a piece of gold from a WWII era bomb.
And I want the Wise Raven to never fly away from us into the blue of heaven!
Reviews
The legend of the Lower Don “Golden Horse of Genghis Khan” is the “golden horse” of the author, on which he confidently rides into the Don fiction of our time. Having shown himself in tales from Azov as an observant and humorous author, Yuri Evsigneev in this legend seemed to have climbed to the top of the mound, from which not only the expanses of the Lower Don opened before him, but also a system of rivers, lakes and swamps from the Caspian to the Volga and Don . But the main thing is that he clearly showed historical events during the times of the Horde, nomads and Don Slavs. All this, as if in a drop of water, was reflected in the “Golden Horse of Genghis Khan”. We saw the customs of those people, battles, weapons, ingenuity of warriors, fearlessness in rescuing girls from captivity. This legend could decorate a history book
Don region. It captures the events of the search for the Golden Horse, which will wait in the wings. The work of Yuri Evsigneev convinces us of this.
Vladimir Fadeev.
GOLDEN HORSES OF KHAN BATYA- legendary treasures, the exact location of which is still unknown. The history of the horses is something like this: After Batu Khan ravaged Ryazan and Kyiv, he returned to the lower reaches of the Volga and, with the help of skilled craftsmen gathered in the countries subject to and conquered him (among whom were Russians), built here, to the surprise of all neighboring peoples, in the middle of the steppes. the capital Saray is a beautiful city with palaces, mosques, running water, fountains and shady gardens. Batu ordered that all the tribute collected for the year be turned into gold, and two horses be cast from this gold. The order was carried out exactly, but until now people’s rumors differ on the question of whether those horses were hollow or completely golden. Cast shiny horses with glowing ruby eyes were placed at the entrance to the capital of the Golden Horde Khanate at the city gates. Khans changed, but the golden statues were still the personification of the power of the state.
When the capital was moved to the new Sarai (near the present village of Tsarev, Volgograd region), built by Khan Berke, the golden horses were also transported. When Mamai became khan, the previous prosperity of the khanate came to an end. Russian troops defeated Mamai's army on the Kulikovo field, and Mamai was forced to flee...
The fate of the golden horses is not reliably known. Legends say that one horse was buried along with Mamai’s body; the exact location of the grave is unknown. They say that somewhere on one of the hills near Akhtuba [in the 6th volume of the major historical and geographical work "Russia" it is mentioned that near the village of Rastegaevka near Prishib there are several "Mamaev mounds", in one of which the "living Mamai" sleeps ]. In all the numerous versions of retellings of this legend (which are told by old people in Leninsk, the former Prishib, Kharaboly, Sasykolye, Cherny Yar, Selitrenny and other villages in the Volga region), only one golden horse appears (and Mamai guards it). But where is the other one?
As the old people in the Trans-Volga Cossack villages (which are near the Astrakhan road) used to say, pursuing the retreating Horde troops, the Cossack patrols became so bold that they began to penetrate in small groups deep into the territory of the Horde, which was shrinking every day. One such detachment, taking advantage of the panic in the enemy camp, broke straight into the capital Sarai. And, as the Cossack Alekseevich once said, this detachment captured the city for several hours. [Lashilin B. “It was.” Nizhne-Volzhskoe book publishing house, Volgograd, 1982, p.12]. Now it is difficult to say whether the golden horses were the real target of the raid or whether they accidentally caught the eye of the Cossacks. In any case, there is no point in planning such a daring action in advance - stealing heavy statues, which are the pride of the khan and the entire nation, is tantamount to suicide. However, a daring Cossack patrol broke off the base of one of the golden horses and turned back. The overloaded convoy moved very slowly, so the Horde had time to come to their senses and organize a pursuit. Sensing something was wrong, the Cossacks turned around and accepted an unequal battle. Those who were catching up were hundreds of times more numerous than those who were catching up, so the outcome of the battle was a foregone conclusion: all the Cossacks died, no one surrendered, and many times more Horde horsemen died. But despite the losses they suffered, the Horde never regained their golden horse.
