Dargavs

Dargavs is a village in a high valley of North Ossetia, in the Russian Caucasus, best known for the necropolis on the hillside above it, often called the City of the Dead. The Ossetians, its builders, speak an Iranian language, descended from that of the Alans and, more distantly, the Scythians and Sarmatians of the steppe, which is why their mountains appear on our Atlas.

The necropolis is a group of about a hundred stone burial structures on a steep slope. Many are built like small houses, with stepped, pyramid-shaped roofs of stone slabs rising to a point; others are half-sunk into the ground. Each belonged to a family, and the dead were placed inside, often in wooden coffins shaped like boats, along with clothing and belongings. The structures are generally dated to the fourteenth to eighteenth centuries, though some may be older.

Local tradition says that during epidemics, especially of plague, the sick would go into the tombs to die so as not to infect their families. The dry, airy conditions have preserved some remains to this day. The necropolis is reached by a mountain road through the Gizeldon gorge, and visitors can look through the small openings into the tombs. The setting, with green slopes, rock walls and watchtowers on the ridges, is quiet and intensely beautiful.