Where is the golden woman? Golden Baba - the legendary lost idol

The idol was made of pure gold weighing three tons and sat on a mound made of precious gifts. The ancients believed that the Golden Baba could reward those praying with her mercy.

Have you ever heard of the Golden Baba? This is a legendary idol, an object of worship for the population of North-Eastern Europe and North-West Siberia. Sometimes she is also called the Siberian Pharaoh. Until now, the mystery of the origin and disappearance of the Golden Woman haunts many researchers.

The legend of the Golden Baba was born in Rus' in the 14th-15th centuries, when the Moscow state began to expand its possessions in the northeast. The idol was first mentioned in the Sofia Chronicle of 1398. It tells about one of the Orthodox missionaries - Stephen of Perm. The chronicle speaks of the countless deeds of Stephen, who sowed the faith of Christ where animals, trees, water, fire and the Golden Woman were once worshiped.

For a thousand years the legendary one has been hidden from human sight. For centuries, its zealous guardians killed anyone who could encroach on the treasure, and if necessary, then themselves, just to protect the shrine. Eyewitnesses described the Golden Baba in different ways. Some said that it was the figure of a pregnant woman, others claimed that it was a mother with a baby in her arms, and still others were sure that the idol was a matryoshka doll made of golden bells. Some even adhered to the version that the Golden Baba was the Tibetan goddess Guan Yin, whose statue belonged to the ancient Aryans who came from the Arctic islands. The Slavs considered the Golden Baba their goddess. According to numerous reports from the Khanty, Mansi and Russian old-timers, the Golden Baba was kept for a long time in Belogorye, not far from the Ob River, at its confluence with the Irtysh. Today, debates about the real whereabouts of the Golden Woman do not subside even for a day. Gerard Mercator's map, published in 1595, depicts the legendary country of Hyperborea, which may have existed in northern modern Russia. Not far from the mouth of the Ob, there is an inscription on this map: “Golden Baba”.

In any case, the idol was made of pure gold, weighing three tons, and sat on a mound made of precious gifts. The ancients believed that everyone who came to worship her had to bring something in return, and she would reward you with her mercy. “Offer even a tuft of hair from your head, otherwise the goddess will punish you with death.” Ufologists believe that the figure of the Golden Woman was made of metal alloys that have no analogues in earthly metallurgy. However, anything is possible.

The Golden Baba has not yet been found. Although under this name one could note several idols and statues that could be called the Golden Woman. For example, researchers in the 19th century allegedly followed the trail of the Golden Woman in the Northern Urals region, but found only a silver copy of her. And in 2000, a stone statue was discovered on the Kola Peninsula, which could be a Hyperborean goddess. But it is impossible to say that this was the same legendary statue. It is quite possible that the Golden Woman never existed in the form in which she appears in the legends and traditions of the peoples of the north.

Now the word "sissy" is mostly derogatory, but this was not always the case. And even now this is not everywhere))) In the east, “baba” is a respectful addition to a name, for example, Ali Baba. Come on, East, in other places Babai is “father, grandfather.” Male woman. A stone woman is an idol, a statue, or something heavy, like the woman with whom piles are driven into the ground. Previously, in Slavic, “baba” meant “a woman who gave birth,” and the “Golden Woman” is mentioned in most sources as the goddess of female fertility. From here you can decipher “Golden Baba” as “Golden Idol” or even “Golden Goddess”.

“They pray to the Russian God, and that Russian God made of cast gold sits in a thicket.”

The Golden Baba was drawn on maps by quite ordinary travelers and cartographers, and in a variety of places: from Europe to Siberia, from the southern steppes to Lukomorye.

In these same places, the Golden Baba was worshiped, and maybe still is. In these same places, treasure hunters hunted for her. Especially on Siberian soil: according to information, it was not just an idol with a golden crown and valuable sacrifices, but made entirely of gold. Therefore, the main searches were carried out beyond the Urals, especially since on various maps the location of the Golden Woman was marked on the Ob River. According to some sources, in the 14th century, part of the Komi peoples, who did not want to be baptized by Muscovy, again took the golden idol to Siberia, to the Ob region. However, we are simply talking about the “Goddess of the North”, and the Vikings were looking for her there.

Already in the 20th century, many novels and film scripts were written specifically dedicated to the search for the Golden Woman in Siberia. It’s not clear which one exactly. Because, according to some information, this is a golden idol, which, under the pressure of Christianity, left Europe further and further to the east and remained behind the Urals. According to others, these are many different statues, from Indian Buddhas to Egyptian goddesses. There are analogies of this idol with the Mistress of the Copper Mountain and even with Baba Yaga, who, by the way, is also a “woman”. A lot of stories can be written about her search, and each will be true in its own way. There are legends about a variety of real cities that, before being captured by their warlike neighbors, hid a golden statue in the ground or caves. So you can look for the Golden Woman - everywhere.

