Natural monuments of Crimea.
Litvinova M.Yu. teacher of geography, biology, MBOU secondary school No. 6, Sukhoi Log, Sverdlovsk region.
- The high snow-white cliff of Ak-Kaya, rising more than 150 meters above the valley of the mountain river Biyuk Kara-Su (“Black Water”). This amazing natural attraction is part of the Crimean Mountains. They say that in ancient times sacred rites were held in the local caves, and in the Middle Ages the rock was used as a place of execution: they threw unwanted people from the top.
- Mount Kara-Dag is, in fact, the remains of a huge volcano about 7 kilometers high, which was active 150 million years ago. Now the maximum height of the mountain range is only 577 meters. Gradually, under the influence of wind and water, it “smoothes out” and the height decreases.
- The picturesque rock is a fragment of the extinct volcano Kara-Dag, which hangs over the sea with a powerful wall. From a distance, the arch seems quite tiny, but close up, if you swim up to it on a boat, it becomes obvious that this is a huge rock formation.
- This unique bay is the decoration of the city. It curves between rocky mountains, protecting it from storms and winds. From the side of the open sea, the harbor is generally invisible due to several rocky turns. The bay has been inhabited since the time of Homer. It is deep - up to 17 meters, and at the entrance as much as 38. And wide - from 128 to 425 meters.
Cape Fiolent, Sevastopol
This is a place with the most fantastic "Martian" landscapes on the southern coast of Crimea, of course - after all, these are the remains of a volcano.
- The grotto is huge, it was knocked out in the rocks by sea waves. Height inside - 25-30 meters. In the middle of the grotto there is a well with the purest spring water.
- Until there was a lighthouse on the cape, ships were regularly lost here in bad weather. Once the Rukavishnikov family brought their son Kolya to Feodosia to be treated for tuberculosis. The young man recovered, and the family, in gratitude, built a lighthouse on this site. The captains, passing by the cape, took off their caps in gratitude to Evdokia Rukavishnikova, who, in order to raise money for a bell for the lighthouse, knitted money bags.
Pushkin rock, Gurzuf
The hill itself is located in the Artek camp and once bore the name of Cape Suuk-Su, along which the great poet Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, who admired these places, loved to ride in a boat. Now the rock deservedly bears his name.
There are quiet bays next to the rock, and under the cliff there is a grotto where boats and yachts enter. Of course, you can get there on foot, but waist-deep in water. And it's worth going - for the gloomy atmosphere, high vaults and the echo of the surf.
Bulganak mud volcanoes
In Crimea, this is the only such place, with the earth shaking underfoot and an abundance of mud volcanoes. Some look like lakes, others look like human-sized models of real volcanoes.
Waterfall Dzhur-Dzhur, Alushta
The “murmuring” name of these inspired sparkling jets in Armenian means “water-water”.
This is the most powerful waterfall in Crimea. Unlike many of its other counterparts, it practically does not dry out in hot weather. Its height is about 500 meters above sea level.
Bath of youth ice lake Karagol.
It is necessary to dive into the icy lake Karagol at the foot of the waterfalls of the Grand Canyon - to gain tone and instantly rejuvenate. its temperature does not exceed 9-11 degrees even on the hottest summer day.
In fact, there are several baths of youth: the river flowing in the canyon has moved huge boulders for many years; the stones spun and knocked out deep pits worked along the edges at the bottom of the river.
- This park in the vicinity of Alupka is the most beautiful and well-groomed in the Crimea. A happy combination of English architectural innovation and German garden genius: the design of the park and the Vorontsov Palace was created by the English architect Edward Blore, and the German gardener Karl Kebach embodied his idea (in terms of gardening) into reality for a quarter of a century.
Nikitsky Botanical Garden, Yalta
Shady bushes, grottoes, ponds with goldfish, bamboo thickets and a million, a million scarlet and not scarlet roses. The garden is always fragrant with something, the natural exposition changes from season to season.
Sailor's Park (Morsad), Feodosia
Sailor Park is located in a very specific place. Namely, on the site of the once largest slave market of the Ottoman Empire. Now it is a very quiet place for pleasant walks in the fresh air. The park is dedicated to the sailors of all times who lived in Feodosia and fought for it.
royal path
Along its entire length - and this is almost seven kilometers - there are old benches under the closing crowns of hornbeams and oaks.
Chufut-Kale
One of the most famous "cave towns" of the Crimean peninsula is located 2.5 kilometers from Bakhchisarai. It is located on a 600-meter cliff, which is very difficult to reach. People really lived here, however, not in caves, as previously assumed, but in ordinary houses built in an incomprehensible way on steep cliffs. Only ruins remained of the dwellings, but even without them there is a lot of interesting things: you can go down into a secret well that goes deep down and is located right in the rock, wander through the ancient streets, look at the remains of the ruined palace for the royal family, at the utility rooms cut down in the mountains, on kenasses - temples and places for meetings.
