Five-headed beshtau. Amazing Beshtau - mountain. About the origin of Mount Beshtau

Mount Beshtau in the Stavropol Territory is the highest point in the Caucasian Mineral Waters region. The diameter of the foot is about 8 km, the slopes are quite gentle. The mountain range includes several peaks, and many of them received their names:

• Big Tau
• Small Tau
• Fox Nose (Two Brothers)
• Mount Shaggy (Shaggy Mound, Cape Verde)
• Goat Rocks

In the Turkic language, “besh” means “five”, and “tau” means “mountain”, which determined the name of the city of Pyatigorsk.

The natural monument of Stavropol is one of the failed volcanoes, which geologists call laccoliths (for example, Ayu-Dag or Bear Mountain in Crimea has the same origin).

Millions of years ago, tectonic activity led to the formation of unusual landscapes that have survived to this day. Magma rising from the depths of the earth lifted the overlying rocks without disturbing their layering. The viscous lava only seeped through the cracks, but failed to break out and spread along the slopes.

The majestic beauty of the mountain became a source of inspiration for Mikhail Lermontov, and Beshtau is also mentioned in the works of Alexander Pushkin and Leo Tolstoy.

From the top of the central part of Pyatigorye there is a view of Elbrus and the Caucasus mountain range. Staying at an altitude of 1,400 m captivates you with the feeling of flight.

There are 2 paths leading to Beshtau from opposite sides: from Zheleznovodsk and Lermontov. You can climb any of the peaks on foot; no special training or equipment is required.

The entire mountain at an altitude of 800 m is encircled by a ring dirt road, which was built in the late 1920s with branches to Pyatigorsk, Zheleznovodsk, Lermontov and the village of Inozemtsevo.

Mineral water

Beshtau's worldwide fame was brought by mineral springs with inexhaustible reserves of healing waters: Beshtaugorskoye and Inozemtsevskoye. Since the 19th century, Russian nobility came here in the summer to receive treatment “at the waters.” The purpose of the trip was not only the desire to improve health and enjoy the beauty of the Caucasus, rest in these picturesque places was an integral part of social life. At the same time, several hiking trails were built to the top of the mountain, as well as a horse trail.

Medical tourism is still thriving; local sanatoriums help people get rid of various ailments. Through pipelines, radon water with a high calcium content flows from the upper part of Beshtau to the health resorts of Pyatigorsk; water with a unique chemical composition is also used by health centers in Essentuki and Zheleznovodsk.

Radon is the result of the decay of radium contained in granite. The gas dissolves well in water, saturating it with its ions. Stimulation of human organs with weak alpha radiation has a healing and rejuvenating effect. Radon is quite rare in nature, which is why resort places such as Baden-Baden in Germany or the Russian KavMinVody are known throughout the world.

After the Great Patriotic War, the USSR was looking for uranium deposits to produce the first nuclear bombs, and reserves of uranium ore were discovered in the depths of Beshtau. Prisoners were brought in to extract radioactive material. Now the adits are walled up, and there are warning signs around them. The radiation level does not exceed natural background values.

Nature

The flora and fauna of Beshtau surprises with its species diversity. The slopes are covered with relict forests: oaks, beeches, hornbeams and ash trees grow here. At the top of the mountain lies a subalpine meadow with dozens of rare plant species, many of which are listed in the Red Book. For example, Beshtaugorsk poppy is not found anywhere else in the world. Scarlet flowers the size of a saucer swing on stems 1-1.5 m high. Birds of prey, wild boars, pheasants, foxes and hares live in protected areas at the foot. Hunting and collecting plants is prohibited.

Sights of Beshtau

The mountain holds many secrets that remain to be unraveled. For centuries, people have found here shelters from enemy attacks and secluded places to perform religious rituals.

Temple of the Sun

On the northeastern slope there is a rocky outcrop with boulders, where seekers of anomalous zones and “places of power” with special energy flock. Over the platform near the cliff hangs a giant stone with a spherical hole at the bottom, created either by nature or by people. The monolith rests on 3 points of support, like other ancient megalithic structures. According to one version, these are the preserved ruins of the Scythian Temple of the Sun. According to another, a block is a natural geological formation: magma, saturated with gases, squeezed onto the surface, took on a bizarre shape when it solidified.

Tourists try to get to this place in order to experience the mystical influence of the mysterious structure. There are many stories and legends associated with the northeastern slope, including encounters with aliens and Bigfoot. Local residents claim that you can see flying fireballs here.

Assumption of the Second Athos Beshtaugorsky Monastery

Since the time of Ivan the Terrible, hermit monks have settled on the southwestern slope of Mount Beshtau. At the beginning of the 20th century, Orthodox ascetics who arrived from Holy Mount Athos founded a holy monastery here. Thanks to them, a lake with amazing pink lilies, nicknamed “Pyatigorsk lotuses,” appeared here. In 1927, the Beshtaugorsky monastery was closed and gradually collapsed to the ground. Currently, the monastery has been restored and is open to visits by pilgrims and guests. Divine services in the temple are held daily.

