Excursion to the white rock, Belogorsk. Elena Iskhakova's blog Skala ak kaya how to get there
GPS g. 45.104846,34.624079 (format used in online maps)
GPS g.m. 45°6.907", 34°37.444" (format used in navigators and geocaching)
GPS g.m.s. 45°6"17.45", 34°37"26.68"
The White Rock (Ak Kaya) is a hundred-meter steep wall of limestone origin, like the rest of Crimea. The rock, clearly visible from the southern directions, gave its name to Belogorsk, becoming its landmark as a monument of nature, archeology and history.
Monument of nature, archeology and history
On the northern slopes of Ak-Kai, four sites of primitive man of the Mousterian era were discovered, a Neanderthal skull was found, proving that civilization arose not only in Europe. It was not so bad to live there - water, black soil on which something tasty grew, many grottoes and caves in which you could hide from animals and bad weather. And the high cliff made it possible to practice driven hunting - the remains of a mammoth, saiga, cave bear, giant and red deer, primitive bull, wild horse, and onager were found around.
Caves in White Rock
There are many legends about the caves and grottoes in the White Wall. In the “Golden Hole” cave, the entrance to which is located 52 meters from the base and 49 meters from the edge of the cliff, there used to be a dragon who kidnapped beauties from all over the area. And the robbers kept their gold there, which gave it its name.
They also said that this cave lasts all the way to Feodosia, but only climbers in 1960 were able to verify this. As it turned out, this is not a cave, but a high grotto, where the rays of the sun never reach, which is why it seems so bottomlessly black.
According to the fourth legend, the sea once flooded around the White Rock, and even somewhere on the rock you can find iron rings for mooring ships. Well, in the place of Crimea there was not a sea - the Tethys Ocean, only there were no people then, and on the young Earth there was only one continent - Pangea.
The closer you get to the rock, the more majestic it seems, these rocks are millions of years old and they are made of billions of shells of ancient mollusks, as small relative to you as you now appear in front of this rock.
And in 1783, Prince Potemkin took the oath of the upper classes of the Crimean Khanate, ending the centuries-long struggle of the Russian Empire for Crimea.
Be that as it may, the rock is simply very beautiful. You can drive up to it from Belogorsk, knowing the coordinates, you can climb the embankment to the right of the two main grottoes, there is even the possibility of driving in a non-wheel drive along the road with the coordinates. 45 07.272; 34 36.265.
To the left of the rock is Red Balka, a cold gorge. It got its name from the huge number of red wild peonies that bloom here in late April - early May. In general, the place is worth a visit, and along the way you can hug a centuries-old
In the Middle Ages, the White Rock became a place of execution - they liked to throw off prisoners from it, who before death could contemplate all the beauty of the nearby lands. It's not the best consolation, but people have always been cruel. This is how they blackmailed Bogdan Khmelnitsky, hinting that they could hurry up with the ransom of the prisoners.
Even if you don’t have time to go upstairs, at least visit the lower cave - its atmosphere evokes thoughts of an ancient sanctuary. It's light and dry, the entrance is comfortably shaded by a tree, and the view would probably be the envy of any view from the window.
Excursions and hikes are a journey from your life to someone else’s. It’s as if you were torn out of monotonous everyday life, transported to the south, and placed on the sidelines to teach you how to properly relate to life and everything that happens in it. And you know, the place of these lessons was not chosen by chance: man appeared in Crimea a very long time ago, and the “aura” of the peninsula is thoroughly saturated with billions of lives lived. One of the first places in which our civilization began to exist was the surroundings of the mountain range Ak-Kaya in Crimea. Today, also known as White Rock, is a popular natural site with numerous tourist routes. The excursion to it is memorable for its unusualness, the special atmosphere of touching something that has long sunk into oblivion, and the beauty of the surrounding landscapes. Interesting? Welcome to a virtual tour of !
