KURMENTIN TREASURE
1919. The Civil War is coming to an end, although the intensity of the Basmach movement has not yet subsided. After the announced amnesty, refugees who had not stained their hands with the blood of fratricidal war began to return to Russia. One of these emigrants was a certain Uspensky, who fled to China after the October Revolution. In China, he quickly befriended a priest who was deeply homesick for his homeland. On his deathbed, the Orthodox priest handed Uspensky a map indicating the location of a treasure of immense wealth.
It was supposedly buried by his ancestors during the invasion of Genghis Khan in the Semirechye region, meaning its origins dated back to the early 13th century. The map indicated that the treasure was hidden not far from Tyup, near the Katurga River on the northeastern shore of Lake Issyk-Kul. There was supposed to be a large stone at this location, near which Christians had prayed to God in the past. The map was accompanied by fairly detailed information explaining the composition and stratigraphy of the treasures. It allegedly consisted of two parts — gold and silver — and was said to be so vast that transporting the treasures would require 160 to 200 camels. The valuables were placed at the bottom of a pit in special packaging, covered with stone slabs inscribed with writings, the slabs buried under about two meters of earth, and then the burial site was flooded, creating a small pond. (Further mystical details involving the carcass of a black bull and deer antlers are omitted).
The legend requires commentary. Firstly, were there Christians at Issyk-Kul during the time of Genghis Khan? Written sources assert that there were, representing two Christian denominations. One of them, Nestorianism, is documented by Syrian and Syro-Turkic epitaphs carved on stones. The second denomination is represented by the Armenian church. On the Catalan map of the world, created in Palma (Majorca in the Mediterranean) in the 1370s by the Spaniard Abraham Cresques, a building crowned with crosses is marked on the shore of Lake Issyk-Kul. Nearby is an inscription stating that this is a monastery of Armenian brothers. From this perspective, the priest's legend seems to have some credibility. However, the distant temporal connection of the Orthodox priest with Christian ancestors of either Nestorian or Armenian descent raises legitimate doubts (unless religious kinship was meant).
The enormous amount of gold and silver in the treasure is also astonishing. Considering that the weight of a camel's load in mountainous terrain is usually around 300 kilograms, between 48,000 and 60,000 kilograms of precious metals would have been hidden in Kurmenty! At current purchase prices, this amounts to many billions of rubles. This means that if the priest's message and map correspond to reality in any way, then the treasure buried at Issyk-Kul was not family savings but rather the church treasury. It is known that the Nestorian church held a dominant position during the early Mongol khans and could have accumulated great wealth.
Overall, the legend of the deceased priest hardly withstands strict scrutiny. Uspensky himself likely did not fully believe in it. The main coveted map with the priceless cross. Upon returning from China to Kyrgyzstan, Uspensky began to seek opportunities to extract the treasure. He called himself Ivan Andreyevich Usenko and settled near the location indicated on the map, then briefly befriended the locals I. I. Kocherkin and S. M. Galkin, who knew the area well, and revealed the priest's secret to them.
They were not surprised, as it was widely known in Issyk-Kul that a huge treasure was buried somewhere in the mountains, but not from the time of Genghis Khan, rather from the period of Kalmak domination (17th-18th centuries), brought not by 160-200, but only 60 camels, and it was not Christian wealth but the treasury of the city of Sary-Fyube, the ruins of which are still visible on the Dry Ridge near the village of Mikhailovskoye. I. A. Usenko did not dispute the new version of the treasure legend but showed the map, which immediately converted his newly found friends to his belief. The local experts quickly identified the spot in the mountains marked on the map.
This concludes the first stage of the search for the Kurmentin treasure. And if all the preceding information about the treasures is shrouded in legends, then in the second, practical stage, real people and events come into play, which have been documented and confirmed by witness testimonies, and some participants in the treasure search are still alive.
In 1926, gathering a group of fourteen people, with the permission of local authorities, the partners began excavations not on the Katurga River but in the upper reaches of the Kurmenty River, on its left bank in an area called Betkaragay by the Kyrgyz population. According to I. I. Kocherkin and I. A. Usenko, they drained the pond and began to dig a shaft under a limestone rock. At a certain depth among the alluvial deposits, they discovered a standing calf with its throat cut. It was standing in water that had seeped down after diverting part of the Kurmenty River's flow. The diggers pulled the calf to the surface. As later recalled by Kocherkin and Usenko in 1952, "the calf's meat was soft and could be easily crushed with fingers." They speculated that the calf had been sacrificed by the Kalmaks as an offering to the gods to protect the treasure. Notably, during the first stage of work, I. I. Kocherkin found "two ancient hammers" — a type used by the Kyrgyz for digging: one was copper, the other was gold.
Treasure hunters also found a limestone slab with unknown writings at a depth of about six meters, under which they hoped to discover treasures. They needed to drill or blast the slab. But suddenly, a powerful mountain landslide interrupted the work. There were no casualties by pure chance, but significant forces and resources were required to clear the landslide. Moreover, local authorities, realizing that the treasure was a very real matter, did not grant a new excavation permit.
The rumor of mythical treasures continually stirs the imagination of romantics. But in this case, the starting point was not empty gossip but well-documented information from people whose competence and honesty would be hard to doubt. In any case, at that time, Lieutenant Colonel, now Doctor of Historical Sciences D. M. Malabaev and personal pensioner V. N. Golubin are still convinced that the treasure exists and just needs serious attention.
After all, much of the legend of the priest who died in China has been confirmed by practical work: there were voids under the rock, there was a passage to them, there were stone slabs with unknown writings, there was a golden "hammer" handed over to the state by one of the excavators (which has documentary evidence), and there was even a sacrificial bull.
The Kurmentin treasure is still waiting for its moment, for its enthusiasts. This is an important matter, and work should be conducted on a state basis, for which it is first necessary to lift all still classified folders with materials from previous surveys and works, to involve scientists, to apply special instruments, and, of course, to allocate funds. Or perhaps private initiative should get involved? After all, treasure hunts are happening all over the world? Or maybe a cooperative? Or someone else?..
The Legend of the Issyk-Kul "Atlantis"