This is the city of the dead, only one family lives here - the descendants of Abram Firkovich, an educator and researcher who studied the culture and religion of the local residents - the Karaites. He bought many houses to keep for posterity. His estate now houses a historical museum.
marble caves
- One of the most beautiful caves in the world is Marble. It is located on the lower plateau, at an altitude of 920 meters above sea level, and this is not one, but a whole complex of four caves, however, only one is equipped for excursions: paths, bridges, lights.
Inside there is a fabulous realm of stalagmites and stalactites of bizarre shape and rather cool weather: about +9 Celsius. There are several routes for exploring the cave, the shortest - the Gallery of Fairy Tales - is designed for half an hour at a leisurely pace. Here you can see the Frog Princess, Mammoth, Santa Claus and even a dragon's head.
Emine-Bair-Khosar Cave
There are many caves inside the mountainous Chatyr-Dag, more than 150, and one of the most famous is Emine-Bair-Khosar, whose name translates as "The well on the slope near the oak." Its length is 2 kilometers, and its age is 10 million years!
Valley of Ghosts, Alushta
On the slope of Mount Demerdzhi there are rocks of a bizarre shape - they remind many of running people: they say that these enemy soldiers were fleeing from persecution and turned to stone. Someone sees in them the faces of emperors, presidents, artists. More often those who are no longer alive. Hence the name - Valley of Ghosts.
Kachi-Kalyon
This limestone massif in the Kachinsky region of Crimea, with its outlines, resembles a ship sailing along the local river Kacha. On the nose of the "vessel" a cross is "carved" by the hand of mother nature. In the rock there are five grottoes with caves, and in them there is a monastery: monks once lived here, who built cave churches. The most important temple is Hagia Sophia with niches carved into the rock for icons and burial remains.
Memorial complex "Sapun Mountain", Sevastopol
It was here, on Sapun Mountain, that fierce battles for Sevastopol went on throughout June 1942, and in May 1944 - for the entire Crimean region. The Germans dreamed of breaking into the Crimea in order to place their air bases here and penetrate further into the Caucasus, to the oil resources. And every time they met the fierce resistance of the Soviet troops at Sapun Mountain, a natural barrier on the outskirts of the city and one of the most fortified places in the world: there were many guns, forts, minefields.
Adzhimushkay quarries, Kerch
During the Great Patriotic War, part of the troops of the Crimean Front was stationed in these gloomy catacombs with an oppressive, tense atmosphere, defending Kerch from the Nazis. Moreover, in the quarries (limestone was mined in them centuries ago), not only soldiers of the Red Army, but also civilians who fled from villages and cities during the offensive of the Nazi troops took refuge. The partisans studied the system of underground labyrinths well and made daring sorties behind enemy lines in small detachments.
- http://redigo.ru/geo/Europe/Rus
- http://redigo.ru/geo/Europe/Russia/poi/32749
- http://redigo.ru/geo/Europe/Russia/poi/6038
- http://redigo.ru/geo/Europe/Russia/poi/1164
- http://redigo.ru/geo/Europe/Russia/poi/6774
- http://redigo.ru/geo/Europe/Russia/poi/32601
- http://redigo.ru/geo/Europe/Russia/poi/3266
- http://redigo.ru/geo/Europe/Russia/poi/1129
- http://redigo.ru/geo/Europe/Russia/poi/10166
- http://redigo.ru/geo/Europe/Russia/poi/3769
- http://redigo.ru/geo/Europe/Russia/poi/10175
- http://redigo.ru/geo/Europe/Russia/poi/1444
- http://redigo.ru/geo/Europe/Russia/poi/1206
Natural monuments of Crimea
The most complete role of landscape standards of nature is played by the Crimean reserve and hunting economy, 9 reserves and natural monuments of republican significance, as well as 40 small reserves and natural monuments of local significance scattered sporadically along the Main Ridge.
On the northern slopes of the Main Ridge, the rivers cut through deep gorges and valleys; many of them are huge natural amphitheatres with terraces on the slopes. Such, for example, are the Varnutskaya, Uzundzhinskaya and huge Baydarskaya valleys of the basin.
One of the most full-flowing rivers of Crimea, the Chernaya, originates in the Baydarskaya Valley. Its headwaters are fed mainly by a powerful spring flowing near the village of Rodnikovskoye. On the slope of the Baidarskaya valley there is the Skelskaya stalactite cave (a natural monument since 1947). It was discovered and first passed in 1904. local teacher F.A. Kirillov. The Skelskaya cave is notable for its considerable size, beauty, and relatively well-preserved calcite sinter formations. It has several halls connected by passages, of which the second is the largest and most beautiful. The length of this hall, elongated from north to south, is 80 m, the average width is 10-18 m, the height of the Gothic vault reaches 25 m. The walls are decorated with numerous sintered curtains and ribs, original niches - bathtubs. The biggest attraction of the second hall, and of the entire Skelskaya cave, is a seven-meter stalagmite. Several vertical wells with a depth of 25-45 meters connect the upper halls of the cave with the young emerging floors lying deeper. Underground lakes and rivers formed in the lower galleries. The total length of all the galleries of the cave reaches 570 meters.