How to get to Mount Beshtau

You can get to the start of the hiking routes to climb the mountain by car from Pyatigorsk along the Beshtaugorsk ring. Public transport running between Pyatigorsk and Lermontov is also suitable for this purpose: you need to get off at the turn of Dachnaya Street (stop “Cemetery”), from it to the monastery the distance is about 3 km, then the path to the top lies. On Sunday morning, a bus leaves from the music school in Pyatigorsk to the Beshtaugorsky monastery. Another way to get to the foot or ring road around the mountain is to use the mobile application for calling a taxi Uber, Yandex.Taxi, Maxim, Real-KMV, TaxSee.

The route can also start from the Zheleznovodsk railway station. At the Slavyanovsky spring in the Resort Park, guides gather groups for hiking trips. The ascent and descent take about 5-7 hours.

Panorama “View from Mount Beshtau”

Video about grief

Mount Beshtau (Stavropol Territory, Russia) - detailed description, location, reviews, photos and videos.

• Last minute tours in Russia

Previous photo Next photo

It was this mountain that gave the name to the main city of the region - Pyatigorsk, “Beshtau” translated means “Five-domed”. It has 5 peaks, only 3-4 are visible from the ground, all at once can be seen only from above. At the foot of the mountain lies Pyatigorye - a famous resort area in Russia with unique mineral springs. It appeared thanks to laccoliths - ancient unformed volcanoes, which Beshtau once was. In the second half of the 20th century, a deposit of uranium ore was found here, and 40 adits were mined over several years.

One of the heads of Beshtau - Big Tau - is the highest peak of the Caucasian mineral waters - 1400 m above sea level. The remaining chapters: Maly Tau - 1254 m, Goat Rocks - 1167 m, Fox Nose - 1124 m, Lokhmataya - 1080 m.

You can climb Beshtau only on foot along hiking trails. There are no roads or funiculars here. Several equipped healing springs with different compositions flow from the mountain range - two hot and two cold. The nature here resembles the Alpine, and huge oaks, beeches, hornbeams, and ash trees grow in the relict forests. At the foot stands the Assumption of the Second Athos Beshtaugorsky Monastery - a follower of the destroyed monastery of the 9th century.

Practical information

Address: Stavropol Territory, suburb of Pyatigorsk. Coordinates: 44.095783, 43.025125.

How to get there: from the railway station, Pyatigorsk bus station, 30 minutes by car.

SOMETHING ABOUT BESHTAU FROM WHAT I KNOW ABOUT IT

Beshtau Island above the ocean of clouds.

I want to talk about one of my loves, but not for a woman, I love all the women of my Fatherland, but about my love for the mountain. Legends have been written about this mountain by the peoples who lived in its vicinity at different times. I will not repeat them and will describe my vision and feeling of this mountain.

I first saw her in 1948. My father, who served in naval aviation near Vladivostok, brought his family on vacation to the Stavropol region, where my mother was born and numerous relatives lived at that time. Driving around it, I first became acquainted with the sultry steppe, with its watermelons and the night sky, blazing lightning in the south, then we visited the city of Grozny, and from there we came to Pyatigorsk. Here I was struck by the mountains surrounding the city, so similar to the Far Eastern hills, only higher and steeper. Beshtau looked especially majestic. It seemed to me that this mountain covered half the sky. Mom told me that even before the war, she and a group of students were at the top of it and that she saw some indescribably beautiful poppies on the mountain. At that time I could not even dream of such a feat, and the mountain was tightly closed to visitors.

Years passed and we traveled the entire Union from ocean to ocean, after my father was transferred to the reserve in 1960. arrived from the polar Severomorsk to Pyatigorsk for permanent residence. I saw again the mountains that had once amazed me, but they were no longer so high and somehow more accessible, and I began to dream of climbing the most majestic of them.

I took this dream with me to Moscow, entering MPEI, and after graduating from the institute, I carried it through the Urals, Yakutia and Primorye, Sakhalin, Western and Eastern Siberia.

He arrived in Pyatigorsk with his wife and future son in 1970. It would seem that this is a mountain - go, but work with long business trips, family, etc., etc. did not allow the dream to come true. And only when my son was already six years old, the two of us decided on this feat.

Since then I have climbed the mountain many, many times, trying new routes. He helped hundreds of people, adults and young, climb to its peak and showed this miracle given to us by Nature.

