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RussiaWhat to Expect and Is It Worth Visiting
The memorial to Sergei Bodrov and the film crew is one of the iconic points that has already become a landmark that is visited in Karmadon gorge. Sometimes this place is also called the place of death of a film crew led by a director and an actor, but this is not so. In fact, the exact place of their death is unknown, and this place was chosen simply as one of the suitable ones. Here, next to the entrance of one of the tunnels along the road, a granite slab has been installed for Sergei and the artists of the Narty equestrian theater. Flowers and memorabilia are brought here to honor the memory.
The tragedy occurred on September 20, 2002. The pulsating Kolka glacier descended from the northern slope of the Kazbek-Dzhimarai mountain range and swept through the Karmadon gorge at a speed of 150-200 km/h, destroying everything in its path. 106 people are officially missing, 19 are officially dead.
Among the missing, including 42 people from the film crew, Sergei Bodrova. They were filming the movie "Svyaznoy". A month before the tragedy, Sergei Bodrov's son Alexander was born, which delayed him in Moscow for almost a month, although he had to leave for filming at the end of August and spend only ten days in the mountains. The night before the tragedy, he called his wife Svetlana. Sergei asked her about the children. The couple could not say goodbye for a long time, and before putting down the phone, Bodrov told his wife: "Take care of the children."
There are several versions of what Bodrov and the film crew were doing at the time of the tragedy. According to one version, the filming process had already been completed, and the filming participants were already going to the hotel, but they met local residents along the way, who invited everyone to a nearby village for the wake of an influential person. According to another version, after the end of filming, the group settled down in the gorge for a picnic. There is also a version that at the time of the tragedy the group was moving along the gorge in cars, and there were even eyewitnesses who saw cars that managed to enter the tunnel. There were also eyewitnesses who saw people from Bodrov's group running to a nearby tunnel
The search operation lasted almost two years until May 7, 2004.
🕐 Working hours
Around the clock.
💵 Entrance fee / ticket price
Free of charge.
🚶 How to get there
The monument to Bodrov and the film crew is located in the Karmadon gorge, 30 kilometers from the center of Vladikavkaz along the droga towards the village of Karmadon (Monument to Bodrov on the map). The road here has been repaired, almost everywhere there is good asphalt, you can easily drive any car. Usually they make a short stop here as part of a visit to the Karmadon Gorge natural attraction from Vladikavkaz and back. But you can also drive the ring route with a stop in the City of the Dead Dargavs and even in the Upper Fiagdon, but it will be driving on dirt roads.
In addition to your own transport, you can come here with excursions. Group tourism is still poorly developed here, so you will have to look for a private guide with a car through social networks, instant messengers, ads or through excursion search sites (links to them below). Private guides take you here even from Dagestan.
We met inexpensive combined group tours to North Ossetia with a visit to the Karmadon gorge and a stop at the memorial in travel agencies and street distributors of excursions to the resorts of Caucasian Mineral Waters in Pyatigorsk, Zheleznovodsk, Kislovodsk, Essentuki.
💥 We remind you that it is more interesting and safer to get acquainted with the sights of North Ossetia–Alania with the help of excursions, and therefore we advise you to look at online booking options on these proven search and price comparison sites: