Rocks Nikita Crimea. Nikitskaya Cleft (Ayan Rocks). A small landscape miracle in Nikita
It is one of the most favorite places for tourists. In addition to the clear southern sea and a variety of beaches, all kinds of attractions are concentrated in this part of the peninsula, visiting which leaves no time for boredom. Such places that definitely need to be visited include the Nikitskaya Cleft (Ayansky Rocks or Nikitskaya Cleft). This attraction is so called because it is located near the village of Nikita - in the part opposite the coastline. From the Yalta-Alushta highway you can also easily get to the Nikitskaya Cleft, although it is not visible from the highway.
Geographic coordinates of the Nikitskaya Cleft on the map of Crimea GPS - N 44.5188 E 34.2282.
In the village of Nikita, an excursion path begins that leads to the Nikitskaya crevice. It passes through a cedar grove, constantly rushing upward. But very soon a flat area surrounded by rock formations opens before the travelers’ eyes. This is the Nikitskaya Cleft.
It is more than two hundred meters long, and the height of its walls in some places exceeds fifty meters. The distance from wall to wall is about thirty meters. 
On the one side Nikitskaya Cleft there is a rock completely entwined with vines. It remains richly green all summer, since the microclimate here is quite humid, and the bright Crimean sun practically does not reach here. By the way, such climatic conditions make it possible for juniper, pistachio, strawberry, oak, dogwood, hornbeam, wild pear to grow well here - and this is not a complete list of plants that the Nikitskaya Cleft is rich in.
The western edge of the chasm is presented in the form of a stone blockage, the height of which is commensurate with the height of the tract itself. Also in this part, fragments of dishes of ancient people were found, for whom the Nikitsky crevice acted as a home. A deep crack has formed in the south. To prevent its expansion, it was reinforced with a metal mesh. Many small cracks and small grottoes cover the northern rock. An unusual fact is that all four sides of the cleft have different colors: black, gray, beige and even orange.
More Nikitskaya Cleft is a place for training climbers. They even equipped several routes for rock climbers with varying levels of training. Many champions were brought up in this mountainous part of Crimea.
And film crews have come here more than once. “Sportloto 82”, “Children of Captain Grant”, “White Explosion” - all these films were created within the Nikitskaya Cleft. Nikitskaya Cleft is one of the most beautiful
As if illustrating the process of formation of rocky relief. Training routes for rock climbers.
As if cut by a giant sword, the rocks here form a gloomy, cold gorge. Sheer walls 25–30 m high hang overhead, and a forest grows along the upper edge of the gorge. With a width of about 30 m, the Nikitskaya chasm stretches from east to west for almost 200 m. The kingdom of gloomy rocks is complemented by stone chaos and scree, deep cracks from which the cold emanates. These rocks are a kind of natural condenser and moisture accumulator. All three exits from the chasm are cluttered with pyramidal rocks.
The steepness of the gorge attracts rock climbers here, and its romantic picturesque attracts artists and filmmakers (for example, episodes of the movie “White Explosion” were filmed here). From the crevice you can walk into the mountains. Along the way, you will again encounter isolated limestone rocks in the forest, rising in ledges along the mountain slope. Each rock is a magnificent panoramic point on the surrounding wooded ridges and the distant blue of the sea.
The unique geological and geomorphological conditions of the Nikitskaya Cleft are complemented by interesting vegetation. In a small area of the tract one can count about a hundred species of plants (although many of them are represented by a small number of specimens). At the bottom you can see blackberry and clematis bushes, looking like soft emerald pillows. The lashes of evergreen ivy hide along the cracks. Here and there on the walls there were single gnarled trunks of juniper and Crimean pine. You look and are amazed at the amazing ability of plants to adapt to life literally on bare rocks. At the top, where brown soils have formed, the pine forms a continuous green cover. Keva tree, Greek rowan, and downy oak grow here. The evergreen small-fruited strawberry tree stands out with its red trunk. There are few such trees here - less than a dozen. Near the gorge there are also wild pears, dogwoods, hornbeams, rose hips and other trees and shrubs.
The upper entrance to the chasm is crowned by the Solntsev pyramid, named after the famous landscape specialist. Climbing from this pyramid to the edge of the rocks, you can admire the picturesque panorama of the coast and mountains. From here, from a height of about 250 meters above sea level, the trolleybus route, the Yalta Valley, closed from the sea by Cape Ai-Todor, the Ai-Petri mountain range, and vineyard plantations are clearly visible. From the crevasse you can follow paths to the mountains.