Geography of Crimea: White Rock of Ak-Kaya
The rock is located near the village White Rock 42 kilometers from the capital of Crimea - the city of Simferopol. Geographically located in Belogorsky district. It is a rocky wall of white (with a slight cream tint) color, towering over the spacious valley of the Biyuk-Karasu River. It has an altitude of 325 meters above sea level and a relative height (above the surrounding area) of about 100 meters. translated from the Crimean Tatar language as “White Rock”.
, is the result of erosion and weathering of sandstones, Paleogene and Cretaceous limestones, a classic example of cuesta relief. The wind is an original sculptor. If on Mount Demerdzhi he created bizarre stone idols and “populated” the Valley of Ghosts with them, then in the upper part he “drilled” oval niches, grottoes, and placed pillars. Screes, erosion hollows, chaotic piles of blocks are weathering products found in large quantities in the lower part of the rock. Erosion, held back in places by hornbeam and rosehip thickets, continues today.
Of the many voids that have eaten into the cliffs of Ak-Kai, about fifty have been examined by geologists. Large caves on White Rock only three. They are located at the base of a rock ledge and are called and. Archaeological research carried out in the mid-1940s discovered on their walls Sarmatian petroglyphs, applied in different eras - from the 3rd century BC to the beginning of our era.
The third grotto, the most mysterious and inaccessible, is called Altyn-Teshik. The back entrance to it is visible from afar, and the name, translated as “Golden Hole,” reveals the “special” attitude towards it that developed in ancient times. Dozens of legends in different forms tell about treasures hidden in the cave, about a dragon that once lived in it, and about a secret underground passage stretching all the way to Feodosia. The research of speleologists dispelled these legends and revealed the truth: Altyn-Teshik is a large grotto, the arches of which go steeply upward, and the only dragons living in its darkness are bats. Since 1981 it has been declared a natural monument and is under state protection.
History of the Ak-Kaya rock
As mentioned at the beginning, an excursion to is an opportunity to get in touch with the past, tens of thousands of years distant from the present. Archaeologists have discovered 17 sites and entire settlements in and around the area dating back to the Mousterian era (about 100 - 40 thousand years ago) - a real Mousterian city. Its inhabitants were the predecessors of the Cro-Magnons - the Neanderthals, a fossil species of man. Such a high population density is easily explained by the exceptional convenience of the area for the life of ancient people: many grottoes on the warm southern side of the mountain range, rich deposits of flint (the main raw material for weapons and tools), and the proximity of the river. About 5 thousand flint scrapers, knives, and points were found around. The variety of their forms is amazing: eight types of knives were discovered on the White Rock itself.
Recently, a large Scythian fortress was excavated on the plateau, the study of which is currently ongoing by the branch Information Agency of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The appearance of this fortress dates back to the 4th-3rd centuries BC. On the territory of the northern Black Sea coast this is the only fortress of this period. The explored area of the fortress is about 10 hectares. There is an assumption that this is one of the forgotten Scythian capitals (for comparison: Scythian Naples, which appeared two hundred years later, occupied an area of 14 hectares). The life of the fortress was not calm: during the first century and a half of its existence, there were at least six fires in which everything was burned to the ground. The large number of burials of crippled warriors indicates that battles took place here frequently. The fortress and the settlement inside it were abandoned by people in the Middle Ages, when a city was formed nearby Karasubazar. There are suggestions that it was at his slave market that young Bogdan Khmelnitsky was sold into slavery to Murza Yurus.
In 1777, the headquarters of Alexander Suvorov was not located, and in June 1783, the Crimean nobility swore allegiance to Russia on the top of the cliff. Prince Potemkin, a star of Soviet cinema, took the oath. It became the location for the filming of such wonderful films as " The leader of the Redskins», « Mustang pacer", "Chipolino", " The Man from the Boulevard des Capucines», « Headless horseman», « Kings and cabbage», « Armed and very dangerous", "Lobo". Some of the locals like to talk about how they starred in episodes of these films as boys.
How to get to Ak-Kai
The excursion falls into the category of easily accessible ones - the road leads straight to its top. You can get to this road along the Feodosia - Simferopol highway (to the city of Belogorsk). The White Rock is already visible from the highway.
