Kitezh, russian atlantis
The Invisible Town of Kitezh (1913) by Konstantin Gorbatov, 1876-1945
In the action-adventure video game series Rise of the Tomb Raider, Lara Croft finds the remnants of a once powerful civilization and searches for the location of an artifact known as the Divine Source, believed to be buried in the lost city of Kitezh. While the story line of the game is a work of fiction, historical texts suggest that Kitezh, known as 'The Invisible City', was a real place that is thought to now lie submerged within Lake Svetloyar in Russia.

Accounts of the ancient city of Kitezh are believed to trace back to the earliest days of Rus', however, the first written reference appeared in the Kitezh Chronicle, written by the Old Believers in the 1780s. (In Russian Orthodox church history, the Old Believers separated from the official Russian Orthodox Church after 1666 as a protest against church reforms.)

According to this Chronicle, the city of Lesser Kitezh was founded by Prince Georgy, Grand Prince of Vladimir in the early 13th century, on the banks of the Volga River in the Voskresensky District of the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast in central Russia. He then discovered a beautiful site further upstream, on the shores of Lake Svetloyar where he decided to build the city of Greater Kitezh. It was established as a monastic city and considered holy by all who inhabited it.

Lake Svetloyar
Lake Svetloyar in the Voskresensky District, Russia
"The Prince made the city beautiful, built it round with churches, monasteries, boyars' palaces. Then he encircled it with a trench and raised up walls with embrasures," write Barker & Grant in 'The Russia Reader: History, Culture, Politics'.

The Destruction of Kitezh

In 1238, North Eastern Russia was invaded by Mongols under the leadership of Batu Khan, ruler from 1207 to 1255 AD and founder of the Golden Horde. After besieging the city of Vladimir and surrounding cities in Suzdal, Khan heard of the powerful city of Kitezh and was determined to capture it. The Mongols first arrived at Lesser Kitezh. The Grand Prince Georgy rode out to meet them but was eventually forced to flee back towards Greater Kitezh, whose location was still hidden from the Mongols.

Batu Khan, infuriated, ordered captives to be tortured until they gave up the location of Greater Kitezh. The captives would not give up the secret of their holy city as they believed that to do so would inflict an eternal curse on them and their descendants. However, one of the captives, Kuter'ma, unable to withstand the torture, revealed the secret paths to Lake Svetloyar.

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