This was a mistake. (Had they walked in a straight line the journey would only have been 9.5 kilometers.) Underrated Cinematic Survival Competitions, Great Movies About Missions Doomed from the Start, Survival Myths to Unlearn Before It's Too Late, Must-See Newer Survival Movies and TV Series, Great Movies About Kids Trying to Stay Alive, People Believe A Girl Died In The Endless Odessa Catacombs, But The Mystery Goes Much Deeper, the group had continued to explore the catacombs, a man was sentenced to 13 years in prison for killing a girl in the catacombs. Parts of the mines are still active, but the majority of the tunnels remain closed to the public. Let the sad story be a warning to all would-be urban explorers if you decide to crawl into the Earths hidden places, make sure you go with a friend, tell others where you are, and dont stray from the path. The next-largest network of catacombs is in Paris, and that's only one-fifth the length of Odessa's. But even if Mashas story is simply a legend, though, theres no denying that its had significant staying power. Scan this QR code to download the app now. Based on what was later found, it is believed that Masha stumbled around in the catacombs for at least three days, starving, thirsty, alone, and in the dark. By that point the body was mostly a skeleton, so there were not many more details. But he [Pugovkin] claims that when Armand Stendzenieks ordered a DNA test, it wasn't a match. She went with her friends into katakombs to celebrate a 2005s new year. Her parents called the authorities who went to the site and began to search. The image, its said, is of a girl who went missing in the catacombs of Odessa, Ukraine a girl, its said, named Masha or Mashenka, who went down into the twisting tunnels beneath the city in which she lived for a party, but got lost while she was down there. ", Personally, I find this story absolutely terrifying; the thought of stumbling around lost in 2,500KM of tunnels with no lights and eventually dying alone is a kind of terror I hope to never experience. With over 1,500 miles of subterranean tunnels, Odessa's catacombs even beat out the well-known Paris Catacombs in terms of length. But even with a light and a map of the catacombs, it would have been hard for someone ill-prepared to make it out, because the maps that exist are a maddening, brain-like scrawl. Even with all that, humans are resilient, and can survive several days without food and water. The idea of having the end of your own story be one, big question mark is, in a word, terrifying. Your email address will not be published. It's not clear what the journalist wrote, but Lata claims the government got moving and removed the body less than 24 hours later. It's not unlikely that she drunkenly forgot to leave a trail of breadcrumbs. These men and women would play chess, checkers, cook, and listen to Soviet Radio, generally trying to make a normal life below the surface of the city. The coquina (yellow stone with shell fragments) was extracted from these underground caves and used to build the cityscape we can see nowadays. Many of the partisan groups lived in the catacombs for the entirety of the rest of the war, and on occasion the partisan groups even managed to blow up German facilities. Unfortunately, the extreme isolation meant that while you could party in peace, your chances of of dying in peace are also increased exponentially. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The Catacombs are located in Odessa Ukraine, primarily. You'll explore the underground world with a guide, who will make sure you don't get lost in the labyrinthine corridors, and tell you all about their history. The 2005 New Years eve party was great. They tried to ignore the malnutrition and malaria which afflicted many of them. Maybe her path forked a few times, and she lost track of the pattern. Based on the 2009 forum post on Urban Explorer's Resource (UER) with a catacombs explorer called Eugene Lata, whom brought Masha's tale to your English-speaking globe, the tale starts later on brand New 12 months's time (or maybe New 12 months's Eve) in 2005. It was brought to a police medical examiner's office, and everyone found that, shockingly, the DNA didn't match the missing boy. Offer available only in the U.S. (including Puerto Rico). Longest catacombs network in the world,Odessa, Ukraine,19-20 century Most of the catacombs are the result of persistent stone mining that started in the 19th century. He had gotten lost, and there was a reward offered to anyone who could find the young man. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison for the crime in 2015, per Global Investigative Journalism Network affiliate NikCenter. You are using an out of date browser. Stop by the blog every day this month for true tales of the unquiet dead. Rebuilt remains of a temple to Roman god Mithras. Offer subject to change without notice. Excursions to Odesa catacombs", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Odesa_catacombs&oldid=1142761690, This page was last edited on 4 March 2023, at 06:27. In the photo, Masha is unidentifiable beyond simply being a human. They cooked, played games, and listened to the radio With the Nazis above ground, they looked for any opportunity relay intelligence, or strike their enemy. In 2009, an urban explorer known only as Eugene took to UER.com to share a morbid discovery that hed made deep below the Odessa streets. Padlocks cover this