Medveditskaya Ridge (anomalous zone)

The Medveditskaya Ridge (Медведицкая гряда) is one of the best-known anomalous zones in Russia. This chain of hills in the Zhirnovsk District of Volgograd Oblast, 18–25 km east of the town of Zhirnovsk, has long been surrounded by stories of ball lightning, UFOs and underground tunnels. Since the 1980s ufologists and mystery seekers have travelled here, including expeditions of the Kosmopoisk group.

The hills themselves, 200–380 metres high, stretch along the Medveditsa River and form the watershed between the Volga and Don basins. The slopes are partly wooded, surrounded by steppe.

Legends and accounts

The main theme of the ridge's stories is lightning. According to researchers, most strikes hit Blue Hill (Sinyaya Gora), the highest point of the ridge; its slope is nicknamed the "Slope of Mad Lightning". Eyewitnesses describe balls of lightning circling for hours a metre above the ground at walking pace, appearing even in clear weather and burning holes straight through trees.

Darker tales are attached to the ridge too. The best-known "geopathic" spot is called the Devil's Lair: legend has it that a shepherd burned to death here within minutes, and his death was put down to spontaneous combustion. There are also stories of geologists who went missing in an area of a couple of kilometres, and of people whom ball lightning passed through without harm.

In the "Drunken Grove" the birches grow crooked, with several trunks from one root and hardly any leaves. Other "oddities" mentioned are clearings where no grass grows, a silvery fog, failing watches and machinery, and triangular UFOs above the hills.

Underground tunnels

Local legends speak of tunnels of unknown length under the ridge. One version says they were dug by captives in the days of the Golden Horde, another that horse thieves hid in them. A group of cavers and ufologists reportedly went down an underground passage, heard a growing rumble and scrambled out in panic. The entrances, if they exist, are now considered dangerous because of cave-ins.

Expeditions

Ufologists have studied the ridge since the early 1980s, and dozens of research groups have been here. Kosmopoisk surveyed the hills several times and even put up a reinforced concrete structure called the "Time Machine" on the ridge: some of its members claim that time runs slower inside it.

Explanations

Sceptics offer simpler answers. Burnt patches of forest are traces of ordinary lightning strikes and fires. The crooked birches are wind-bent woodland on exposed heights. "UFOs" above the hills may be headlights of cars on the crests or clouds lit by the setting sun. There is no photo or video evidence of the anomalies, only eyewitness accounts and reports by non-academic groups.

Getting there

The easiest way is by car from Zhirnovsk or Alyoshniki on asphalt roads, then along field dirt tracks. The nearest settlement is Mirny (Kommunist). After rain the dirt roads and fords across the streams may be impassable.