How nice it is to see the delight in the eyes of people who have risen to its summit for the first time. After a grueling, for beginners, climb, shortness of breath and fatigue, suddenly find yourself at the top. Delight and feeling of flight! Your hands open up on their own, like wings, and it seems as if you’re just about to fly up into the wind. Below are all the cities of the Caucasus and the laccolithic mountains, and in the south the horizon is blocked by the snow-white chain of the Greater Caucasus. On a clear day, all its peaks from Elbrus to Kazbek are clearly visible.

BESHTAU - from Turkic besh - five, tau - mountain. To the east of the main peak, Bolshoi Tau, stretches a spur of the Goat Rocks, ending with the Peredovaya or Suslik rock. The southern spur ends with the Fox Nose rock. The southwestern spur ends with the Shaggy Kurgan, and from the west the peak of the Small Tau adjoins the Big Tau.

The massif of Mount Beshtau is so highly developed that you can go to this mountain every Sunday for the rest of your life, and always along a different, yet untrodden path.

Beshtau is beautiful in any weather. In the summer heat we go to it for coolness, which begins already in the forest, which has enveloped the mountain in a green blanket on all sides. In autumn, winter and early spring, often when the city is covered in dank darkness, it is fabulously sunny and warm on its peaks. Scilla, violets and crocuses bloom in the southern temperatures. And below spread a white ocean of clouds glowing in the sun. Like islands in the ocean, the peaks of the laccolith mountains Mashuka, Zmeyka, Camel, Yutsy, Dzhutsy, etc. float in white waves. In the south, like the distant shore of the ocean, the ice that gave birth to these islands, Elbrus and the entire Caucasian ridge, shines. On such a day you can see the Brocken miracle - your own shadow on the clouds with a rainbow halo around your head. To see all this, you may have to climb to the top more than once in any weather. But I dare to assure you that not a single trip will disappoint you. In early spring, you can see from the mountain the lilac mist of buds swelling on the trees, and a week later, transparent green clouds of opened leaves. In winter, in a fairy-tale forest, asleep under a blanket of snow, you suddenly come across clearings deeply plowed by wild boars. It is difficult to see them themselves - they are a very sensitive animal, but I have seen them more than once. I saw their “beds” and their “sanatorium”, where they take mud baths. I saw a lot more and can show you on Mount Beshtau.

BESHTAU SACRED

It so happened that now I see Mount Beshtau and another completely different one.

On the expedition of the Pyatigorsk branch of the Russian Geographical Society to the Northern Elbrus region by chance, and maybe. and it was no coincidence that a specialist in megalithic cultures (cultures of large stones), Doctor of Technical Sciences from St. Petersburg, Vyacheslav Tokarev, ended up. He taught us to see what we had not noticed before and passed by. It turned out that the stones can tell us a lot.

The expedition discovered megalithic monuments among the glaciers of Elbrus and at its foot - Temples of the Earth, the Sun, cup stones, altars and thanksgivings, as well as something clearly man-made, but inexplicable and created by currently inaccessible technologies.

After that, I began to look at Beshtau with different eyes. I saw numerous settlements, megalithic temple complexes and fortress bastions, quarries and traces of metal smelting. Places of worship, residential places and places of fierce battles. Of course, all this is not visible clearly, but in artifacts that have been preserved for centuries, in the earth and stones - megaliths. For example, on a rock under which I often pitched a tent, I suddenly saw a chain of 15 hole-punch holes making up a dotted line. I don’t understand how it was possible not to notice them before.

Punching in the rock.

The Beshtau rocks consist of a very durable mineral - trachyliparite. My attempt to cut out such a hole was unsuccessful. The chisel immediately became dull without leaving a noticeable mark on the rock. The dowel of the mounting gun shattered into several fragments, leaving a barely noticeable hole.

This mineral turned out to be very valuable. In terms of strength, it is comparable to basalt, and with cement it forms a monolith. It is used for critical reinforced concrete structures, for example for the Volga-Don Canal. It also has a unique property - very high resistance to aggressive chemical environments. Baths made from it in chemical production last 6–10 times longer than baths made of stainless steel.

Man has used this stone since ancient times. At Beshtau, Zmeevaya, Verblyudka, Razvalka we found numerous traces of its extraction and processing. More than a dozen millstone blanks of varying degrees of readiness were discovered under the Fox Nose rock. The diameter of the found blanks is from 60 to 120 cm. A millstone made of such stone, almost without being worn out, could provide flour to more than one thousand people for many years. Small-diameter stones could be used as sharpening stones or for the construction of columns in architecture.

Blocks of stone blanks were cut out of the rock using chains of punches into which wooden wedges were driven. Then the wedges were soaked. Water and frost cracked open the stone with a roar.

This technology is very ancient and was used in the construction of the Egyptian pyramids. A similar millstone with holes lies at the foot of the Cheops pyramid (see “The Secret of the Seven Pyramids” on the Internet).

With her help, the Thunder-stone on which the monument to Peter I was erected in St. Petersburg was also chipped off.

