Underground river neglinka excursion. Excursion on the underground river Neglinka
If you have walked through all the sights of Moscow or see them every day on your way to work, then this tour is for you. I am a professional digger, I like to travel through the dark tunnels near Moscow. There are a lot of interesting things here, which I will definitely tell you about (and these are not mutant rats). I will guide you along the underground river Neglinka, which has long been hidden from Muscovites. We explore several collectors of the river. This excursion is safe, I will give you everything you need.
Real adventure
The river, which has become a legend, which only the names of streets remind of, such as Kuznetsky Most, Samotechnaya, Trubnaya, Neglinnaya. I'm talking about Neglinka, which was hidden underground in the 19th century. I am a professional digger and invite you to a joint adventure. We will pass through the bewitching brick labyrinths of drains and pipes, through which the muddy waters of the river flow in complete darkness.
Secrets of the dungeons
If you are not afraid of getting wet, pitch darkness and enclosed spaces, then welcome! I have been studying the dungeons of Moscow for a long time and will be happy to share what is inaccessible to ordinary residents of the capital. I will issue the necessary equipment, a personal flashlight and I will monitor safety along the entire route. After descending into the depths of Moscow, you can enjoy the views of the Neglinka. The tour takes place in a small group, so everyone will be comfortable.
Route plan
Descent down the old brick sewer 3 km long from the beginning of the 19th century, visiting the sewer of 1906 near Catherine's Garden, the Pipe collector, the concrete sewer built in 1974-89 and the Shchekotovsky tunnel.
It is important to know
Sorry, but the tour is available only to those who are already 18 years old, this is very strict. I do not recommend the descent for those who suffer from claustrophobia. Transfer to the meeting point is not provided. For your safety, we may suspend ticket sales in case of bad weather. The tour will take place only if at least two people have signed up for it. And it takes place only in Russian, foreigners can invite an interpreter for free.
- Type of excursion: group walking
- Schedule: Weekdays 20:00, weekends 14:00 and 20:00
- Duration: 2 hours
- Russian language
- Price: 2500 ₽ per person
- Meeting point: St. Durova 4
- Included:
Special protective shoe covers (up to the knee) for a comfortable walk
Personal LED flashlight
Full guided tour - answers to any of your questions regarding the Moscow dungeons, do not hesitate to ask questions - so you can learn more new things!
Free guided tour for your translator (for a group of foreign tourists)
Several professional photos (if possible) - Not included:
Transfer to the place
Interpreter for foreigners
Protective clothing - wear something you don't mind getting dirty.
Belay for the descent - for the descent there is a ladder and brackets, the main thing is not to be afraid - no one has fallen yet.
1. The unknown founder of Moscow chose a convenient place for the city - a narrow cape at the confluence of the Moscow and Neglinnaya rivers. For several centuries the city grew within the cape to the east. First the walls of the Kremlin advanced, then the walls of Kitay-Gorod appeared. Only in the 16th century did the city step over the Neglinnaya, surrounding its lower reaches with walls. white city. Zaneglimenye, located on the site of the current Lenin Library, ceased to be a suburb. It is characteristic that at the same time the wall of the Black City crossed the Moscow River, embracing Zamoskvorechye. But if the Moscow River remained a navigable artery, the beauty of the city, then shallowed to XVIII century Neglinka became an obstacle to its development and had to disappear from the map.
2. In late XVIII century, the lower reaches of the river went underground, then the middle sections of the channel disappeared, and finally, already in the 20th century, the source, the Pashensky swamp, was covered up. However, having disappeared by itself, the river left many traces in the relief, the layout of Moscow, in the names of streets and alleys. Let's start the journey along the river from the well-known place where it flows into the Moscow River. The old mouth is well known to Muscovites - it is an oval opening in the embankment between the Vodovzvodnaya Tower and the Bolshoy Kamenny Bridge.
3. By the way, this same hole was included in the oldest known photograph of the city, a painted Lerebour daguerreotype of 1842.
4.
5. In front of the mouth there is an underground pool measuring approximately 5 by 15 meters. From here begins the section of the collector, passing north of the old channel, under Mokhovaya and Okhotny Ryad streets, as well as under the Moskva Hotel.
6. This section went into the pipe first, in 1817-19, and the Alexander Garden was laid out above it. At Kremlin walls you can see part of the Borovitsky hill, which flowed around the Neglinka before flowing into the Moscow River.
