All members of the family sat at a large table. They had already finished unloading their things, and even Corianna's small green backpack was empty.
Ellena talked about how she once ran away with her best friend Venus and another guy from school...
...Here her story came to an end. Corianna and Neona were discussing what Ellena had said. But suddenly dad interrupted their discussion:
- Do you know the terrible story of this old house, to which we arrived?
-No! We don’t know!” the friendly sisters asked with great curiosity.
Tell us! - asked Elenna.
Despite being the eldest of the sisters, her eyes sparkled with curiosity the most.
“Now I will tell you a legend about the house of vampires and werewolves.” My father said mysteriously quietly.

There was dead silence...

So listen: “There was once a kind girl in the world. Her name was Maryam. One day she angered her knight father. What exactly, history is silent.
He took his favorite golden spear and threw it at the poor girl. And hit her right in the heart. And in the blink of an eye, a white bird of unearthly beauty flew over Maryam. And flew deep into the sky. But she dropped her tear in the girl's heart. And that tear hardened and turned into ice.
Everyone thought the girl was dead. And they buried it on the third day in a crystal coffin. The whole kingdom came to say goodbye to her.
And the knight-father cried: “Oh God! What have I done?!” And he took the golden spear from the girl's heart. And pierced them with mine. And dropped dead.
Centuries passed, and people forgot about what happened. But some fool found that cave where the beautiful girl Maryam lay in her crystal coffin and the brave knight-father with his armor in a golden coffin. And that fool saw the beautiful Maryam through the crystal coffin. And fell in love with her without memory of his misfortune. “I only want to be with you!” he said. He opened the lid of the golden coffin where the girl's father lay. And snatched the spear from his heart. And he pierced his own with them. And dropped dead. And he met in the kingdom of the dead with Maryam and said to her: “I have come for you! I love you! So marry me!” And they took hands. And flew to Earth. And settled in the old house. And they did not want to let the knight-father go there. And the angry knight went home.
Half a century has already passed since they live in peace and harmony. And no one touched them. But suddenly in their an old house trouble came: the knight-father came from the land of the dead. And he turned the beautiful kind girl Maryam into a vampire. And she became angry, thanks to a tear of a white bird. This tear finally hardened and turned into very strong ice. And Maryam became a vampire girl. And her foolish husband turned into a werewolf. And the knight-father himself turned into a ghost and began to rule over them. And all the people were afraid of this old house. And no one inhabited it and did not wash it.
Shortly after the incident, for no reason, the ghost father, the vampire girl, and the werewolf boy disappeared from the old house…”

The father looked at the children: Corianna bit her nails in horror, Neona sobbed, and Ellena said:
-But what happened? Why did they leave the old house???
-They say that “the vampire girl became completely angry and lost her mind. She found in the cave where she was buried, that same golden spear and pierced the heart of the vampire guy ... And then her own. The ghost-father could not stand the loneliness and pierced his own heart ... "

Silence fell... Only Korianna's sobs broke through it.

And what happened to their bodies? - Neon said in a barely audible voice.
“And the bodies, for no known reason, disappeared forever,” the father finished the legend. By the way, his name was Alex.
While dad was telling this terrible legend, all the members of the family, or rather Corianna, Neona, Ellen, and even dad himself, had already finished their dinner. We went to clean up and get ready for bed. Tomorrow the sisters have to go to new school.
...But I will tell you about it in the next chapter!)

