Mountain Crimea is very rich in caves. The fact is that some mountain plateaus, called yailas, are composed of limestones, which are relatively easy to erode, that is, by washing away soluble rocks with water. Such processes and, as a result, the terrain they create is called karst. Examples include the Chatyr-Dag plateau and the Karabi-Yayla mountain range. On the Chatyr-Dag plateau there are more than 200 caves and more than 1000 karst sinkholes. And on Karabi-Yayla there are even more karst sinkholes - more than 3500. By the 1970s, when the book “Caves of the Crimea” by V.N. Dublyansky (geologist, speleologist, professor) there were about 800 known karst cavities in Crimea, currently there are about 1100 of them. Of these, 49 are large (longer than 500 m and deeper than 100 m) and the largest (longer than 5000 m and deeper than 500 m) 2 pcs.
The best and famous caves in Crimea
If you are interested in the beauty of the underground world, then, of course, with such a quantity, a certain difficulty arises in choosing which caves of Crimea are worth visiting first. We didn’t have such a question; they helped us. Often in our choice we turn to some specialists or professionals. In our case, a guide from, located in Adygea, as a professional in his field, recommended the three main caves of Crimea:, and (another name is Mammoth Cave). Having visited them, we can say with full responsibility: these are truly very beautiful caves, and also the most famous. In this case, we are talking about equipped caves (so that speleologists don’t throw tomatoes at us), which you can get into as part of an excursion group without having special skills (knowledge) or special equipment. Both young and old can visit them. Therefore, if you are not a professional speleologist, but are just getting acquainted with the mysterious and beautiful underground world of the depths of the mountainous Crimea, then you should start by visiting these three caves. So, let's begin.
How to get to the best caves in Crimea
All three caves are located on both sides of the highway Simferopol-Alushta(highway number 35A-002). The Red Cave (Kizil-Koba) is located on the slope of Dolgorukovskaya Yayla, you can get to it by turning off the highway near the village Perevalnoe to road 35N-554. More details in the article about.
Marble Cave is considered the most beautiful cave in Crimea and is one of the five most beautiful equipped caves in the world. Length 2 km, depth 60 m. The main treasure of the cave is the Perestroika Hall - the largest equipped hall in Crimea and Europe, 250 m long and 28 m high, area 5,000 m2, and volume 50,000 m3. The age of the cave is about 6-8 million years. The cave was discovered in 1987 by the Simferopol speleosection. In 1988, the speleotourism center “Onyx-Tour” was founded, which equipped excursion routes for visitors; it also studies and preserves the cave to this day. The name of the cave is associated with marble-like limestone - the main rock in the layers of which the cave lies.
Read more about the cave, how to get there, cost of visiting, opening hours and photos in the article.
The Emine-Bair-Khosar Cave can easily compete with the Marble Cave for the title of the most beautiful cave in Crimea. But she doesn’t need to argue, she is unique in her own way. Namely, with its calcite formations and sagging, located at five different levels. The halls of the highest level are located approximately 30 meters from the surface of the earth, and the lowest - 180 meters. The length of the cave is about 1460 m. Another unique part of the cave is a sixteen-meter sinkhole that opens onto the day surface, as well as an almost complete skeleton of a mammoth and other prehistoric animals discovered in this cave. That is why the cave has a second name - Mammoth Cave. And of course, it’s worth noting the delightful Kecskemét Hall.
Read more about the cave, how to get there, cost of visiting, opening hours and photos in the article
The underground world of Crimea is no less interesting than the above-ground one. Don't you know what I mean? About the caves of the Crimean peninsula, of course. About the stalactites and stalagmites of Mramornaya, Krasnaya, Skelskaya, Emine-Bair-Khosar and Emine-Bair-Koba. In general, in this material I decided to talk about the most beautiful and popular caves. Of course, there are many more of them than I have listed, but most are suitable only for speleologists. Ordinary tourists should choose something from this list. By the way, in some of them it is possible to take a longer and sportier route.
Marble Cave
Marble Cave is considered one of the most beautiful equipped caves in the world. It is located on the territory of the Chatyr-Dag mountain range. The cave was discovered only in 1987. But research is still ongoing.
The tourist route is long. It includes several halls: Clay, Palace, Perestroika, Pink, Nadezhd, Balcony, Lustrovy, Obvalny, Ruslovy, Chocolate. A walk through the Marble Cave begins with a meeting with the Owner, a huge white stalagmite of a bizarre shape. Speleologists respect him. It is believed that the Master should not be offended..