7. Toponymy tells us the choice of direction - Manezhnaya Street, which runs along the right bank of the river, until 1922 was called Neglinnaya. In the aforementioned year, it was decided to collect all the "Neglinnye" names near the current Neglinnaya Street.
8. The section of the channel to the north of Manezhnaya Street, or, to put it correctly, the reserve watercourse in case the main flow is blocked, is a brick vault lined with reinforced concrete, along which narrow-gauge railway tracks are laid.
9. The right tributary of the Neglinka flows here - the Uspensky Vrazhek stream. It flowed in the ravine of the same name, which took place on the site of the current Bryusov Lane and gave its name to the Church of the Resurrection of the Word on the Assumption Vrazhek.
10. The oldest surviving Moscow bridge, Troitsky, was thrown over the channel of the Neglinnaya.
11. The nine-span bridge was built in 1516 according to the project of the Italian Aleviz Fryazin, along with the main part of the structures of the modern Kremlin.
12. During the restructuring of 1901, all arches were laid in it except for the central one. The current facing brick of the bridge dates back to 2000.
13. In 1996, during the construction of a shopping center near Manezhnaya Square, a section of the river was allegedly brought to the surface in the form of a sculpture and fountain complex. Naturally, the water here is tap water, and circulates in a circle. The water of the Neglinnaya itself is classified by experts as “very dirty”.
14. In addition to imitation of the “Neglinskaya” water on Manezhnaya Square, the sculptural solution is also highly questionable.
15. Opposite the Manege in the Alexander Garden there is a decorative pedestal, from which the sound of water is clearly heard. This is a section of an old underground channel, now not communicating with the main system.
16. In addition, there are many different trellises and hatches in the garden.
17. There is a very extensive sewer system.
18. From the Corner Arsenal Tower to the Moskva River in the 16th-19th centuries, the Alevizov moat passed, which was also filled with water from the Neglinnaya. However, not completely - it was also fed by springs gushing from the bottom. Thus, the Neglinka, together with the moat and the Moscow River, formed a protective water ring around the Kremlin.
19. Alevizov moat passed between the walls of the Kremlin and the current Historical Museum. Now it is filled up, and in its place the descent from Red Square to the bank of the Neglinka is clearly visible.
20. In the section to Theater Square, Neglinka served as a moat for Kitai-gorod. At the Iberian Gates in 1601-03, a white-stone Voskresensky (Kuryatny) bridge was thrown over it. The bridge is well preserved and can be seen in the Moscow Museum of Archeology.
21. The river crosses the modern Revolution Square obliquely, leaving the building of the Maly Theater.
22. Under the theater building, she made a sharp turn, which was often clogged. It was here that Neglinka most often “overflowed its banks”. After 25 hectares of urban development were flooded in 1965, it was decided to build a backup collector from this place.
23. In 1966, this collector was built by Zaryadye. This is how the slide chamber looks like, the interface between the old and new systems.
24. A new collector was built in a shield way under the quarters of Kitay-gorod.
25. Approximately in the middle, a powerful spillway flows into it, the water falls vertically from a height of about five meters.
26. Before flowing into the Moscow River, the collector breaks into three and goes out into a small hall with a balcony.
27. This is how the new mouth of the Neglinka looks like from the opposite bank of the Moscow River.
28. From the corner of the Maly Theater, Neglinnaya Street begins. From here begins the most famous section of the underground river, called "Chickotovka".
29. In 1910-14, according to the project of engineer M.P. Shchekotov built a parabolic section 117 meters long and 3.6 by 5.8 meters in size. For its time, it was a brilliant engineering project, in terms of hydraulic properties not inferior even to modern standards. According to this model, it was planned to rebuild the entire Neglinnaya collector, but the First World War. V.A. went down here twice. Gilyarovsky, however, his most famous walk, described in detail in the book "Moscow and Muscovites", took place much to the north, under Trubnaya Square. Despite this, the Shchekotovsky tunnel is often called the "Gilyarovsky Path".
30. The tunnel was laid directly under the buildings of the Maly Theater and the Central Department Store. Because of this, the walls of the theater from the side of Neglinnaya Street are supported by beams.