At the beginning of the 20th century, such stone was imported to Russia from France.

The most valuable thing was hidden in the depths of the mountain. Belgian concessionaires bought part of the mountain from Russia in the 30s of the last century and began poking around in it, but not for long. Stalin, suspecting something was wrong, closed this concession, and at the same time the mountain itself.

Uranium ore was discovered in the mountain. And it is likely that the first Soviet atomic bomb was made from Beshtaugorsk uranium.

The mines have been closed for a long time and since the mid-70s the mountain has again become accessible to the public. Tourists, timidly at first and then more and more boldly, began to explore it. Nowadays it is a real tourist and mountaineering Mecca. On Sundays, mountain tourists and climbers train here, hundreds of nature lovers relax here, unfortunately they are not always cultured enough.

It was not only the valuable stone that attracted people to Beshtau. Since time immemorial, people have settled at the foot of the mountain, enjoyed its protection and glorified their Gods here.

There are several places of worship on the mountain. Notable is the “Temple of the Sun” located on the eastern edge below the main peak, about a hundred meters in height. On the top of the rock lies, supported by three points, a stone that looks like a tent. From west to east there is an entrance in the stone, like a tent. But to enter it, you need to sit down and lower your head to your knees. But more than ten people can stand inside the temple stone. The sunrise exit is wide and open. The megalith is clearly not local. All the rocks around are broken and sharp, but this one is round. It’s as if it was molded from stone dough like a loaf and laid on top of a rock. Before leaving the tent on the eastern and southern sides there is a flat path, fenced off by rock railings from a terrible abyss a hundred meters away. Who, how, when and why erected this tent here? Unfortunately, we will never know this.

Next to the Sun Temple there is another equally amazing stone. This bear is a symbol of the Vedic God Veles.

This megalith also stands on three fulcrums. You can crawl under your head, under your belly, and even under your rump. But this is dangerous because... The megalith stands on a very steep slope, and its head looks into the abyss.

These megaliths look like man-made sculptures, mysteriously raised to sky-high heights.

Above these megaliths, on the path to the summit, there is a break in the rock ridge oriented north to south. Such megalithic monuments are called “Gates of the Sun”.

And below, slightly above the ring road, two “temples of the Earth” were discovered. The Temple or Earth Stone is a megalith (large stone) set on three supporting stones. One of the supports is often composite, i.e. consists of two stones set on top of each other.

Such stones of the Earth are also found on other mountains of Pyatigorye and even among the glaciers of Elbrus.

They were used for ritual purposes. In particular, the newborn was accepted into the Clan and given a name only after he was carried under the Earth stone. The child seemed to be born from the womb of mother Earth, and mother cheese Earth took him under her protection

Another megalithic temple complex is located at rock B O Rona under Lisim Nos. And if the temple of the Sun was intended for priests and initiates. mass mysteries could not be held there, but here the place allows for mass celebrations. This place has amazing energy. The megalithic monuments of this temple are located at a short distance from each other. Apparently, rituals were held here on the Vedic path that connected the upper and lower worlds.

Grotto with a sarcophagus in the Crow rock.

From the south side of Rock B O The rhona, at its base, has a grotto several meters deep. Inside the grotto, in the middle of a flat area, protrudes an oblong stone about a meter and a half long, with traces of unfinished processing, similar to a sarcophagus. It is oriented from north to south. On the south side, in the partially chipped part of the stone, there is a blind rectangular hole.

We saw a very similar megalithic structure on one of the peaks of Mount Razvalka. There, on the summit platform, a depression approximately 2.5 by 2.5 meters was cut out. A bench has been carved into the wall of this recess, and at the bottom of it lies a large stone of an elongated oval shape with a round blind hole in its upper part.

On the wooded shoulder of the ridge between Bastion and Rock B O In 2008, the Pyatigorsk branch of the Russian Geographical Society built a stone labyrinth modeled on the labyrinths on the Solovetsky Islands, guarded by the local templars.

An amazing event is connected with this labyrinth.

We folded it for the May holidays. They called the witch Oksana and she, being half a thousand kilometers from Beshtau, looked at the labyrinth and said that pillars of light were emanating from its center, and it was somehow connected with the summer solstice. It was decided on this day to hold a ritual to animate the labyrinth. From the evening until sunrise, a ritual-festival was held.

And so, from the side of the rising Sun, above us in the sky from the clouds, we didn’t even notice when, a pattern of seven concentric circles was formed, similar to the labyrinth we had built. This phenomenon shocked everyone present.

We were distracted from the heavens, and the cloudy labyrinth dissipated, but as soon as we all entered the labyrinth, this miracle appeared above us again.

Somewhat later, a powerful cumulus cloud formed in the sky in the same place, on which those present counted from three to five, depending on their imagination, faces.

