On one of the banks of the Surkul River, at its confluence with the Kuma, there used to be a picturesque mountain Dagger. The Stavropol Territory is famous for a group of laccoliths, which is the most numerous in the world, and this mountain is one of such volcanic formations.
Mount Dagger in the history of the Stavropol Territory
In ancient times it was an unusual rock with a dagger-shaped top. In the Caucasus, a dagger belonging to a warrior is a symbol of his personal prowess, pride and strength. According to the legend, the beautiful Mashuk stabbed herself with it when her beloved Beshtau was killed. The mountain was made of a special igneous alloy, but it had a dramatic fate.
The original height of the peak reached 504 meters. As can be seen in the photo of Mount Kinzhal and the model made from old photographs, it was crowned by an unusual rocky remnant of porphyry rocks with smooth steep slopes, similar to the tip of a dagger. The remains of the mountain, located near the city of Mineralnye Vody, are officially recognized as a natural monument. The people call Dagger "a mountain that does not exist", andtoday there are several versions of her disappearance.
Dagger hit the plane or did the plane hit the Dagger?
The first and main reason can be recognized as the fact that the mountain was located too close to the Mineralnye Vody airport, and in the period from 1961 to 1977, several air crashes occurred in this region with a large number of casu alties.
In 1961, on the eve of the new year, difficult weather conditions with poor visibility were observed throughout the Caucasus and Transcaucasia, numerous flights were canceled. The airports of Georgia and Armenia were overcrowded with people, but the Mineralnye Vody airport did not give permission for flights from Tbilisi. The Il-18 aircraft was literally stormed by passengers, and flight 75757 headed for the Mineralnye Vody with the number of people exceeding the allowable limits. Due to a violation of the rear alignment, the plane crashed in the vicinity of Mineralnye Vody, about half of the passengers and crew on board were killed.
New victims of the Dagger
In 1977, an even more tragic incident occurred with flight 5003 Tashkent-Mineralnye Vody. Due to poor visibility, the Il-18 landed twice. In the first run, incorrect instrument orientation led to a critical roll of the aircraft. The pilots tried to straighten their course, entering the second circle, but the left wing caught the railroad embankment. From the impact on the ground, the plane caught fire, its fragments scattered over a radius of more than 400 meters. 76 passengers died, including 3 children, and two crew members. Mount Dagger was located three kilometers south of the crashflight 5003.
Who is to blame?
In the descriptions on specialized sites for the study of air crashes, neither in the first nor in the second case there is reliable information that it was Mount Dagger in Mineralnye Vody that caused the plane crash. Some lovers of adventure and mysteries have attempted to find the wreckage of crashed planes. However, no information has been preserved about such finds either.
In Soviet times, very little information was reported about negative incidents, and many were simply kept silent, following certain government directives. It was believed that the population should receive only positive news. But according to existing rumors, scant reports of incidents in the local press and testimonies from residents of neighboring villages, disasters did occur.
Today, many political, strategic and military secrets no longer have their former meaning. Modern sources lay out various information that was previously classified or intended only for the official use of the relevant departments. Let's try to understand what happened, read the descriptions of eyewitnesses and return to the published materials that shed light on the history of the disappearance of Mount Dagger in the Stavropol Territory. It follows from these sources that it was the two plane crashes described above that left the mountain no chance of existence.
Dagger's Precious Heart
However, no less plausible is the version that its bowels contained expensive uranium and other rare minerals of subvolcanic rocks. Since Dagger is a laccolith, the mountain is not only composed of fossilized rock of the earth's crust, but also filled with rare igneous alloys from the very depths of the earth. It was the desire of the enterprising Soviet authorities to mine uranium on an industrial scale that sealed the fate of the Dagger.
Aircraft accidents most likely served as the official version of the destruction of a unique natural monument. Back in the 50s, it was decided to blow up the mountain.
Uranus, beshtaunit… What's the difference?
