In the woods about a half-hour’s drive from Yekaterinburg, Russia, is a gentle depression covered with moss and grass, its slope smoothed over by time. It is the site of an abandoned mine shaft, surrounded by a wooden-roofed causeway. The gilded domes and crosses of Holy Royal Martyrs Monastery emerge through the foliage, located about four kilometers from Porosenkov Log. This depression in the earth, today known as Ganina Yama, is the sacred center of the monastery, the reason for its construction, and a powerful draw for hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from all over Russia.