The Horde never learned the truth, because not one of the Cossacks surrendered or betrayed their comrades. There was no statue near the mountain of corpses. The Cossacks did not have time to take it far, which means they hid it and the rest of the treasures somewhere nearby. Burying in the steppe - this also takes time. So they drowned?...
So where is the first and where is the second golden horse? Several centuries later, there are still no answers to this question...
* * * Directions to the search sites for the Golden Horses of Batu: The exact location in the Astrakhan and Volgograd regions is not yet known. Members of Kosmopoisk are currently conducting research in areas where horses may be buried.
Alekseevsky treasure diggers found the Golden Horse and the Zero Transition portal to a parallel world.
They say that this wonderful Horse was cast by order of Genghis Khan from gold looted in Asia. It was located in the camp of the Golden Horde and served not only as a symbol of power and invincibility, but also as a magical shrine - a means for priests to communicate with the world of spirits and higher powers.
There is a legend that there were originally two Horses.
The legend of the two Golden Horses, which for many years adorned the gates of the capitals of the Golden Odra - Sarai-Batu and Sarai-Berke, and then suddenly disappeared, dates back to the time of one of the greatest events in the history of the Russian state - the Battle of Kulikovo. The horses were made life-size by order of Batu Khan.
Legend claims that after the defeat on the Kulikovo Field, the wounded Khan Mamai returned to Sarai-Berke, where he died. He was allegedly buried under the city protective wall and, as a sign of gratitude for his military services, was placed in the grave of one of the Golden Horses...
And what about the second?.. Legend associates the disappearance of the second Golden Horse from the Sarai-Batu gate with the Cossacks.
These flying cavalry detachments of the Free Slavs, acting as defenders of the southern borders of their lands, being Orthodox Christians, still remained bearers of traditions and culture, the secret knowledge of Free Pagan Rus'.
The precious Sacred Horse was stolen by brave Slavic heroes who suddenly attacked the camp of the Gentiles. The Cossacks divided into two mobile groups. One group distracted the Horde, the second took the Golden Horse towards the Don steppes.
Despite the sudden raid and the confusion and panic that arose after it, the pursuit and operation to rescue the Horse were still perfectly organized. Almost all the Cossacks participating in the raid - both the “kidnappers” and the “distractors” - died. And yet, the Horse miraculously and incomprehensibly disappeared right before the eyes of the Horde.
At the site of the battle, only the corpses of the fallen soldiers remained, and the Horde never found the Horse.
Historians believe that the Cossacks drowned the statue in a nearby river or lake. Apparently the statue was cleverly hidden. But into which of the steppe rivers did the Cossacks throw the Golden Horse? One must think that they didn’t just throw it away, but, having built a dam, covered the valuable loot with sand, again allowing the river to flow along its bed...
Until now, historians have had to wonder whether the horses really existed, or whether they existed only in a beautiful legend? Could archaeologists ever shock the world with such a discovery, giving those living today a glimpse of the wealth and greatness of the Mongol rulers? And perhaps for many more centuries official archaeologists would have sat on the chain of government prohibitions and on the leash of the taboos of modern priests, if not for an incredible accidental event that occurred on the site of the former bed of the Tikhaya Sosna River.
On a rainy night in the middle of this summer, a frightened girl called the local police department and reported that 15 of her friends had disappeared before her eyes in a planting near the former Yalovoe reservoir, not far from the dam. Officers who arrived at the scene found seven bayonet shovels, five scoop shovels, two backpacks with food and homemade alcoholic drinks, as well as a half-naked, drunk girl with a mobile phone in her hand. The soil of the scene was pitted with small holes, but one hole was quite spacious - 2.5 by 3.5 meters wide and 1.75 meters deep. At the bottom of the pit lay randomly 7 plastic cups and a half-empty ten-liter canister with a liquid containing 65% alcohol. When questioned, the girl revealed that she practically didn’t remember anything. But when asked again, I remembered that I was resting on the grass and suddenly heard a cry: “Horse! Horse!.. Found!.. Let's go to the Canaries!..” At first she thought it was a joke, but the guys resting next to her grabbed the canister and jumped into the hole. While she was looking for clothes, laughter and shouts of “Hurray!” could be heard from there. and “Pour it up!”, and then she saw a bright glow and a horse silhouette hovering over the pit. Then everything became quiet and the radiance faded. The girl looked into the hole - there was no one there. She got scared and started calling the police.