Another ritual place was located in the Toad Tract. It is poorly visible, as it has suffered significantly from time to time. In its place, Christianity, which defeated Vedism, built a monastery, which was destroyed in the twentieth century by the next religion - atheism. With the collapse of communist atheism in the 21st century, the monastery was built again.

The tract was paved with dirt roads, covered with forest plantations and some buildings surrounded by high fences were built.

We were never destined to see the main megalithic temple complex, since it turned out to be covered with rock dumps from the Beshtaugorsk uranium mine.

The mine closed the entire mountain from tourists for many years, entangled it with barbed wire, cut through the slopes with roads and reinforced concrete structures, and filled up entire gorges with its dumps.

True, now the mine itself has become the object of illegal and very dangerous caving tourism.

BESHTAU – MOUNTAIN AND PEOPLE

Mount Beshtau and its surroundings have always attracted people. They worked in Beshtau and lived here, as evidenced by the remains of dugout dwellings and ceramic shards found everywhere.

Perhaps all the peoples of the near and far ecumene have visited here. Rarely did any of the nations come peacefully. More often these lands were conquered. And therefore, wherever you dig in the area, you can dig up an arrowhead or spearhead, a bronze bracelet or a mirror. One gets the impression that settlements were everywhere here. The mountains made it possible to successfully defend against the predatory raids of neighbors.

The most protected places from banditry raids were the “Bastion” peak on the Fox Nose on the southern spur of Mount Beshtau and the Peredovaya rock (Suslik) on the eastern spur. The bastion is a natural tower-fortress more than a hundred meters high with very steep rocky and scree slopes, which are impossible to climb without clinging to everything that comes your way. At the top of the Bastion there is a fairly large flat pit, surrounded by a two to three meter high rock wall. Most likely, the pit was formed during the removal of stone for defense; it looks very much like a quarry. In general, the rock looks like a chess piece - a round. When defending, there was no need to even throw stones. It was enough to simply push them over the edge of the wall and it, rolling to the very foot of the Bastion, would demolish everything living and non-living. It was pointless to shoot upward from a bow, since the arrow flew at the end and only replenished the arsenal of the defenders.

Under the Peredovaya rock, more than a thousand arrowheads of various arrows were found, two and three-lobed, armor-piercing and even ritual gilded, which were used as the last cartridge. Spearheads and various blades were also found here.

The front line has a flat top, where several dozen archers could hide and fight back

On it there is a depression carved into the rock, in which, apparently, there was a burial of some noble person.

In order to have time to hide from restless neighbors, people settled near these citadels. The mountain has always provided an advantage in defense, shelter and clean water from springs. Therefore, traces of ancient settlements are found near all laccolithic mountains.

I know about a dozen springs with excellent fresh water in Beshtau. At the foot of the mountain there are mineral hot and cold springs, and in the mountain itself there are cave lakes with the purest drinking water.

RING ROAD

WITH In the 19th century, Mount Beshtau served as a wonderful holiday destination for the resort public. Horse trails, now forgotten, and walking trails were laid to the top of the mountain - Lermontovskaya from Zheleznovodsk and the Leuzinger trail from Pyatigorsk, restored by the Caucasian Mountain Society and the Russian Geographical Society.

In the 20s of the last century (1927), as part of the state program to combat unemployment, a ring road was built around the mountain at an altitude of about 800 m above sea level. It goes around all five peaks of Mount Beshtau. The total length of the road is 14 km. This is a wonderful walking route for any time of year.

An asphalt road has been laid from Lermontovskaya station to the ring road. The district road is also paved to the monastery. On the route along the ring road, within a 5-10 minute walk up or down from it, there are many interesting natural objects that are simply criminal to pass by. This is the “Rock Garden” or “Stone Chaos”, with which the famous Alupka stone chaos cannot be compared, and the Fox Nose rock – the love of rock climbers. Walking further along this road you can climb to Raven Rock and the labyrinth. Very close by will be the “Poppy Glade” with unique Betaugra poppies, which are endemic and relicts. That is, nowhere in the world are there such poppies, reaching one and a half meters in height and with a flower the size of a tea saucer. This plant has been preserved in Beshtau since the pre-glacial period.

It is very tender and plucked, falling off after 10 - 15 minutes.

Beshraugorsky poppy.

In the same place, but below the road, there is the Dobry spring. True nature lovers cleared its bed, cleared the surrounding area of ​​debris, and installed stone tables and benches. And now it’s very pleasant to relax here in the cool shade of the trees, escaping here from the summer city heat.

Diphilipea.

Beshtaugorsky gramophone.

The flora of Mount Beshtau can only be described in a decent-sized book. I did not set myself such a goal and am returning to my favorite mountain.

ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF MOUNT BESHTAU

There are 17 volcanic mountains in the Caucasian Mineral Waters region.

