The City of the Dead

Often referred to as the "City of the Dead", this village is considered to be one of the most mysterious sites in the country.

Hidden away in one of the five mountain ridges somewhere in the Caucasus mountains, the “city” is actually an ancient necropolis full of crypts. On the top of the hill is the remaining of a tall watchtower placed there to watch over resting souls. Many myths and legends surround the site and in the past local people refused to go there out of fear that they would not come out alive.

The crypts
These white, house-like structures, are stone crypts and the necropolis has almost 100 of them that rise up the hillside in a very organized manner. The crypts date back from the 12th to the 16th century and were built in ancient Nakh style, characteristic of the people who lived in the region. The stone and mortar walls are flat on the front and back, giving the bottom of the crypte a cube shape. Tiny rectangular window-like holes on the walls where used to put in the corpses. The roof are curved and ending in a point at the top. Some of the bigger crypts are up to 2 to 4 stories high.

Burial rituals
It was discovered that the bodies inside the crypts were buried in wooden structures resembling boats with few of their belongings. One explanation is that it was believed that the departed soul had to cross a river in order to get to heaven. Another interesting fact is that there are wells in front of each crypt. Many coins have been found in the ground near the complex and it is said that when the Ossetians buried their dead, they dropped a coin in the well. If it happened to hit a stone at the bottom, that meant that the soul of the dead had reached heaven.

The City of the Dead today
Despite the archaeological richness, the mystery, and the beauty of the site, the City of the Dead is more or less deserted. Rarely do tourists visit this it, probably because of to the difficulty in getting there. One must travel long, narrow, winding mountain roads, oftentimes through the fog.

Source: http://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-europe/city-dead-mysterious-village-dargavs-russia-003436 and http://whenonearth.net/dargavs-russias-city-dead/
Image source: http://trash-russia.com/necropolis-dargavs-city-of-10-000-dead-in-north-ossetia/