Police officers, upon re-inspecting the scene of the incident, discovered a fragment of a Cossack saber, as employees of the local museum would later say, dating back to approximately the 13th century, and on one of the bayonet shovels traces of soft yellow metal, which experts concluded turned out to be gold.
Now there is no doubt about the existence of the Golden Horse and its magical secret power.
The legend of two golden horses, which for many years adorned the gates of the capitals of the Golden Odra - Sarai-Batu and Sarai-Berke, and then suddenly disappeared, dates back to the time of one of the greatest events in the history of the Russian state - the Battle of Kulikovo. The horses were made life-size by order of Batu Khan.
Historical chronicles claim that the gates of the capital of the Golden Horde - Sarai Batu - were decorated with life-size golden horses of the so-called “solar color”.
The grandson of Genghis Khan decided to make his grandfather's dream come true - to create a world empire of the Mongols and reach the great sea. In 1240, Batu besieged and captured Kyiv, taking rich booty. Then he decided to lay the capital of his own kingdom. So in 1243 the Golden Horde appeared in the Volga lands. The empire included Western Siberia, Northern Khorezm, Volga Bulgaria, Northern Caucasus, Crimea, Dasht-i-Kipchak (steppes from the Irtysh to the Danube). Batu Khan not only strengthened his vast possessions, but also decided to decorate the capital and court with such luxury that “not only his many relatives - the Mongol khans, but also the Chinese emperor himself would choke on their bones with envy. Gardens, carved mosques, fountains, water supply - what was there in the capital of the Golden Horde! The income from the rich Kyiv booty was used to decorate Batu’s chambers with brocade and silk, and Persian carpets. He wanted everyone entering the capital to immediately understand that they had visited the domain of the greatest ruler in the world.
But the golden horses were not destined to stand forever with their heads held high at the gates of the great capital... Legend claims that after the defeat on the Kulikovo Field, the wounded Khan Mamai returned to Sarai-Berke, where he died. He was allegedly buried under the city protective wall and, as a sign of gratitude for his military services, one of the golden horses was placed in the grave...
Historical truth does not always confirm folk tales. In fact, Mamai’s defeat in the battle with Russian troops brought him, in addition to a physical wound, a mental wound - he lost power over the Golden Horde.
The uprisings of the Khan's nobility against Mamai followed one after another. Three times he was expelled from Sarai-Berke. He had to rule mainly the western part of the Golden Horde, which included the lower Volga region, the mouths of the Don and Dnieper, and most importantly, the Crimea. When Khan Tokhtamysh did not allow Mamai into the capital for the fourth time, he had to continue his flight to the Crimea. There he was killed by the envoys of the new ruler of the Golden Horde.
It is doubtful that Khan Tokhtamysh ordered one of the golden horses to be placed in Mamai’s grave (even in Crimea). But we cannot exclude the possibility that the horse actually ended up in the grave, albeit of another khan of the Golden Horde, under the wall of Sarai-Berke...
Much more interesting is the disappearance of the second golden horse from the Sarai-Batu gate. Legend connects his disappearance with... the Cossacks! But how did the Cossacks know the way to the capital of the Golden Horde? “Cossack” is a non-Russian word. It came to us from the steppe nomads, who from time immemorial raided the lands of the Eastern Slavs. For many years, the Khan's Golden Horde specially formed flying cavalry detachments from captured Russian and Ukrainian youths, calling them Cossacks. As a rule, when setting off on another raid on the lands of the Eastern Slavs, the Horde let the joys of the Cossacks go ahead of them, who were supposed to die first in a fight with their blood brothers. A turning point in the mood of the Cossack slaves occurred during the Battle of Kulikovo. At the decisive moment, they refused to be the vanguard in the attack on the Russian troops, turned aside, and after the defeat of Mamai, they all went over to the side of the winners. By agreement with Dmitry Donskoy, the Cossacks remained in a combat camp on the Don, taking upon themselves the protection of the southern borders of Slavic Rus'.