1. Kokurtly, 2. Dagger, 3. Bald, 4. Snake, 5. Bull, 6. Camel, 7. Mashuk, 8. Razvalka, 9. Iron, 10. Beshtau, 11. Honey, 12. Mangy, 13. Golden Mound, 14. Yutsa, 15. Jutsa, 16. Dull, 17. Sharp.

Such mountains are called laccoliths, i.e. underdeveloped volcanoes, the magma of which did not spread over the surface of the Earth. However, not for all Kavminvodsk mountains this name is indisputable.

Unfortunately, I am not familiar with volcanologists or geomorphologists working in the Elbrus volcanic region, so what I have read from various sources and speculate about it myself may be controversial or even incorrect.

So, my vision of the origin of Elbrus, Beshtau and all the laccolithic mountains of the Kavminvod.

The Eurasian lithospheric plate has the oldest fault in the earth's crust, stretching from the Main Caucasus Range through the Caucasian Sea and the Valdai Hills to the White Sea.

This plate consists of the main rocks of the Earth's mantle - gneisses, basalts, granites. Its thickness is about five kilometers.

When the Eurasian lithospheric plate collided with the Arabian plate (about 8.5 million years ago), individual islands of the future Caucasus Range rose from the waters of the primary Tethys Ocean, which covered all of present-day Europe and part of Asia. Over millions of years it has grown to its current state and continues to grow by tens of millimeters per year. The ocean retreated, leaving about five kilometers of sediment on the plate. There is plenty of evidence of this. Look carefully under your feet in the vicinity of Kislovodsk and the entire Rocky Range and you can see fossilized shells of mollusks and huge, up to a meter or more in diameter, fossilized shells of ammonites. In Pyatigorsk, while digging a pit, the skeleton of a lobe-finned fish was discovered.

In the Kavminvod region, on this ancient fault, during the rise of the Caucasian ridge, the plate broke and cracks formed transverse to the ancient fault.

The manifestation of the fault is clearly visible from the top of Mount Mashuk. If you look from it to the south, towards Elbrus, you will see that Elbrus, the mountains Jutsa, Yutsa and Mashuk are on the same, almost straight line. The remaining laccolith mountains are located on the transverse cracks of the fault and on the fault itself.

Place your palms horizontally, finger to finger, like the two plates described above and begin to move them, folding your palms with your fingers up, and you will see how the Caucasian anticline grew. This is how the Caucasus grew and continues to grow. Lava rushed under this wedge, and volcanic gases began to accumulate. The energy was heating up, the pressure was growing, and the “roof” was weakening. At some point, the energy, comparable perhaps to hundreds or thousands of thermonuclear bombs, overcame the resistance of a ten-kilometer roof, and a catastrophic explosion occurred. On the surface it formed a multi-kilometer crater. The blast wave swept through the atmosphere, lithosphere and the lava underneath. In the area of ​​the most developed cracks in the ancient fault, lava was pressed into them by this explosion and raised layers of sedimentary rocks, forming mound-like mountains such as Mashuk, Lysaya, Yutsa and others. In places where cracks were more developed, especially at their intersections, the lava was able to rise significantly higher. In the place where Mount Beshtau now rises, the lava passed through five kilometers of the thickness of the continental plate and almost the same thickness of sedimentary rocks, but, moving out of the uplifted layers of sedimentary rocks, it did not flow out because... cooled down and thickened enough.

The lava tongues cooled first at the point of contact with the ground. This is how a very durable stone cover was formed on the lava tongues. Inside these tongues, the boiling of lava and the release of gases continued. The gases rose upward, collected under this cover and reached its dome.

Traces of these processes are very clearly visible on the rocks of Lisiy Nos, Khlebnaya Gorka and especially on the Eagle Rocks. Here the gases, collecting under the dome of the cover, formed extended galleries, huge bubbles, transitions and long trough-shaped vertical channels. Over time, the cover collapsed and collapsed, exposing channels formed by gas bubbles.

During the next explosions of Elbrus, thousands or millions of years later, tongues of frozen and still hot lava could be pushed even higher, and some would rise above the surface. Sedimentary rocks raised and cracked by lava tongues were destroyed and washed away over time by rains. They formed a powerful pedestal for the frozen lava rocks.

And all this probably happened before the eyes of the people who had mastered these places. Everything they saw was preserved in fairy tales. They contain a fiery river of lava flow, and the Inferno of cloak-like lava spills, and the Kalinov (Kalony) bridge across the Red Gorge (Kyzylkol), and springs of dead and living water at the foot of Elbrus in Dzhilysu.

Full member of the Russian Geographical Society

Stasenko Vladimir Dmitrievich

Not far from Zheleznovodsk you can see very beautiful mountains: Medovaya, Zheleznaya, Razvalka, Beshtau. The latter is the highest peak of the Kavminvod. From it you can see a panorama of the entire resort town, and in good weather a traveler can contemplate and even translated its name means “Five Mountains”.