The Marble Cave hosts classical music concerts in the summer. They will need not tuxedos and evening dresses, but cotton pants and warm jackets, because the air temperature in the cave is +9 degrees.
Price: 700 rubles.
Schedule: from 9.00 to 19.00.
How to get there: by bus from Simferopol (stop at the railway station) to the village of Mramornoe or Krasnolesye, then 8 km on foot to the entrance or by private bus.
Emine-Bair-Khosar
There are many caves on Chatyr-Dag. However, only a few of them are suitable for tourists. This list also included Emine-Bair-Khosar, which translated from Turkic means “a well on a slope near an oak tree.” The length of the cave is 2 kilometers. It has five levels. The excursion along the route takes about an hour and a half, as there is a lot of interesting things to see. By the way, it was in the Emine-Bair-Khosar cave that a well-preserved mammoth skeleton was found.
Price: 700 rubles.
Schedule: from 9.00 to 19.00.
How to get there:
Emine-Bair-Koba
Emine-Bair-Koba is another cave of Chatyr-Dag. It is located on the lower plateau near the village of Mramornoe. They first wrote about her in 1927. In the first article they mentioned that the entrance to the cave opens with three holes. Therefore, Emine-Bair-Koba is known as “Three-Eyed”. Speleologists continue to explore it, so only the first 200 meters are open to tourists. The tour of this cave is the shortest - only 20 minutes. However, if you are speleological athletes, then you have the opportunity to walk an additional 150 meters with special equipment.
Price: 400 rubles (regular route), 1000 rubles (extreme route).
How to get there: the same as before the Marble Cave.
Schedule: from 9.00 to 19.00.
Red Cave (Kizil-Koba)
The Red Cave is located near the village of Perevalnoye. Its approximate age is 2.5 million years. Scientists have found that people lived in the vicinity of the Red Cave back in the Paleolithic era.
The first mention of the Red Cave in Crimea is found in Sumarokov’s notes from 1803. It was then that the first tourists flocked here. On their list was Alexander Griboyedov, author of Woe from Wit. He visited there on June 24, 1825. In the 19th century, tourists entered the cave with candles and torches.
The Red Cave was equipped in 1990. There are two options for visiting: standard and extreme. In the first case, you will walk along the main route, where you will see the dry siphon, the Sanctuary, the University passage, the Shamansky Throat, the Academic Hall, the Indian Hall, the Argentine tributary, and the Griboedov Gallery. The extreme route begins with you putting on a wetsuit, then going through a natural obstacle - a flooded passage 1.5 meters long. After this, those halls of the Red Cave will open to you, which ordinary tourists will never reach.
Price: 500 rubles (adult), 250 rubles (children from 6 to 14 years old). Extreme route – 4500 rubles per person.
Schedule: from 9.00 to 19.00.
How to get there: by bus or trolleybus from the Kurortnaya bus station at the railway station in Simferopol to the Perevalnoye-2 stop. From there, walk to the parking lot of the Viking entertainment complex, from there another 1.5 km walk to the entrance to the cave.
Skelskaya cave
P.S. Photos of caves except Skelskaya are from official websites.
Post Views: 1,835
Crimea has a large number of caves that attract speleologists from all over the country. Every year more and more new caves in Crimea are registered. There are about 1,100 studied caves in Crimea alone, and 50 of them are natural monuments.
In Crimea, small caves (up to 100 m) predominate in number, but there are also real giants. They were even discovered in the caves of Crimea. Every year new caves in Crimea are opened.
Since ancient times, many legends and stories have been told about each of the caves. And, indeed, walking under the dark arches of mysterious caves, you involuntarily begin to believe that once upon a time there lived a terrible giant who stole beautiful girls or a greedy khan hid his unimaginable treasures.
We should not forget about the indigenous inhabitants of ancient Tauris - Taurus is translated as “highlander”. It was they who inhabited the mountainous part of the peninsula and lived in caves. It was in them that they performed rituals of sacrifice to their almighty and ruthless goddess the Virgin.
The microclimate in all caves is unique. Thanks to him, many interesting artifacts have survived to this day. After visiting the caves, you will be able to imagine for a while exactly how ancient people lived. And one more thing: they say that one hour of staying in the caves rejuvenates you by exactly one year!