From Simferopol to Belogorsk you can take a regular bus. On the central square of Belogorsk, take a taxi and ask to take you to the foot of : this is where you will see grottoes and former sites of ancient people. You can climb it later – the rise will be about 90 meters.
The Crimean mountains are fraught with many interesting and unknown things. They protect the peninsula on the southern side and delight with their sometimes bizarre shapes. One of the particularly remarkable and memorable rocks is called Ak-Kaya. Ak-Kaya is located near the village of Belaya Skala in the Belogorsky district.
Geographic coordinates of White Rock - Ak-Kaya on the map of Crimea GPS N 45.098056, E 34.633333
Name Ak-Kaya translated from Crimean Tatar as “white rock”. Moreover, it is under this name that it is better known among tourists and local residents. And the village of Belaya Skala received its name precisely in connection with the proximity of Ak-Kaya. Approaching these places in the Belogorsk region, Ak-Kai simply cannot be missed. It is a steep white cliff with a very flat top. Ak-Kaya serves as a natural decoration of the Biyuk-Karasu river valley. The height of the White Rock reaches three hundred and twenty-five meters, so if you approach its foot and look up, it will seem infinitely high. From a distance, Ak-Kaya looks perfectly flat, but in fact it is filled with many rapids and ledges.
It must be said that only the most courageous and prepared climbers dare to conquer this peak. The white color of Ak-Kaya is due to the fact that it is composed of limestone and sandstone, and is the result of their weathering and erosion. At the top of Ak-Kaya there are various natural grottoes and rounded niches, and below you can see rocky mounds and accumulations of large stones. Such an unusual and massive appearance of Ak-Kai attracts many filmmakers here. The rock became a film set during the creation of such films as “The Headless Horseman”, “Code of the Apocalypse”, “The Leader of the Redskins”, “Escape to the End of the World” and some others.
In the second half of the 20th century, the White Rock aroused considerable interest among archaeological researchers. At this time, excavations were carried out here, the progress of which was led by Yu. G. Kolosov, an employee of the Institute of Archeology. Two dozen sites of ancient people who, according to researchers, belonged to the Mousterian era were discovered here. Stone knives and tools were found on the rock. For the first time, the bone remains of Neanderthals were excavated here. There is also confirmation that mammoths, giant deer, cave bears, saigas and other animals that are not typical for modern fauna once lived here. There is an assumption that settlements of the Sarmatians and Scythians were located on Ak-Kaya.
How to get to the White Rock - Ak-Kaya
The easiest way to get to Belaya Skala is from the city of Belogorsk, in the north of the city, there is an exit towards the villages: Yablochnoe and Belaya Skala, 4 km from Belogorsk and you are in the village of Belaya Skala, the Ak-Kaya rock simply hangs over the village, you can drive through it or not notice it It's simply not possible. A dirt road leads to the top of the mountain from the village; it lazily goes for several kilometers and rises to the large plateau of the Ak-Kaya rock. There are many viewing platforms on the plateau, even viewing platforms for cars. In late spring and early autumn, the dirt road is severely washed out, so it is best to get there by all-wheel drive; in winter, even on it it is very dangerous.
In the middle of the White Rock wall there is a hard-to-reach cave called Altyn Teshik (“golden hole”). There are several legends about it, one of which says that the treasures of robbers are hidden there.
Over many centuries, Ak-Kaya continually changed its purpose. It was also a place of execution and ceremonial oath-taking, and a home and even a military headquarters. White Rock is one of the most famous and visited.
Ak-Kaya (“white rock”, Turkic) probably delighted everyone who drove through the Biyuk-Karasu valley. Of course: there are few similar relief formations in our country, where such impressive steep cliffs (and they rise above the valley by as much as 150 meters) would be combined with the dazzling white color of the rocks.
The first to describe this mountain was P.S. Pallas: “Ak-kaya, located on the left side of the road, is the highest of the chalk mountains on the southern and western sides, it rises like a high quadrangular fortress wall, but gently decreases to the north.
