Ingush towers
Remains of megalithic cyclopean dwellings are found near ancient Ingush villages, including Targim, Khamkhi, Egikal, Doshkhakle, and Kart.
[2][3][4][5] In 2022 the region's tourism committee received a patent from the Russian Federal Service for Intellectual Property for the slogan "Ingushetia — Homeland of Towers".
The Ingush Koban tribes of the North Caucasus built stone towers at the end of the first to second millennium BC.
Researchers note the continuity of the tower architecture of the Ingush, which was highly developed in the Middle Ages, from the stone construction technique that existed in the mountains of the Central Caucasus since the ancient period.
[11] Tower culture was revived in the North Caucasus during the Middle Ages, finding its highest quantity and quality in the mountains of Ingushetia.
[16] Each settlement resembled a small "medieval city", a self-sufficient entity inhabited by close relatives from one or more clans (teips.)
[17] In 1931, Ukrainian traveller and explorer M. Kegeles wrote: From the ancient monuments that have been preserved here, it is obvious how talented and gifted the Ingush are.
[18]Soviet archaeologist and historian Evgeny Krupnov wrote in his "Medieval Ingushetia": The Ingush battle towers can truly be recognized as the pinnacle of architectural and constructional mastery of the ancient population of the region.
When the masonry was finished, the master builder demanded a "descent" fee and made a hand print — chiseled or in wet mortar — at the tower entrance.
Master stonecutters were skilled tradesmen; they required training, experience, and specialized tools to shape the stones with "jeweler's precision".
[28] Builders, or "artists of stone" (Ingush: тӏоговзанча, romanized: thogovzancha), were specialists in the construction of high-quality multi-story residential buildings, various types of crypts, temples and sanctuaries.
Recognized and famous master builders of the Middle Ages were: The construction craft was sometimes the work of almost entire family brotherhoods, a kind of "professional clan".
Such recognized artisans, especially in the construction of military towers (vhov), included, e.g., the Barkinkhoev family from the villages of Upper, Middle and Lower Ozig (Ozdik) [ru].
[12][32][33] Scholars have noted the leading role of the Ingush school of architecture in the 14th–18th centuries in the area covering the territories of present-day Chechnya, Ingushetia, North Ossetia and the northern regions of Georgia.
[34][35] After exploring Ingush architecture, ethnographers Vladimir Basilov and Veniamin Kobychev concluded that the layering of various technical methods in Ingush buildings, from primitive to more advanced, and also genetically interconnected, convinces us that local architecture developed primarily on the basis of the accumulation of its own experience, and not affected by any external influences.
[39] Professor Evgeny Krupnov considered towers with pyramidal roofs as "an expression of the purely individual characteristics of Ingush culture.
The third group included ancient temples (e.g. Alby-Yerdy, Tkhaba-Yerdy), various kinds of pagan sanctuaries (e.g. Dyalite, Myat-Seli, Mago-Erda, Tumgoy-Erda, Kog-Erda, etc.)
[44] The residential or family tower (Ingush: гӀала, romanized: ghāla) was a square or rectangular stone building, usually built in two or three floors, with a flat earthen roof well coated with clay.
In the battle tower of the village of Upper Leymi, the narrowing angle of the walls reaches a record 14 degrees, which gives a special harmony to its appearance.
In the middle of the tower, from the very base, stood a quadrangular stone pillar (Ingush: ердабӏоагӏа, romanized: erdabhoagha), which served as a support for the main thick beams of the interfloor floors.
[47] In most towers, the second floor was the main living space (Ingush: лакхера цӏа, romanized: laqera ts'a).
Initially, a ghala also had a defensive significance, which is confirmed by the structural details of the architecture: protective parapets on the roof of the towers, the construction of many viewing slots and loopholes, compartments for keeping servants (prisoners of war) etc.
The Ingush combat towers were of several types, which, as experts explain, trace the evolution of the technology for constructing defensive structures in the mountains of the North Caucasus.
[49] At the same time, the appearance of more advanced towers did not mean the cessation of the construction of previous types; they all equally continued to be erected until the late Middle Ages.
Some battle towers (in particular, the Lyazhgi [ru] complex, built by master builder Khanoy Khing) were reinforced with an additional stone vault between the fourth and fifth floors to give them special strength.
Communication between floors was carried out through square confined spaces, hatches equipped in the corners of the towers, along ladders in the form of jagged logs.
)[55] The majority of these watchtowers were built on cliffs in mountain gorges, yet several were located at strategically important places on the plain or piedmont, like the medieval tower settlement of Zaur, from which the surrounding area was visible from a distance.
Along the gorges of the rivers Terek and Assa existed stone walls called "Galgai Koashke" with watchtowers that secured the passages, the remains of which are still visible today.Ingush villages were built close to each other, with intervals of 500 meters to a kilometer.
If one looks at a map of mountainous Ingushetia, one will notice that tower villages stretch in a continuous chain along the valleys of Assa, Armkhi and their tributaries.
Among them are signs resembling letters, drawings in the form of crosses, spirals, swastikas, solar circles, images of household items and weapons.