The legend of the three sisters of the Crimean coast, a few miles from Alushta, lived an honest fisherman with his wife. They were very humble and good people. The doors of their old hut were constantly open for travelers who could find lodging and shelter in it. And orphans and poor widows could receive here not only food, but also words of affection and consolation. Needless to say, the locals deeply respected this family. Good fame went about them along the coast. And near with good there was bad fame - about these native children good people about three daughters. The eldest daughter, Topolina, was ugly in appearance, small in stature, and awkward. And by nature, she is very mean. In order to annoy her neighbors, she climbed onto the roofs, eavesdropped on other people's secrets, and then talked about him all over the coast. But the most monstrous thing about her was that she cursed her parents day and night for her ugliness, for her small stature. The middle daughter's name was Pomegranate, she was obsessed with pink. She reproached her parents for not being pretty enough and her cheeks not pink. And if she were pink, like a flower, everyone would stop and admire her with admiration. Concerning Cypress, she was beautiful and cheerful in character. However, under the influence of older sisters, she also sneered at her parents. Say, they gave birth to her into the light of day at night, and not during the day, because of this she is so funny and frisky. It was not easy for parents to hear the reproaches of their children. But what will you do? The love of parents is helpless and blind. The old people silently endured the antics of their daughters, endured their ridicule. And in order to prevent trouble, they often went to the mountains. There they could live for several days. Once, when they were at home, all three of their daughters broke into the house. Enraged by some incident, they began to beat their father and mother with their fists. “Oh heavens,” the parents pleaded. “Is there such a force that can protect us from our own daughters!” And as soon as they uttered these words, a voice rang out from nowhere: “Topolina!” You curse your mother, your father for being small. So transform yourself into the highest tree, on which there will never be flowers or fruits. Not a single bird, besides the raven, will nest on you ... - Your wish, Grenade, will also come true. You will turn into a tree with pink flowers and everyone will stop and admire them. But no one will smell these beautiful flowers, because they will be odorless. Your fruits will be bright red in the middle, they will not be able to satiate anyone, quench anyone's thirst, because they will not ripen ... - You, Cypress, will suffer the fate of your sisters. You complained about your cheerful nature - you will become a sad and beautiful plant ... The girls, frightened to death, ran out of the hut. Their parents ran after them. But their children were no longer there: in the yard there were three hitherto unknown trees. One lifted up its branches, as if it wanted to become even higher, the other was covered pink flowers, and the third froze in sad silence. And people named these three trees after their daughters - poplar, cypress and pomegranate.

Native spaces

Native spaces

Russia is the most unusual and amazing country in the world. This is not a formula of official patriotism, this is the absolute truth. Unusual, because infinitely diverse. Amazing because it is always unpredictable. The tender and gentle spring sun sinks in a deadly snowstorm in ten minutes, and a bright triple rainbow shines after the flying black cloud. Tundras are combined with desert dunes, swampy taiga gives way to monsoon forests, and boundless plains smoothly turn into equally boundless mountain ranges. The greatest rivers of Eurasia carry their waters through Russia - in no other country in the world is there such an abundance of great flowing waters. , Ob, Irtysh, Yenisei, Amur ... And the largest lakes in the world - the salty Caspian and fresh. And the longest steppes in the world - from the banks of the Donets to the Amur region. To match the geographical abundance - the diversity of peoples, their customs, religions, cultures. Nenets reindeer herders set up their chums next to well-maintained high-rise buildings. Tuvans and Buryats roam with herds and yurts along federal highways. In the Kazan Kremlin, a large new mosque is adjacent to an old Orthodox cathedral; in the city of Kyzyl, a Buddhist suburgan turns white against the background of a golden-domed church, and not far from them, the breeze flutters colorful ribbons at the entrance to the shaman's yurt...

Russia is a country where you won't get bored. Everything is full of surprises. A beautiful asphalt highway is suddenly replaced by a broken primer, and it goes into an impassable swamp. To overcome the last 30 kilometers of the path, it sometimes takes three times as long as the previous ten thousand. And the most unexpected thing in this mysterious country is the people. Those who know how to live in the most difficult, even impossible natural conditions: in the mosquito taiga, in the waterless steppe, in the highlands and in flooded valleys, with 50-degree heat and 60-degree frost ... Having learned to survive, I note, by the way, under the yoke of various authorities , none of which has ever been merciful to them ... They created a unique culture in these swamps, forests, steppes and mountains, or rather, many unique cultures. They created the great history of the Russian state - a history also consisting of countless great, heroic and tragic stories.

Living witnesses of the historical past, the work of well-known, and in the vast majority of cases, unknown Russians - architectural monuments. The architectural wealth of Russia is great and diverse. It reveals the beauty of the Russian land, and the ingenuity of the mind of its people, and sovereign power, but most importantly, the greatness of the human spirit. Russia was built over a thousand years under the most difficult conditions imaginable. Among the harsh and meager nature, in continuous external wars and internal struggles. Everything great that was erected on Russian soil was erected by the power of faith - faith in the truth, in a bright future, in God. Therefore, in architectural monuments, with all their constructive, functional and ideological diversity, there is a common beginning - the desire from earth to sky, from darkness to light.