At the entrance to the Nikitskaya Cleft there is a spring Ayan-Koba (name after I. Belyansky), which is a crack in the rock, blocked by a wall of shell rock, resting its base on the concrete roof of the captage collector.
However, the most surprising thing about this place is its unexpectedness. Just ten meters from the highway there is a magical corner of nature - a landscape of a 30-meter kingdom, ruled by gloomy rocks, scree and chaos, deep cracks in the thickness of the limestone that has moved along the mountain slope.
How was the Nikitskaya Cleft formed?
Its occurrence is associated with a fairly rapid rise of the Main Ridge in the last, Quaternary, period of the Earth's history.
During the uplift and warping of the Crimean Mountains, large masses of limestone broke off from the cliffs of the Main Ridge and gradually slid down the slope of the Southern Coast, consisting mainly of compacted clays.
Some massifs stopped at the beginning of their journey at the foot of the Main Ridge; others lingered somewhere in the middle of the southern coast of Crimea (like the nearby Red Stone or Mount Paragilmen), and still others “reached” the Black Sea (like the Genoese rock in Gurzuf and the rock-islands of Adalary in the Gulf of Gurzuf). During the movement, cracks appeared in the limestone massifs, and some of them disintegrated into rocks and blocks.
"Machine Kiss"
Anyone who was on the rocks near the village of Nikita probably saw a commemorative copper tablet screwed directly to the rock wall. It marks the site where mountaineering training took place half a century ago. On the left is the route, which in those days was considered prohibitive - “Machine Kiss” - 6C+.
The legend (in the person of an eyewitness to the events, Valery Pavlotos) says that once a girl Masha Ivanova took part in the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions competitions held on these rocks. She was what we call “an athlete, a Komsomol member, a beauty” - a member of the strongest team in the Union “Vodnik”, all the guys, without exception, sought her attention.
So, this same Masha Ivanova, encouraging the athletes to achieve new records, promised her kiss to the one who completed the route from beginning to end. The guys rushed to the rock. The rock turned out to be more stubborn, she didn’t even care about Masha’s kisses, she threw the guys off as if she were alive. The athletes became despondent. Then, to encourage them, the climber promised “anything” to the conqueror of the route. And then Shura Gubanov, the most famous climber at that time, entered into single combat with the rock. He climbed and climbed, higher and higher: half the route was covered, another quarter, then he reached the shelf at the very top... Masha began to bite her lips nervously: maybe she had gotten too excited, making promises! And Shura walked towards the goal. There was very little left, he grabbed a dry tree that had grown under the cliff, and... it crashed down with a deafening crash!!! You should have heard the scream of the Machine of Joy when the contender for its prize was doomedly hanging on the belay...
How to get there?
To get to the Nikitskaya Cleft, you need to get to the western outskirts of the village of Nikita above Massandra. Behind a small meadow clearing, diagonally cut by a well-paved path, a steep-walled massif of limestone rose. Approaching it, we will find ourselves at a huge opening in the rock. At the entrance, like a stone guard, rose a pyramidal rock, torn into two parts. The impression is as if some giant tore the rock mass in half and, slightly moving the lower part, carved out a huge stone corridor - the Nikitsky chasm.
Just east of Massandra, within its village council, is the small village of Nikita, which is part of the resort area of Greater Yalta. With such a “Slavic” name, but received from the Greeks, it is known on the peninsula primarily for its famous, contemporary with the war with Napoleon. But the village also has another tourist attraction - the stone Nikitskaya Cleft. In Crimea it is quite in demand among tourists.
Where is the crevasse located in Crimea?
The Ayan Rocks - as the crevice is also called - are located in the small village of Nikita, 10 km east of. Heading to this reminder along the South Coast Highway, you can also stop by - it is located right along the route.
Ayan Rocks on the map of Crimea
History of the attraction
This amazingly beautiful place is located very close to the trolleybus route and, in the form of a characteristic depression among the mountain slope, is visible even from passing cars. It looks as if a fairy-tale giant cut the rock mass with an unprecedented sword, forming a wide chasm about 200 m long and 30-40 m wide. Truly indescribable sensations!
The rocky walls of the Nikitskaya Cleft sometimes rise 25-30 m. Once upon a time, millions of years ago, the Main Crimean Ridge began to grow sharply, as a result of which some of its limestone massifs broke away from the main ridge and slid down through soft clays, like sleds on snow , to sea. Along the way, they could not withstand the stress and split into pieces. This is how the Ayan Rocks came into being.
Legends of the Nikitskaya Cleft
Like many notable Crimean places, the crevasse has its own legends. Some even have their roots in antiquity, but there are also relatively young ones that arose in our time. For example, there is a difficult climbing route on the local rocks called “Mashkin’s Kiss”.