On the steep cliff of the mountain on its southern side, above the heap of rubble covering the base, a cave is visible and above that, another, inaccessible one."
A brief but quite vivid description of this unusual mountain was given at the very beginning of the 19th century by P.I. Sumarokov:
“The surroundings of Karasubazar are worthy of attention. Mount Ak-kaya, or white, which dominates over it, rises like a bare cliff, like a fortress wall, and remains a monument to the differences in the properties of the two powers. Under Khan, it once served as a tomb, like the Tarpeian heights for those condemned to execution, under the Russian With the scepter, the Tatars took an oath on it to bliss, freedom, security and gratitude to the new fatherland."
The huge Ak-Kai ledge was formed as a result of long-term erosion and weathering of Upper Cretaceous and Paleogene limestones and marls. The deposits of these rocks are clearly distinguishable: the steep slope at the foot of the wall is composed of loose marls, and in the cliff itself, reminiscent of a cut Napoleon cake, numerous layers of limestone are visible, varied in shades. In the upper part of the ledge, during the weathering process, bizarre columnar structures appeared. Between them, from afar, the shaded eye sockets of inaccessible natural grottoes and oval niches are visible on a white background, and in the lower, flatter part of the slope there are erosional hollows, screes and blocky heaps.
It seems that time has stopped here, and the same picture was also seen by the Tauri, Scythians and Sarmatians. But it is not so. Both the slope and the Ak-Kai ledge itself are slowly but surely being destroyed and retreating. A natural process continuously operates here, which geologists call denudation (from the Latin denudatio - exposure) - the slow destruction of rocks and the transfer of destruction products to low areas. Of course, this process reaches its greatest speed in ravines composed of soft marls. But the constantly dry cliffs, armored on top with dense limestone, are truly “dead”; they have frozen in their development for a long time, writes Treasure Peninsula.
For geologists, Ak-Kaya is an excellent standard for studying the geological past of the Foothills, a kind of stone chronicle covering a period of time of 70 million years. After all, the various layers of sediments in this section are perfectly dated thanks to the numerous fossilized remains of fossil animals. The most common ones, of course, are nummulites of various sizes. Molluscs are numerous, and sometimes there are real giants among them. A careful look will distinguish corals, sponges, sea urchins, and crabs forever embedded in the rock. And on the summit plateau, among the deposits of relatively young clays, there are numerous remains of cartilaginous and bony fish (including shark teeth) and even mammals (bones of seals and whales).
... At the end of the 70s of the last century, the chief engineer of the quarry, located on the Ak-Kai plateau, called the Institute of Mineral Resources and reported a real sensation: during mining work, the petrified skeleton of a large fossil animal was discovered. One of the authors of the book “Cuestas of the Crimean Foothills” was lucky enough to be included in a small group of scientists who urgently went to the site of a curious find.
They arrived only in the evening, but still managed to examine the fossil bones in the already meager natural light. It turned out to be a perfectly preserved, almost complete skeleton of an 8-meter (!) whale, an inhabitant of the warm sea that once splashed on the site of Ak-Kai. Huge vertebrae, flat arched ribs - all this, of course, was of great scientific interest and, if carefully removed, could become a unique exhibit for the most authoritative paleontological museum in the world.
The management of the quarry was even ready to meet the scientists halfway - to suspend work at this site for several days (and this is always problematic for a mining enterprise, because you need to carry out the plan, socialism is in the yard...). Unfortunately, desperate calls to paleontologists in Kyiv did not stir up indifferent academic scientists. Nobody arrived. The fossil whale was, now forever, lost to science...
Archaeologists discovered 17 sites of the ancient inhabitants of Crimea in this territory, and the remains of a Neanderthal were discovered for the first time. Flint points, knives, and scrapers were found. In caves near fires that died out thousands of years ago, bones of a mammoth, a wild bull, and a wild horse were discovered. Ancient hunters drove their prey to the top of a high steep cliff, finding no way out, the wild animals were thrown down.