The waters collected by the Black River in the Baydarskaya Valley rush to the north. In places the gorges developed in the limestones are so deep, and the slopes so steep and precipitous, that they are rightly called canyons.
Such is the Chernorechensky Canyon, in 1947. declared a natural monument in 1974. state reserve. This deep and narrow gorge was formed as a result of the erosion of the Upper Mountain limestones. For more than 12 km, starting from the Kizil-Kaya rock on the border of the Baidarskaya Valley, the Chernaya River flows in a winding gorge, squeezed on both sides by rocks several tens of meters high. In some places, this canyon-like gorge is difficult to pass: the riverbed is replete with extensive rifts and cascades, piles of stone blocks. The canyon of the Black River is sometimes called the miniature Crimean Darial.
Near the canyon, on the territory of the Orlinovsky forestry, in 1979. the Orlinovsky reserve of wild medicinal plants was organized. Having familiarized ourselves with the western outskirts of the Main Ridge, let us turn to the karst surface of its yayla. On the Ai-Petri Yaila, natural monuments (since 1968) include the Kristalnaya mine, the Hanging and Medovaya caves.
Photos of natural monuments of Crimea
The Kristalnaya mine (110/113m), named after the famous scientist-karstologist G.A. Maksimovich, is located on a fault, has a picturesque sinter decoration, in the depths there is a huge blocky hall. The bones of a cave lion were found in the mine.
The Hanging Cave (401/15m) is a two-story cavity with beautiful streaks torn during gravitational-tectonic shifts of limestones, and the Medovaya Cave (205/60m) is a preserved part of the ancient karst system; its walls at the entrance are covered with interesting thermogravitational deposits.
In 1972 karst caves located on the Ai-Petri Yaila were additionally declared natural monuments: Zhemchuzhnye (35m) - an ancient cave - a source in a cliff; Miskhorskaya (100/40m) - an ancient cave - a source with an abundance of minerals alien to their host rocks; Kamnepadnaya (25), Syundyurlyu (175/35), the origin of which has not yet been unraveled; mines: Druzhba (40/45m), connected with the Medovaya Cave; Geophysical (140/60m) - an ancient cavity with several internal wells and leaks, unfortunately, badly damaged; Cascade (195 / 400m), in which in 1975-1979. speleologists have found extensions leading to an ancient karst system with large halls. On the Yalta Yaila, natural monuments are the Stavrikayskaya caves (100/10m) with decorations made of gypsum crystals; Basman -3 (27m), Basman-5 (62/25m) and Basman-7 (52m), which housed ancient ancient sanctuaries.
Back in 1947. Yograf Cave with the adjacent area of the Yalta Yayla was declared a natural monument. This is a small cave (the length of the main hall is 18m, the width is 10m) located under the southern edge of the yayla cliff. Sintered wall hangings, stalactites and stalagmites are complemented by baths in which cave pearls were found at one time. A cave church was located in this karst cavity in the 7th-9th centuries.
Directly on the plateau, near the teeth of Ai-Petri, there is a protected beech grove with an adjacent area of karst yayla (a natural monument since 1947). Like the teeth of a giant dragon, the rocks of Ai-Petri rise above the yayla. There are many of them, big and small. Four of them reach 7-19m in height, there are much more small peaks. These original forms of weathering are formed by limestones, which in the very distant past were reefs of the Upper Jurassic Sea. Since then, tens of millions of years have passed, under the influence of mountain-building forces, limestones have risen high from the depths of the sea and, gradually collapsing, formed the famous Ai-Petri peaks. From the side of the south coast, they resemble a fortress tower guarding the approaches to the horizon of the plateau.
Of exceptional interest are several very old specimens of yew berry, growing on the edge to the northeast of the teeth of Ai-Petri. The oldest of these giants is over 1000 years old. This yew is older than Moscow, a contemporary of the Tmurakan principality! The monument tree has a height of about 12m, its crown is fairly battered by the winds, the centuries-old trunk is overgrown with lichens. But the dark green needles of the yew still shine like "in youth". Yew-quaternary coniferous relic of the Crimea in the distant past was widely distributed in mountain forests.
And now let's turn to the northern edge of the plateau, where patches of forest are scattered in small islands, reminiscent of parks and gardens left unattended. At the edge of the yayla, facing the foothills, rocks rise, shaped like the outstretched wings of a giant bird. It is no coincidence that they are called the Eagle Flight. Nearby is Mount Syuyuryu-Kaya - a limestone massif that separated from the main ridge and slipped into the Kokkoz valley. From open glades, whitish and pinkish cliffs of mountains, furrowed with numerous cracks, are clearly visible. The trail forks near the top of the Eagle's Bay. The closest from here is a stalactite cave - Danilcha Grotto (declared a natural monument in 1947). It was formed in the process of long-term dissolution of limestone with water. The cave is small (14x12m), in the depths there is a lake with good drinking water. The walls and the dome-shaped vault are decorated with sinter formations.
On the eastern side of the Kokkozskaya Valley is the well-known Grand Canyon of Crimea (since 1974 a state reserve). This wild, majestic gorge is called a miracle of nature, located deep in the northern slope of the Ai-Petri Yayla, 4 km southeast of the village of Sokolinoye, from the entrance to the canyon from the side of the Kokkozskaya valley, a majestic panorama of a giant gorge opens. To the right and left, cliffs rise steeply for tens and hundreds of meters, formidable cliffs hang overhead. As you move deeper into the canyon, the slopes of the giant crevice are getting higher and steeper, they are getting closer to each other. In the narrowest places, the width of the canyon does not exceed 2-3 meters, it is dangerous here even to talk loudly - rockfalls are possible. The depth of the gorge reaches 250-320 meters.
How did nature manage to create this phenomenon? The main sculptor here is water. A stormy river Auzun-Uzen flows along the bottom of the canyon. Using the ancient fault, fissuring and karsting of limestones, water for thousands of years sawed through the rock mass and separated the table-like Boyku massif from the northern outskirts of the Ai-Petri Yayla with a deep gorge. The grandiose work of the river can be judged by the abundance of rapids, waterfalls, heaps of blocks and boulders of marble-like limestone found at the bottom of the canyon. Moved by water for centuries, these natural millstone cores drill original boilers and baths in the bed of the gorge. There are more than 150 such formations in the canyon.
Clean, azure-colored water in boilers and baths, as well as in the river itself, has almost the same temperature in winter and summer - about 11 degrees. A valuable fish lives in running water - brook trout.
On the slopes of the canyon composed of light gray and pinkish limestones, the greenery of small groups of Crimean gray-stemmed pines, perched like birds on impregnable rocks, clearly stands out. Only in the lower part of the gorge do trees form almost continuous thickets. Here grow hornbeam, beech, ash, maple, mountain ash - bereka, linden. The undergrowth is formed by shrubs: hazel, dogwood, barberry, buckthorn, skumpia, hornbeam.
In the central part of the mountainous Crimea, at the foot of Babugan, the lands of the Crimean State Reserve and Hunting Economy are located. As already mentioned, its history dates back to 1923, when the Crimean Reserve was created by decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR. Now it is the largest protected natural area on the peninsula (33,397 ha). The area of the protected hunting economy is divided into two approximately equal parts: protected forests and forest hunting grounds. As part of the protected forests, beech and pine plantations predominate, most of which have preserved their original character; the rest of the territory is occupied mainly by coppice broad-leaved forests of oak, maple and ash.
In 1964 The Chatyrdag massif was declared a natural monument in 1980. - protected area. Already ancient travelers paid attention to the original form of this mountain. It reminded them of a table, and on the old maps Chatyrdag is called Trapezus.
When you drive up to Simferopol from the north, from the flat Crimea, or approach Alushta along the Black Sea, it seems as if a gigantic tent is spread out among the respectfully parted mountains. This explains the name of the massif - Chatyrdag, or Tent-mountain. The upper (1527m) and lower plateaus of the mountain are composed of Upper Jurassic limestones.
Karst funnels on Chatyrdag in some places reach 250m in diameter and 50-60m deep. And inside the limestone layer caves, mines, deep wells were formed. 135 underground cavities are known on Chatyrdag. Among them are caves declared natural monuments: Ayanskaya (550/20m), located 10m from the large capped spring of the same name; the famous Binbash-Koba (Thousand-Headed, 110m), in which human bones were found, which served as the basis for ancient legends; Emine-Bair (800/150 m) with folded extensions of underground passages; Suuk-Koba (cold, 210/43m), in which there is an underground bath, where back in 1893. the first analysis of karst waters in the Crimea was carried out; mines - Obvalnaya (110860m), in which the remains of the fauna of the Ice Age were found, Gugerdzhin (60/20m) with beautiful ice crystals on the walls, etc. One of the mines bears the name of academician O.S. Vyalov (200/81m), a prominent geologist, researcher Chatyrdag. In 1978-1979 Simferopol speleologists found a siphon continuation of this shaft, which led to a new hall (Azimutnaya cave), from where the water flow "flows" into Obvalnaya, thus forming a single cave system (Vyalova - Azimutnaya - Obvalnaya). In the underground labyrinths of caves and mines of Chatyrdag, stalactites, stalagmites, beautiful wall hangings and other forms of sinter formations have formed over many millennia.