To the question of who was looking for her, the answer is also the same: almost everyone. From Ermak (with the goal of ruling the world), the Vikings, the clergy with the goal of destroying it, and right up to the NKVD expedition in the 1930s. But there is no information about what anyone found.

In the very core of the mountains of the Northern Urals there is a mysterious place - the Manpupuner plateau. The reindeer herders of the local Mansi people call it the “Small Mountain of Idols.” And this name is not accidental. Seven bizarre stone figures rise like frozen giants. An ancient Mansi legend says that once upon a time the stone pillars were seven Samoyed giants who walked through the mountains to Siberia to destroy the Vogul people. But when they climbed Manpupuner, their leader-shaman saw Yalpingner, the sacred mountain of the Voguls, in front of him. In horror, he threw his drum, which fell on the high peak of Koip, rising south of Manpupuner, and all his companions were petrified with fear.

Scary idol

But there is another legend, which, however, is less often heard from the Mansi, who every summer drive herds of deer along the Ural ridge. If you look at Mount Koip from a small nameless hill located to the west of the Ural Range, you can clearly see a woman lying on her back with sharp, frightening facial features.

According to the legend that I heard from reindeer herders, this is a petrified shaman, punished for trying to insult one of the most ancient idols, once revered by all the peoples of the North - the Golden Woman. When the idol was crossing the Stone Belt - the Ural Mountains, the shaman, who considered herself the mistress of the mountains, tried to detain the Golden Woman. The idol screamed in a terrible voice, and from the sound of this voice every living thing died for many miles around, and the shaman fell backward and turned to stone.

The screams that the Golden Woman made are evidenced not only by Mansi legends, but also by the memories of foreigners who visited Rus'. Thus, the Italian Alexander Guagnini wrote in 1578: “They even said that in the mountains next to this idol they heard a sound and a loud roar like a trumpet.”

What is this mysterious idol that terrified the local residents with its terrible roar? Where did he come from and where did he disappear to?

Deity of Perm the Great

In Russia, the oldest written mention of the Golden Woman is the Novgorod Chronicle of 1538. The chronicle talks about the missionary activities of Stephen of Perm. He walked around the Perm land and erected temples on the site of ancient sanctuaries. The chronicle records that Stephen sowed the faith of Christ on those lands where animals, trees, water, fire and... the Golden Woman were previously worshiped.

Legends about the Golden Woman, hiding somewhere in the North, appeared a long time ago. They are associated with the legendary vast country, spread in the 9th-12th centuries in the forests covering the valleys of the Northern Dvina, Vychegda and the upper reaches of the Kama. In Rus', these lands were called Perm the Great, and in the Scandinavian countries - the powerful state of Biarmia or Bjarmaland. The peoples inhabiting this territory worshiped a huge idol - the Golden Woman. Her sanctuary, located, according to the Scandinavian sagas, somewhere at the mouth of the Northern Dvina, was guarded day and night by six shamans. Many treasures were accumulated by the servants of the idol, which bore the name Yumala in the sagas. Perm the Great was rich in skins of valuable fur-bearing animals. Merchants from Khazaria, which lay in the lower reaches of the Volga, and Vikings from distant Scandinavia paid for them generously.

However, time passed. The strengthened neighbors of Perm the Great extended their tenacious hands to this rich but sparsely populated region. At first it was the Novgorod ushkuiniki, then the squads of the Moscow Grand Duke. Fleeing from Christianity, worshipers of the idol hid the Golden Woman either in the Ural caves, or in impenetrable forests along the banks of the Ob, or in the inaccessible gorges of the Putoran mountains on Taimyr.

In search of a shrine

Where did such a strange deity come from among the Mansi people? Most scientists believe that the Golden Woman is the Mansi goddess Sorni-ekva. This name is translated into Russian as “golden woman.”

Opinions differ regarding the origin of the idol itself. Biarmia history researcher Leonid Teplov suggests that the golden statue could have been taken from the sack of Rome in 410 during the attack of the Ugrians and Goths. Some of them returned to their homeland to the Arctic Ocean, and the ancient statue became a symbol of the northern people.

Other scientists follow the path of a mysterious goddess from China, believing that this is a statue of Buddha, who in the Celestial Empire merges with the image of the goddess Guanyin. There are also supporters of the Christian origin of the Golden Woman. They suggest that this is a statue of the Madonna, which was stolen during a raid on one of the Christian churches.