They say that 40 years ago it was not passed by anyone. One day, during the next competition, a beautiful girl Masha promised the guys: whoever passes this path will receive a kiss from her at the top.
The brave souls tried all day, but everyone failed. And only one was able to reach almost the top. Almost, because at the last moment, grabbing onto a dry tree, he fell and hung on the safety rope. So the route remained untraveled and received its name.
A small landscape miracle in Nikita
For the Ayan Rocks in Crimea, they have long become a training stand and competition site. It is full of a wide variety of routes - both difficult ones, similar to the one described, and easy ones for training. The convenience of the place is also explained by the fact that it is incredibly easy to get here: get off the trolleybus or minibus - and after a five-minute walk you seem to find yourself in a fairy tale kingdom.
The noise and bustle disappears, the rocks narrow sharply, and it becomes slightly gloomy. Even the air immediately changes, a cool, damp wind blows from deep grottoes and cracks. Thanks to this, the Nikitskaya Cleft has formed its own microclimate, noticeably different from what reigns quite nearby.
These factors have formed a special geomorphological zone here - with its own vegetation and climate regime. Just as climbers train here on the rocks, biologists and geomorphologists study the place, taking advantage of its uniqueness. More than a hundred species of trees and herbs grow in this tiny territory; specific species are found in single specimens. Some trees literally stuck to bare rocks, surprising with their vitality. Even the characteristic stone covering the upper entrance to the chasm is named after the famous landscape expert Solntsev.
What else do the Ayan Rocks hide?
The unique expressiveness of this place was fully appreciated by creative people. 
Probably, in terms of the number of movie scenes filmed here, the Nikitskaya Crevice to the Crimea has no equal. “The Children of Captain Grant”, the film fairy tales of Alexander Rowe, “The White Explosion” - these are just a small part of the films that, albeit partially, were filmed here.
At the entrance to the crevice you can see a small fresh spring - Ayan-Koba. Unfortunately, now its waters almost immediately go into the hydrological reservoir. And having risen above the Solntsev rock, you are amazed to see the suddenly wide open space in front of you.
The endless blue of the sea, the highway winding below like a beautiful asphalt ribbon, the entire Yalta Valley ending with Cape Ai-Todor - all this remains in the photos of tourists. If you wish, you can go even higher into the mountains, along one of the many paths winding among the huge limestone blocks.
How to get to the natural monument?
Getting to the Ayan Rocks is easy by public transport. There are trolleybus No. 2, minibus No. 2 and buses No. 29 and 34.
The easiest way to get to the Nikitskaya Cleft by car from Yalta is this:
Note to tourists
- Address: Nikita village, Big Yalta, Crimea, Russia.
- Coordinates: 44°31′8″N (44.518867), 34°13′44″E (34.228979).
Here it is, the Nikitskaya Cleft in Crimea - a small miracle, a corner of mysterious nature, hidden so close to civilization! An excursion to these regions will definitely be remembered for a long time. Finally, watch a short video about this attraction of the peninsula.
2004 information
Many thanks to the compiler, Andrey Vedenmeer, Yalta, for the materials provided.
NIKITA CLIMBING CENTER
The village of Nikita is located 3 km from Yalta. On the opposite side of the highway from the building of the environmental complex is the Nikitskaya Cleft. This natural monument is a clear illustration of the enormous power of earthly forces that change the relief of the landscape. As if cut by a giant sword, the rocks form a dark, cold gorge. Sheer walls 25-30 m high hang overhead, and a forest grows along the upper edge of the gorge. The 20-meter Nikitskaya chasm stretches from east to west for almost 200 m. The kingdom of gloomy rocks is complemented by stone chaos and scree, deep cracks in the limestone mass displaced along the mountain slope, from which cold emanates even on hot summer days. These rocks are a kind of natural condenser and moisture accumulator. All three exits from the Nikitskaya cleft are cluttered with majestic pyramidal salas. The steepness of the gorge attracts rock climbers, and the romantic beauty of the rocks attracts artists and filmmakers. Nikitsky rocks are the only and unique rock climbing center in Crimea. On Nikitsky Rocks there are 85 hooked routes of categories from 4 to 8c+.