31. Until 1922, Manezhnaya Street bore the name of Neglinnaya, and the section of Neglinnaya Street from the Maly Theater to Rakhmanovsky Lane was called Neglinny Proyezd. It runs in a lowland, all perpendicular streets and lanes descend to it, for example, Cannon Street.
32. Unsolid floodplain soil greatly affects the pavement.
33. Crossing the Neglinnaya street Kuznetsky Most says that we are on the right track.
34. The last of a series of successive bridges, built in 1754-61 by Semyon Yakovlev according to the project of architect D.V. Ukhtomsky three-span white-stone bridge has survived to this day. After being enclosed in a river pipe in 1818-19, it was filled up, and is now stored under the pavement. The bridge was 16 meters wide and about 30 meters long. Perhaps someday it will again appear before the eyes of Muscovites, but only when the center of Moscow ceases to be a commercial and administrative cesspool, that is, not very soon.
35. At the corner of the Kuznetsky bridge there is an unremarkable, but well-known building. Here, in 1826, the Frenchman Tranquil Yard, the famous restaurant of French cuisine "Yar". Pushkin dedicated the lines of one of his poems to the restaurant: “How long will I, in the anguish of a hungry fast, keep an involuntary fast and commemorate Yar’s cold veal truffle?”
36. "Petrovsky Passage", built on the former bank of the Neglinka at the beginning of the 20th century.
37. Thermometer on the building of the Central Bank opposite.
38. The huge building of the five-star hotel "Peter I" a little further.
39. Behind the descending Sandunovsky Lane, a whole block is occupied by the famous Sandunovsky baths. The old bath building was built in early XIX centuries on the banks of the open channel of the Neglinka. They were arranged by the then owner of the site, the Georgian actor Sila Nikolaevich Sandunov.
40. In 1804, the husband of the owner of the baths, Vera Ivanovna Firsanova, Alexei Ganetsky, ordered the architect B.V. Freidenberg to build a new building for baths. A quarrel with the customer forced Freudenberg to abandon the project halfway through and leave Moscow. The front building of the Sanduny was completed by the architect Kalugin and opened to the public on February 14, 1896. Bath water was taken through a special water supply line from the Moskva River, from the Babiegorod dam, and from a 700-foot artesian well. The drain was carried out, of course, in Neglinka.
41. At the intersection with Zvonarsky and Rakhmanovsky lanes, Neglinnaya Street expands significantly.
42. These are the floods that happened here in the 1960s.
43. At the corner of Rakhmanovsky Lane stands the tallest building in Neglinnaya Street. It was built for almost 20 years, from 1915 to 1934. During this period, wars, revolutions, changes in architectural styles took place, but one of the most important obstacles was the swampy soils of the banks of the former river.
44. Until 1922, the section from here to Trubnaya Square was called Neglinny Boulevard.
45. This is really a full-fledged boulevard, with a walking area in the middle. On the right side stretches a row of rebuilt tenement houses, united in an administrative-residential complex forged in antiquity with the eclectic name "Neglinnaya Plaza".
46. Steeply descends to the boulevard Nizhny Kiselny lane. It was named after Kiselnaya Sloboda, which was located here in the 17th-18th centuries, where funeral kissels were cooked. For sixty years, until 1993, he bore the name of the 3rd Neglinny.
47. Neglinnaya Street ends at Trubnaya Square. This name is also a trace of a disappeared river. In the 16th century, the wall of the White City was built along the line of the modern boulevard ring. A hole was made in the wall at the intersection with Neglinka, covered with a grate, called a "pipe". The subsequent construction of an underground tunnel only strengthened this name. Here, a stream flowed into the river, starting from the Daeva pond, and serving in the lower reaches as a bypass channel of the medieval fortress.
48. In front of the wall of the White City, the river formed a flowing pond, called Trubny.
49. Lying behind the square, Tsvetnoy Boulevard enjoyed a bad reputation a hundred years ago. In the lanes to the east of it (Grachevka) there were drinking establishments of the lowest rank, brothels, and dens of criminals. Their victims were revelers and night passers-by along the boulevard. From the west, another hot spot, Malyushinka, was adjacent. The underground sewer allowed the bandits to literally hide the ends in the water. The terrible secrets of Tsvetnoy Boulevard were exposed by the king of Moscow reporters V.A. Gilyarovsky.
50. Under the boulevard, the underground channel is divided into several sections. It was here that Gilyarovsky descended to the Neglinka for the first time. Now there is no current in this abandoned tunnel.