They tried to take possession of the Golden Woman for a long time. During their campaigns in Ugra, the Novgorodians willingly plundered pagan sanctuaries. They tried to get to the golden idol hiding in the dense forests, but in vain. Ermak’s daring troops were also interested in the statue. They heard about the Golden Woman from a Chuvash who fled to their camp during the siege of a Tatar settlement. The Chuvash said that in the besieged settlement the Ostyaks prayed to “the golden god who sits in the bowl.” Hearing about the gold, the Cossacks rushed to attack the settlement with renewed vigor. After a bloody battle, they took the walls, but did not find the precious idol. On the eve of the assault, they managed to take him out of the besieged settlement through secret underground passages.

The second time the Cossacks heard about the Golden Woman was when they reached Belgorod on the Ob. Here was the most revered temple by the Ostyaks. It was here, according to rumors, that the shrine of the Siberian peoples was brought. But this time Ermak failed to reach the Golden Woman. When his troops approached, the residents managed to hide the idol. The Cossacks asked the Ostyaks about the Golden Woman, and they confirmed that indeed “they had a great prayer service to the ancient goddess.”

Robot worship?

The researchers of our time have not neglected the Golden Woman. Ufologists showed great interest in the idol. Ufologists say that this deity is not at all like other shrines of the northern peoples; it seems to have fallen from the sky.

It was this version of the origin of the golden idol that was once put forward by ufologist Stanislav Ermakov. He believes that the Golden Woman is an alien robot, which for some reason, perhaps due to a partial malfunction, was left on Earth by its owners. For some time, the Golden Woman could move, and it is with this that the Mansi legends about the “living” idol are connected. Then, according to Ermakov, the robot gradually began to fail. At first he could still make some sounds, and then he finally turned into a golden statue.

I had the opportunity to work for several years in the Northern Urals, in places through which, according to researchers, the golden idol passed, hiding from persecuting Christians. In the Urals, I heard several stories from Mansi reindeer herders related to the Golden Woman.

In the Northern Urals there is a dome-shaped mountain, Manya-Tump, covered with dense forest. Until very recently, reindeer herders, driving their herds along the Ural ridge in the summer, did not even come close to the mountain. “It’s been a long time since you walked the mountain. Whoever walks will get sick for a long time and die. Old people say - there stood the navels, Sonya Equa, the Golden Woman. It was scary to walk close. Baba shouted widely. People speak in a scary voice."

A little north of Manya-Tump rises another mountain, with which the legends about the terrible cry of the Golden Woman are also associated - Koyp. The surroundings of this mountain are surprisingly suitable for the birth of the legend about the temple of the idol. At the foot of the mountain lies an almost round lake. On its shore you can see blocks covered with lichen, in which, with a little imagination, you can guess the remains of an ancient sanctuary.

Mansi herds driving in the summer always come to this sanctuary to leave their gifts on a quadrangular granite slab, as if carved by people.

Between the Manya-Tump and Koyp mountains there is another place that may also be associated with the terrible screams of the Golden Woman. This is Mount Otorten, the highest point in the Urals. In the winter of 1959, a well-trained group of skiers from the Ural Polytechnic Institute died here. Rescuers who went in search of tourists found a tent with a cut-out back wall and bodies lying in deep snow. The expression of mortal horror was frozen on the faces of all the dead.

Some members of the commission that investigated the causes of the tragedy believed that the cause that led to such a terrible death could be exposure to high-intensity infrasound.

What could make such murderous sounds? Let's return to Stanislav Ermakov's version of the extraterrestrial origin of the Golden Woman. Why did the space robot, created by a civilization far ahead of the earthly one, suddenly partially fail?

One episode in the description of the Viking Thorir Hund’s campaign to Biarmia can help answer this question: “The Vikings happily sailed to the mouth of the Dvina to the trading city in Biarmia... The temple of the highest deity of the Biarmians, as the Vikings reliably knew, was located in a dense forest, not far from the mouth of the Vin River (Dvina). That’s where they planned to get through...

Thorir Hund, thrusting his ax into the gate, climbed over it with his help. Carly did the same, and they let their comrades inside the fenced-in space. Approaching the mound, the Vikings collected as much money as they could carry...

They reached the very image of Yumala, which towered among the sacred fence. A precious chain hung around the neck of the Burmese god. Carly was seduced by the chain and cut the idol’s neck so hard with an ax that the head fell off his shoulders with a terrifying crack.”

A Viking would hardly be able to cut off the head of a cast statue. It would be another matter if in front of him stood a robot consisting of a metal frame coated with a thin layer of gold. The guards of the sanctuary arrived in time and drove the Vikings away. They miraculously managed to get to the ships, abandoning the collected treasures.

Where is the golden idol now? Three inaccessible corners of Russia are called the final refuge of the Golden Woman: the lower reaches of the Ob, the upper reaches of the Irtysh in the Kalbinsky ridge and the impassable gorges of the Putorana plateau.

And this name is not accidental. Seven bizarre stone figures rise on the flat surface of the ridge. One resembles a petrified woman, the other a lion, the third a wise old man with his hand raised.