The most beautiful cave in Crimea - Mramornaya
The most mysterious cave of Crimea - Mammoth Cave or Emine Bair Khosar
Mammoth Cave is one of the most mysterious caves in the world, located near the Marble Cave on the lower plateau of the Chatyr-Dag massif. Its depth is more than 120 m. The total length is about 2 km. One of its most interesting halls is “Monomakh’s Cap”, named after the unique stalagmite located here, covered with “moon milk”, the composition of which is still unknown.
Over the entire existence of the cave, a huge number of prehistoric animals fell into its natural entrance. Since the temperature in the cave is low, their remains have survived to this day. In the cave you can see the skeleton of a baby mammoth, an ancient goat, etc.
The most magical cave in Crimea - Skelskaya stalactite cave
It is located at an altitude of 350 m above sea level in the southwest of Crimea near the village of Rodnikovoe (formerly the village of Skeli). The total length of the Skelskaya cave is 670 m. The cave is listed in the Book of Records as the most populated by speleofauna. Spiders, crustaceans, springtails, centipedes, beetles, and mammals (bats) live here.
In addition, plankton was discovered here, which is no longer on earth. Skelskaya Cave constantly attracts magicians and psychics, as it is considered a powerful Place of Power in Crimea.
The fantastic world of the cave is home to incredible creatures that have never seen sunlight. Such animals that spend their lives underground and are unable to exist in other conditions are called troglobionts.
Life in the dark left its mark on their structure and behavior: first of all, there was a complete or partial loss of vision. Blindness made them hypersensitive - the developed antennae, bristles and elongated limbs became their perfect organs of touch.
The most unusual cave in Crimea is the Three-Eyes Cave or Emine Bair Koba
Located on the northeastern edge of the lower plateau of Chatyr Daga. Its length is 950 m, depth -150 m. The cave has 3 entrances. Two of them on the northwestern side are difficult to access. The cave contains an underground lake 2.5 m wide and 3 m deep.
Peculiar crustaceans - nifargus - have learned to survive in an underground reservoir. Now only 3-4 species of these strange underground inhabitants, with an almost surreal appearance, are known, but their diversity is much greater, they are just poorly studied.
All caves are very different and it is impossible to clearly judge what the underground kingdom is like. Crimea is a unique place. It contains places of very different origin and energy.
They are quite different in appearance as well. The peninsula offers an amazing opportunity to get to know the underwater and underground world better and to plunge into the abyss of the unknown.
Of course, it is impossible to see all the caves of Crimea in a short period of stay on the peninsula. But everyone can look into the most interesting corners of Crimea and find “their” favorite place.
Caves of Crimea video:
The beautiful Crimean land is famous for its numerous caves, of which there are about one and a half thousand. And this is not surprising, because most of the peninsula is occupied by mountains: Chatyrdag, Ai-Petri, Dolgorukovskaya yayla and Karabi yayla. A great many secrets are hidden in the mountains of Crimea; interesting legends are written about them; ufologists and psychics come here every year in search of the unknown. Local caves and grottoes, with many floors and halls, attract thousands of tourists vacationing on the island with their completely unearthly fabulous underground world: beautiful stalactites, stalagmites, underground rivers, waterfalls and lakes. We invite you to take a trip with us to the most interesting caves of Crimea. To begin with, it is worth saying that a large number of caves have already been studied by professional speleologists, and therefore they are open to tourists, many are even equipped with stairs and lighting. And yet, on the peninsula there are still a lot of hidden underground grottoes, the most popular among fans of caving tourism. For the most part, Crimean caves are not very long and occupy no more than half a kilometer in length; of course, there are exceptions to the rule. The most interesting and frequently visited caves in Crimea are: Marble and Emine-Bair-Koba, also known as Mamontova, on Mount Chatyr-Dag; Red or Kizil-Koba; Kiik-Koba in the grotto near Zuy; Skelskaya; Thousand-headed on Bin-Bash-Koba; Three-Eyes and Geofizicheskaya on Ai-Petri; MAN; Emine-Bair-Khosar; Bottomless Well; Soldier's and so on. Today we will get acquainted with some of the listed Crimean caves in more detail.
Marble cave on Mount Chatyr-Dag- The Marble Cave is located on the lower plateau of the Chatyr-Dag mountain, in the area of the village of Marble, which belongs to the territory of the Simferopol region of Crimea. This cave is a branched labyrinth of horizontal dungeons that were pierced millions of years ago by the waters of the ancient Tethys Ocean. A lot of time has passed, and now the local underground rivers have become shallow, and the Crimean climate has become dry, so the water drops inside the Marble Cave flow very slowly, in no hurry at all. This two-kilometer cave, sixty meters deep, is recognized as one of the most beautiful on the territory of the Crimean Peninsula and is open to tourists. She is approximately eight million years old. As the guides say, the discoverer of this underground miracle was an ordinary shepherd who lost one of the sheep of his flock. This happened in 1987, and Mramornaya has been equipped and open to the public since 1988.