At the northern outskirts of the Chatyrdag massif, on the border with Mount Taz-Tau, the Small Canyon of Crimea stretches like a stone snake; near the village of Marble there is a large quarry of marble-like pink limestone. And on the slope leading to the Angarsk Pass, there is Yew Gorge with thickets of pre-Quaternary coniferous relics.
On the western slope of the neighboring Dolgorukovsky massif, 3.5 km from the village. Perevalny, there is a tract and a cave Kizil-Koba (Red), since 1963. - a natural monument of republican significance. A gorge cut into the thickness of the Upper Jurassic limestone leads to the cave. It was created by the waters of a small mountain river Kizilkobinka, which, taking out dissolved lime from the depths of the Dolgorukov massif, deposited it in the form of limestone tuffs. Gradually, not far from the entrance to the cave, a vast tuff area was formed, the high ledge of which, like a dam, blocks the gorge. The volume of tuffs here reaches 400 thousand cubic meters! The waters of the river, rushing down, form a waterfall on the steep slope of the site - a cascade with a height more respectfully parted approaching the Altal territory occupied by 50 m.
In the lower part of the slopes, especially in the riverbed part of the gorge, a forest grows. There are various trees and shrubs here: hornbeam, field maple, pear (common and lohalistnaya), oak, hazel, dogwood, svidina, blackthorn, wild rose, etc. The upper parts of the slopes of the gorge are almost sheer. They are composed of pinkish-reddish limestone (hence the name of the gorge and the Red Cave located in it).
Long-term studies of karst explorers, who worked under the guidance of B.N. Ivanov and V.N. Dublyansky, found that the total length of all known passages of Kizil-Koba reaches 13100m. This is the largest limestone cave in the country.
Almost next to Kizil-Koba there are caves Yeni-SalaII (75m) and Yeni-Sala III (410m), a natural monument since 1968.
They are interesting, first of all, as the sanctuaries of the pastoral cult of people of the Iron Age. There are beautiful sinter formations.
Climbing to the top of the mountain range, one can visually establish that Dolgorukovskaya yaila is, as it were, the lower plateau in relation to Demerdzhi - yaila, which forms the southern, high step of the single yaila system. In the bowels of these yayla there are 42 karst cavities. In addition to those named, the MAN cave (168/37m) was declared a natural monument (in 1972), in which wall deposits are abundant. On the opposite, eastern outskirts of these yailas, there are two interesting botanical and geographical monuments: a yew grove on Mount Tyrka, in which there are about 800 coniferous relic trees (since 1980 a local reserve), and a forest in the valley of the river. Burulchi with an undergrowth of the Crimean wolfberry shrub (natural monument since 1968)
In 1979 A large reserve of wild medicinal plants was organized - the Tyrke tract. Here, in the upper reaches of the Burulcha valley and on the plateau of Mount Tyrke, on an area of 1550 hectares, the habitats of the folded snowdrop, St. John's wort, St. , horsetail, as well as mountain ash.
Throughout the visible space, the plateau is dotted with funnels of various sizes and shapes, heaps of stone blocks and elongated sizes and shapes, heaps of stone blocks and elongated low ridges. Real stone sea!
Along the slope of the Kara-Tau ridge (1000-1200m), leading from the upper plateau to the lower terrace, there is an old beech forest (a natural monument of republican significance since 1981). Old powerful beech trees aged 100-200 years dominate in it. Their average height is about 15-18m, the diameter of the trunk reaches 1.5m. In addition to beech, hornbeam, Steven's maple, mountain ash and common ash, ash and single yew trees grow in the forest.
The most numerous natural monuments of Karabi - yayly - are underground karst labyrinths. Many of them are difficult to access; they have well-preserved sinter formations. Bone remains of the ancient fauna of the Crimea (saiga, wild cat, cave lion, hyena, wolf) were found in some caves. Among the karst cavities, caves were declared natural monuments at different times: Mamina (75/27m), Tuakskaya (110m), Aji-Koba (78m), mines: named after N.A. Gvozdetsky (25/191m), named after the largest Soviet geographer -karstologist) with landslide halls at the bottom and finds of Icelandic spar crystals; named after A.A. Kruber (280/62m), named after the first explorer of the karst of the Crimean Yayla) with beautiful sinter decoration; named after Norbert Casteret (120/67m), named after the famous French kartologist); Monastery - Chokrak (207/151m) with beautiful streaks; Egiz-Tinakh - I, II, III (255,170,145m) complex, periodically flooded system of underground labyrinths; Mira (240/135m) Youth (261m) and Yew (47m). The mine and the Karasu-Bashi tract (20m) with a powerful spring, as well as the Soldatskaya karst mine (1800/500m), the deepest in the Crimea, are declared natural monuments of republican significance. The latter was discovered by the Feodosian speleologists and named after the victorious Soviet warrior. At the bottom of the mine there is a permanent watercourse.