rickety footbridge with love. There is, as you may have guessed, no rhyme or reason to the organization of catacombs tunnels and caverns. As of 2019, there are more than 1,000 known entrances to the tunnels. We use cookies to give you the best online experience. Their goal was to explore the catacombs and document the history of the partisan movement. As I said earlier, a lot of people lost and even dead under Odessa. However, Pearl also found that a post about Masha in the FAQ section of Katacomby.odessa.ua the official website of the Odessa catacombs expressly stated (via Google Translate), It is worth noting that, apart form the author of the photographs, not a single person, both from among civilians and from among law enforcement officers, can confirm the authenticity of this story in Odessa. The post went on to say that, in the opinion of the operators of the site, the photo was a hoax. Also, he wrote, "five explorers [got] lost or died during this year. After the incident, Lata said that the group had continued to explore the catacombs, and that they would sometimes go down there for days at a time. Take a moment and do a search below! Even if they managed to find an entrance that was accessible, they were not to venture inside. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Kostya Pugovkin, who identified himself as a veteran of Ukraine's Antiterrorist Operation based in Odessa, claims to be the one who personally hefted the body in that photograph out of the depths. The catacombs were once the preferred hideout of rebels, criminals . Most of the catacombs are the result of persistent stone mining that started in the 19th century. It can be really dangerous," he wrote, adding "here are some new pictures of our catacombs. Inside, they saw a flight of stairs leading down into the catacombs. They did seem to have belonged to a girl but the identity of the person was never confirmed. We believe it is just a practical joke and the corpse is fake. Offer available only in the U.S. (including Puerto Rico). fter tht I called police, but they did not want to go inside. Since the catacombs are so vast and dark she was probably away from her friends for like a minute, took a wrong turn and ended up lost in the catacombs. measures of center and variation worksheet; power bi difference between two dates; leather bags made in san francisco; assyrian torture methods; death notices nampa, idaho; Catal All we know about it is what Lata claims to be true and all we have to go on is his word. As the Vice article states, other bodies have been found within the catacombs, including one found during the search for a man who went missing in 2004. After three days in total darkness without food or water, Masha collapsed and died from dehydration. In the end, we cannot be entirely sure if the story of Masha'sill-fated party, nor her sad demise, is accurate, and that may never change. Pugovkin told us the elder Stendzenieks was offering a reward to anyone who could find his son, and some people he called "diggers"manual laborershad tipped off the authorities about a body two to three miles from an entrance to the catacombs. Was a May Day Attack by Pilgrims a Practice Run for a Massacre? If she was lucky, she died quickly from the cold. 'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); Content copyright 2016 Planet Weird unless otherwise noted. The eerie burnt-out remains of a prominent building where 30 protestors lost their lives. A little less than six months after the incident is said to have occurred, news began to spread among local cave explorers near Odessa that someone had spotted a body. Large. She was headed into the Odessa catacombs, the 2,500 kilometers of dark rocky tunnels which run underneath the city. Most famously, in 2009, Ukrainian catacombs explorer Eugene Lata wrote a widely circulated online post stating that he and other explorers had found the body of a local student named Masha, who on New Year's Eve in 2005 had wandered into the catacombs with her friends after drinking; the group of friends, he wrote, had all stayed there overnight, Masha went out with a large group of friends to celebrate and probably get drunk. ", He told us he then dragged the body to the police medical examiner's office, about five miles from the entrance Masha would have used. But the photograph is not without context, of course; theres a story thats passed around alongside it. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Bedroom of a Partisan living in the tunnels. The Odessa Catacombs and the Legend of Masha, The Fiery Darvaza Gas Crater The Scare Chamber, David Parker Ray and his Toy Box of Torture, Alexandra Wiwcharuk: The Girl in Saskatoon, Bridget Maggie Sullivan The Lizzie Borden Papers, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Like the fractal branching in the lungs . [citation needed] Perhaps the most famous story dates back to claims made in 2009 by Ukrainian catacombs explorer Eugene Lata. Instead, it belonged to a girl who was never identified. In 2005, a group of urban explorers discovered the body of a dead woman named Masha who had disappeared . They decided to do this inthe Odessa catacombs, where they could have some privacy, drink, and have fun with a little added creep factor. Although the tale has long been reported as fact, even in newspapers, there is still a great lack of evidence, and few people are stepping forward to corroborate the sparse claims that to exist. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. But we do know that the confirmed tales of the catacombs, as well as its history, are still filled with gloom, death, and horror. [1] | Enter your email address to subscribe to Week in Weird and receive the latest weird news delivered directly to your inbox! The image, it's said, is of a girl who went missing in the catacombs of Odessa, Ukraine a girl, it's said, named Masha or Mashenka, who went down into the twisting tunnels beneath the city in which she lived for a party, but got lost while she was down there. They could have been looking for treasures that night, considering there are rumors that somewhere below School 56 there's a solid gold replica of the Titanic a few inches long. Every weekday we compile our most wondrous stories and deliver them straight to you. For those curious, originally the Catacombs were a series of many mines, mostly Limestone mines (note the cut blocks on the minecart), that eventually grew to connect and intersect as they haphazardly spread out in search of new resources to mine. In Odessa, when someones water line suddenly breaks, or a house settles oddly, or a family pet goes missing, it is not uncommon for Ukrainians to curse about those damn catacombs., They are not being delusional, for underneath their houses run some 2,500 kilometers of catacombs, carved into the limestone that the city is built upon. Consider supporting our work by becoming a member for as little as $5 a month. Instead, he brandished an axe, and hacked the girl to death before leaving her there. The Stone Mines, part of the Odessa Catacombs, were closed and sealed off in 1917. She had no food and no water, and the catacombs were freezing cold and dry. It would be extremely dangerous to try and explore the catacombs on ones own. They became a hiding place for Soviet partisans. They admitted that they had gone to the Stone Mines, and maybe, just maybe Masha had gone inside. Built in the Soviet era, this cableway system still runs gondolas from Odessa down to Otrada Beach. Because heres the thing: Theres little to no evidence that Masha ever existed. In 2011, a body was found in the catacombs that had been dead for several months. I'd hate to die like that. His recollection is different from Lata's. According to Pugovkin, someone else had vanished in 2004: Janis Stendzenieks, the son of a newspaper magnate named Armand Stendzenieks. Even after the "Masha," episode, Lata continued to explore the catacombs. Odessa is built from the catacomb coquina. Indeed, the story has become less and less connected to the UER posts as the years have rolled by, instead repeated as if it had been reported on in the news (which, as far as I know, it was not, despite Latas claim), or simply told and retold as it passed into legend. Pacific coastline of the continuous United States. According to the investigation of the incident, the man was with a group of friends, and had been drinking with the young girl. JavaScript is disabled. Amid yellow limestone walls and floors, young explorers found a body that was partially mummified by the cold dry air. Unfortunately for Masha, this was not the case. The final resting place for the remains of 143 Habsburg royalty. It would have been utterly black. They're not the safest places to be either. Comment * document.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "a3759feb0446ac4d4b5fb718100d3107" );document.getElementById("b03a9ba659").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); The Ghost In My Machine is an internet campfire of sorts. But in addition to the quarry-tunnels, other features, both geological and human-made, contribute to the underground network that makes up the Odessa catacombs, including basements, drainage tunnels and storm drains, bunkers, and natural caves, making them substantially more varied in their composition than many other notable catacomb systems throughout the world. It took a full two years before the police were able to locate her body and retrieve it from the catacombs. But at some point in the night Masha decided to explore the catacombs. Hiding in the catacombs for as much as 13 months, literally below the noses and feet of the Nazis above, the rebels waited for a chance to strike or relay information. Everyone was having a good time, drinking and having fun. Assuming Masha brought a battery-powered flashlight or lantern down into the depths, it would have died after a few hours, making it harder to continue the search for warmth and water. Lata claimed to have been one of the explorers who had found the girl in 2005, so his account purports to be a first-hand one and along with the posts, he included a collection of photographs of the catacombs, one of which allegedly depicted the remains of the girl herself. In February of 2021, the remains of man, a backpack beside him, were found in the catacombs near Zhvanetsky Boulevard, per 24TV. Part of it, Im sure, is the existence of the photograph; like the video footage of the man who was allegedly lost in the Paris catacombs, it seems to function as proof of the storys veracity, even if its just as suspect as everything else about the tale. If she'd wandered into isolation, maybe to find a secluded spot to relieve herself, it's easy to imagine she was beyond screaming distance. 