There are well-developed excursion routes there, but you cannot visit it on your own, because despite the fact that professional scientists are trying to preserve the microclimate of the cave, harmful green algae have begun to appear on the walls of the natural formation, which destroy stalactites and stalagmites. Therefore, the cave is tightly closed with a heavy door in order to somehow preserve and thus conserve this unearthly beauty. Once inside, you realize that you are in a completely surreal world, and everything around amazes you with its incredible charm.
The tour of the Marble Cave starts from the “Fairytale Gallery”, where you can admire the absolutely amazing figures of mythical creatures, the images of which are suggested to you by your imagination. These miracle inhabitants of the cave were formed by growths in the form of stalactites, stalagmites, and stalagnates. For ease of perception, some particularly impressive natural formations received names: Master of the Cave, Minaret. Next, tourists are escorted along the long Tiger Passage, it was named so in a hurry, after the discovery of the remains of some large predatory animal, initially mistaken for a saber-toothed tiger, the name was immediately fixed, but after an examination in 2002 it was established that it was a cave lion, who fell into the whirlpool of a stormy underground river and could not get out, and they no longer began to rename the corridor. Next, tourists freeze in admiration as they enter the largest hall of the dungeon - the Perestroika Hall, which was formed during an earthquake that collapsed the ceiling separating the second and third floors. The hall, two hundred and fifty meters long and twenty-eight meters high, is considered the largest both in the Crimea and throughout Europe. Throughout your entire journey, the surrounding beauty amazes with its sophistication; among this luxurious chaos generated by sinter formations, you can count hundreds of beautiful stalagnates that appear when stalactites and stalagmites fuse together. Guides are sure to show tourists the most famous stalagnate of the Marble Cave - “The Kiss”, these are practically fused growths, between which there are only ten millimeters left before complete fusion. This stalagnate has a sign that if two lovers kiss next to it, they will soon be married. The Nadezhda Hall is also very interesting, where the growths hanging from the ceiling formed graceful carved arches, and the lower altars shimmered with gold. The Pink Hall is also wonderful, it is named so due to the color of the growths decorating it - soft pink. A place that definitely needs to be photographed is the two-level Balcony Hall, moreover, its upper and lower parts are connected by a staircase, the height of which is twelve meters. The next Chandelier Hall attracts visitors with calm, soft lighting, making the surface of the walls seem to be covered with velvet; passing into the depths of the hall through massive stone growths, you suddenly encounter a completely sudden stream of bright light, which is absolutely surprising in this kingdom of darkness and twilight. In the Mramornaya Cave there are also halls that are not yet equipped; they are also magnificent with their pristine charm: Helictite, Obvalny, Ruslovy, Chocolate. It is worth saying that scientists are intensively equipping and exploring new halls and passages, so completely new routes will gradually appear, where completely unfamiliar wonderful underground formations and figures are still hidden.
When going on an excursion to the Marble Cave, keep in mind that it is cold there, the temperature does not rise above nine plus degrees, so wear something warm on your feet and take care of jackets. But, if you don’t have outerwear with you, this won’t be a big problem, because at the checkout there is also a rental of jackets for tourists.
The Marble Cave is open year-round from nine in the morning to seven in the evening. Ticket prices vary depending on the route you choose and the duration of the excursion. The approximate price for an hour and a half excursion is seven hundred rubles.
Getting to the Marble Cave on your own is a little difficult, but it is possible: take trolleybuses 1, 51 or 52 to the village of Zarechnoye, it is located seventeen kilometers from the city of Simferopol, then buy a ticket and take a bus to the village of Marble, then you will have to walk along the quarry eight kilometers, with high-voltage wires serving as your guide. It is best to purchase an excursion from specialized travel agencies, of which there are many in neighboring Crimean resorts.
