They go on multi-day underground treks, known as expeditions, to document and map the system. It's not clear what the journalist wrote, but Lata claims the government got moving and removed the body less than 24 hours later. 2023 Atlas Obscura. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. The catacombs also contain natural caves and span over 1,500 miles. 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. They did seem to have belonged to a girl but the identity of the person was never confirmed. Many of the tunnels have been filled, either with earth or concrete, however the majority remain open and unmapped. Their development really took off when Odessa the city was founded by Catherine the Great in the late 1700s. The Odessa Catacombs, And Masha Who Survived As Internet Rumor Parents in the area warned their children to stay away. But that has not stopped outsiders, or even local, daring, teenagers who are curious about, or even set on finding, the legendary treasures they contain. They are, after all, nearly 2,5000 kilometers in length, once all is said and done the longest set of catacombs in the world. This story is truly some worst way to die stuff. The suffering Legend for the woman whom passed away in Odessa's Catacombs Based on the 2009 forum post on Urban Explorer's Resource (UER) with a catacombs explorer called Eugene Lata, whom brought Masha's tale to your English-speaking globe, the tale starts later on brand New 12 months's time (or maybe New 12 months's Eve) in 2005. The Catacombs are on three levels and reach a depth of 60 metres (200ft) below sea level. Clearly, this was a bad idea. We depend on ad revenue to craft and curate stories about the worlds hidden wonders. Partisan weapon caches such as rifles and grenades are occasionally still found within the tunnels, and about once every five years a body is found. The system of Odesa Catacombs consists of a network of basements, bunkers, drainage tunnels and storm drains as well as natural caves. The remains of a different man were also located within the Odessa catacombs just a month later, in March of 2021, reported Dumskaya. What you may not know, is that the largest catacomb system in the world is the Odessa Catacombs in Ukraine. She was headed into the Odessa catacombs, the 2,500 kilometers of dark rocky tunnels which run underneath the city. Well, they tried to, at least. It was wearing jeans and modern shoes, and did appear to be the result of a fairly recent death. Maybe her path forked a few times, and she lost track of the pattern. Photo shows bomb-shelters in catacombs - system of underground tunnels, organized by citizens of Odessa, on March 23, 2022 in Odessa, Ukraine. Believing this to be the best explanation for her absence, the group agreed and they left. 04/04/2023 . By that point the body was mostly a skeleton, so there were not many more details. Large. As is the nature of people, and urban explorers, tunnels and caves outside of the trusted zone serve as an exhilarating adventure. Enjoy.". Gruesome discovery beneath Odessa Catacombs illustrates dangers of Urban Exploration, Strange video captured over Arizona shows mysterious Angel Hair appearance, UFO Flyover State: Video Captures Unexplainable Object Streaking Across Nebraska Highway, Dont Touch the Black Angel! These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. However, that hasn't stopped many people from making the same trip Masha apparently made. It was a very big bad-experiment group, so probably when in the morning drunk group left katakombs, they forgot girl inside. masha odessa catacombs photo. The photo proves that Hell is a real place, and it's about nine stories beneath Odessa. Its a very sad story. 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. Enter your email address to subscribe to Week in Weird and receive the latest weird news delivered directly to your inbox! One of the reasons the catacombs of Odessa stand out is because they are by far the world's longest catacombs. Odessa Catacombs ~ Detailed Information | Photos | Videos - Alchetron.com 15 Creepy, Scary Phone Numbers To Call That Actually Work (UPDATED For 2023), The Backrooms, Explained: How To Make Sense Of The Internets Favorite Non-Reality, Bloody Mary & Other Games We Shouldnt Play. Version of this photo sourced directly from Eugene Lata. What's worse is that it's believed she walked away from the entrance, farther underground, so that the temperatures dropped even lower. And true or not why has it endured as long as it has? With tunnels that run up to 2,500 kilometers, the Odessa Catacombs are considered the world's largest urban labyrinth, significantly larger than the one in Paris, among others. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". In 2005, a group of urban explorers discovered the body of a dead woman named Masha who had disappeared . About four months after New Years in April of 2005, word spread among cave explorers that there was a fresh body down there, Lata wrote in a his UER post in 2009. Consider supporting our work by becoming a member for as little as $5 a month. However, when the body was removed, it was in terrible condition, with no good identifying factors. 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. The Enduring Legend of the Girl Who Died in Odessa's Catacombs Investigating the mysterious death of a young woman who wandered into an underground tunnel and never came outbut lives on as an. But catacombs can be more than religious passageways or burial grounds. Lists of true accounts of real people who survived unfathomable situations and depictions of fights for survival in film, TV, video games, and other media. As is often the case with unverifiable stories with legends in general whether or not the story of the missing girl in the Odessa catacombs is really true may not be the point. During WWII Ukrainian rebel groups hid within the labyrinthine catacombs and today there is an entire Ukrainian subculture of catacomb explorers with dozens of semiprofessional groups, often quite competitive, exploring the catacombs. [1] The Catacombs are on three levels and reach a depth of 60 metres (200 ft) below sea level. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. If the area near School 56 had no groundwateror clandestine wine or mushroomsthere would have been nothing for her to eat or drink. Although the tunnels are mostly limestone mines used to build the city, they have a storied history which includes Nazi executions during WWII and legends of a small replica of the Titanic made of solid gold among other things. Most of the catacombs are the result of persistent stone mining that started in the 19th century. Since its creation, it has expanded understanding of the catacombs, and provided information to expand mapping of the tunnels. Just beware, even professionals can get lost. Her parents called the authorities who went to the site and began to search. 