Kaali crater

The official history of Kaali crate is long, yet boring. Most probably everybody knows the story of the comet dropping from the skies several thousands of years ago and so on and so on and so on… Much more interesting are the stories and legends told by common people. The story with most believers is that the hole was dug by Hiiumaa people who had hoped to drown Saaremaa. They only didn’t finish their job because they became tired before reaching said goal. The other popular belief is that Kaali crate is a minor defect God made when creating Saaremaa. Actually, the islanders themselves didn’t bother much about how this symmetrical hole got to their land. They were much more excited about its use. For example, it was long believed that this was the way to the other side of the globe, either to Australia or New Zealand. During the Soviet time these hopes were less ambitious. They hoped that this was a secret pathway to Stockholm. The legend goes that tens of islanders found their way to the other side of the Iron Curtain through it. But we cannot be sure that this is really true, because none of them has been heard of since their escape. Also, people have believed that different treasures were hidden to the bottom of the crate. In addition to the super-secret recipe of the Saaremaa homebrew, it is believed that there may be the 10 million US dollars disappeared from the North-Estonian Bank.