Let's give the floor to Vladimir Alekseevich himself:
„... I decided to examine the Neglinka at all costs. It was a continuation of my constant work of studying the Moscow slums with which Neglinka had a connection, as I had to learn in the brothels of Grachevka and Tsvetnoy Boulevard.
It was not difficult for me to find two daredevils who decided on this journey. One of them is a licenseless plumber Fedya, who made his living by day work, and the other is a former janitor, solid and thorough. It was his duty to lower the ladder, lower us into the sewer between Samotyok and Trubnaya Square, and then meet us at the next flight and lower the ladder for our exit. Fedi's duty is to accompany me in the dungeon and shine.
And so, on a hot July day, we raised the iron grating of the drain well in front of Malyushin's house, near Samoteka, and lowered a ladder there. No one paid attention to our operation - everything was done very quickly: they raised the grate, lowered the ladder. Foul steam billowed from the hole. Fedya the plumber climbed first; the hole, damp and dirty, was narrow, the ladder stood vertically, the back shuffled against the wall.
I pulled up my hunting boots, buttoned up my leather jacket, and began to descend. Elbows and shoulders touched the walls of the pipe. Hands had to hold on tightly to the dirty steps of a sheer, swaying staircase, supported, however, by the worker who remained at the top. With each step down, the stench grew stronger and stronger. It was getting creepy. Finally, the sound of water and squelching was heard. I looked up. I could see only a quadrangle of blue, bright sky and the face of the worker holding the ladder. A cold, bone-piercing dampness enveloped me.
At last I went down to the last step, and as I carefully lowered my foot, I felt a jet of water rustling against the toe of my boot.
I stood on the bottom, and the cold dampness of the water penetrated my hunting boots.
I was left alone in this walled-up crypt and walked knee-deep in the seething water for about ten steps. Has stopped. There was darkness all around me. The darkness is impenetrable, the complete absence of light. I turned my head in all directions, but my eyes did not distinguish anything.
I bumped my head against something, raised my hand and felt the wet, cold, warty, slimy stone vault and jerked my hand away nervously. It even became scary. It was quiet, only the water gurgled below. Every second of waiting for a worker with fire seemed like an eternity to me. I moved further forward and heard a noise like the roar of a waterfall. Indeed, just next to me, a waterfall roared, scattering millions of dirty splashes, barely illuminated by the pale yellowish light from the opening of the street pipe. It turned out to be a sewage drain from a side hole in the wall.
We went forward through deep water, sometimes avoiding the waterfalls of street runoff that hummed under our feet. Suddenly, a terrible roar, as if from collapsing buildings, made me shudder. It was a cart passing over us. I recalled a similar rumble on my journey into the artesian well tunnel, but here it was incomparably stronger. More and more often carriages thundered over my head. With the help of a light bulb, I examined the walls of the dungeon, damp, covered with thick slime. We walked for a long time, in some places plunging into deep mud or inaccessible, fetid liquid mud, in some places bending over, since the drifts of mud were so high that it was impossible to go straight - I had to bend down, and still I reached the vault with my head and shoulders. My feet sank into the mud, occasionally bumping into something hard. All this swam with liquid mud, it was impossible to see, and even before that.
A few minutes later we stumbled upon a rise under our feet. There was a heap of mud especially thick, and, apparently, something was piled under the mud. We climbed through the heap, illuminating it with a light bulb. I poked around with my foot, and something bounced under my boot. We stepped over the pile and moved on. In one of these drifts, I managed to see halfway covered with silt the corpse of a huge dog. It was especially difficult to get over the last skid before the exit to Trubnaya Square, where the stairs were waiting for us. Here the mud was especially thick, and something kept slipping underfoot. It was scary to think about it.
But Fedya nevertheless broke through:
- It is true I say: we go after people.
I said nothing. He looked up, where the blue sky shone through the iron grating. Another flight, and an already open grate and a staircase leading to freedom are waiting for us.”
51. Now the river passes under the right side of the boulevard in a new collector, which the Moscow authorities decided to build in 1973 after particularly strong floods. Under the left side are old channels, mostly abandoned. And once on this place was the Upper Neglinny Pond.