The grottoes and caves of Ak-Kai are interesting; P.I. also wrote about them. Sumarokov:
“Almost at its very ridge there are spacious caves, of which one contains a 4-arshine stone, leading to bewilderment about its presence here.”
In total, more than 50 karst voids were studied by geologist in the Ak-Kai cliffs. But the largest of them are only three grottoes. The lower grottoes, Ak-Kaya-1 and Ak-Kaya-2, located at the very base of the ledge, are quite accessible and well studied. Apparently, at the very beginning of our era, the grottoes were visited, and perhaps even settled, by representatives of the Sarmatian tribes - in 1945-1946, well-preserved characteristic Sarmatian petroglyphs were discovered on the dusty walls.
For what purpose did the next conquerors of the Foothills (they appeared here at the end of the 3rd century BC) “bearded people who never parted with weapons,” as their contemporary, the Roman poet Ovid, exiled to the Northern Black Sea region, described them? left us your mysterious messages? Scientists believe that the wall signs in the Ak-Kai grottoes appeared at different times; moreover, they were applied to the stone with different tools. Therefore, the range of their purpose can be very wide: from personal symbols asserting property rights to cult-magical ones.
The third large grotto, gaping on the northern side of the cliff, almost in the middle of the wild plumb, bears the intriguing name Altyn-Teshik (“golden hole”, Turkic). Of course, such an unusual name for the cave, which is also located at a height inaccessible to humans, gave rise to a lot of the most incredible legends. And most of them talked about countless treasures hidden in the depths of the “golden hole”. However, it took a long time for brave souls to try their luck. Only in the early 60s of the last century did Crimean speleologists decide to make their first assault on the cave.
"... At the very edge of the Ak-Kai cliff, it can sometimes be quite windy. But the local wind, threatening to throw you down, is somehow special: it is filled with the thick aroma of the mixed-grass foothill steppe (up to 400 species of grass are found here!) and carries a pleasant, especially in the summer heat, coolness. A small group of Simferopol extreme sports enthusiasts once again sets off for adventure. Bolts are hammered into the rock, guy loops are hung - you can go down. A long climbing rope flies down like a colorful snake. Now all that remains is to click the descending device into it and step over the bend of the rock .
... The descent to the cave does not take much time - only a few minutes (you cannot rush: the nylon rope may melt), but it simply gives you “buckets” of adrenaline. In some areas you have to literally rub your whole body against the protruding layers of limestone, in others, having lost support for your legs, you have to swing over the abyss. From below, from the side, the speleologist resembles a small fly crawling along a vertical plumb. Finally, a huge (its height is about 20 meters) entrance to the cave opens before your eyes. But this natural miracle cannot be called a cave. It's more like a grotto. Large, steeply rising, but still a grotto.
Of course, there are no traces of chests with pirate gold or scatterings of precious stones here. But there are permanent inhabitants - bats. Little “Batmen” with funny faces turn their heads curiously, trying to find out who came into their huge “bedroom”.
The way back from the cave is, of course, more difficult. You have to constantly, step by step, press the weight of your own body with your foot inserted into a “pedal” loop fastened to the lifting device. This is the plateau. One last effort - and you can relax, lie down in the lush green grass and happily inhale the smoke of a cigarette..."
To catch our breath, let’s take a look at the valley, and among the densely packed plantings of an industrial apple orchard we will see, like a mirage, an incredibly large oak tree... A powerful pedunculate oak tree (about 800 years old) is the last witness of the destroyed floodplain oak forests. A huge, almost spherical crown, up to 20 m high and about 30 meters in diameter, is supported by four powerful trunks (that’s why the living monument used to have a different name - “Four Brothers”). At the very base, the tree has a diameter of about 4 meters with a circumference of 12 meters.
There is a legend that the Tatar khans threw criminals from the top of Ak-Kai. There is also a legend that the Russian commander A.V. Suvorov conducted military negotiations under the above-mentioned oak tree with the governor of the Turkish Sultan in Karasubazar on the eve of the Battle of Ak-Kaya in 1777. Although the battle could not be avoided, it is well known that Alexander Vasilyevich never lost a battle. In 1783, on the top of the mountain, Prince Potemkin took the oath of allegiance to Russia by the Crimean beys and murzas.
