It seems Kuklina is far from correct when she asserts that the northern mountains of the Indo-Iranian epos were totally fictitious and that there is no point in looking for them on the map. However, it is also hard to agree with the authors who claim the Hara and Meru Mountains were the Urals; the concept holds too many contradictions.
No doubt it is necessary to look once again at the ancient sources, especially since more and more researchers are convinced that the authors of antiquity must and should be believed. For instance, M.Agbunov, on the basis of paleographic data on changes in the Black Sea coastline, concludes that “the works of ancient authors are, as a rule, a reliable source and merit more attention and trust… it should be stressed that most of the concrete historical and geographical descriptions by ancient authors are absolutely correct.” In this case we can use such an authoritative source as Ptolcmaeo” Geography, especially since it is referred to by the authors of From Scythia to India and the author of The Ethnogeography of Scythia. But because the text, as we saw earlier, can be interpreted in different ways to prove contradictory conceptions, let us look at Ptolemaeos’ map, or rather at that part of Geography (published in Rome in 1490) where a mountain range is shown in the north and called Hyperborei Monies. This was the part in Ptolemaeos’ work that Bongard-Levin and Grantovsky called a mistake, claiming that Ptolemaeos put non-existent mountains in the north.
When we compare the map of the European part of the Soviet Union19 with Ptolemaeos’ map, we can see genuine geographical sites such as the Baltic, Black, Azov and Caspian seas, and the Volga running into the Caspian and called Rha*, the ancient Avesta name. We also see all the more or less significant elevated areas up to the Southern Urals, which are separated by a considerable distance from the Hyperborei Montes that Ptolemaeos marked in the north and that extend latitudinally, and that are the starting point of two sources of the holy river of the ancient Iranians-Rahi. This map indicates that Ptolemaeos, and probably geographers of antiquity long before him, make a distinction between the Hyperborei and the Ripei mountains, and the Urals.
Was Ptolemaeos correct or incorrect, were there such elevations in the north that were the starting point of the Volga** and Kama rivers? The map of the USSR shows objectively that there were such elevations-the Northern Urals (Hills). Located in the northeastern European part of the Soviet Union they extend 1,700 kilometers from west to east, and through the Timan mountain ridge combine into a single system with the Northern Urals.
One of the Soviet Union’s most prominent geomorphologists, Yu. Meshcheryakov, wrote the following in his fundamental study, Relief of the USSR, published in 1972: “The world divide that borders the Arctic Ocean basin is farthest away from the ocean to the south, deep inside Eurasia, the Asian part of the USSR. The maximum distance from the ocean to the divide -3,000—3,500 kilometers – is marked on the meridians of Baikal-Yenisei… Going through the Urals, the dividing line suddenly approaches the coast, and within ike Northern Uvals it is only 600—800 kilometers from the shore”. The author goes on to say that the Northern Uvals are the main divide of northern and southern seas in the Russian plains. While he calls them the “principal orohydrographical anomaly of the Russian plains”, he notes the paradox that “the highest elevations (Middle Russia, Volga region) are in the southern part of the plains, they are not the main dividing lines, yielding the role to the insignificant, relatively small Northern Uvals.” Meshcheryakov also points out that unlike most of the Russian plains’ elevations which are oriented meridianally, “The origin of the inverse morphostructure of the Northern Uvals remains unclear. This elevation does not have a meridianal, but a sublatitudinal direction”.
He writes of a “close, organic tie between’ the undulating deformations of the Urals and Russian plains,” and stresses that "…the Timan mountain ridge starts from the orographical junction of the “Three Rocks” (Konzhakovsky Rock- 1,569 meters, Kosvinsky Rock-1,519 meters and Denezhkin Rock- 1,492 meters). This wide and elevated section of the Urals is on the same latitude as the Northern Uvals and joins them forming a single latitudinal elevated zone”.
The work also notes the same origin of the Northern Uvals, Galichskaya and Gryazovetsko-Danilovskaya elevations, or those latitudinal elevations in the northeastern European part of the Soviet Union that unite into a single bulge the elevations of Karelia, the Northern Uvals and Northern Ural mountains, that is, the part of the range that runs in a north-northeastern direction.
Thus, the Northern Uvals – the main divide of northern and southern rivers, the basins of the White and Caspian seas – are the precise location Ptolemaeos cited for the Hyperborei (or Ripei) Mountains, the source of the holy river-Rha.
However, according to the same Avesta tradition, its source is in the mountains of High Hara – Hara Berezaiti, on the “golden summit of Hukairya”. Of interest in this connection is what Al-Idrisi (12th century) wrote about the Kukaiya Mountains that he places in the far northeast of the oecumene and “that could be connected with the Ripei Mountains noted by ancient geographers, primarily Ptolemaeos”, 26 and the Hukairya Mountains of Avesta. Dwelling on the Kukaiya Mountains, the source of the Rusiya River, Al-Idrisi points out that: “Six big rivers flow into the aforementioned Rusiya River; their sources are in the Kukaiya Mountains. These are big mountains extending from the Black Sea to the edge of the inhabited Earth… They are very big mountains; no one can climb them because of the extremely cold weather and the constant abundance of snow on their peaks.”
If we accept the Ripei (Hyperborei) and Kukaiya mountains as the Northern Uvals, the six rivers are readily found. The Volga (Rusiya) is indeed the drainage point of six rivers that flow from the Uvals – the Kama, Vyatka, Vetluga, Unzha, Kostroma and Sheksna.* Thus, if we regard the Kama as the source of the Volga, as was the case in ancient tradition, then the Volga (Rha) of Ptolemaeos and Avesta, indeed, begins in the Northern Uvals (especially since the actual sources of the Volga are in the Valdai elevation which is included in the southern part of the bulge described). They are also the starting point of the biggest river in the Russian North – the great and deep Northern Dvina which runs into the White Sea and has over a thousand tributaries. One of them, the Emtsa River, does not freeze over in the winter due to the hot springs in its canyon.
The hymn of Ardvisura Anahita to the holy Avesta river has these lyrics:
3. “The large river, known afar, that is as large as the whole of the waters that run along the earth; that runs powerfully from the height Hukairya down to the sea Vouru-Kasha.
4. she, Ardvi Sura Anahita, who has a thousand cells and a thousand channels…
5. “From this river of mine alone flow all the waters that spread all over the seven Karshvares; this river of mine alone goes on bringing waters, both in summer and in winter.
In exalting the holy river flowing to the north into the Vourukasha Sea, the author of the hymn gives praise to those who bring it offerings on the “Hara summit,” on the “Hukairya summit” of the ancestors of the Aryans, Jima (Yama) and Paradatta.
In addition, the latitude of the Northern Uvals is 60° north and they are not only the principal divide of the Russian plains and the border between north and south, but the year there is divided into six light and six dark months. The North Star and Big Dipper there are high in the sky, and if you go down toward the sea you can also see the northern lights. A long winter is normal on these latitudes where the first snow is often in the latter half of September, and the last snow can be at the end of May, so that “the average period of safe growth of plants is equal to four months".Relevant here is Herodotus’ comment that “in all the countries named (by the Ripei Mountains) the winter is so harsh that hard frosts last eight months. During that time, even if you pour water on the ground there will be no mud, unless you light a fire… Such cold weather lasts in those countries an entire eight months, the other four months not being warm either”. Besides, it is interesting that the presence of hornless cattle in the Kirov