The dagger was blown up, but the uranium was not found. However, the found no less expensive beshtaunit stone could be used profitably in industry. The high acid-resistant properties of beshtaunit, its resistance to sudden temperature changes make it an indispensable natural material for the production of acid-resistant concretes and anti-corrosion cements. Beshtaunit is also used in facing works. For example, it was used in the construction of the Volga-Don Canal.
In addition to beshtaunit, amethyst, siderite, chalcedony and other rare minerals were mined in the bowels of the Dagger, formed as a result of hydrothermal processes of magma release and solidification. Even in those years, environmentalists actively protested against the destruction of the mountain, since the Kumagorsky hot springs of mineral waters are located very close to it.
Today, the beshtaunit lenticular body in the mountain pit is only of scientific interest, but the story of the disappearance of the Kinzhal laccolith has not been completely forgotten.
Daggercalls for redemption
In 2004, Stavropolskaya Pravda published an article en titled “Kinzhal Calls for Redemption”, which described plans for the reclamation of Mount Kinzhal in the KBR and the surrounding area. It also published interviews of some of the participants who worked in the quarry and in the bowels of the Dagger. Among the old-timers were residents who took an active part in the destruction of the mountain. The Stavropol poet Ivan Kashpurov devoted several poems to the tragedy of the Dagger. So, in one of them he bitterly wrote:
…And I thought: from now on
And for the ages of the earth henceforth
Here man-made to be a plain, Gardens grow and cereals ripen.
And people will get used to the loss, So worried about them yesterday.
But the grandchildren are unlikely to believe me, That Dagger Mountain was here.
Belated confession
Mount Dagger in the Stavropol Territory was officially declared a natural monument. However, this does not prevent even now to use what is left of it in road construction. Mineralogy lovers will be interested in visiting the remains of a volcanic crater, chosen by human hands. Taking more water with you and climbing several tens of meters in the vicinity of the village of Kangly, you can not only see the remains of an ancient volcano, but also collect rare minerals for your collection. Black shale, concentrated pyrite and beshtaunit can be found right under your feet.
Inquisitive schoolchildren organize ecological expeditions to the foot of the mountain. Thanks to the efforts of caring and sensible people who are concerned about the problems of the ecology of their native land, and young ecologists implementing the Green World program, many shrubs and trees have already been planted on the slopes and at the foot of the Dagger, which strengthen the slopes of the ancient ruined peak.
The group of Caucasian laccoliths, to which Dagger belongs, consists of 17 peaks located between the Borgustan Plateau and the Bermamyt Plateau, in the vicinity of Kislovodsk and Pyatigorsk. By age, they are millions of years older than the most famous real volcanoes of the North Caucasus - Elbrus and Kazbek.
Legends of the Alans
As mentioned above, the ancient Alans had a beautiful legend about the origin of the mountains. All of them were previously warlike spirits of animals that served the noble and fearless Prince Beshtau. However, his treacherous father Elbrus wished to deceive his son's bride Mashuk, and in a fierce battle all the soldiers fell at the feet of the beauty. From the grief of loss, Mashuk threw away the ring - a gift from the hated Elbrus - and plunged the dagger of her beloved Beshtau into her heart. So among the Caucasian ridges the mysterious Bull, Camel and Snake, Mount Ring near Kislovodsk and the remains of the Dagger froze.
With hope for the future
Time has eroded the rocks of the summits, exposing dense igneous alloys on the slopes of laccoliths that are not covered by vegetation. Mirrors of black slate and pyrite shining in the sun can be seen from afar with the naked eye.
Currently, archeological research is being carried out in the vicinity of Kangly by specialists from St. Petersburg. Thanks to the many monographs published by archaeologists, people on whom the fate of the ecology of the region depends on the problem of Mount Dagger in Kabardinka began to turn more often. It remains to hope and believe that today's younger generation will grow up more humane, will take care of the we alth of our Russian land, and other unique natural monuments will not suffer the sad fate of the Dagger.