Since 1981, “Mount Ak-kaya” has been a complex natural monument of republican significance.
The picturesque Ak-Kaya and its surroundings are popular with filmmakers, who often choose this place to film historical scenes. Well-known films were filmed here: “The Headless Horseman”, “Kings and Cabbages”, “The Man from the Boulevard des Capuchins”, “Mustang the Pacer”.
White Rock in the movies
Stills from the films "The Man from the Boulevard des Capucines" (left), "The Headless Horseman" (right)
No less interesting would be filming about the history of the rock itself, rich in various events, traditions and legends.
White Rock is beautiful any time of year. It is especially wonderful in the spring (late April - early May), when wild peony blooms on the left slope of the mountain, in Krasnaya Balka. Thousands of these fantastic fragrant flowers cover the bottom of the gorge. The spectacle is unforgettable!
And at the foot of the cliff there are poppy fields
White Rock - Ak-Kaya is a kind of key that opens the door to the riches of the mountains, the starting point of an exciting journey through the Eastern Crimea. Like a medieval fortress in the desert, like a ghost, it rises alone above the surrounding plain.
On the Black River - White Rock,
The hermit-rock, like the ghost of Crimea.
Having rejected everyone or... rejected? One
It stands in the steppe, driven by a ridge of mountains.
The forests here do not warm her,
Rich roads go to the side.
Only Kara-Su - friend and sister -
Reminds me again and again of many things.
You can get to the rock from Belogorsk by bus or minibus in just 10 minutes (traffic interval is about 30-40 minutes), and buses run to Belogorsk from Simferopol every one to two hours. Stop - the village of the same name "White Rock". In the village you need to turn onto the first wide street - it will lead to a ford across the river. Or walk along the road along the river to a small bridge, and then through the apple orchard to the foot of the White Rock - it itself will be a landmark
“You can only get to the foot by crossing the Karasevka River. There is a bridge in the village, and there is another bridge before reaching the village of Vishennaye. Having crossed the river in the village of Belaya Skala, you find yourself immediately at the foot of Ak-Kaya.
Having driven half a kilometer along the wall, you can see one of the most accessible grottoes for climbing on your own, but the ascent and especially the descent are not as simple as it seems from below. Be careful, choose the right shoes and calculate your strength, I personally observed people descending backwards and not reaching the grotto some 50-100 meters, writes a forum member Fright.
Further, for lovers of light and not very extreme sports, automobile ascents to the top of varying degrees of difficulty begin, the first and most difficult one gives the shortest path to the top, but the ascent is steep and has slopes in different planes; there is nothing to do there in passenger cars. The second path is gentle and quite safe, but in some places you will have to climb over rock, and it is also the longest. You can go by car.
In addition to the car, you can climb the Rock on foot or on horseback - at the foot of Ak-Kai there is a small stud farm, from where they offer various
horseback riding to White Rock from 150 to 250 hryvnia depending on the route.
You can combine the trip with a visit to Taigan, but keep in mind that
There won’t be enough time to “see everything and climb everywhere.”
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Excursion to White Rock, Belogorsk
One of the most interesting natural attractions of Crimea is the White Rock near Belogorsk. It is clearly visible from the Kerch-Simferopol highway, but we advise everyone - take the time, turn towards it, admire it closer!
April-May is the best time for an excursion to the White Rock (Ak-Kaya, Turkic). In the spring, its rather modest vegetation has not yet withered in the sun, and most importantly, Voronets bloom in Krasnaya Balka - amazingly beautiful wild peonies.
White Rock - a miracle of Central Crimea
We arrived at Belogorsk at 8 o'clock, when the rock was still in a light morning haze, so we decided to start exploring the surrounding sights with a visit to the Suvorov Oak. The highway all the way from and partly to Belogorsk now resembles a huge construction site - the Tavrida highway, bridges across rivers, and a canal are being built:
Crimea has not seen anything like this for a long time.