Among the remarkable creations of nature, a prominent place is occupied by caves, in which, due to temperature conditions (the temperature is around 0 degrees all year round), ice stalactites, stalagmites, columns (pillars), and often cover ice are constantly formed and preserved. Such caves are usually called ice caves, there are more than 40 of them in Crimea. One of them - Buzluk-Koba (Big Buzluk or Ice, a natural monument since 1947) - is located in the middle part of Karabi - yayly at an altitude of about 1000m above sea level.
On the eastern outskirts of Karabi-yayla, in one of the vast basins, there are cushion thickets of the Bieberstein sapling. Since 1975 It is a natural monument of republican significance. In 1978, the vast (491 hectares) Karabi-yayly tract was declared a state reserve of medicinal plants, the flora of which includes over 500 species, including more than 50 species of medicinal plants.
To the east of Karabi Yayla, near the town of Stary Krym, lies the small Yayly massif Agarmysh. Only five karst cavities are known in its bowels. The beech forest on its slopes, which plays an important soil and water conservation role, was declared in 1978 a natural monument of republican significance. Finally, within the eastern chain of the Main Ridge there is another landscape attraction - Mount Frog (a natural monument since 1968). A peculiar form of weathering has formed near the road leading to the mountain, resembling a giant frog.
Of the 182 protected areas of Crimea, 82 are located on the southern coast. Their total area is about 15% of its territory. In 1973 here the Yalta mountain and forest reserve is formed, which occupies a large territory from Foros to Ayudag and the reserve "Cape Martyan", located on the cape of the same name in the Nikitsky Botanical Garden. On the basis of local natural monuments, three state reserves of republican significance have been created - Ayudagsky, Khapkhalsky and Novosvetsky and two natural monuments of republican significance - Demerdzhi and Karaul-Oba. Scientists recommend Mount Nishan-Kaya, Strawberry and Plyushchevy limestone ridges, some coastal-aquatic complexes and other natural standards, which are centers of conservation and sources of settlement of valuable relict and endemic species of plants, animals, peculiar relict and endemic species of plants, animals, peculiar biological communities (biocenses), outcrops of rare rocks and minerals, interesting water manifestations, etc.
In the extreme west of the coast, where its strip narrows significantly and in the south of the Heracleian Peninsula breaks off into the sea, Cape Fiolent is located (a natural monument since 1969). Severe, wild, almost a hundred-meter-high rocks pile up here above the sea. For two kilometers, the coast is composed of igneous volcanic rocks (Yurkian quartz keratophyres), forming a gentle dome with a ledge of light Sarmatian limestones overlying it in the upper part. Numerous niches, stone chaos, miniature islands, ambrasion arches were formed in coastal tracts. Particularly impressive is the pointed cliff of Cape Fiolent itself and the huge grotto of Diana. The beauty of inanimate nature is complemented by thickets of juniper, derder, clematis, ivy and other plants.
To the southeast, on Cape Aya, there is a grove of Stankevich pine and high juniper (since 1947 a natural monument, since 1980 a reserved tract) -Laspinsky landscape. The cliffs of the cape, composed of pinkish Upper Jurassic limestones, fall steeply into the depths of the Black Sea. On the slopes and at the foot there are huge stone screes and chaos. These areas are remarkable, first of all, for the thickets (more precisely, light forests) of the relic pine of Stankevich, or Sudak. In the Crimea, it grows wild only here, in the area of Cape Aya, and near Sudak, near the New World.
In the same miniature mountain amphitheater, bordering the Batiliman Bay, there is another interesting object - the Laspi rocks (a natural monument since 1969, a reserved tract since 1980). Africa". The Laspi rocks (669m) are an example of the active modern development of the relief. In this natural shelter of the Crimean orchids; about 20 species of them are found here (out of 39 species known in the Crimea). Particularly rare and interesting is the Comperia Campera orchid.
To the east of Cape Sarych up to Mount Ayudag, mainly above the Sevastopol-Yalta highway, the Yalta State Mountain and Forest Reserve is located. It was created to preserve the forests of the southern slope of the Main Ridge and the Yaylin natural complexes located above them. Original landforms are observed here: moderately gentle, clay-slate slopes alternate with extensive stone chaos, outlier mountains, outcrops of igneous rocks. The Yalta Mountain and Forest Reserve is relatively small in area - 14176 hectares, which is only 0.5% of the peninsula. But the flora of this reserve has 1363 species of higher plants, i.e. more than 55% of all species living in the Crimea. Here, plants are quite widely represented - immigrants from the Caucasus, the Balkan Peninsula, from Asia Minor, more than half of the flora of the Yalta Reserve (55%) is of Mediterranean origin. This allows botanists to determine the origin and ways of formation of the flora of the South Coast and, on the basis of ongoing research, give practical recommendations for the conservation and further development of forests and parks of the natural environment. It should be emphasized the abundance of endermic plant species, there are 115 of them here.