Tourists from different cities of Russia are in a hurry to see the famous Pechora “blockheads” and hastily pass by the lonely high conical peak of Mount Koyp. In Vogul, Koyp is a drum. One of the legends of the Mansi people connects this peak with its famous neighbors.

Once upon a time, seven Samoyed giants walked through the mountains and Siberia to destroy the Vogul people. When they climbed the Man-Pupu-Ner ridge, their leader-shaman saw in front of him the sacred Yura of the Voguls, Yalpingner. In horror, the shaman threw his drum, which turned into Mount Koyp, and he and his companions froze in fear and became stone blockheads.

But there is another legend that can also be heard from Mansi, but much less often. Koyp looks like a conical mountain from the side of the stone blocks. But if you look at it from a small nameless ridge located to the west, you will clearly see a woman with sharp facial features lying on her back.

This is a petrified shaman, punished for trying to insult one of the most ancient idols, once revered by all the peoples of the north - Golden Baba. When the golden idol was crossing the stone belt of the Ural Mountains, the shaman, who considered herself its owner, wanted to detain the Golden Baba. Screamed in a scary voice , and every living thing for many miles around died of fear, and the arrogant shaman fell on her back and turned to stone.

The screams that the Golden Baba makes are evidenced not only by Mansi legends, but also by the memories of foreigners who have visited Rus'. Here, for example, is what the Italian Alexander Guagnini wrote in 1578: “They even say that in the mountains next to this idol they heard a sound and a loud roar like a trumpet.”

We will return to her screams closer to the end of the story, but for now about something else. It is generally accepted that the Golden Baba is a pagan idol of the peoples who inhabited a vast territory from the Northern Dvina to the northwestern slopes of the Ural Mountains. This territory was called differently at different times - Biarmia, Ugra Land, Great Perm.

The first mentions of the so-called Golden Woman in historical documents appeared more than a thousand years ago in Icelandic and Scandinavian sagas telling about the Viking campaigns for the Golden Woman in 820, 918 and 1023.

For a thousand years, the Golden Baba “made a journey” from the banks of the Northern Dvina to the banks of the Ob. According to researchers, she traveled such a fantastic route because she had to be rescued all the time - either from Norman robbers or from militant Christian preachers. But where is the birthplace of the idol, where did it come from in ancient Biarmia, Ugra and Perm and where did it disappear at the end of the 16th century is unknown.

As he writes in the article “Where is she, Golden Woman?” Boris Vorobyov, all available descriptions of the idol lead to the fact that it “is not the work of the masters of ancient Perm, since, firstly, in its appearance it is sharply different from the pagan deities of the northern peoples, which included the Ugra, Voguls, and Ostyaks; and secondly, the creation of such a metal sculpture was impossible due to the lack of appropriate technology among the Ugra tribes” (“Technology for Youth”, 1997, No. 11).

Many articles and books have been written about the Golden Baba. The main sources that those trying to unravel its secrets turn to are the following documents: the essay of the founder. Roman Academy Julius Pomponia Lethe (1428-1497) “Comments on Florus”, “Treatise on the Two Sarmatias” by the Polish historian and geographer Matvey Miechovsky (1457-1523), “Notes on Muscovite Affairs” by the Austrian baron Sigmund von Herberstein (1486-1566) . In Russian documents, the first evidence of the Golden Baba is contained in the Novgorod Sofia Chronicle, and it dates back to 1398.

It turns out that the golden idol had many names: Yumala, Golden Baba, Golden Old Woman, Kaltas, Guanyin, Copper Statue, Golden Lady, Golden Woman, Golden Maya.

The appearance of the Golden Woman is also, according to the descriptions, very different: now a standing female statue, now a woman with a cornucopia, now Minerva with a spear in her hands, now a sitting woman, very reminiscent of the Madonna, with a child in her arms, now a sitting naked woman and also with child.

In Russia, another written mention of it is the Novgorod Chronicle of 1538. The chronicle talks about the missionary activities of Stephen of Perm. Stefan walked across the Perm land, destroyed ancient sanctuaries and erected Christian churches in their place. The chronicle says that Stefan sowed the faith of Christ in the Perm land among the peoples who previously worshiped animals, trees, water, fire and the Golden Baba.

At the end of the 15th century. Moscow governors Semyon Kurbsky and Pyotr Ushaty tried to find the Golden Woman. When it became known that the idol had been transferred to the Asian part of the continent, Kurbsky and Ushaty, at the head of an army of four thousand, crossed the Urals and began searching for its temple. Many Ugra villages were captured and many hidden places were searched, but neither the idol nor the temple treasures could be found.