Cave Emine-Bair-Khosar or Mammoth Cave on Mount Chatyr-Dag - This stunning Crimean cave is located eighteen kilometers from the city of Simferopol. It is worth noting that each cave in Crimea is individual and attractive in its own way, Emine-Bair-Khosar also has a feature - the unique composition and colors of the sinter formations, and also, it has as many as five levels, as if it were a multi-story building built by mother herself - nature. The lower halls lie at a depth of one hundred and eighty meters, and the uppermost ones at a depth of thirty meters. The length of the cave is about one and a half kilometers. The cave was found in 1908, but an equipped expedition visited it only two decades later, having studied only one hundred and fifty meters of dungeons. Then, in 1970, a more active study of the cave began, when corridors, halls, huge galleries, several levels were discovered, as well as a collapsed well - “Khosar's Window”, its depth reaches sixteen meters, with a diameter of eight meters. This hole is called a window because you can get out through it. The bones of ancient animals were found in this pit, including an almost complete skeleton of a mammoth, which was missing only the skull and shoulder bones. Scientists assumed that this animal accidentally fell into the well and was unable to get out on its own until it was discovered by ancient people who finished off the mammoth, cut off its head and took away the meat that they could separate. This version fully explains the absence of part of the animal's skeleton. The found remains gave rise to a second name for the cave – “Mammoth”. Gradually, the water washed the mammoth bones into an internal well, where they were sealed with layers of mud and silt until speleologists found them. The natural underground complex has been open to tourists since 1994.
All twelve luxurious halls of the cave amaze you with their luxurious beauty, however, tourists are not allowed into all the halls, some of them are completely reserved. At the moment, visitors can walk a kilometer through halls and corridors equipped with lighting and stairs, and even here they can choose from three options for the proposed excursions: - a half-hour through the Northern Gallery; - one hour and twenty minutes in the Northern Gallery, the Hall of Idols and Kecskemet; - the entire kilometer route takes an hour and a half.
During the excursion you have to go down to the very bottom of the cave, because the journey begins from the lower Northern gallery. You will see the beautiful Main Hall, as well as the delightful Lake Hall, where there is a natural reservoir, the depth of the emerald water reaches six meters. The hall of idols, as if assembled from three parts, the height of one of them is fifty meters - it’s like a modern sixteen-story building, we are talking about the most beautiful part of “Kecskemet”, it attracts with the amazing growth “White Speleologist”, in the shape of a volcano formed by stalagmites over many millennia. And also a white wall, with calcite growths, very similar to a giant organ. Being here, you involuntarily imagine yourself on another planet: without sun, grass, trees, but with a completely unique, and, moreover, self-sufficient world. The Dublyansky Hall is an amazing place where previously the water of an underground lake splashed on two levels; now it has dried up, but the natural pit remains. The hall with the stalagmite “Monomakh’s Cap” is no less attractive due to its mystery.
When visiting the Mamontova Cave, you need to know that the air there is never warmer than five degrees, so you need to dress warmly, although there are jacket rentals here. The Emine-Bair-Khosar caves are open year-round from nine in the morning to seven in the evening.
Getting to the Mamontova Cave is difficult: first, take route bus 142 from the Simferopol railway station to the Mramornoe station, then walk about nine kilometers to the cave itself. The easiest way is to take an organized excursion to the cave with a transfer.
Cave Emine-Bair-Koba on Mount Chatyr-Dag- This cave is a cavity with three different entrances, which is located on Mount Chatyr-Dag, more precisely on its lower plateau, two and a half kilometers from the village of Mramornye. The cave is about ten million years old, and it was formed as a result of erosion of limestone rock subsoil by water during mountain-building processes. Over time, a large cave with numerous halls and corridors formed here. The peculiarity of this Crimean cave is that throughout the year the temperature here remains at zero degrees Celsius, so the ice in Emine-Bair-Koba never melts. Even the ancient people realized that if you store meat inside this cave, it will not spoil, despite the heat outside. Speleologists learned about this when they stumbled upon the remains of such supplies. In the nineteenth century, Count Vorotsov, who built a beautiful ice cave in Crimea, began mining ice in this cave to cool his wines and other products in the pantries. The fact that there is a cave nearby, inside which the ice never melts, was told to him by local shepherds, who had noticed it long ago while grazing their flocks. But scientists began to study this cave only in 1927, having explored only about a kilometer of dungeons to this day.
Tourists can see only two hundred and forty meters of the cave, and then, for unprepared visitors, it is possible to get acquainted with only seven tens of meters of passages and halls, where there is lighting and stairs with railings, and the next one hundred and fifty meters of the dungeon is the place where training for speleologists is held, it is unrealistic for a person to get there without experience and equipment.
