LAKE SEYDOZERO: Hyperborea in the Kola Peninsula?
Local Sami legends tell of an evil giant named Kuiva that terrified them in ancient times. Shamans went up to the sacred Seydozero to ask the Gods for help, at which point lighting struck it, leaving only his imprint behind.

In the 1920s, Alexander Barchenko led an expedition to neighboring lake Lovozero to investigate a phenomenon of mass psychosis afflicting the area. "Arctic hysteria" would cause strange behaviors among locals and visitors alike. The Sami refused to let them approach a sacred..

..island covered in reindeer horns in the middle of the lake, explaining that only shamans were allowed near it. After persuading the son of a local shaman to take them to the island, a sudden gust of wind broke the mast of the boat before they could land. They continued to..

..explore the southwestern bank of the Lovozero, where they found a paved road that led to a platform from which they could look across the neighboring Seydozero and see the image of Kuiva on the cliffside across the lake. Around the area there were also pyramid-shaped mounds..

..cubic stones and columns. On top of the mountain on the south side of the lake, the researchers found a giant arch, a ritual pit, and what seems to be an ancient observatory (much like Stonehenge). Barchenko had a heart attack and was supposedly healed by the Sami..

..at which point he became convinced that the shamans were the successors of the priests of hyperborea, who were forced from their homeland after climatic changes 7000 years ago. Alexander Barchenko was executed during the great Soviet purge of 1936-1938. Some of the ruins were..

..allegedly destroyed by partisans in the 1930s. After the fall of the USSR, an expedition named Hyperborea-98 was conducted. They found even more megalithic structures that seem to be astronomically aligned, as well as spiral labrynths (another indo-european theme)..

The expedition estimates that the structures were over 14ky old. There are also rumors of cave systems and entrances to much larger underground ruins under the lake. Furthermore, there are other intriguing archeological sites all over the White Sea and Karelia area.

It wouldn't be crazy to entretain the idea that warm air from the gulf and other climatic factors could have made the area warmer than its latitude indicates, much like Europe is nowadays. Could Kola be Hyperborea from the legends? (credits: Alexander Andreyev and Valerij Demin)