In 1582, almost 100 years after the campaign of Kurbsky and Ushaty, the trace of the main deity of the Permyak-Ugra land was finally found. In the autumn of the same year, the Cossacks unsuccessfully stormed the so-called Demyansky town in the lower reaches of the Irtysh for three days.

When they had already decided to postpone the offensive, a defector showed up and said that in the town there was an idol made of pure gold. Hearing about this, the leader of the Cossacks, Bogdan Bryazga, ordered the assault to continue. The town was taken, but there was no trophy there: the idol’s servants managed to get out of the encirclement and take it with them. Bryazga and his squad rushed in the footsteps of the disappeared idol. In May 1583, the Cossacks were already on the Ob, in an area called Belogorye.

Here was the Golden Baba’s prayer site, sacred to the Ostyak aborigines, protected by a kind of spell, according to which anyone who disturbed the peace of the great goddess had to die. Despite all the prohibitions, the Cossacks thoroughly searched the prayer site, but they never found the Golden Woman. Somehow, mysteriously, she disappeared again. Returning from a campaign, the Cossacks were ambushed and all died. Perhaps the spell has come true?!

Some time later, the idol that had disappeared from Belogorye appeared in the basin of the Konda River, the left tributary of the Irtysh. All the surrounding tribes flocked to his temple, as had happened before. Rich offerings were brought to the deity in the form of sable skins and overseas fabrics purchased at auctions in the vast Permyak-Ugra land.

At the beginning of the 17th century. Missionary Grigory Novitsky tried to find the Golden Woman. He collected interesting information about the sanctuary, where the idol was secretly kept and where only the tribal leader and the shaman had the right to enter. Apart from this information, Novitsky was unable to find out anything else.

A hundred years later, traces of the Golden Woman seemed to be found on the Northern Sosva River, which flows into the Ob on the left side. According to modern researchers, the location of the idol is moved even further - to Taimyr, in the Putorana mountains.

At the end of the 20th century. Attempts were still being made to find the Golden Woman. The latest information about her dates back to the summer of 1990. It was brought by an ethnographic expedition of the Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which visited the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. A small number of northern Khanty live there to this day, who, according to legend, were responsible for the inviolability of the Golden Baba.

In 1933, dispossession began in these parts. The NKVD authorities arrested the shaman and found out from him the way to the sanctuary. However, the Khanty, defending the shrine, offered armed resistance to the security officers. As a result, four NKVD employees died, which led to immediate repression: almost all adult men of the clan were killed, and many children, old people and women died out over the winter, since they were practically unable to hunt and get food - their guns were confiscated. Even now, after so many years, the surviving Khanty are reluctant to talk about past events and ask that their names not be used.

As for the Golden Baba, who was kept in the sanctuary, she disappeared. There is an assumption that it was melted down. However, members of the expedition spoke about one interesting fact: the local history museum of Khanty-Mansiysk contains many exhibits for which there was previously no museum passport. As the members of the expedition found out, these things came from the storage facility of the local KGB department. This raises another question: if the Golden Woman was not golden, isn’t she currently in some kind of special storage facility?

Regarding the question of where the golden statue on Perm land came from, opinions differed. Biarmia history researcher Leonid Teploye suggests that the golden statue could have been taken away from the burning sack of Rome in 410. AD during the attack of the Ugrians and Goths. Some of them returned to their homeland to the Arctic Ocean, and the antique statue, brought from a distant southern city, became an idol of the northern people.

The supreme goddess of the Ugrians was known under different names. This progenitor of the human race endowed newborns with souls. The Ugrians believed that souls sometimes take the form of a beetle or lizard. Their divine mistress herself could turn into a lizard-like creature. And this is a very remarkable fact of her “biography”.

Bazhov's wonderful tales describe the Mistress of the Copper Mountain. The mistress of the underground storerooms of the Urals often appeared before people's eyes in the form of a huge lizard with a retinue of colorful lizards.

The hostess appears before us primarily as the owner of copper ores and malachite. She herself wore a malachite dress, and her name was Malachite. The idol of the Golden Woman, from whom the fairy-tale Mistress of the Copper Mountain originated, was made of copper. The green dress appeared because over time copper becomes covered with a green oxide film. Short line

The ancient goddess of Belogorye was a copper statue turned green by time. It becomes clear why the chronicler kept silent about the material of the idol and did not call it the Golden Woman. In fairy tales we also find memories of the golden Russian God. In the Urals they knew the golden Great Snake, that is, the Great Snake. He already lived underground and could take the form of both a snake and a human. This creature had power over gold.

Today, among the residents of the Urals there lives a legend about Yalpyn-Uy, a giant snake that still sometimes appears “in public,” a sort of Mansi anaconda. Maybe this is connected with the legend of the Golden Baba?