The entrance to the cave is double, it consists of two funnel-shaped cavities, but nearby there is another arched cavity. Next, tourists descend the stairs to a depth of thirty-eight meters into the gallery leading to the main hall. Under your feet there will be ice mixed with pebbles and crushed stone. There is a very nice underground lake below, its depth does not exceed three meters. A little higher there is a small trough-shaped depression, also filled with water.
The excursion to the cave is carried out strictly with a speleologist guide, because exploring this little-known cave on your own is dangerous. Despite the fact that ordinary visitors have the opportunity to see only seventy meters of the cave, it is worth it, it is very beautiful. The walls are decorated with natural flows of calcite, hardened into fantasy patterns. Excellent photographs are taken here.
To get to the cave, the easiest way to get to the cave is to use the trolleybus route connecting the Crimean capital with Alushta, then transfer to a bus going to the village of Mramorny, and then walk. You can travel from Simferopol by bus to the village of Krasnolesye, but then you also need to walk. It’s easier to buy a tour with transfer; there will already be a paid guide there.
Three-Eyes Cave on Mount Ai-Petri- This is a karst cave, which is three and a half million years old, located on the Ai-Petrinskaya Yayla. The cave is named Three-Eyes for its three shaft-shaped entrances, similar to the eye sockets of a skull. A huge plus of such entrances is the presence of natural light in the dungeon, but there is also a minus - in winter snow gets through them and at temperatures around zero it almost never melts completely, and with the onset of winter the floor of the cave turns into a real ice skating rink. This thirty-meter cave is closed to tourists during the cold months of the year; even in summer, some of its passages are closed, because there are so many caves there and you can break something if you accidentally slip. After passing through the entrance and passing the tunnel, tourists find themselves in the main hall with a cone-shaped ice stalagmite in the middle.
The uniqueness of the cave is that in its depths there are both ice and stone sinter formations. Local residents have long known about the peculiarities that the cave is icy from the inside; they even say that when Empress Catherine the Second traveled through the Crimea, it was in the Yalta Three-Eyes Cave that ice was mined to cool her drinks.
The cave was opened to tourists only in 1989. It is small - about six hundred square meters in area. This dungeon has its own belief: if a tourist throws a copper coin into the melting cone in the central part of the Three-Eyes Cave, he will pay off all the troubles and gain good luck.
Entry price: for adults - one hundred fifty-five rubles, for children - eighty rubles.
You can get to the cave yourself by using the cable car running from the village of Miskhor to Ai-Petri or by hiring a taxi at the resort of Yalta and its surroundings. Of course, you can purchase a complete excursion at any travel agency. By the way, nearby on Ai-Petri there are the Geofizicheskaya and Yalta caves.
Skelskaya cave near Mount Ai-Petri- Skelskaya Cave is considered one of the most beautiful in Crimea, but it is unsafe for tourists to visit on their own, so you can only get there with a guide. It appeared millions of years ago, and over many centuries nature itself decorated its underground with bizarre stalactites and stalagmites. The Skelskaya cave was discovered only in 1904, but the residents of the village of Skelsk knew about it for a long time, and only at the beginning of the twentieth century an inquisitive and inquisitive school geography teacher made a descent into this underground cavity, finding the entrance to the cave in a crack in the rock. Afterwards, archaeological scientists and speleologists came here to examine the internal contents of the dungeon. To date, the Skelskaya cave has not been fully studied, but the space that scientists have already examined has provided enormous food for thought. The bones of animals that became extinct centuries ago were found - saber-toothed tiger, forest cat, saiga, and so on, and new levels and hitherto unknown cave cavities were discovered, which have yet to be explored and landscaped for tourists to visit.
Only since 2003 has part of the Skelskaya Cave been fully prepared for visitors: lights have been installed, stairs and railings have been installed. The cave stretches for a distance of about seven hundred meters, it has several levels: at the top the temperature is thirteen degrees, at the bottom - eight degrees.
Those tourists who have visited this cave at least once, even though only five halls are now open to the public, say that they visited a real underground natural palace, the interior of which resembles a fairy-tale castle from a book cover. There are halls with telling names: Knight's, Organ, Fireplace, Dolphin, Ghost Hall - they are named so not by chance, but in honor of unusual stone formations created by time, water and chemical salts. The fireplace room attracts with massive columns that are similar to a real fireplace, only it is huge in size, and after placing lighting there, the similarity only intensified. The Knights' Hall will surprise visitors with a stalagmite in the form of a figure of a knight in chain mail, armed with a spear, as well as a stalagmite similar to the figure of a monk, whose head is covered with a hood. The Hall of Ghosts is famous for its absolutely fantastic, blurry forms of stone formations, which is why it was given such an ephemeral name. The “residents” of the underground castle - Skelskaya Cave are mythical characters and animals: dragon and phoenix, dolphin, monkey, gopher.