First mentions

One of the first historical essays in which Beshtau is mentioned is the book of Ibn Battuta. This Arab geographer and traveler visited here in the fourteenth century, after which he told about the healing springs of Pyatigorye. In addition, descriptions of the foothills were found in such Greek writers as Ptolemy and Agatamar. They talked about how there were beautiful pastures and thoroughbred horses. And Beshtau is mentioned in Russian history. The mountain and its surroundings are described in chronicles and other historical documents. For example, in 1627 they were mentioned in the famous “Book of the Great Drawing”. In the essays of N.M. Karamzin also repeatedly mentions Pyatigorye.

Natural monument - Beshtau

The mountain itself is an example of a failed volcano. The fact is that the viscous and thick lava with a not very high temperature could not fully spread along the slopes. Therefore, Beshtau is a laccolithic mountain with “stone bags” filled with magma that flowed to the surface and solidified in the form of icicles. Back in 1915, travelers and geographers proposed to consider this high peak (1400.9 m above sea level). Each peak of the mountain has its own name: Small and Big Beshtau, Goat Rocks, Two Brothers, Fox Nose. From Zheleznovodsk, the elevation is 760 meters. There is a ring road around the mountain, built in 1927 at an altitude of 820 m above sea level. A little more than six kilometers is the winding path to the top of Beshtau. Zheleznovodsk, Lermontov and other surrounding settlements are clearly visible from there. The ascent itself takes on average two to three hours.

What is Beshtau famous for?

The mountain was examined in 1914 by an expedition from Rostov-on-Don. She gave a description that presumably refers to the Scythian temple of the Sun, located on the crest of the spur. Back in 1851, the famous archaeologist Akritas made discoveries indicating the presence of traces of ancient Scythians in the Caucasus. A majestic stone was described as confirmation

In the form of a “Scythian cap”, which was installed on three abutments. In addition, a domed grotto was found.

Deuteroathon Monastery

At the foot of the mountain there is now a monastery, which was founded back in 1904 near Beshtau. The mountain was not chosen by chance - it was marked with a cross in the photographs brought by John of Kronstadt, who blessed the creation of the monastery. At the beginning of the twentieth century, 9 monasteries were built. However, after the revolution, most of the buildings were destroyed by the Bolsheviks. Then there was a sanatorium for the disabled here, and before the war there was an orphanage. The building was restored for its original purpose not so long ago - in 1999-2001.

Mount Beshtau is unique. Deciduous forest grows at its foot, and some peaks are covered with subalpine grass.

(G) (O) (I) 44.098056 , 43.022222 44°05′53″ n. w. 43°01′20″ E. d. /  44.098056° s. w. 43.022222° E. d.(G) (O) (I)(T) A country Russia Region Stavropol region Top height 1400 m

Beshtau(from Karachay besh- five and tau- mountain) - an isolated five-domed mountain - laccolith, the highest of the 17 remnant igneous mountains of Pyatigorye on the Caucasian Mineral Waters. Height 1400 m. Natural monument. Gave the name to the surrounding area (Pyatigorye) and the city of Pyatigorsk.

Located in the central part of Pyatigorye. The largest in area among the 17 remnant mountains, with a diameter at the foot of about 8 km.

The mountain is a regional complex (landscape) natural monument (Resolution of the Bureau of the Stavropol Regional Committee of the CPSU and the Executive Committee of the Regional Council of Workers' Deputies dated September 15, 1961 No. 676 “On measures to protect nature in the region”).

Geological structure

The relatively flat (7-8°) lower part of the mountain is composed of marine Paleogene clays, less often marls and siltstones and is dissected by a radial system of deep beams. Starting from a height of 820 m, the upper part is an intensely dissected rock massif of beshtaunites with an area of ​​​​about 3 km², with individual blocks of limestone, sandstone and clay shales of Cretaceous age. It consists of the main peak - Big Beshtau - 1400 m high and four main spurs with peaks radiating from it (seven spurs in total, unofficial names in brackets):

The bases of the cliffs and crevices are dotted with extensive stone screes. In the saddle between Big and Small Beshtau, the remains of a cover of variegated pisolite tuffs - traces of Neogene volcanic activity - have been preserved.

Minerals

The Lermontovskoye uranium ore deposit, developed in the 50-70s of the 20th century, with the center of their extraction and enrichment in the city of Lermontov, is associated with the intrusion of beshtaunites. The composition of the ores is dominated by oxides and hydrous phosphates (mica) of uranium. Less common is the uranium-containing titanium-rare earth mineral davidite and the aqueous phosphate of uranium, cerium and calcium found only on Beshtau - lermontovite. Associated minerals: quartz, chalcedony, calcite, fluorite, datolite, pyrite, limonite.