The key to unraveling the mysterious appearance is given by Bazhov’s tales. In them, the Golden Snake is a golden man with a beard twisted into such tight rings that “you can’t straighten it out.” He has green eyes and a hat with “red gaps” on his head. But this is almost exactly an image of green-eyed Osiris!

The beard of the Egyptian god was pulled back into a narrow, tight bun. The pharaohs who imitated him had the same beard. It is enough to recall the famous masks of Tutankhamun from his golden sarcophagi to understand what the rings on the beard of the golden man looked like. A hat with “red gaps” “pschent” is the white and red crown of a united Egypt.

The wife and sister of Osiris was the green-eyed Isis - the goddess of fertility, water, magic, marital fidelity and love. She patronized lovers. In the same way, the Ural goddess is the goddess of waters, closely associated with the theme of love and marital fidelity.

So, does the image of the green-eyed Mistress of the Copper Mountain go back to Isis? Today we can tell what the copper statue of an Egyptian woman looked like. Let us remember that the Golden Woman was depicted as a Madonna. The image of the Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus arose under the influence of the sculptures of Isis with the baby Horus. One of these idols is kept in the Hermitage. Naked Isis sits and breastfeeds her son. On the goddess's head is a crown of snakes, a solar disk and cow horns.

Egyptian myths help us understand a lot in our tales. Here, for example, is a magic green button. It was given to Gornozavodskaya Tanyusha by the Mistress of the Copper Mountain, and through the gift the girl communicated with her patroness. The Egyptian gods had the wonderful eye of Wadjet (“green eye”). It also provided the owner with protection and patronage. Isis-Hathor was the guardian of the Eye and its embodiment.

The Egyptians themselves called Isis Iset. Iset, the “river of Isis”, has its source near Gumeshki? Through this river, Ural copper entered the forest Trans-Urals. The name of the town of Sysert may have come from the sistrum, an ancient Egyptian musical instrument.

There are a great many such parallels here...

The fact that the Golden Baba is Isis was said by the old author Petriy (1620). But no one believed him. The appearance of Egyptian trends in Siberia seemed too surprising... But this is a separate big problem.

According to legend, the metal Golden Woman seemed to have fallen from the sky. Or maybe she really fell? This version of the origin of the golden idol was put forward several years ago by ufologist Stanislav Ermakov. He believes that the Golden Baba is an alien robot, for some reason, perhaps due to a partial malfunction, left on Earth by its owners.

For some time, the Golden Baba could move, and it is with this property that the Mansi legends about the “living” golden idol are associated. Then, it seems, the robot began to gradually fail. At first he could still emit infrasounds, and then he finally turned into a golden statue.

Where is the idol or broken robot now? Three remote, hard-to-reach corners of Russia are traditionally named as the last refuge of the Golden Woman: the lower reaches of the Ob River, the upper reaches of the Irtysh in the Kalbinsky Range and the impassable gorges of the Putoran Mountains on the Taimyr Peninsula.

Mount Otorten

But perhaps the idol with the terrible, deadly voice is much closer. And hides somewhere in the triangle between the Koyp mountains, and Manya Thump. This assumption is more logical if you believe the legend that the Golden Woman “screamed” at Otorten.

One way or another, the hunt for the Golden Woman continues: some are looking for a priceless historical relic, others for gold, and others for a treasure trove of alien technology.

From the book "100 Great Disappearances"

The legend of the “Golden Baba” - a pagan idol, cast from pure gold and hidden somewhere in the North in Hyperbarea , among endless rivers, swamps and forests, its roots go back to ancient times.

"Golden Woman" of the Hyperboreans.

existed for a thousand years legends about the countless treasures of Hyperborea, about impregnable Riphean Mountains (Ural Mountains) , where a colossal statue of the Golden Woman - an idol made of pure gold , and the Arimaspians guarding it, living next to the Hyperboreans.

In Herodotus's History, you can read that beyond the distant Ripean (Ural) mountains, located " damned part of the world where it snows all the time,” lives nerves that can turn into wolves, warlike Amazons,"one-eyed men -Arimaspi"(Greek: Αριμασποι), owning countless treasures and « vultures guarding gold, and even higher behind them, near the sea - Hyperboreans» , not knowing death.

The ancient Greek historian Herodotus learned about the Arimaspian tribe from the Scythian Aristeas (IV, 27), who composed “his epic poem, which the Hellenes now call « "(Herodotus IV 13, 14, 27;)

Perhaps the Arimaspians, whom Herodotus spoke about 2500 years ago, were the guardians of the Golden Woman. Scythian word “arimaspi” is translated as: “arima” is a unit, and “spu” is an eye . It can be assumed that the ancient Greeks called this tribe Arimaspi (one-eyed) because the Arimaspi " slept with one eye open", that is, they were always on the alert, guarding their golden treasures.

