Horse-Stone megalight in the valley of Beautiful Mecha river

Horse-Stone megalith is an interesting natural monument, rather atypical for the Central Russian plain. It is a megalith of gray granite weighing 20 tons, which stands on three small boulders.

If the Stone-Horse was located in the forests of Karelia or Scandinavia, it could be called a typical Seid. There are several hundred such seids on mount Vottovara or on the Large Kuzova Islands in the White sea, and it is believed that their origin is anthropogenic. Sami tribe installed large boulders on three small ones for religious purposes.

The origin of the Horse-Stone is natural, although there are many marks on the surface of the stone that look like they were made by man. According to experts, the age of the megalith is about 70 million years and belongs to the last ice age, when the glaciation boundary reached the Voronezh region. During the period when boulders were moved together by glacial masses, a large boulder appeared on top of smaller stones, which is quite logical.

The Horse-Stone megalith is located on a hillside in the valley of the Beautiful Mecha river, near a steep bend. It is believed that the Horse-Stone is similar to the head of a horse, but this can hardly be imagined. 3 kilometers from Horse-Stone is the Valley of Megaliths (Witch`s stones). There are a lot of such stones, but they do not stand on other boulders. Most of the stones have a bizarre shape with deep holes.

There are many legends concerning the Horse-Stone megalith. It is believed that in ancient times it was an object of worship and pagan religious rites, but there is no evidence for this. It is only known that until the 20th century, the inhabitants of the surrounding villages performed a ritual of plowing the land around the megalith to prevent the death of livestock. The first mention of the Horse-stone can be found in the legends that the Russian regiments in 1380 drove the Mongol-Tatar troops after the Battle of Kulikovo field to the Mecha.