Tsori (Ingush. Tskhyori) is an ancient city-settlement in
Ingushetia. Located in the Dzheirakhsky district. Now abandoned
village, administratively part of the rural settlement of Guli.
On the territory of the city-settlement there is an
architectural complex "Tsori", represented by many historical
objects: 3 battle towers, 20 residential towers, as well as 12 crypt
burial grounds and 1 mausoleum. Currently, these objects of Ingush
architecture and the entire territory of the settlement are included
in the Dzheirakh-Assy State Historical-Architectural and Natural
Museum-Reserve and are under state protection.
The stone towers in the village of Tsori date back, relatively
speaking, to the 12th-17th centuries. Today, the towers are abandoned
and partially destroyed, but once it was a powerful castle-type complex
erected on the crest of a mountain ledge near Mount Tsori. The complex
consists of three impressive military and about 20 residential towers
with various outbuildings and burial structures. It was built by the
Tsori people, one of the Ingush communities that played a leading role
in the Assinsky Gorge in the 19th century. During the late Middle Ages,
Tsori was a kind of spiritual, economic and political center of the
entire region. Initially being the center of the eponymous shahar (union
of communities - teips), in the 19th century it became the core around
which the teips united into a single Ingush people.
Craftsmen and
craftsmen, scientists and architects Tsori were famous for their art
throughout the region. The external similarity of the many towers of the
complex is explained by the similarity of their proportions: probably,
the Tsorints found a kind of a single golden standard for the ratio of
parts of buildings. Nevertheless, each of the towers has its own
character: different forms of stones, arches over doors and windows, the
number and proportions of the latter, and most importantly, decorative
elements.
Admiring Tsori up close, you can see preserved
ornaments on the walls of many buildings, made in a very simple and at
the same time original way: in order to decorate the buildings, some
stones were removed from even walls, creating a relief. In addition, the
towers are decorated with simple drawings and solar symbols carved on
stones - the so-called petroglyphs. A special distinctive detail of the
design of the towers is the image of the hands of the master who built
them at the entrance.
The towers of Tsori were surrounded by an
imposing stone wall, the remains of which have survived to this day. In
addition, a half-meter-thick wall with gates adjoined the walls of
Tsori, which were carefully guarded, representing a kind of checkpoint
on the historical Ingush Road. Now only the foundation itself has
survived from the wall.
One of the glorious legends associated
with Tsori tells of a warrior girl, a brave horsewoman Mogushka. The
legend says that the girl commanded a detachment of more than six dozen
male warriors and frightened her enemies with her courage. In the middle
of the 17th century, after the death of a girl in Tsori, a separate
three-tiered mausoleum, Mogushka-Kash, was built for her. This is a
seven-meter tomb with a multi-tiered roof, erected on a rock on the
southern edge of the village.
Tsori lies east of the Assy River along the Guloikhi River. Altitude above sea level: 1770 m.
Tsori was the center of the Tsori shakhar. The settlement is generic
for the following Ingush surnames: Tsoroevs, Dzeytovs, Myakievs,
Zangievs, Mogushkovs, Tatievs, Geroevs, Bobkhoevs, Ganizhevs, Bisaevs,
Batyzhevs, Shoumievs, Amievs, Khashievs, Badievs, Batyrovs, Bersanovs,
Gaytukievs, Ismailovs, Gudievs, Meyrievs, Nakharbekovs, Teboevs,
Khanakievs, Tsuntoevs, Alievs, Batazhevs, Batygovs, Bekbotovs, Bitievs,
Khasievs, Totievs, Gatievs, Gelievs, Dzangievs, Dzugaevs, Kiloevs,
Tochievs, Chorievs, Daurbekovs.
According to statistics for 1874,
226 Ingush, Muslims, lived in the village of Tsori.
In 1926,
according to the 1926 census, only 47 people lived in the village of
Tsori, 25 Chechens and 22 Ingush, in 7 households - 4 Ingush and 3
Chechen.
Getting to Tsori is easy, but quite long. If you go by car from Dzheirakh and Armkhi, you will have to overcome two passes: Tsey-Lamsky and Tsorey-Lamsky. But the road is worth it: on the last pass there are about fifty tower villages, including Upper Pyaling and Nii.