The search for the “Golden Woman” continued in the Middle Ages. The Golden Woman was first directly mentioned in the Russian chronicle of 1398.

The first bishop who managed to somehow root Christianity in the northern lands was Stefan of Perm, who baptized Komi in 1379. Baptism was accompanied by quite aggressive actions Christian missionaries : pagan temples were destroyed, wooden idols, widespread everywhere - they were mercilessly burned. Confirmation of this is the iconized image of Stephen with an ax raised over the “sacred birch” , hung with animal furs, the icon symbolized the fight against the faith of “savage peoples”.

After the rooting of Christianity in the administrative centers of the region, Stefan decided to strengthen Christianity in the outback, but this was prevented by the legend of the existence ancient shrine - the idol of the “Golden Woman”, but all attempts to get to the pagan shrine were in vain, the keepers reliably hid their shrine in the taiga, away from the eyes of aggressive people Christian missionaries .

In the 14th century, Christians fought against the idol as one of the main shrines of the pagans. A in the 18th century, stories about the mysterious “Golden Woman” acted in Europe as a kind of calling card of unknown Russia.

The existence of the idol is mentioned in a number of medieval publications, and its location was mentioned by the Austrian Baron Sigismund von Herberstein in the 1549 edition of “Notes on Muscovite Affairs.”

Golden woman on the map of 1562

Baptism of idolaters.

The baptism of the north took place with battles - the pagans did not want to give up worshiping idols without accepting the Christian faith. The process of converting northerners to Christianity was extremely long and cannot be said to be absolutely successful, since in our time there are entire peoples in the northern expanses, worshiping idols and rejecting Christianity. It so happened that the “Golden Woman” became a serious obstacle to the church - the aborigines considered the golden idol to be their main shrine, about which they composed legends and myths.

During the Petrine era, Christian missionary Grigory Novitsky went to the Northern Urals , true believer, most educated person, author of the first ethnographic monograph "A brief description of the Ostyak people." The missionary decided to complete the work begun by Stephen - find and destroy the Golden Idol. However, the hunt for the idol cost the life of Grigory Novitsky; he died under unclear circumstances. It is unknown what caused his death; perhaps he achieved his goal and found what he was looking for, but the guardians of the idol did not allow him to carry out his plan, or perhaps he simply fell victim to natural disasters. After Grigory Novitsky did not return, no one else was officially sent “for the idol”, however, attempts to find the “golden woman” did not stop, but the search for purely religious purposes moved into the category of a “gold rush”. The idol became an object of desire for adventurers and treasure seekers, of whom there were quite a few in Rus' even in those days.

"Eldorado" of the Russian North.

The world's largest gold nugget was found in Russia on October 26, 1842. A peasant serf, 17-year-old orphan Nikifor Syutkin, who worked in the depths of the Tsarsko-Alexandrovsky mine near Miass, found at a depth of three meters a huge gold nugget in the form “Big Triangle” weighing 36 kilograms 16 grams. It is known that Nikifor Syutkin received a prize of 4,390 rubles for his find, which at that time was a gigantic sum; in addition to this money, he was given a “free license”, which ensured his freedom. Unfortunately, Nikifor did not become a landowner, and he did not start a new life, but drank himself to death, losing his mind from unexpected wealth. The world's largest gold nugget "Big Triangle" x injured in Moscow, in the Russian Diamond Fund.

With the beginning of mass colonization of the territories of the Urals and Siberia by Cossack detachments stories about the golden idol became a symbol of easy wealth, similar to the legend of the "Golden Man" of Eldorado, which was popular among the Spanish conquistadors who conquered South America. Ermak Timofeevich himself, the great conqueror of Siberia, having once heard the legend about the golden god of the dense Mansi, became seriously interested in the idol. One day one of his main associates, a Cossack Ataman Bogdan Bryazga reported that he saw the treasured statue with his own eyes while storming the Samara fort, located at the confluence of the Irtysh and the Ob.

Semyon Ulyanovich Remezov (ethnographer, cartographer) the author of a book published in the 18th century describes what the ataman saw Bogdan Bryazga : « And from there I went to the Ob and saw a lot of empty space and Belogorye; that's what they have greater prayer site for the ancient goddess: Naga sitting on a chair with her son; receiving gifts from her own, and giving her the remains of every providence.”

However, no matter how hard Ermak’s army tried to get to the treasured treasure, nothing worked as enemies approached the idol mysteriously disappeared, literally disappeared into thin air. By the way, the failures of the idol hunters, according to some sources, are explained by the mystical ability of the Golden Woman to escape from the hands of her pursuers.

In the book of the traveler, naturalist Sigismund von Herberstein, one from the collectors of information about the golden idol, "Notes on Muscovite affairs" , several lines are devoted to the mysterious abilities of the Golden Woman: "Feeling strangers, the idol may either disappear from under the nose of anyone who wants to take possession of it, or make some sounds comparable to a wild roar, which discourages the desire to approach him, or may even throw him off a cliff into the Ob.”