| № | Name | Length | Col. from. | Category |
| Sector A | ||||
| 1 | Scam | 17 | 8 | 6b+ |
| 2 | Ratchet | 16 | 8 | 6a |
| 3 | Goliath | 19 | 10 | 6c |
| 4 | Fandanga | 22 | 10 | 7c |
| 5 | Repeat | 22 | 11 | 7a |
| 6 | Hype | 15 | 8 | 6b |
| 7 | Marilyn | 26 | 13 | 7a+ |
| 8 | Limpopo | 14 | 8 | 6b |
| 9 | Wise | 19 | 10 | 7c+ |
| 10 | Wanderer | 19 | 11 | 8a |
| 11 | Union | 18 | 10 | 6c+ |
| 12 | Esaul | 27 | 14 | 8a |
| 13 | Asteroid | 25 | 12 | 6c+ |
| 14 | Chameleon | 24 | 12 | 7a |
| 15 | Agate | 25 | 11 | 6b+ |
| 16 | Balm for the soul | 22 | 13 | 6c |
| 17 | Gusto | 21 | 11 | 7a |
| 18 | Indiana Jones | 21 | 11 | 6b+ |
| 19 | Tomboy | 22 | 12 | 6b+ |
| 20 | Matador | 14 | 8 | 8c+ |
| 21 | Centaur | 15 | 8 | 8b+ |
| 22 | Fantastic | 16 | 8 | 8a+ |
| 23 | Pilgrim | 26 | 13 | 7c |
| 24 | Caravan | 26 | 12 | 7b |
| 25 | Nerve | 27 | 13 | 7a |
| № | Name | Length | Col. from. | Category |
| Sector B | ||||
| 1 | Aborigine | 27 | 14 | 6b+ / 7a+ |
| 2 | King of the Hill | 27 | 12 | 6c |
| 3 | Scythian | 26 | 13 | 8b+ |
| 4 | Squadron | 25 | 11 | 8a |
| 5 | Helicopter | 21 | 10 | 7c |
| 6 | Car kiss | 19 | 9 | 6b+ |
| 7 | Quarry | 19 | 10 | 6c+ |
| 8 | On horseback | 23 | 11 | 7c+ |
| 9 | Anniversary | 22 | 11 | 7a |
| 10 | Benefit | 22 | 11 | 7a |
| 11 | Don't throw grandma into the nettles | 22 | 11 | 7c |
| 12 | Last rollout | 20 | 10 | 7a/7b |
| 13 | Monkey | 20 | 9 | 6b+ |
| 14 | The daring Pashka | 19 | 9 | 8a |
| 15 | Love games | 18 | 10 | 7a+ |
| 16 | Breeze | 17 | 8 | 8a+ |
| 17 | Clown | 16 | 9 | 7b |
| 18 | Mowgli | 15 | 8 | 7a |
| 19 | Call of the Jungle | 13 | 6 | 6b+ |
| № | Name | Length | Col. from. | Category |
| Sector C | ||||
| 1 | Thorn | 5 | 3 | |
| 2 | Tile | 9 | 5 | |
| 3 | Myth | 10 | 6 | |
| 4 | Red Fox | 25 | 13 | 7a |
| 5 | Little vampire | 16 | 8 | 6c+ |
| 6 | American Gregory | 21 | 11 | 7a |
| 7 | Abyss | 19 | 11 | 8 ? |
| 8 | North Pole | 20 | 11 | 5a |
| 9 | Bastion | 20 | 11 | 5b |
| 10 | Painter | 21 | 11 | 5b |
| 11 | Firefly | 18 | 10 | 5b |
| 12 | Cornice | 5 | 3 | |
| 13 | 9 | 5 | ||
| 14 | Kant | 5 | 3 | |
| 15 | 6 | 4 | ||
| 16 | KONG | 19 | 9 | 5s |
| 17 | Pinery | 18 | 9 | 5b |
| 18 | Fresh breeze | 15 | 7 | 4 |
| 19 | Chafer | 15 | 7 | 4 |
|
Name
We ask everyone who has already been to our climbing walls more than once and those who come for the first time to pay attention to the following information:
1. The length of the routes (even familiar ones) and the number of quickdraws. That is: it is advisable to have a rope 60 meters long and a set of guy lines of 15 pieces.
2. In connection with the equipment of climbing walls with modern descending devices - rigidly fixed carabiners - to organize the “top belay”, a quickdraw is additionally used, which is snapped into the descending device (carabiner) when setting the route, and then the top rope is snapped into the quickdraw. This allows you to save the trigger carbine.
3. Route categories are pre-defined. The information will be updated throughout the year. Current information on rock routes can be obtained from Andrey Vedenmeer (Yalta).
4. Carefully read the documents regulating your stay at our climbing walls. This will help create comfortable conditions for everyone: RULES for staying at the climbing walls of Big Yalta, RULES for safety when conducting classes at the climbing walls of Big Yalta
Best regards, M.S. Panferova, Honored Trainer of Ukraine, International Master of Sports.