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. Perhaps the most popular of catacombs is beneath the city of Paris, France. His descriptions of his journeys into the dark were tantalizing tales of adventure. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. [7], Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}463248N 303750E / 46.54667N 30.63056E / 46.54667; 30.63056, "People Believe a Girl Died in the Endless Odessa Catacombs, but the Mystery Goes Much Deeper", "Dark secrets of Odessa's vast catacomb labyrinth", "Subterranea of Ukraine: Odessa Catacombs", "The Enduring Legend of the Girl Who Died in Odessa's Catacombs", "The Odesa catacombs. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. We believe it is just a practical joke and the corpse is fake." Last month, a guy in his 20s was sentenced for reportedly murdering his teenage girlfriend in the catacombs with an ax. The miners used saws to cut through the limestone, a task that half a century later created a whole complex of tunnels. They're also a pretty good place to stage a murder. Theme: Baskerville 2 by Anders Noren. Indeed, the story has become less and less connected to the UER posts as the years have rolled by, instead repeated as if it had been reported on in the news (which, as far as I know, it was not, despite Latas claim), or simply told and retold as it passed into legend. Drunk and needing to urinate, she left the group, seeking a place to relieve herself. 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. Even if they managed to find an entrance that was accessible, they were not to venture inside. But, as Pearl put it, [Pugovkins] recollection is different from Latas: First, the body was initially presumed to be those of Janis Stendzenieks, the son of Ukrainian newspaper magnate Armand Stendzenieks; the younger Stendenieks had apparently gone missing in 2004. His identity remains unknown, but its thought that he may have disappeared roughly six years ago. Romania: Castles, Ruins, and Medieval Villages, Iceland in Summer: Journey Through a Fabled Land, Monster of the Month w/ Colin Dickey: Mokele-Mbembe, Accidental Discoveries: A Celebration of Historical Mistakes, Antiques and Their Afterlives: Stories from the Collection of Ryan and Regina Cohn, Monster of the Month w/ Colin Dickey: Satanists, Once Upon a Time: Fairy Tale Writing With Anca Szilgyi, Gourds Gone Wild: Growing and Crafting Gourds With Gourdlandia, Playing Ancient Games: History & Mythology With John Bucher, Secrets of Tarot Reading: History & Practice With T. Susan Chang, Why 18th-Century Scots Performed Mock Human Sacrifices Over Cake. The city of Odessa was expanding rapidly at that time, and the stone mined here was used in the construction of buildings. [citation needed], After the Russian Revolution of 1917, stone mining was banned within the central part of Odesa (inside the Porto-Franko zone, bounded by Old Port Franko and Panteleymonovskaya streets). All photos by Wikimedia Commons user . Her friends never were able to find her, and the police saw neither hide nor hair of her, as they didn't want to venture into the mysterious catacombs. Padlocks cover this rickety footbridge with love. See. Excursions to Odesa catacombs", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Odesa_catacombs&oldid=1142761690, This page was last edited on 4 March 2023, at 06:27. In 2015, writer Mike Pearl attempted to get to the bottom of Mashas story once and for all. The story quickly became a famous Internet legend. Required fields are marked *. No one is exactly sure how she died, but it could have been dehydration or hypothermia. Over time, the alleged missing girl has come to be called Masha. An underground paleo-Christian burial site composed of the remains of several cemeteries and Basilicas. Pearl did interview another man, Kostya Pugovkin, who claimed to have dragged the corpse in the photograph up and to a police station in the hope of getting a reward; Pugovkin stated that he was told by others that the dead person was "a Satanist who got lost". She couldn't have lasted more than a week. Was a May Day Attack by Pilgrims a Practice Run for a Massacre? Learn how your comment data is processed. The Odessa Catacombs are a network of tunnels under Odessa, Ukraine and its surrounding region, that are mostly the result of stone mining, at first, and then smuggling. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Lata claimed to have been one of the explorers who had found the girl in 2005, so his account purports to be a first-hand one and along with the posts, he included a collection of photographs of the catacombs, one of which allegedly depicted the remains of the girl herself. The catacombs once served as the preferred hideout for rebels, criminals, and during World War II, air-raid shelters. Odessas catacombs quickly became the preferred hideout of rebels, criminals, and eccentrics. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. 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. The coquina (yellow stone with shell fragments) was extracted from these underground caves and used to build the cityscape we can see nowadays. Amid yellow limestone walls and floors, young explorers found a body that was partially mummified by the cold dry air. It`s a dead body of the 19-years old girl, who has lost the right way in the maze. (Remember, Lata claimed that the remains stayed where they were until 2007, while Pugovkin says he removed them in 2005.) We may not even have any way to confirm the story. In the photo, Masha is unidentifiable beyond simply being a human. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. The absolute most famous photoone that Lata told VICE in a contact he had been involved with takingshows three blank-faced males whom appear to be they are inside their very very early teenagers, posing like they will have simply came across your body in a slim, curved area of the cavern. Her body was far from the exit. You must be logged in to post a comment The Child-Eating Bunyip Haunts Australias Wetlands, 10 of the World's Most Disorienting Places, http://odessitclub.org/en/archives/dallin/chapter_6.html#Catacombs.

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