52. This is how a collector built in the 1970s from precast concrete elements looks like.
53. And here is a photo of its construction.
54. An old sewer passes directly under the green area, named Malyushenko after the owner of the local tenement houses.
55. Tsvetnoy Boulevard ends at Samotechnaya Square, through which the overpass of the Garden Ring is thrown.
56. The further direction of movement is suggested by the relief. Gravity street lies in a wide valley. And the name of the street is clearly associated with the course of the river.
57. The left bank of the Neglinnaya has a steep descent; Trinity Church stands on it.
58. Here on the river there were two Gravity Ponds, Upper and Lower. In this place, the Neglinka flowed very slowly, imposingly, for which it received the nickname Samotyok.
59. This site went underground in the 1880s. Old-timers remember how in the 1950s, after heavy rains, when turbulent streams flowed into Samoteka from neighboring lanes, the collector overflowed and water splashed out through the manholes into the street. Floods stopped only after the aforementioned reconstruction of the collector in the 1960s and 70s.
60. Here the river flows through a small brick tunnel built in the late 19th century.
61. Quite significant administrative buildings stand along Samotechnaya Street, however, quite far from the unstable floodplain, where the square of Samotechny Boulevard is located.
62. The shape of the relief here is quite indicative. Two Volkonsky lanes descend to Samotyok.
63.
64. The massive building of Stalinist architecture once housed the 16th Directorate of the KGB, which was engaged in electronic intelligence, radio interception and decryption.
65. At the intersection with Delegatskaya Street, a fork occurs in the Neglinnaya collector. The main channel goes under the 3rd Samotechny Lane to the west, and from the east its main left tributary, the Naprudnaya River, flows into the Neglinka.
66. This place looks so picturesque underground. On the left, the Neglinka channel continues, and the Naprudnaya collector goes straight ahead. Here we will end the first part of our tour. The next parts will start from this place in two different directions, up Naprudnaya, and then along the Neglinka itself.
Used materials:
1. Book A.V. Rogachev "Outskirts of old Moscow"
This tour is only available for persons over 16 years of age who are allowed to physical exercise, as well as in the absence of rain.
List of available programs on underground rivers and quarries in Moscow and Moscow region:
- Private excursion to the underground river (only for you and your company)
* During all excursions you can take pictures with your camera for free
What to take and how to dress?
- The uniform is comfortable, jeans should have belt loops, shoe covers are attached to them;
- Take gloves so as not to get your hands dirty;
- Do not take any bags, a backpack is better.
You will be given a special protective suit and a flashlight.
Some facts about underground rivers:
- The phone does not catch there;
- It's always 12-15 degrees there;
- During the rain, the tour is dangerous.
Visit to the underground river
- You can select the desired option. There are difficult and easy routes.
- There are rivers made of concrete and brickwork.
- Rivers have different lengths, branching systems, tributaries and widths, different water levels.
- Tour time is 1 to 2 hours.
- This tour is possible only in the absence of rain, in good weather.
Neglinnaya river, standard route
- Approximate route: from Prospekt Mir to Kuznetsky Most.
- Band size: 2 persons
- Time: up to 2 hours.
- Excursion cost: 2 500 r / person.
- Only for adults
Prepayment in the amount of 1,500 rubles. per person is charged when booking an excursion. If the participant does not come to the tour, then his prepayment will be forfeited.
Neglinnaya River, extended route (temporarily not driving!)
- The tour runs from the sources (metro station Savelovskaya) to the end of the Shchekotovsky collector (metro station Teatralnaya)
- The program includes:
- 1. The origins of the Neglinnaya
- 2. Historic tributaries and old chambers
- 3. Arched collector built in 1904
- 3. Old collector under the tram tracks
- 4. Mouth of Naprudnaya
- 5. Cameras under the Garden Ring
- 6. Waterfall
- 7. Mouth of the Droplet
- 8. Gilyarovsky trail
- 9. Shchekotovsky collector (1914)
- 10. Entry into the old channel under the Alexander Garden
- Time: up to 3 hours.
I managed to wander with an excursion in the most interesting place in Moscow - the underground collector of the Neglinka River from the Dostoevsky metro station to Revolution Square, as a result, I became interested in the history of this glorious reservoir and found many answers to various burning questions.
Well, for example - how such a flood came out in the center of Moscow in May 2015:
However, even more questions have emerged.
As it turned out, there is a lot of unreliable information, confusion with dates, names, etc. on the Internet and various articles about Neglinka.
