Геннадий Разумов - Тонущие города

Numerous legends, myths and fairy tales tell us about submerged fortresses, castles, towns and even the whole countries. The short novels of Plathony about Atlantid, Biblical myth about the world deluge, old Russian tales about the Town of Kitezh and the travel of russian merchant from Novgorod — Sadko are probably the sort of reflection showing the actual events which took place at the ancient times. IJM. Gubkin, academician wrote in his book on the Caspian and South-East Caucasus areas: «The legends on submerged towns and villages are not the legends but a true past».

For hundred of years some of the antique towns located on the Black sea coast were regarded as the mythical ones. At different times people used to tell stories about them. For example, it was known nothing about disappearance of the big ancient greek town-port of Dioskurius, which according to the myth was founded by argonavts who had went to Kolchida with Jazon to find the gold fleece. Nobody knew what kind of the ruins were seen by the soldies of Catherine the second at the beginning of 80th in XVIII c, when the russian troops defeated the Turks and entered the west coast of the Crimea. They thought it was the famous ancient Roman fortress of Sebastopol, but not the ancient greek town of Khersones as it really was. The empress who liked to name her new military ports with the classic fashionable.titles, settled Sevastopol at a distance of 600 km from the real place (Sukhumi), and transfered Kherson to the mouth of Dnieper.

The legends were not the only ones telling our descendants about the towns which disappeared in the North and East Coasts of the Black Sea. Many famous.scientists and writers including Gerodoty, Strabony, Proko-py Kesariisky wrote about it. They did not meen that those towns were fabulous, but the big sea ports, military fortresses, trade centers which had been well known in the whole antique world. Here the ways were crossed connecting the wild North and East of that world with the secular West. Two great cultures of ancient Greece and Byzantine were interacted there.

The time was merciless to the ancient towns. They were defeated by Barbarians and destructed by the internal conflicts. The severe forces on nature also left their vivid traces. In particular they are blamed for disappearance of ancient towns deep in the sea.

The centuries and milleniums have passed, and the civilized world has again heard the ancient names such as Olvia, Khersones, Pantikapious, Fanagorium, Germonassia, Nimpheum. These and the other numerous antique towns and settlements begin to appear on the maps of the historians dealing with the ancient world. The end of the last century meant the whole period of the sensational discoveries regarded the submerged towns. In particular, many of them were found at the coast of the Black, Mediterranian, Adriatic, Asov and Caspian seas.

The fates of submerged towns and history of their destruction are similar to a certain extent, but the ways of their revelation and investigation are various. Some of them were carefully studied in course of archeological exavations, discussed in the serious research publications, in public press and in documentary films. The others were studied by the short-time accidental submarine expeditions or archeological exavations, and briefly discussed in the periodics. Possibly, the most unexpected finds are still in the future.

Submerged towns. They, like the traces of time reflect the multicentury history of a mankind and mark the stages of the changeable life of the seas. Recently, the important discoveries have been made in the submarine archeology. Scientists could not find out the submerged bospo-rous Akra for many decades. Now they discovered it in the Kerch strait, nearby the east coast of the Crimea. Some unexpected finds were revealed in the Karantinnaja bay, nearby Sevastopol. Another fortress wall of the ancient Khersones was discovered there. Pontida, considered to be a mythical country once existed on the part of the Black Sea’s bottom, now begins to take visible shape.

Why the ancient towns came down to the water? What were the reasons for it? A reader will not find out the direct answers in this book. And that is not because they are not existing, but there are too many of them. In general, the science does not accept the synonymous decisions. Doubts are its major moving force. At first it seemed to be sufficient to examine the found submerged towns, to touch them, to study the remains at the laboratories for making everything clear. However, a detailed study causes more questions and proposals regarded the reasons of their destructions.

According to the tectonic hypothesis in science, the priority is given to the concept of the earth surface vibrations. The depth power of earth moves continents, causes falls down and lifts up of the different parts of land. For example, the North coast of the Black sea moves down with a speed of 2–5 mm per year. It seems not to be large. However, one should have in mind, that the age of the most submerged towns comes to hundreds of years. Therefore, this value can be turned into many meters.

According to another hypothesis, the floods of the sea coast’s towns took place due to the lift up of the World Ocean’s level. Now we live at the after-glacial period which started about 17 000 years ago. Since then, glacials and snow hats of our planet’s poles continue to melt slowly but permanently. That leads to the increase of waters” level in the oceans and seas.

Finally, according to the landslide theory, the key to the old mystery should be seeking in the geodynamic processes of today phenomenons. There is an everlasting struggle between two of them. On one hand, the rain and melted waters being accumulated in the soil of coasts are filtering down and wetting the underlaying clay converting it into the slide plane. On the other hand, the waves destruct the coast and weaken the «retaining wall» which keeps the massifs, of soils at equilibrium. As a result, a coast bent loses its stability and slides down towards the sea changing into a landslide.

Practically all territories of the North and East Coasts of the Black sea are affected by the landslide processes. For instance, the landslides at the South Coast of the Crimea occupy about 45% of the whole territory which could be used as a recreational zone.

At present, this phenomenon is successfully overcome. One of the methods used now is a provision of a bank protection and construction of retaining walls with the lateral bracings (buttresses). They are built at о lower part of a bent to keep it from the landslides. Another method includes the work on the slope drainage which takes the ground waters and gets them away thus preventing wetting and weakening the soils at the slide plane. Those methods help to stop the landslides in the region of Big Jalta. The landslides of Chukurlatski, Zheltishevski and Massand-rovski have been completely stabilized. This kind of work was rather complicated for the ancient builders since they did not have either earth-moving and drilling machinery or reinforced concrete precast structures. Therefore, they could not win those disasters and rescue their towns from the sea’s floods.

When considering the ancient floods, the variable reasons should be taken into account. One factor can be decisive only in a few cases; in general, several ones should be discussed. Some factors can play the important role, the others are less significant.

We are very interested in our past and in our future. We want to know what is going to be. But our present time is the most important. This idea belongs to our prominent cinema producer M. Romm. One can”t help thinking about it when the problem of the submerged towns of our time is considered.

The whole humanity has a great concern about Venice which is situated on the islands of the sea’s lagoon in the North Adriatic. Millions of people follow the alarming reports on the dangerous lifts up of the water on the Venetian squares and streets. Scientists and engineers develop the numerous plans for the rescue of the city. The reasons for the floods in the Venetian lagoon are different and not completely clear. Finally the works directed to protect Venice from the floods have been started. Recently the plan to provide a closure for the entrances to the Venetian lagoon has been adopted and put into realization. One can be sure in saying that the people of the world will not permit Venice to repeat the fate of Epi-davrous and other ancient towns which came down to the waters of Adriatic and Mediterranean seas.