It is worth mentioning once again the danger of an independent tour of the cave, since there are many sharp cliffs communicating with the lower levels. The underground water system is also dangerous, especially in the spring, when the snow melts in the mountains, and in the fall, during heavy rains, because water fills the cave cavities, it overflows and water rushes out of its outlet in a rapid stream, dumping into the river. In the summer, it’s not so dangerous in terms of water, but you shouldn’t forget about warm clothes, it’s always cold here and never gets warmer than eight degrees.
You can visit the equipped and open Skelskaya Cave in summer from nine in the morning to eight in the evening, in winter from ten in the morning to six in the evening. The ticket price for an adult is five hundred rubles, for children from five to twelve years old - two hundred and fifty rubles, for children under five years old - free.
You can get to the Skelskaya Cave on your own by car, because the road to it is excellent. From the city of Sevastopol you need to take the highway “H19” to the village of Goncharnoye, then turn left, reaching the village of Orlinoe, turn east and drive through the small villages of Pavlovka and Podgornoye, get to the village of Rodnikovskoye.
You can get to the cave from Yalta by buses: 37, 41, 182, 37a, 41a to the “Fifth Kilometer” bus station on the Balaklava highway in the city of Sevastopol, and then take buses going to the village of Rodnikovskoye, from where you need to walk a kilometer following the signs, leading to the cave.
Kizil-Koba Caves or Red Caves on Dolgorukovskaya Yayla - Kizil-Koba Cave, formed two and a half million years ago, is a whole complex of underground voids-cavities connected to each other, which have another name for the fiery red color of the mineral that forms the walls of the dungeons - “Red Caves”. The caves are hidden in the western part of Dolgorukovskaya Yaila, in the Simferopol region, three kilometers from the village of Perevalnoye.
The six-level Kizil-Koba caves occupy twenty-seven kilometers in length and an area of sixty-five thousand kilometers, therefore they are recognized as the largest in Europe. The lower level goes to a depth of one hundred and forty-five meters, above it rise numerous corridors, passages, halls, galleries; for people who have never been there, this is a complex labyrinth where you can easily get lost and even die.
Red caves are karst, as they were formed by the underground river Kizil-Kobinka, the waters of which break out to the surface and appear before us in the form of a beautiful Su-Uchkan waterfall. The process of washing out new karst voids is not over, the river continues its centuries-old work, regularly increasing the area of the caves. The underground kingdom of the Red Caves impresses with its beauty, the reddish stone on the walls in the rays of artificial light seems golden, which enhances the already strong impression of visitors from the underground beauties they saw: stalactites, stalagmites of various shapes and sizes, with bizarre tints and shades. There are many charming grottoes, interesting halls - Chinese, Indian, Argentinean, as well as underground lakes and waterfalls, stone natural figures Viking, the Master of the cave, giant columns.
In the bowels of the Red Caves, people began to settle in ancient times, but to what people belonged the remains discovered by archaeologists, dated to the seventh century BC, and what kind of culture these people represented, scientists cannot say for sure to this day, therefore they called it "Kizil -Kobinskaya". An extremely large number of finds were made here, including weapons, jewelry, household and household items - it was stated about these artifacts that the people who created them had a fairly high level of development. Some scientists make assumptions that the people could relate to the Cimmerians, who were forced to hide in the Red Caves from the steppe inhabitants who were pursuing them - the warlike Scythians.
I would like to talk about the mystical component of this place, because the Crimean caves of Kizil-Koba and the valley around them are, according to psychics, a place of power. There is a geomagnetic fault and an underground river flowing here, which attracts otherworldly forces here, which can be seen at night in the form of luminous energy balls moving in the air. It is said that four times a year, during the change of seasons, a glowing ghost of a girl with wings appears near the cave, which the locals call the “Firebird”; they say that seeing her is considered a good omen.
The excursion to the Red Caves starts from the main entrance, where there is a stone tower. The road goes along the underground river Kizil-Kobinka, through the gigantic Near Halls - Kharanlykh-Kaya, Ilye-Koba, through majestic lakes, waterfalls, and water cascades. At the same time, do not forget that the river is underground, and you are walking through an ancient cave, the walls of which are covered with graceful patterned growths of quartzite; along the way you will meet fantasy growths on the floor and ceiling, created by nature itself. The largest eight-meter stalactite in Europe, eight thousand years old, grows in the Red Caves.