You will laugh, but there is not even a reliable, accurate scheme of its collector on the Internet, the glorious Moscow diggers have not bothered to draw it up until now (although for thousands of man-hours spent there, they could already do it a hundred times).
The history of Neglinka's misadventures is also scattered over a bunch of different sources, which in places are very inaccurate or very incomplete.
Even Gilyarovsky has blunders!
I will try to compile everything that I have dug up at the moment and make a more systematic and accurate description of the history and modernity of this river and its environs than what I have come across.
I was inspired to do this by the most gorgeous and detailed post "In the footsteps of Neglinnaya" in three parts from deletant
, which apparently contains maximum amount information about Neglinka. So I will try to rely on it first of all, with my amendments and additions.
Why is all this necessary? In addition to the fact that all this is just interesting, it is also very convenient when you are well oriented in the city in which you live.
And in order to navigate well, you need to know well where everything is located - streets, squares, buildings. Such information is much easier and faster to remember if it is connected a single history, with vivid images and emotions. The most interesting thing is that the knowledge of the city then makes it easier to delve into a variety of historical, scientific facts. Such a systemic effect, this is how a whole picture of the world arises, with which it is convenient to live. And vice versa, if in the head there is only a bunch of fragmentary disparate information, including knowledge about the city, then life is very inconvenient.
We all received a funny confirmation of this theory when we met with our guide through the dungeon on Dostoevskaya. He wrote: We meet at the exit from the metro, at the house on Suvorovskaya Square. Damn, there are two exits to this square, and both are "near the house on Suvorovskaya Square." As a result, in confusion, everyone rushed back and forth until they phoned him, when he finally became available on the mobile. Although it was worth pointing out something like "at the exit to the theater Soviet army", everything would be clear without options. How could such a landmark be ignored?
By the way, this is where I will begin the description of the Neglinka channel with the surroundings in the past and present, from here we will go downstream to the Kremlin.
In fact, the Neglinka still goes higher and further north, towards Maryina Roshcha (there is its source), but I have not yet gone there.
For now, enough of what I have already seen and learned downstream, and this is a lot.
But there was a time, I thought that Neglinka was this Tseretel circus with horses on Manezhka:
Then I found out that it was just a fake from tap water, and I thought that the real Neglinka was lost somewhere in the sewers and would never be seen again.
But this turned out not to be the case!
It turns out that Neglinka is very easy to see, it turns out that you can walk almost along its entire course with your own feet.
And sometimes you don’t even need to go underground for this - see the flood video above. For 500 years, the Moscow authorities, starting with the princes, have been trying to somehow curb, redirect or hide this rivulet, but it still breaks through collectors with gates and hatches and directly conveys its seething greetings to us through the centuries. Like - here you go, take a bite!
Although, if you just take a closer look at the map of modern Moscow, even on the same Google, you can notice its channel.
It is marked by green areas, bridges and the names of streets and squares. From top to bottom - Samotechnaya Street, Samotechnaya Overpass, Tsvetnoy Boulevard, Trubnaya Square, Neglinnaya Street, Kuznetsky Most, Alexander Garden, Trinity Bridge.
Something like that:
We will go along this blue line to the Kremlin, which is not accidentally located at the confluence of the Neglinka with the Moscow River. This is the most typical device for ancient Russian cities - a fortress on a hill in a triangle between rivers or in a river bend. So that there is water on three sides.
Kyiv, Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod, Suzdal, Yaroslavl and so on.
The Slavs obviously learned this from the Finno-Ugric tribes of the Merya, who adored building their settlements in this way. And their ancestors, the tribes of the Dyakovo culture, built their fortified settlements from time immemorial, from the first millennium BC. Such an ancient settlement has been preserved on the territory of Moscow, in the Kolomensky Park.
It is just between the Moscow River and the Dyakov ravine with a stream. Dyakovtsy chose high places, surrounded by water and additionally surrounded their settlements with ramparts with a palisade. It turned out impressive.
Something similar happened on Borovitsky Hill, where the Kremlin is now.
The Slavs liked this idea and they began to settle in the same way. In addition to security, we received beautiful views of the surroundings and fresh air. In addition, the rivers served in those days as the main transport routes, there were practically no roads.