Three quarters of the territory of the Yalta Reserve is occupied by forests of the Mediterranean and Central European type. On the mountain slopes, high-stemmed forests of Crimean pine, as well as beech and oak are common.
Within the reserve there are many independent natural monuments of great scientific and educational interest. On the section between the 76th and 79th kilometers of the old highway Sevastopol - Yalta, on the slopes of the Baidar-Kastropol wall, there is one of the highest (up to 500-700m above sea level) shelters of the small-fruited strawberry. In 1969 this shelter has been declared a natural monument. Sparse thickets of high up to 10-12m trees of this valuable relic occupy about 200 hectares.
Below the highway, near the boarding house "Kastropol", there is an interesting monument of inanimate nature - the rock of Iphigenia. It rises almost 100m above the sea, forming a rocky cape. Its poetic name is associated with the name of the daughter of the Homeric hero Agamemnon, a participant in the Trojan War. According to an ancient legend, Iphigenia was taken to Tauris, where she served as a priestess in a temple on a rocky cape. The rock is composed of a layer of interbedded tuffs, spilite and keratospilitic porphyrites with inclusions from fragments of igneous rocks. In 1972 The tract adjacent to the rock of Iphigenia with relict plant communities from representatives of the Mediterranean flora was also declared a natural monument.
To the northeast of Iphigenia, above the old highway, at the base of the Yaylinskaya wall rises Pilyaki mountain (a natural monument since 1964). history of the peninsula. Here are volcanic tuffs and spilite breccias, flows of spilite and keratophyric lavas frozen millions of years ago. Pilyaki is an interesting monument of Middle Jurassic volcanism in the Crimea.
A complex monument of nature (since 1947) is Mount Koshka - one of the largest outcasts on the southern coast of the Yaylin. It rises near the sea, in the immediate vicinity of Simeiz. The bizarre shape justifies its name: if you look closely, you can really guess the “head” that crouched on the shore, higher up the slope - a curved “back” (up to 260 m above sea level), and then the “tail” of a giant cat. Near it are scattered other original limestone rocks: the Diva who stepped into the sea, the fragments of the Monk destroyed by the storm, Panea, the Swan Wing. The wild rocks of the western slope of Koshka are cut with deep cracks, like wrinkles. In summer, these are sources of cool air, and in the cold season it happens that clouds of steam escape from the cracks, and then it seems that you are walking on a cooled volcano. This effect is explained by the condensation of vapors of warm air saturated with moisture rising from the depths of the massif to its surface. To the east of the Cat, as if playing the role of a stone sentinel on the border of the Yalta amphitheater, another original outcast rises - Cape Ai-Todor (a natural monument since 1964). Ai-Todor is issued in the sea by a Neptune trident. Its southernmost tooth - the Ai-todor spur itself - is the highest part of the cape. Since ancient times, it served as a guide on the way of navigators. There is now a lighthouse at the top of the spur; more than 50 miles away, his blinking eye is visible at sea. Not far from the lighthouse, the remains of the centuries-old southern coastal forest have been preserved: thickets of high juniper, kev tree, downy oak, etc.
There are interesting natural sights in the upper part of the Yalta mountain amphitheater. On the slope of the mountains near the highway leading from Yalta to Ai-Petri, you can see a century-old forest. From the Crimean pine, disturbed by a landslide. This is a "drunk" pine grove, declared a natural monument in 1964. The Crimean pine forms tall plantations, which play a great anti-erosion and water protection role. By the age of 100, pines of this species reach a height of 20–25 m with a trunk thickness of 30–50 cm.
And nearby is the famous complex monument of nature - the Uchan-Su and Yauzlar waterfalls with adjacent mountain tracts. The Uchan-Su River originates in limestones under the yayla cliff; at an altitude of 390m above sea level, it forms a waterfall with the same name. Its water falls from a height of 98 m. Downstream from the steep cliffs, the waters of three smaller waterfalls rush down. A particularly impressive sight is Wuchang-Su in spring and late autumn, when a large mass of foamy water falls down with force, sometimes dragging limestone blocks with it. A cloud of water dust hangs over the waterfall, and the sound of the stream can be heard from a kilometer away. In summer, only weak jets run down the gray surface of the rocks.
Concluding the review of the reserved places of the Crimean South Coast, we will tell about one more of the wonders of nature of the peninsula, the Karadag mountain range (since 1947, a natural monument, since 1979 - a reserve). This is the only volcano of the Jurassic period that has retained the external features of its origin. The lava here poured out at the bottom of the sea. For thousands of years, volcanic rocks have been subjected to displacements, faults, which is reflected in the modern relief. Karadag is essentially a mountain group that includes several ridges and independent peaks. In this unique museum, created by nature itself, one can read the history of the Earth for almost one and a half hundred million years, not according to drawings and diagrams, but as if in kind.
