There are a lot of rumors, legends and fables about this mysterious attraction of Odessa. Odessa Catacombs is a unique phenomenon, the result of not only human activity, but also of nature itself. Catacombs are a whole underground city, its length is about 2.5 thousand kilometers, of which a little more than half has been explored.
The first artificial — man-made caves and passages, appeared near Odessa, when this city was called Hadjibey, founded in the XIV century. Even the Turks started mining coquina (pontic limestone) — one of the most sought-after building materials. In the XIX century, when there was an active construction of the city, quarries near Odessa began to develop spontaneously, then, in different periods, the extraction of coquina was suspended and resumed several times. And today in different parts of the catacombs, far from the city limits, coquina mining is carried out, and within Odessa it was finally banned, because the ground under the old part of the city began to subside, old mansions began to collapse and people began to fall under the ground.
About 95% of the catacombs are former quarries, the rest of the underground attractions of Odessa are bunkers, cellars (also called «mines» caves under mansions), dilatation and karst caves, where you can see a beautiful spectacle of bizarre formations of cave rocks, stalactites and stalagmites, sparkling crystals. The beauty of natural caves adjoined by man-made labyrinths amazes everyone who has the opportunity to see it with their own eyes.
The whole Odessa is permeated with passages going deep under the ground, invisible for people who do not know about them. There are entrances to catacombs in almost every old mansion (in Vorontsov’s palace, Potockikh-Naryshkinyh’s palace-mansion), joining them, they form a huge labyrinth, the exit from which can be found only by a knowledgeable person.
Excursion to Odessa Catacombs becomes the most exciting, but at the same time the most pleasant and unforgettable (in a good sense of the word) experience for many residents and guests of the city. Together with experienced speleologists you can go on a safe journey through a very different, but no less amazing Odessa. Planning a vacation in Odessa, take time to excursion to the longest dungeon in the world, because catacombs, equal in size to Odessa’s, simply do not exist! Interestingly, the length of the famous Paris catacombs — only 300 km, but the Roman catacombs are far from the Odessa catacombs, because their length is only 800 km.
A lot of legends, legends and rumors are connected with Odessa catacombs. Many treasure hunters go to the catacombs to find the rumored hidden here model of the Titanic made of pure gold, and a romantic legend says that under Odessa is a crypt in which buried lovers who committed suicide because of the impossibility of being together in life. The story goes that one of the speleologists accidentally fell into this crypt, the entrance to which opened after a landslide,
The story goes that he was very frightened of something and turned gray, and the entrance to the crypt closed again after another landslide. To modern legends associated with the Odessa catacombs, we can refer to rumors that there is a subway in the numerous tunnels under the city, as well as about the catacomb — underground Bigfoot living here.
What of these rumors, and what — the truth, can not always answer even researchers underground Odessa, mapping Odessa catacombs. This place holds a lot of secrets and mysteries, beckoning treasure seekers and adventurers, those interested in history and the sights of Odessa or just want to make a trip to one of the most interesting places in the world.