Descent into Syani stone mine - underground 20km labyrinth

A bus ride from Moscow, google maps marks the spot for an abandoned stone mine. According to many articles on the subject, Russian enthusiasts have created and unbelievable underground world with many curios, artifacts and statues. I decided to check it out first hand.

When I arrived, equipped with a camera and a headlight, there was nothing around except for this little unremarkable shack:

A few steps more, and I saw on the ground what seemed to be a map of the tunnels - breathtakingly complex, as if someone had done a lot of cocaine and gone on a Minecraft mining-spree:

Inside the shack, there was simply a pipe with a ladder inside. And that´s when the adventure began:

Me and my friend descended, not knowing what we would find or if we would ever be found:

There was darkness, no light whatsoever, we were completely underground, separated from the pitch-black only by the light of our headlamps. At some parts, we had to crawl or climb the caves, mostly you could walk in an upright position, but you could seldom stand up straight. It was a pain on the neck and lower back.

In the humid cave, we were welcomed by various signs, stolen from god-knows-where by devil-knows-who:

And a casual rotary-dial phone, chilling on a rusted barrel.
Imagine if it started ringing....would you answer it?

There really was all kinds of sh*t down here, but it was mostly spread out nicely, so it gave you a feeling like you were in a weird museum or art exhibition:

In some parts, it was clear someone with skill had sacrificed many minutes, if not hours, to create something that only a select few would ever see:

Then we came upon the most remarkable thing - an underground church with murals, crosses, candleholders, religious artefacts and icons.

There was one room, that was dedicated to the computer game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. A computer screen, with the Chernobyl Nuclear power plant on it:

Skadovsk, an old rusty ship near Pripyat:

A sign that says: "this place is radioactive". Wouldn´t be surprised:

Some people have parties down here. They have separate rooms, where they can sleep, even areas designated as toilets. And how the hell did they get all the stuff down here?

It is crazy to think, that some people have spent a few days and nights down here, in the darkness and humidity, not going outside, drinking and making food on gas stoves:

In one place, there was a bottle that collected drinkable water. I tried it and it was tasteless, quite pure, by the looks of it:

Some poem: "Children underground drew the sky, they drew the sun. The sky was black as bread and the sky dark as a well."

We were trying hard not to get lost, always remembering the way back. There were arrows everywhere, some of them pointed different directions so in the end, they were no help at all. Luckily the signs made the caves a bit more traversable, without them, it would have been impossible to remember where we had been:

There was also a diary for everyone who went in. On the same day, 4 people had already been there. We stayed down there for only 3 hours, but you can see the people who came before us, hadn´t even returned. The caves were so huge, we never saw or heard anyone:

"Attention! You are breathing in toxic fungus. Take a deep breath and enjoy." Hopefully, a joke...

After 3 hours, my neck was hurting like hell and my back was really tired, because I couldn´t stand straight in the narrow and low tunnels. When we finally saw daylight, we checked out the map - in 3 hours we had gone only through 5% of the caves (left side of the map). I cannot comprehend the whole size of the labyrinth and what mysteries it holds. It is easy to get lost there and there were even stories online, how there was a skeleton in a place far-away from the entrance. A truly awe-some adventure, but also a very dangerous one, we were lucky to find the way back and witness this wonderful creation.