04/04/2023 . I can only assume that its operators got to the point where they didnt want to engage with the story at all anymore not even as a legend so as not to legitimize what they feel is misinformation. Demonstrably, this is a bad concept. But in their foggy states, they absentmindedlyor maliciouslyleft Masha in the catacombs. The girl lost in the Odessa Catacombs So there is a story that does the internet rounds about Masha, a Ukrainian girl who at New Year in 2005 went into the catacombs under Odessa with friends to drink and party and got lost. Time for a public service announcement: while secret, underground parties that happen in places like the off-limits areas of theParis Catacombslook like a blast, theyre illegal for a reason. Jules Suzdaltsev contributed reporting to this piece. But while its magnificent. The Odesa Catacombs are a labyrinth-like network of tunnels (subterranean cavities) located under the city of Odesa and its outskirts in Ukraine, that are mostly (over 90%) the result of stone mining, particularly coquina. It does not store any personal data. Maybe this photo will shock you. We depend on ad revenue to craft and curate stories about the worlds hidden wonders. The group had to come clean. Case in point its really, really, really easy to get lost, as one poor girl discovered after a party in Odessa. Offer subject to change without notice. Like us on Facebook to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. masha odessa catacombs picturesr latch using nor gate truth table. [2] According to urban legend, these mines were abandoned and later used and widened by local smugglers who created a labyrinth of tunnels and hid treasure beneath Odesa. One of them decided to give it a try, they turned the handle and the door swung open. Strange and Creepy, Urban Legends and Folklore. More photos surfaced, including additional shots of the tunnels and even bones. We dont even really know for sure whether the remains Pugovkin found are, in fact, the ones depicted in Latas photograph or whether Latas photograph is authentic in the first place. The catacombs once served as the preferred hideout for rebels, criminals, and during World War II, air-raid shelters. The absolute most famous photoone that Lata told VICE in a contact he had been involved with takingshows three blank-faced males whom appear to be they are inside their very very early teenagers, posing like they will have simply came across your body in a slim, curved area of the cavern. So it's a photo of a body that willit seemsnever be positively identified, and it immortalizes the last moment of someone's life. With his heart set on a possible reward, Pugovkin says he crawled into the depths and eventually stumbled upon what he called "bone soup." It wasnt until 2007, after news coverage complete with a number of the photographs of the girl taken by the explorers emerged, that the authorities finally took action. One of the teens was a girl named Masha, and she was simply going with the rest of her crew to have a good time. The miners used saws to cut through the limestone, a task that half a century later created a whole complex of tunnels. Second, Pugovkin said that, knowing there was a reward for information on the table, he went looking and found not a full body, but something he described as bone soup.. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Though Masha wasnt particularly interested in going to the mine, she went anyway, wanting to be with her friends more. Her body was found only after 2 years. In January of 2012, for example, a 22-year-old student who trekked into the Odessa catacombs to explore subsequently went missing; a search was mounted, but a few days later, officials announced that they had decided to stop the search, reported the Ukrainian News Agency at the time. He claimed that his best friend had led the expedition, and that he had been there when the infamous photo was taken. Lata maintained to Pearl that his story was true. The catacombs are on three levels, and reach a depth of 200ft (60 meters) below sea level. Browse 81 ODESA CATACOMBS stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. Believing this to be the best explanation for her absence, the group agreed and they left. Masha sought out by having a big band of buddies to commemorate and most likely get drunk. Shortly after this the mapping of a huge unexplored area of the catacombs known as K-29 was begun. Or maybe they were looking for bodies. It wasnt until six months later that Masha was found. http://whatsupkuwait.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/odessa-catacombs-10069-large_slideshow.jpg, http://whofortedblog.com/2014/12/29acombs-illustrates-dangers-urban-exploration/. Before he left, he wrote a note to his girlfriend letting her know that he was going into the catacombs, and that he was unsure if would come back. Even if Masha herself isnt real, whats said to have happened to her really has happened to other people. But unlike, say, the Paris catacombs (which has its own missing person mystery), the Odessa catacombs werent built for use as an ossuary or burial site. Over time, the alleged missing girl has come to be called Masha. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register. The post featured a graphic photo of what appeared to be a decaying corpse in the catacombs, which Lata claimed was Masha's body. There's also evidence that they were used for the summary executions of Nazi soldiers. They go on multi-day underground treks, known as expeditions, to document and map the system.
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