Although it is unlikely that a transport artery would have come out of Neglinka, since it is only 7.5 km long. It can hardly even be called a river, in fact it has always been just a stream, most year anyway. Only in spring she showed her temper, flooding the surroundings.
On Wikipedia, you can read that before it was a full-flowing, deep river, important tool messages .. blah blah - so this is nonsense, which is now being replicated by everyone.
Well, what can be a full-flowing river 7 km long? This misconception obviously arose from the fact that the river was dammed from the earliest times and, in fact, turned into a cascade of ponds in which fish were bred, water wheels were installed for mills and forges. At the Kremlin, the ponds worked as defensive ditches. These ponds on the map can be mistaken for a serious river. For example, let's take the most ancient plan of Moscow,
(Petrov drawing, 1597)
You might think that Neglinka is comparable in width to the Moska River.
In fact, even a weak stream is enough to make a huge pond.
It was in such a stream that we descended on the square of Samotechnaya Street.
Now the park looks like this:
In the old days, there was a giant pond (ponds), which can be traced on maps until 1877.
Here is an example of a map from 1739.
Above the Trinity Church you can see long ponds, which were called "gravity". Hence the street - Samotechnaya.
And below Trubnaya Square, Neglinka again turns into a winding stream, which is again dammed up near the walls of the Kremlin to organize ditches with water.
I think this shows quite convincingly that Neglinka has always been just a stream, so as not to return to this issue.
Now we look at the maps, what happened to the site above the Garden Ring.
Here is a map from 1877. We see large ponds, streams between them. Everything is outside.
But on the map of 1903, the ponds are already almost lowered and filled up, the river is partially drained into the collector, but there is still an open current along Samotechny Boulevard
Even on a map from 1912 on the Neglinka sewerage scheme in the Samoteka area, it is still outside. Red shows the sections taken into the pipe
I analyze it all in such detail, because I wanted to understand what year the collector was built, we began to roam.
Because there is no truth anywhere!
Our guide said it was 1906. The "deletant" says that in general, already in the 1880s, everything was removed into the chimney there. Who's into what! And everything is wrong.
So far, it turns out that this section was built somewhere between 1912 and 1914 (it seems like the WWI prevented further construction).
I'll stick with this date for now.
Now you can break away from these musty, dark dusty archives with a pure soul and finally dive into the bright and fragrant world of sewers.
How did this happen to us? We were 8 people. Everyone was given gloves, headlamps and shoe covers from an army chemical protection suit.
Boot covers are held on garters to the belt, exactly the same as erotic stockings for strippers.
I must say right away that this thing is inconvenient and unreliable, you can break through them and find yourself knee-deep in water in the middle 3 kilometers from the exit. Much better boots with a top, like hunting boots. In these was just Alex, our guide. Gloves are also better waterproof than rag ones.
Well, everyone is ready, climbed. Where exactly is this hatch, do not ask - we agreed not to fire the hall.
Alexei took off the lid and said - climb. I climbed, cho.
Useful, recalling Gilyarovsky freshly read on this occasion. And comparing experiences.
It's the first time I've taken on such an adventure.
And so, on a hot July day, we raised the iron grating of the drain well in front of Malyushin's house, near Samoteka, and lowered a ladder there. No one paid any attention to our operation - everything was done very quickly: they raised the grate, lowered the ladder. Foul steam billowed from the hole. Fedya the plumber climbed first; the hole, damp and dirty, was narrow, the ladder stood vertically, the back shuffled against the wall. There was a splash of water and a voice, as if from a crypt:
- Get down, right!
No, that's not fair. The fearless uncle Gilyai of the plumber Fedya launched forward.
But on the other hand, we didn’t have any fetid steam and everything seems to be clean. But very much even paid attention walking along the boulevard.
I’ll clarify right away - Gilyai descended 500 meters downstream of us, already after the Gravity Overpass.
As I have already shown above, in his time the Neglinka flowed to Samotechnaya Square outside. Generally speaking, he descended literally 100 meters after Neglinka dived into the sewer. When did she get so stinky? with this ferry? - I do not understand. Where did the steam come from? It's not that cold out there. In short, I strongly suspect that Gilyarovsky is embellishing the whole story. Or he had other memories superimposed, after all, he climbed in other places.