The main natural wealth of the mountain - mineral waters - is formed by two deposits and an exploitation site. On the southwestern slope of the mountain, in the Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous layers, the Beshtaugorskoye deposit is formed, containing two types of waters: hot (65-75 ° C) carbon dioxide hydrocarbonate-sulfate with a high content of silicon and hydrogen sulfide, close to Zheleznovodsk, and low-carbon dioxide sulfate-bicarbonate calcium -sodium, with a total flow rate of about 450 m³ per day.

In the fractured Upper Cretaceous limestones on the eastern slope of Beshtau, the Inozemtsevskoye deposit of carbon dioxide sulfate-hydrocarbonate sodium waters of the Zheleznovodsk type with proven reserves of 360 m³ per day has been explored.

In the upper part of the mountain, in fractured beshtaunites, cold sulfate-hydrocarbonate calcium radon waters are produced, which are part of the Beshtaugorsky operational area, with reserves of about 300 m³ per day.

The rock massif of the summit cone, the central part of Beshtau, is composed of strong crystalline rocks. The waters are formed in the upper zone of the main cone; in terms of salt content, they are low-mineralized, but in areas where granite predominates, they are enriched with radon, since radium, the decay of which forms radon, is usually greater in granites than in other rocks. Where the path of water through the granite massif is quite long, and the rocks are severely destroyed, the concentration of radon in the water can reach 100 Mach units. (Mache unit = 3.64 × 10 −10 curies per liter.) The Pyatigorsk radon clinic operates on waters with a concentration of 50 Mache units (in medicinal waters used for baths, radon must be at least 14 Mache units, provided that they do not require heating, during which part of the radon is lost).

Some springs have been improved. Beshtau mineral waters are part of the resource potential of the resort cities of Essentuki and Zheleznovodsk. Radon water is supplied through a mineral pipeline to hospitals in Pyatigorsk.

Flora and fauna

On Beshtau, a relict island biogeocenosis with altitudinal zonation is preserved. Up to a height of 1100 m, the slopes are covered with beech-oak-ash-hornbeam forest, which makes up the main part of the Beshtaugorsky forest, consisting of more than 60 species of trees and shrubs. The eastern beech plantation located there occupies 177 hectares. In the subalpine zone, broad-leaved forest gives way to crooked forests with cold-resistant warty birch and Caucasian mountain ash. Above is a zone of steppe subalpine meadows, forming a clearing with an area of ​​461 hectares on the main peak. Representatives of typical subalpine meadow flora are found on it - lovely primrose, Wilhelm's myrtle, yellow rhododendron.

Among the endemic species of the mountain, the bract poppy is known, distinguished by its very large flowers. The forest is rich in mushrooms, mainly lamellar mushrooms (especially champignons, chanterelles, capillaries, milk mushrooms, umbrellas). The fauna of the mountain is also diverse: wild boars, birds of prey, pheasants, hares, foxes.

Second Athos Monastery

On the territory of the monastery

At the foot of the mountain is the Second Athos Monastery. Founded in 1904, closed in 1928, revived in the 1990s.

In 2004, about 20 brothers lived there. The monastery houses an open-air church unique to Orthodoxy. Electricity is supplied to the monastery.

Nature management

From 1949 to 1975, uranium deposits were developed inside Beshtau. The mountain has about 50 mined out mines. The mountain administratively belongs to the city of Lermontov (founded in connection with uranium mining), an abandoned mining town (Village No. 1) in the area of ​​​​the exit from the ring road to Pyatigorsk is a remote part of Lermontov. Even the telephone numbers belonged to the Lermontov automatic telephone exchange (4-digit, now defunct), despite the geographical proximity to Pyatigorsk. The total length of the adits is 150 kilometers. After the work was completed, most of the entrances were concreted.

Radio station

In the second half of the 90s, a radio transmitting station was built on the main peak. During construction, everything needed was delivered by helicopter, plying between the peak and the foot of Beshtau (from the side of the city of Lermontov, in the area of ​​Lake Podlesnoe).

Roads

You can only reach any of the peaks on foot, however, a ring road was built around the entire mountain in 1927 with branches to Pyatigorsk, Zheleznovodsk, Lermontov and the village of Inozemtsevo. The construction of the road is described in a memorial inscription carved on a stone halfway between the exit to Pyatigorsk and the monastery. The road is unpaved; after the restoration of the monastery, the section from it to the exit to Pyatigorsk was paved (although the road itself from the ring road to Pyatigorsk remains unpaved). Along the road, on the rocks, monks carved quotes from the Bible and the works of the church fathers, as well as one image of a cross. On one of the spurs from the Mineralnye Vody side there is a tall metal cross.

Currently, the road from Pyatigorsk to the monastery is completely paved.

Notes

Links

• Mount Beshtau - the first site about the mountain
• English-language site about Beshtau (English)

Sights of Pyatigorsk
	Architectural monuments