It is simply impossible to tell in one book about all the wonderful places in Russia - natural, historical, poetic, industrial, memorial. Twenty such books would not have been enough for this. The publishers and I decided: I will write only about those places where I myself have been, which I have seen with my own eyes. Therefore, in our publication, Klyuchevskaya Sopka does not smoke, the islands of the Kuril ridge do not rise from the Pacific waters, the white cover does not sparkle ... I have not been to these and many other places, I dream of visiting and writing about them. Many remarkable monuments of history and culture were not included in the book. St. George's Cathedral in Yuryev-Polsky and St. Sophia's Cathedral in Vologda, the Kremlins of Tula and Kolomna, the estates of Vorobyevo in Kaluga and Maryino in the Kursk region, the buildings of the local history museum in Irkutsk and the Drama Theater in Samara, the Saratov Conservatory and the City House in Khabarovsk ... List endless.

In addition, we decided not to get carried away with the story of big cities, about millions of megacities (limiting ourselves to a selective review of the architectural riches of Moscow and St. Petersburg), but to give preference to distant Russia, living away from wide highways and from the noise of business and industrial centers.

Located in the Bay of Kotor, the small town of Prcanj is famous for its enviable geographical position and breathtaking views, but this historic city also offers a great opportunity to plunge into the mythical past of Montenegro. The cobbled streets of Prčanj, surrounded by buildings from the 17th and 18th centuries, will take you through a city rich in history, with stone villas, orchards and olive orchards that dominate the waterfront for the most part.

The construction of the Church of the Mother of God is perhaps the most impressive sight in Prcanj. This magnificent masterpiece of architecture took 120 years to build, and the walls are covered with numerous paintings and sculptures, including works by Piazetta, Tiepolo and Balestra.

One of the most famous places in Prcanj is the "Tre Sorelle" palace, which translates as the Palace of the Three Sisters. Built in the 15th century, this famous mansion was built and owned by the aristocratic Buka family.


Legend has it that three sisters who lived here fell in love with the same sailor. And when he went out to sea, they stood at the windows waiting for him to return. As the legend goes, for many years these sisters waited for their sailor, who never returned. As the years passed and the sisters began to die one by one, their windows were boarded up - all the windows were boarded up except the window of the last sister, who had no one to board up her window, and thus this window remains unboarded to this day, with the exception of from the rest.

Prcanj is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Bay of Kotor and visitors to the city can not only visit the Tre Sorelle Palace, but also easily explore the surroundings, as well as the historical city of Kotor, which is just a few minutes walk from the palace.

The most famous part of the Blue Mountains in New South Wales is undoubtedly the rock formation at the top known as the Three Sisters. The peaks are located 110 km west of Sydney. The Three Sisters are a group of three stepped free-standing sandstone stone pillars, each with its own name. The first rock, called Meehni, rises 922 meters above sea level, the second is Wimla, a little lower - 918 meters, the smallest of them ends at a height of 906 meters and is called Gunnedoo.

The Blue Mountains began to form 200 million years ago and were originally a large bay in the ocean, surrounded by high mountains. Over time, the bay was filled with sand and rocks washed out from the mountains. All this was compressed under the influence of time and the forces of nature into a rock called sandstone. Pressure from the interior of the Earth was slowly pushing the formation out, turning it into a plateau. Over the millions of years of its existence, precipitation and winds flowed into the fractures, and the rock succumbed to erosion, acquiring a new relief. Now the plateau consists of wide valleys with narrow gorges surrounded by steep sandstone cliffs.

A New South Wales Aboriginal Tradition of Three Sisters

Just a couple of kilometers from the freeway, people from all over the world flock to the national reserve to see the beauties of the mountains located at Echo Point. And no wonder, because the rocks are the hallmark of the Blue Mountains and their formation is shrouded in the legend of the indigenous aborigines of Australia.

