No. 214

Kitezh

Where

Lake Svetloyar, Russia

Type

Legend

First told

Russian folklore, 1700s texts

Behind it

A city said to have sunk into the lake to hide from the Mongols.

The truth

No lost city has ever been found.

Lyra Kael can take you here on the globe, tell you the story out loud and answer your questions. Start the time jump.

Background

Kitezh (Russian: Ки́теж) is a legendary and mythical city said to be beneath the waters of Lake Svetloyar in the Voskresensky District of the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast in central Russia. Reference to Kitezh appears for the first time in Kitezh Chronicle, an anonymous book from the late 18th century, believed to have originated among the Old Believers.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.