Suvorov Oak and Biyuk-Karasu
The 800-year-old oak itself is simply amazing (diameter 4 m, circumference 10 m, crown 40 m), you feel like an ant next to it:
This is not only a botanical, but also a historical monument - under it is our famous commander A.V. Suvorov in 1777 accepted capitulation from the envoys of the Turkish Sultan. This happened after a 10,000-strong Russian army defeated a 40,000-strong Turkish army not far from this place.
From the oak tree we went to the rock, but crossing the bridge over the Biyuk-Karasu River, we decided to first drive up to it, it winds too beautifully in these places:
Then they turned to the rock itself, to the very place that resembles the bow of a ship. Its height above sea level is 325 meters, above the valley more than 100 meters. In Crimea there are many such cuestas - mountains, steep on one side and gentle on the other. We previously talked about an excursion to a similar one -. But White Rock is undoubtedly the most unusual.
Many probably recognized this landscape from Soviet and Russian films, of which more than a dozen were filmed here. That's why I was immediately indignant - I see Texas, but where are the cowboys on horses? Immediately, as if on my order, the horses appeared, but the unlucky “cowboy” ran screaming after.
At the foot of the White Rock, onosma bloomed - a plant listed in the Red Book with funny yellow bells:
Yellow flowers noticeably predominate in the area, especially on the arid yayla - a flat mountain top, but more on that later.
Having admired the white bulk hanging overhead, we decided to climb into the grotto. In fact, there are a lot of grottoes, caves and other depressions in the White Rock. It is not for nothing that about 40 ancient human sites were found in these places.
Grottoes Altyn Teshik, Uch-Koba and Krasnaya Balka
There are two large caves at the nose of the cliff. The first one, looking like a huge drop and inaccessible to the average tourist, is Altyn Teshik. Robbers allegedly hid a rich treasure here. Now the cave is inhabited by birds (or like in a bird market).
The second is called the Lower or Large Grotto. There is a steep, but quite accessible path to it. At this time, her summer adonis (Adonis) and hybrid poppy were blooming (not the self-seeded one that makes the Crimean fields turn red in May, but its earlier and smaller brother).
Once upon a time, judging by the excavations, there was a sanctuary of the Sarmatians in the grotto. Now at the entrance to the grotto there is a huge hawthorn tree, just as it was blooming its first flowers.
Inside, unfortunately, everything is not so great. Too many "Neanderthals" visit it these days.
Near the grotto, mice were lying, dropped kestrels, several pairs of which were actively scurrying around, now flying away, now returning to the rock, where they were greeted by the sharp cries of the chicks.
We drove further along the mountain by car, admiring the bizarre outlines of rocks and grottoes (this group of grottoes is called Uch-Koba), and stopped at the foot of the Red Beam. It is named after the vorontsy (angustifolia peony), which covers it with a crimson-scarlet carpet for one or two weeks every spring:
We were a little late, so most of the peonies had faded and the beam looked rather modest:
But in the bushes at the foot of the yayla, spring adonis, also a rare protected plant, began to bloom.
On the plateau (yayla) of the White Rock
Another minute or two and we are on the yaila, from where an unusually beautiful view of the surrounding area opens up. That is why, although you can climb to the top by car, we advise you not to do this, but to walk along the cliff.
This walk will take an hour at most, but the impressions will last a lifetime.
The Ak-Kaya massif, composed of Paleogene and Cretaceous limestones, is part of the low but picturesque inner ridge of the Crimean Mountains, separating the Main Range.
The plant community of the plateau can be safely attributed to the type of asphodeline steppes, thanks to this plant, asphodeline, reminiscent of young pine trees:
They were just beginning to bloom, delighting the bumblebees, whose long proboscis can only reach the deeply hidden nectar:
Among the insects we also met, the Red Book Crimean swallowtail butterflies and a friendly company of large caterpillars of the ringed silkworm (or some of its relatives). Apparently they have already eaten everything where they hatched and have just marched to a new place:
We brought binoculars, so we had the opportunity to admire not only the life of insects, but also birds.