According to legend, in the Jemison Valley, in ancient times, there lived three girls of the Gandangarra tribe. They happened to fall in love with brothers from the neighboring Nepin tribe. Aboriginal laws did not allow marriages between different tribes. The brothers got angry and started a bloody clash. The father of beauties, during the military conflict, decided to protect his daughters, and turned to the sorcerer with a request to save the children. The sorcerer took the lovers to the mountain and turned them into three rocks. He intended to undo the spell as soon as the battle was over, but fate had decreed otherwise. The sorcerer fell on the battlefield. The girls remained three slender rocks, because there was no one to turn them into people. Since then, the "sisters" have risen above the valley, as a reminder to future generations of the vicissitudes of reckless love.

At any time of the day, in the rays of the sun, the figures of girls amaze visitors to the reserve with an incredible play of color. After sunset, their silhouettes impress with their grace against the night sky.

The second legend of the three sisters

But there is another legend about the three sisters that has survived to this day. It says that the sisters Mihni, Wimla and Gannedu had a medicine man father named Taiwan. In those same ancient times, a monster or evil spirit Bunyip lived in the gorge, which everyone was afraid of. Passing near the gorge was so dangerous that every time, going in search of food, the father hid his daughters on a rock, behind the stones. But one day, having said goodbye to his daughters, the father, as always, waved goodbye to them and began to descend down the rocks into the valley. Left alone, the beauties were frightened by a large centipede that suddenly appeared next to them. Mihni took a stone and threw it at the centipede. The stone continued to fall off the cliff, crashing into the rock and falling into the valley, angering Bunyip. The stone rock behind the sisters began to crumble and they were left standing on a small ledge at the top of the mountain. All living things froze around. The birds stopped singing, the animals froze, while Bunyip climbed out of his hiding place to look at the frightened sisters. As he approached, the agitated father, far below, turned his daughters to stone with the help of a magic bone. The monster got angry and started chasing Taiwan. The medicine man decided to turn into a lyrebird bird to avoid the attack, but during the transformation he dropped his magic bone. Bunyip calmed down, and Taiwan returned in search of his magic bone, but did not find it. Until now, in the mountains you can hear the singing of the lyrebird, scurrying about in search of a magic bone. Three silent stone sisters silently stand in anticipation of the reverse transformation.

giant staircase

Today, many accomplishments of the past are forgotten. But in Katoomba, there is a fresh legend about the human feat of two enthusiasts who carved nine hundred steps from the valley to the top in the rock. These heroes were James Jim McKay (1869 - 1947) and his assistant Walter 'Wally' Botting (1887 - 1985) with their associates. From the side of Echo Point, a panorama of the mountain range is visible, but it is partially covered from view by grown trees. Nowadays, you can rent a telescope or use binoculars, but the opportunity to climb to the rocks itself attracts visitors.

In February 1911, a local newspaper reported that James McKay had climbed the rocks. He climbed the mountain without assistance, without ropes and other special equipment in casual clothes and shoes, and made sure that with the desire and funds, an excellent hiking route could be laid here. Initially, the idea was ridiculed, but by 1916 permission had been obtained from the council to begin work on the project. By 1918, McKay and associates had done a quarter of the work, but interrupted the activity due to the high cost of the project.

For a whole dozen years, the realization of the idea was suspended until, in the early 30s of the last century, photographer Harry Phillips released a colorful brochure with views of Kotumba. This served as a new impetus for the continuation of work, because it became obvious that the project contributes to the development of the tourism industry in the region, and therefore the flow of funds for the development of the territory as a whole. This pamphlet renewed interest in the project, and in 1932 McKay continued to pursue his dream. On October 1, 1932, the official opening of the route took place. The opening was attended by politicians of all levels, including Premier Stevens of New South Wales. It was he who announced the work of the observation deck. At the end of a memorable day, three climbers climbed the highest of the cliffs and hoisted the Australian flag there.

Today, brave souls, taking drinking water with them and spending about three hours of their time, enthusiastically use the route created in the last century by the brave McKay. The reward for daring is the magnificent view of the local flora and the panorama of the scenic cable car, laid at an angle of 51 degrees, which is currently the steepest cable car in the world. Previously, this road was used to transport coal and shale, but in 1945 the mine was closed and the route became purely tourist.