A tourist group gathers at least five people; if desired, you can also book an individual excursion, which will be much more expensive. Don’t forget to dress warmly, because the cave doesn’t get warmer than nine degrees. There are also extreme tours to this cave for trained and experienced amateur speleologists, when the five-kilometer route goes through galleries and halls that are completely unsuitable for travelers, here you will have to overcome steep, narrow paths, bottleneck-shaped passages, and also dive into the icy river water in wetsuits with special equipment.
You can get to the Kizil-Koba caves yourself from Simferopol by buses, trolleybuses, minibuses moving in the direction of the cities of Alushta or Yalta, you need to get off in the village of Perevalnoye, and the stop will be called “Red Caves”.
Scientists rank the Crimean Mountains among the oldest mountain systems in the world. Changes in the earth's crust, natural disasters and water contributed to the formation of karst cavities in them, which are now known to tourists around the world as the caves of Crimea. Many of them are worthy of being included in the list. Let's consider those that are worth the attention of both ordinary vacationers and speleologists.
Stalactite caves
Stalactites are drip-drop formations hanging from the ceilings of caves in the form of fringes, icicles, tubes, etc. Similar formations that grow from the floor are called stalagmites. These creations of nature have been growing for thousands of years and can turn an ordinary cave into an underground labyrinth of unique beauty.
Marble Cave (Chatyr-Dag mountain range, near the village of Mramornoe). This place is included in the list of the most beautiful caves in the world. It is a complex system of halls and galleries. One of the halls is even capable of housing a 9-story building. Fairy-tale figures are imprinted in stalagmites and stalactites. All this is complemented by music, beautiful lighting and fancy drawings.
Skelskie caves (Baydarskaya valley, between the villages of Rodnikovoe and the village of Kolkhoznoye). This fantastic kingdom of stalactites and stalagmites is equipped with stairs, observation platforms and special lighting. All this creates stunning optical illusions. The calcite sinter formations of these caves resemble animals and people imprinted in stone. Also here you can see the “kiss”, which is a meeting of a stalactite and a stalagmite. Among tourists, the 7-meter stalagmite, resembling the figure of a knight, is especially popular.
Red Caves or Kizyl-Koba (Perevalnoe village, Simferopol district). The named natural monument is a complex labyrinth of several caves, with a total length of 25 km. There are also lakes and waterfalls here. The stalactite 8 meters long and 8000 years old brought world fame to the described place.
Mammoth cave. The underground galleries of this cave stretch for 1460 m and descend to a depth of 120 m. This natural monument is also known as the Emine-Bair-Khosar cave. Light enters the cave through a pit 17 m deep. At different times, many animals fell through here. Now you can see the bones of reindeer and baby mammoth here. The walls are decorated with multi-colored calcite crystals.
Other karst caves of Crimea
Crimea is a real paradise for speleotourism, because hundreds of karst caves are located here. There are not many miraculous miracles in the world that could be compared with the caves of the Crimea. Excursions through the underground world will not leave you indifferent. But in addition to stalactites, it is worth seeing the natural monuments described below.
Snake Cave (10 km south of Simferopol). The length of this underground kingdom is 320 m. People knew about it back in the 7th-6th centuries. BC. Fascinated by the beauty and mystery of this place, the ancient inhabitants of Crimea made a sanctuary here. In addition, in this cave of the Crimea, you can find out from a local guide how to get to it, a unique population of bats lives.
Cave MAN (northern slope of Demerdzhi). The length of this cave is only 30 m. However, in ancient times it was the sanctuary of the Taurians. These are not the caves of Emine bair khosar, but here you can see ancient rock paintings and many animal bones. This means taking good photos. The caves of Crimea will remain in your memories for a long time.
Underwater caves of Crimea. Many such places can be found in the Sudak region. Among them, it is worth highlighting the “Legend” cave, known for its interesting sinter formations. This is a great gift for experienced divers. But even they should be careful, because the underwater caves of Crimea, a map with their location can be asked for in special diving centers, have so far been little explored.
Unique properties of natural salt caves
Interestingly, the salt caves of Crimea have healing properties. The air of natural underground areas, saturated with mineral salts, soothes, relaxes, and also treats pulmonary and allergic diseases. This is one of the most ancient aero-therapeutic treatment methods. Therefore, there are many artificial salt caves on the Crimean peninsula.
