Her story has that odd mix of too much detail and yet nothing verifiable that just screams urban legend. Even if it's just a myth, there's no denying that the other tales of the catacombs are creepy enough to keep anyone out Or so one would think. 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. Do you have any more information about the body that was found? The only Ukrainians who have any official business down there are workers in active mines who still dig for limestone. They were even known to blow up German facilities. Everyone wanted to see where poor Masha had met her end. You'd think they'd have them boarded or locked up pretty tight to avoid homeless people getting lost down there. Katakomby. It's not clear what the journalist wrote, but Lata claims the government got moving and removed the body less than 24 hours later. This was enough to drive a group of explorers to the area in search of the supposed corpse, and it appeared they actually found it. Theme: Baskerville 2 by Anders Noren. Odessas Mindbending Catacomb Maps. This was only aimed at the portions beneath the town center though, and the rest of the catacombs continued to develop some time after. It was meant as a sort of warning for others to stay away, but it also lured urban explorers to the site with growing regularity. Every weekday we compile our most wondrous stories and deliver them straight to you. A large portion of these tunnels due to the sheer extent and the number of corridors remains completely unexplored. According to rumors, a wealthy aristocrat from Odessa that survived the sinking of the Titanic decided to commemorate this event by ordering the creation of a solid gold model of the ship. Odessa, just outside of Ukraine's capital, Kiev, is home to one of the largest catacombs in the entire world. By that point the body was mostly a skeleton, so there were not many more details. Eugene included a graphic photo of what appeared to be a decaying corpse in one of the tunnels, which Eugene claimed was Masha's body. I mean it's Vice. Come for the severed heads, stay for the book bound in human skin. They would throw in poison gas canisters, hoping to smoke them out and finish them off. She appeared to be on her hands and knees, in a crawling position. These catacombs are the result of stone mining, particularly coquina (a soft limestone of broken shells), and consist of a network of basements, bunkers, drainage tunnels and storm drains. He quarreled with the teen, then led her into the catacombs where they could continue their argument. [4]Limestone was cut using saws, and mining became so intensive that by the second half of the 19th century, the extensive network of catacombs created many inconveniences to the city. Sign up for our newsletter and enter to win the second edition of our book. The Odesa Catacombs are a labyrinth-like network of tunnels located under the city of Odesa and its outskirts in Ukraine, that are mostly the result of stone mining, particularly coquina. These catacombs are the result of stone mining, particularly coquina (a soft limestone of broken shells), and consist of a network of basements, bunkers, drainage tunnels and storm drains. A nation whose foundations stand on centuries of struggle and fighting for independence. The story quickly became a famous Internet legend. The final resting place for the remains of 143 Habsburg royalty. Masha went out with a large group of friends to celebrate and probably get drunk. Even with all that, humans are resilient, and can survive several days without food and water. Inside the mine, the catacombs turned, forked, and led Masha further from the entrance. Part of the catacomb network, Odessa, Ukraine . In 1961, the Search (Poisk) club was created, led by Constantine Pronin of the Paleontological Museum of OSU, and became the first official catacomb exploration unit. 2019. [1] Then he added that a young boy had just been lost in an accident, and his body was still missing. -, Press J to jump to the feed. His recollection is different from Lata's. Several attempts at thorough exploration were made over the years. His descriptions of his journeys into the dark were tantalizing tales of adventure. Learn how your comment data is processed. Masha and a group of friends thought it would be fun to go out, party, and celebrate at the Stone Mines. As the result of contemporary mining, the catacombs continue to expand. Two years passed, and no one retrieved the body, Lata claims. Some sections regularly flood with groundwater, others have ceilings precariously propped up with ad-hoc support beams, or they've had their ventilation systems completely dismantled. There is a rumor that the catacombs contain the stacked corpses of murdered Jews from World War II. Explorers are rewarded with finds such as weapons caches, and at least once every five years, the discovery of a body. In the photo, Masha is unidentifiable beyond simply being a human. In WWII, Soviet partisans hid in the Odessa Catacombs, which stretch for thousands of miles below the city. All photos by Wikimedia Commons user . In September 1995, in honor of the 200th anniversary of Odessa, the record for the longest underground journey in the catacombs was broken by a 27-hour continuos journey of over 40 kilometers. Maybe her path forked a few times, and she lost track of the pattern. However, it's not te only creepy story - in 2012 group of students went below and one was lost. The sheer size of the catacombs meant a refuge for all walks of life that sought to hide. One popular myth is the story of the White Hunter a catacomb explorer of some notoriety who apparently never came out and most likely died while in the catacombs. The closest thing in real life to the deadly labyrinth of King Minosor, if you prefer, the one from the movie Labyrinthis a network of tunnels under the city of Odessa, Ukraine. Once the war was over, the catacombs became home to numerous smuggling and criminal groups, who widened and created new tunnel systems of their own. Replies analysing and speculating over the mystery and possible explanations are encouraged. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. The Museum of Partisan Glory is located in a part of the catacombs north of Odessa, and it is the only underground museum in Ukraine. Proudly powered by WordPress I was the only girl so usually I got out of it..but I did have to do it a few times and it was horrifyinglywhen you looked back it was total darkness! Such bomb shelters supposed to be refuge for civilians in case of nuclear strike or gas attack. Places such as Aokigahara Forest. Either way, the main portion of these catacombs was begun in earnest in the 19th century and onwards, with stone being quarried to be used in the building of the houses of the city above. Every culture has an explanation about how we got here. She couldn't have lasted more than a week. But one such find could not remain a secret. It is dedicated to the partisan effort of the World War II and it is filled with relics of the period, almost all of which were found within the catacombs over the years. Nefer Say Nefer - Was Nefertiti Buried in the Valley of the Queens? There you will find the skeletal remains of more than 6 million people. We believe it is just a practical joke and the corpse is fake." [Online] Available at: http://www.the13thfloor.tv/2017/04/11/183661/, Pronin, K. . The most famous photoone that Lata told VICE in an email that he was involved in takingshows three blank-faced boys who look like they're in their early teens, posing like they've just stumbled upon the body in a narrow, curved section of the cavern. We seek to retell the story of our beginnings. It's always good to hear from a local. Girl Lost in Odessa Catacombs 694,277 views Jun 2, 2016 15K Dislike Share ScareTheater 963K subscribers Previous Video: http://bit.ly/1ZhkLEh In 2005, the body of a girl named Masha was found. 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. All rights reserved. In the end, she might have crawled. Perhaps the most popular of catacombs is beneath the city of Paris, France. In World War II, Odessa was besieged in August of 1941 by the Axis forces. There also would have been nowhere to stay warm, since that area is also not deep enough for it to have been much warmer than the chilly surface weather that night. [citation needed], There have been various reports of people walking into the catacombs, getting lost and then eventually dying of dehydration. "The diggers determined it was a Satanist who got lost.". Skeletons and mummified animal corpses , World War II weapon caches, archaic items and human corpses. Over the years there have been numerous reports of people venturing into the catacombs, getting lost, and eventually dying of dehydration never to be seen again. "It was hard to get to the top of the shaftit was like nine floors, tiers with skinny ladders between them. Any chamber used as a burial place is a catacomb, although the word is most commonly associated with the Roman Empire. Beneath its streets, under the slowly unraveling everyday lives of its citizens, lies a sprawling network of tunnels and catacombs, an enigmatic web of dark corridors that built up a reputation of macabre proportions. However, when the body was removed, it was in terrible condition, with no good identifying factors. They go on multi-day underground treks, known as expeditions, to document and map the system. On January 1st, 2005, some Odessa teens decided to spend New Years night partying in the catacombs. The remaining catacombs (3-5%) are either natural cavities or were excavated for other purposes such as sewerage. After a while, the group was quite intoxicated, Masha included. After the communists came to power, this man hid both himself and the golden Titanic in the catacombs below, never to be discovered. Archaeologists have been able to take a closer look at one of the United Kingdoms most famous shipwrecks. View all photos. If the area near School 56 had no groundwateror clandestine wine or mushroomsthere would have been nothing for her to eat or drink. What you may not know, is that the largest catacomb system in the world is the Odessa Catacombs in Ukraine. By signing up to the VICE newsletter you agree to receive electronic communications from VICE that may sometimes include advertisements or sponsored content. Throughout the history of civilization, the concept of the apocalypse has been ever present, in one way or another. After a short time, they called off the search, saying that Masha would have to find her own way out, it wasnt safe for them to look for her any longer. One of their group, a teenage girl named Masha, got separated from the rest. There are still hundreds of kilometers of tunnels that no one has been able to see all of we can only speculate about what kind of gruesome secrets still dwell deep within. 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. Authorities have also suggested that the photo is a prank, and that the corpse is a fake. Over the years, urban explorers have traveled to Odessa to explore the catacombs, despite only a small portion of them being open to the public. Today, there are dozens of semi-professional catacomb explorer groups that venture into the Odessa catacombs. One story stands out among the rest, and that is the story of Masha. All rights reserved. It`s a dead body of the 19-years old girl, who has lost the right way in the maze. They were used as a source of cheap construction materials. This led to a lot of attempt at secrecy by the officials. In 2011, a male murder victim was found by chance in the catacombs after he had been dead for three to six months. A subreddit dedicated to the unresolved mysteries of the world. Some time later, when the group was ready to call it a night and head home, they noticed Masha was missing. Oddly, Lata told us the person responsible for the official Catacombs websiteand the one calling him a liaris "one of the most experienced Odessa catacombs explorers and my best friend." And some are full-fledged poems, written in the delicate Cyrillic cursive script, their authors lost to time. They decided to do this inthe Odessa catacombs, where they could have some privacy, drink, and have fun with a little added creep factor. What are you a professional corpsologist? Strange and Creepy, Urban Legends and Folklore. Amid yellow limestone walls and floors, young explorers found a body that was partially mummified by the cold dry air. But he [Pugovkin] claims that when Armand Stendzenieks ordered a DNA test, it wasn't a match. The earliest of the graffiti dates to the 18th century. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. With over 1,500 miles of subterranean tunnels, Odessa's catacombs even beat out the well-known Paris Catacombs in terms of length. As I said earlier, a lot of people lost and even . Perhaps they will never be. But most importantly, the Odessa catacombs are an incredible testament, an entire in-situ museum of incredible proportions filled with various relics of the past. The rest of the process wasn't exactly CSI: Odessa. ", 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. By some estimates, they span 1,550 miles, making the network a little longer than the whole Pacific coastline of the continuous United States. Try not to get lost. Fake? The post featured a graphic photo of what appeared to be a decaying corpse in the catacombs, which Lata claimed was Masha's body. [Online] Available at: https://greentourua.com/the-lost-world-of-odessa-catacombs/, Various. Detachment of Molodtsov near Odessa Catacombs. An entrance into the catacombs. masha who died in the catacombs; employee experience software market size; June 21, 2022; by . If it was too warm to freeze, and she was exerting herself trying to survive, dehydration would have become severe in perhaps only two days before the symptoms became debilitating.