I pulled up my hunting boots, buttoned up my leather jacket, and began to descend. Elbows and shoulders touched the walls of the pipe. Hands had to hold on tightly to the dirty steps of a sheer, swaying staircase, supported, however, by the worker who remained at the top. With each step down, the stench grew stronger and stronger. It was getting creepy. Finally, the sound of water and squelching was heard. I looked up. I could only see the square of a blue, bright sky and the face of the worker holding the ladder. A cold, bone-piercing dampness enveloped me.
At last I went down to the last step, and as I carefully lowered my foot, I felt a jet of water rustling against the toe of my boot.
- Go down boldly; stand there, you shallow little thing, - Fedya said to me in a muffled voice, in a grave voice.
I stood on the bottom, and the cold dampness of the water penetrated my hunting boots.
Well, my shoe covers on the garters were already tightened to the very best, everything was buttoned up. We had to go down on comfortable, durable brackets. The main inconvenience was delivered by a fotik dangling around the neck. There was still no stench, except for such a slight marsh smell. Pleasant surprise! I looked up - the blue sky was in a circle, and the face in it was not a worker, but a blogger.
No cold dampness, the temperature is not much higher than at the top. 17 degrees there, I would say. Indeed, it was shallow, ankle-deep. But the water is cold and you can feel it with your feet. The water is very clear and clean in appearance. So merrily and quickly he runs to himself a semicircular bottom with sand.
A dark tunnel goes into the distance
I somehow out of place remembered "The Age of the Dead" by Andrey Cruz, where they fight off zombies in the sewers and it became creepy.
On the other side - a fork in the tunnels, as they say this confluence with another river - Naprudnaya. This fork is on all the above maps.
“I can’t light a light bulb, the matches are wet!” complains my companion.
I didn't have any matches. Fedya climbed back.
I was left alone in this walled-up crypt and walked knee-deep in the seething water for about ten steps. Has stopped. There was darkness all around me. The darkness is impenetrable, the complete absence of light. I turned my head in all directions, but my eyes did not distinguish anything.
No, we have LED flashlights, still progress. It is interesting that it is not so dark here, after all, a lot of light falls from the hatch. Apparently Gilyarovsky threw himself in a deeper place. Or they just didn't get used to it.Finally all of us got down and we went.
To be continued
HISTORY OF MEGILLOTH == -- Megilloth was formed in Russia, Nalchik, at the beginning of 2006. But the foundation was laid back in 2004, when Frankie and Kamar met and decided to form an amateur Christian gothic rock band "The Occidental Pri". In 2005, it was decided to change the name, style of music, and get down to business more seriously. Rehearsals started in 2006 new group, Megilloth. It then consisted of 3 to 5 people, the style was a combination of gothic, death and thrash metal. At that time it was the only extreme metal band in the city, as well as the only Christian band. A year later, it became clear that Frankie and Kamar had grown so creatively that there was no point in continuing to work with the rest of the members. Megilloth has evolved into a studio duo. At the end of 2007, the first official demo CD "Anguish Inhabitants" was recorded in the studio at the Baptist Church, consisting of three tracks. This record was posted on the Internet, received a lot of positive feedback and made the band famous in the world Christian metal underground. Megilloth gave a number of interviews, and the songs were broadcast by several foreign radio stations. In the second half of 2008 Megilloth started recording their first full-length album in the best studio in Nalchik, IREN records. Geert Klaucke from the Dutch bands Docile and Burial Earth took part as the drummer. In the same year, the songs were included in 3 different rock music collections, and the project itself took part in the major regional NalRock festival. In 2010 Megilloth signed a contract for the release of the album "It Was To Happen Once" with one of the leading metal labels in Russia, RM records. The disc was designed by the famous artist Vladimir Smerdulak. Materials in the group and the album appeared in the leading Russian music media, the disc itself became available in many major music stores, and part of the album's circulation was sent to the United States. In addition to the CD format, in the CIS the album can be bought in MP3 on the gospelmp3.ru website. In the same year, Kamar, then Frankie moved to Moscow for permanent residence. A large number of people expected that in February 2011 Megilloth would take part in the "Called to Be First" festival, but this did not happen for a number of reasons. In March 2011, due to a number of disagreements, Kamar and Frankie ended their partnership. The rights to the name, logo and part of the intellectual property remained with Frankie, who is currently the only member of Megilloth. At the moment, the project continues its activities and prepares new material, which should see the light of day in early 2012. The material will be different from the first album and mostly in post-metal style.