The most interesting (and beautiful) were the kestrels, which completely ignored us and flew along the rocks, from time to time teaming up with their neighbors to drive crows and crows away from their nests. There were also quite a few swifts there, but it was difficult to see the black lightning, but you could clearly hear the loud “swish” of their wings.
Here is the edge of the White Rock, resting on the sharp bow of the “ship”:
Once upon a time, the heads of the Tatar clans were elected here, here, in front of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, prisoners were thrown off a cliff in order to hasten his ransom, here in 1783, representatives of the Crimean Tatar nobility took an oath of allegiance to the Russian Empire before Prince Potemkin.
Now on the right hand you can see how the fields are turning green, the pine forest is darkening in the distance:
On the left, the following lunar landscape predominates:
By the way, it is convenient to start the excursion route along the wide path running between these hills and the White Rock, climb up along it, then go through the plateau, go down the Red Balka and return to the beginning of the route along the road along the rock. We drew it on the map.
We went back not along the cliff, but approximately in the center of the plateau and almost immediately began to stumble upon local orchids:
In general, there are many orchids in Crimea and all are protected by law; you cannot pick them.
About a 7-10 minute leisurely walk from the edge of the cliff there is a quarry where stone was once cut for neighboring settlements:
Since Karasubazar (now Belogorsk) was the trading capital of the Crimean Khanate for a long time, it required a lot of stone.
Interesting fossils found nearby:
These are nummulites (because they resemble coins), shells of single-celled organisms of the order Foraminifera. Imagine, 100 million years ago, single-celled (!) organisms built houses that resembled spiral flying saucers, the size of a silver royal ruble! By the way, the Egyptian pyramids were built from such nummulitic limestone.
With our meager knowledge of paleontology, we, alas, were unable to determine the name of this fossil; perhaps it was part of a spirifera shell.
Finally, we admired how the rock crystal found right there shimmers in the sun:
At the edge of the plateau we got a little lost, looking at the caves covering the edge of the ravine from above, found a descent, and suddenly, from the dry and almost bare steppe we found ourselves in the “jungle” - dense thickets of trees and bushes, which are carefully entwined with ivy, along the way moving onto the rocks.
There are a lot of caves, or rather grottoes, here, they are dry, cozy, it is not surprising that ancient people settled in them. Moreover, the plateau served as a convenient hunting ground - he surrounded the animal and drove it to the cliff.
Finally, after admiring the amazingly bright peonies again, we got into the car and drove on.
Ak-Kaya settlement and Kok-Koba grotto
Soon after Krasnaya Balka the rocks move apart and the road turns right towards Vishennoye. There will be a rock on the left hand:
On it is the Scythian settlement of Ak-Kaya (3rd century BC, 3rd century AD). On the plateau itself, numerous round and square holes remind of this:
Some of the buildings have been excavated a little lower (opposite you can see the Kok-Koba grotto):
The size of this settlement was second only to Scythian Naples, excavated near Simferopol, and alternately belonged to the Scythians, Romans, and Khazars. The total area of the settlement is 10 hectares, which means we still have to dig and dig, and many interesting discoveries await us. It may be possible to prove that this is the medieval fortress of Fulla, mentioned in the chronicles as standing near a “cave with a spring.”
Having examined the ancient settlement, we went to that very “cave with a source” - to the Kok-Koba grotto:
It is huge and extremely picturesque:
When we entered through a small side entrance, a herd of cows was resting there, then our company was joined by a herd of schoolchildren, much more playful and noisy:
The uniqueness of the grotto is that water oozes directly from the walls, drips from the ceiling in places, and in the center forms a waterfall of drops, collecting in a small bowl carved into the rock and flowing in a stream into a reservoir overgrown with reeds at the foot of the grotto.
All this is unusual and very beautiful.
The Kok-Koba Grotto was the last point of our journey. Through Vishennoye we went onto the highway, and after admiring the White Rock from it once again, we went home full of impressions.