Now it becomes clear how the Cossacks knew the way to Sarai-Berke and Sarai-Batu, and knew about the golden horses standing at the gates of the capitals. As the old people used to say, in the Trans-Volga Cossack villages (which are near the Astrakhan road), pursuing the retreating Horde troops, the Cossack patrols became so bold that they began to penetrate in small groups deep into the territory of the Horde, which was shrinking every day. One such detachment, taking advantage of the panic in the enemy camp, broke straight into the capital Sarai. And, as the Cossack Alekseevich once said, this detachment captured the city for several hours. (Lashchilin B. “It Was.” Nizhne-Volzhsky Book Publishing House, Volgograd, 1982, p. 12). Now it is difficult to say whether the golden horses were the real target of the raid or whether they accidentally caught the eye of the Cossacks. In any case, there is no point in planning such a daring action in advance - stealing heavy statues, which are the pride of the khan and the entire nation, is tantamount to suicide. However, a daring Cossack patrol broke off the base of one of the golden horses and turned back. The overloaded convoy moved very slowly, so the Horde had time to come to their senses and organize a pursuit. Sensing something was wrong, the Cossacks turned around and accepted an unequal battle. Those who were catching up were hundreds of times more numerous than those who were catching up, so the outcome of the battle was a foregone conclusion: all the Cossacks died, no one surrendered, and many times more Horde horsemen died. But the Horde never regained their golden horse. There was no statue near the mountain of corpses. The Cossacks could not take it far - there was no time, which means they hid it and the rest of the treasures somewhere nearby.
In which of the steppe rivers did the Cossacks throw the golden horse? One must think that they didn’t just abandon it, but, having built a dam, covered the valuable loot with sand, allowing the river to flow again along its bed... Were there any horses at all? And if so, where is the first and where is the second golden horse? To this day, there is no answer to these questions, but many treasure hunters still do not lose hope.
based on materials from the Astrakhan Museum of Local Lore, the Encyclopedia of Miracles, Riddles and Secrets and the Treasure Hunter's Library (http://kl1.ru/)
The order was carried out exactly, but until now people’s rumors differ on the question of whether those horses were hollow or completely golden. Cast shiny horses with glowing ruby eyes were placed at the entrance to the capital of the Golden Horde Khanate at the city gates. Khans changed, but the golden statues were still the personification of the power of the state.
When the capital was moved to the new Sarai (near the present village of Tsarev, Volgograd region), built by Khan Berke, the golden horses were also transported. When Mamai became khan, the previous prosperity of the khanate came to an end. Russian troops defeated Mamai's army on the Kulikovo field, and Mamai was forced to flee...
The fate of the golden horses is not reliably known. Legends say that one horse was buried along with Mamai’s body; the exact location of the grave is unknown. They say that somewhere on one of the hills near Akhtuba there is only one golden horse. But where is the other one?
As the old people in the Trans-Volga Cossack villages (which are near the Astrakhan road) used to say, pursuing the retreating Horde troops, the Cossack patrols became so bold that they began to penetrate in small groups deep into the territory of the Horde, which was shrinking every day. One such detachment, taking advantage of the panic in the enemy camp, broke straight into the capital Sarai. This detachment captured the city for several hours.
Now it is difficult to say whether the golden horses were the real target of the raid or whether they accidentally caught the eye of the Cossacks. In any case, there is no point in planning such a daring action in advance - stealing heavy statues, which are the pride of the khan and the entire nation, is tantamount to suicide. Nevertheless, the daring Cossack patrol broke off the base of one of the golden horses and turned back.
The overloaded convoy moved very slowly, so the Horde had time to come to their senses and organize a pursuit. Sensing something was wrong, the Cossacks turned around and accepted an unequal battle. Those who were catching up were hundreds of times more numerous than those who were catching up, so the outcome of the battle was a foregone conclusion: all the Cossacks died, no one surrendered, and many times more Horde horsemen died. But, despite the losses they suffered, the Horde never regained their golden horse.
The Horde never learned the truth, because not one of the Cossacks surrendered or betrayed their comrades. There was no statue near the mountain of corpses. The Cossacks did not have time to take it far, which means they hid it and the rest of the treasures somewhere nearby. Burying in the steppe - this also takes time. So they drowned?..
So where is the first and where is the second golden horse? Several centuries later, there are still no answers to this question...