These romantic-mystical characteristics of the golden idol indicate nothing more than about the existence of a certain circle of guardian priests who protect the golden idol, but remaining in his shadow. Was it not at their hands that the Christian missionary Novitsky died, was it not they who helped the statue disappear during the storming of the sanctuary by Ataman Bogdan Bryazga? And wasn’t it with them that the NKVD officers later entered into battle...?

Nakhodki-Arkaim

Hunter, explorer, writer At the beginning of the last century, Konstantin Nosilov found out from the old Mansi a previously unknown story about the Golden Baba, radically changing the understanding of the situation around the idol. According to the stories of an old Mansi man, in his youth, who was engaged in hunting, in the remote, inaccessible taiga rubble of the taiga, he saw a “golden woman”. The old Mansi described the idol exactly as the chronicles conveyed its image. All the small details converged in the story, except for one thing - The idol that old Mansi saw was not made of gold, but of silver! Apparently, the Mansi had several copies of the idol, in case the hunters finally reached their goal and, having taken possession of the precious copy, finally left the golden idol – the real one – alone.

After the collapse of the USSR, inquisitive minds had the opportunity to work in archives with previously secret documents. In one of these documents, writer and historian Demin V.N. I found an extremely interesting note. It turned out that in the thirties of the twentieth century, a legend about a countless treasure - Golden Baba, interested in Lubyanka . The country needed money, and the chance to replenish the treasury with free gold could not be missed. Sent to the Northern Urals a special detachment of the NKVD with the goal of finding the golden idol and handing it over to the state. And the hunt began: soon they found themselves in the hands of the special squad officers. data obtained from interrogations of local residents that in the Kyzym Khanty region , in the forest sanctuary a local shaman hides a certain golden statue . The security officers rushed to the indicated place, but when they appeared, they were offered armed resistance, but the forces were not equal and the “guards” behind the “golden woman” were killed every single one.

But what happened next: whether there was a statue in the sanctuary or not, the researcher could not get a definite answer - the documents about the fate of that operation were not completely preserved and just “at the most interesting place” the thread broke. However, Demin believes that the special squad nevertheless took possession of the treasured statue and took it to Moscow.

Is it worth putting an end to the search for an idol?

Most likely, the security officers took only a copy of it, while the real Golden Woman was hidden in another, more reliable place. The presence of the second idol is also confirmed by the fact that quite recently information about the “golden woman” appeared again; this time journalists from one of the central newspapers went hunting for the relic. But the expedition was not successful, and the team had to return to Moscow. The taiga impassability of the north became an insurmountable obstacle to the search. However, if information about the idol is received again, then most likely the idol is still hidden somewhere.

Golden woman - made in China?

The question of who created the Golden Woman has been facing historians for a long time. Many hypotheses have already been expressed on this score; some believe that the “golden woman” was cast by the Vogul tribe; by the way, the film of the same name, shot at the Sverdlovsk film studio in 1986, plays out this version in detail and is quite convincing.

Some people hold the view that the golden idol was “inherited” by the northerners from the proto-civilization of the Hyperboreans. Hyperborea ceased to exist, and the people who inhabited it left their inhabited lands. The northerners found a statue in one of the abandoned temples and have been worshiping the shrine ever since. Based specifically on the version of Hyperborean roots, many historians conclude that the deity cast in gold was extremely revered, and therefore the image was immortalized not in a single copy, but, as befits a cult, in multiple copies. Hence the copies of the idol that eyewitnesses talk about.

A similar image of the Golden Woman can be found in Chinese culture. ChineseThe goddess Guan Yin is the patroness of the family hearth, women and childbirth. She was depicted sitting on a chair surrounded by children. The poet and prose writer Sergei Makarov was the first to express his assumption about the possible relationship of Guan-yin with the Golden Woman in a book dedicated to the history of the development of the north, “Earth Circle”.

How could a Chinese goddess end up in the northern Urals? Everything is quite simple, according to supporters of the Chinese trace: the golden idol was brought to Siberia by traders from the Middle Kingdom, where it was exchanged for furs. And since the image of the goddess was close in spirit to the local tribes, who revered the divine essence of women, forgetting about Buddhism, the northerners adapted the idol to their own spiritual needs.

But, despite its brevity, this version is not ideal and needs a serious evidence base, like the whole story about the golden idol, which is based only on legends and the testimony of individual eyewitnesses. In the meantime, the story of the Golden Woman remains only a beautiful legend of the mysterious North, exciting the minds of adventurers who want to easily and quickly get rich from an ancient treasure, to find the Russian Eldorado, where the “golden man” is hidden….