Literature:
Yena V.G. Protected landscapes of the Crimea, - Simferopol "Tavria" - 1989
Square Crimean peninsula small, only about 26 thousand square meters. km. However, the natural conditions here are exceptionally diverse, there are many original landscapes.
The territory of Crimea consists of two large parts, heterogeneous in terms of natural conditions. In the south, this is the mountainous Crimea, and in the north, the steppes adjoining the East European Plain. Within the limits of the mountainous Crimea there are four regions differing in nature: the south coast of Crimea , Main Crimean ridge, the Crimean foothills and the Kerch lowlands.
Monuments of nature of the Southern Coast of Crimea
This region of the Crimean peninsula is distinguished by the greatest diversity and richness of nature. With full right it can be argued that the words of A. S. Pushkin are dedicated to the South Coast:
A magical land, a joy to the eyes.
Everything is alive there - hills, forests,
Amber and yahonta grapes,
The valleys are a cozy beauty…
The southern coast of Crimea covers the southern slope of the Main Crimean Ridge and the adjacent narrow strip of coast Black Sea from cape Aya in the west to the Kiik-Atlama peninsula in the east. Everywhere you look, steep limestone slopes and chaos of huge stone blocks rise everywhere, and amphitheatres carved out by flowing waters prevail in places where softer shales are distributed. All this creates a complex picture of the relief. In addition, there are forests and shrubs that are original in their species composition.
On the South Shore, we have identified 13 independent natural landscapes. Almost each of them has its own special, relic object of nature: a forest grove of rare trees, a beautiful waterfall, a laccolith or a wild gorge.
- Uchan-Su and Yauzlar waterfalls with an adjacent group of mountain tracts
- Ayu-Dag mountain range with outcrops of igneous rocks and coastal forest
- Mount Kastel with igneous rock outcrops and seaside forest
- Grove of arboreal juniper and turpentine tree in the Kanaka tract
- Coast from Sudak to Novyi Svet with thickets of Stankevich's pine
On the southern coast of Crimea there are many other interesting objects of nature: numerous outcrops of volcanic and deep igneous rocks (only in the Ayudag-Kastel laccolithic landscape there are more than 20 of them), stone flows characteristic of the South Coast - chaos ( Kuchuk-Koysky, Alupkinsky, Kuchuk-Lambatsky, etc.), uninhabited islands off the coast (rocks Adalars (Gemini) at Gurzuf, Bird rocks near m. Plaka), original limestone outliers ( Red stone , Paragilmen and others), rare landforms (dumping in limestone near the village of Nikita, numerous landslide capes, weathering forms), unusual forest areas (“drunken grove” in a pine forest on the way to Ai-Petri, habitats of rare trees in the Crimea: small-fruited strawberry, yew berry) and others.
Natural monuments of the Main Crimean ridge
The territory of this region, the highest in the Crimea, extends from Marble beam near Balaclavas to metro Ilya near Feodosia. The total length of the ridge along the watershed from southwest to northeast is 180 km. The area includes the top surface of the Main Ridge and its northern slope, cut by gorges and river valleys. In the western and central parts, the top of the Main Crimean Ridge is formed by a chain of upland plateaus. yail, representing, as it were, patches of plains raised high above the surrounding, deeply dissected by erosion mountainous territory. The width of individual eggs is different: from 0.5 to 6 and even 10 km. In the eastern part of the Main Ridge, the Yaylin surfaces are replaced by a mountain range with individual peaks and pinnacles, collected in complex intricate knots. The average height of the Yaylin massifs is about 1000 m, and the largest for the entire ridge - top Roman-Kosh on Babugane- reaches 1545 m. The Yailinsky mountain ranges are composed of a thick layer of Upper Jurassic limestones. Very pure in their chemical composition, these limestones, under the influence of abundant atmospheric precipitation in the mountains, karst, that is, dissolving, they form numerous karst funnels, hollows, natural mines, wells and stalactite caves of remarkable beauty on their surface and in the depths of the limestone stratum.
Another feature of the summit surface of the Main Crimean Ridge is the undergrowth of yail, the originality of the vegetation cover. The forest, which in the past was widespread on the tops of the mountains, has disappeared over a large area under the influence of centuries-old human activity. The remaining forest groves are relics and are of great scientific and practical importance, as they indicate the possibility of reforestation on the yayls, which will ensure better accumulation and even distribution of water resources in the mountains.
The natural differences of the Main Crimean ridge made it possible to identify 14 independent landscapes here. Some of their unique tracts (stalactite caves, deep gorges - canyons, relict groves of trees, etc.) are natural monuments, which we will examine sequentially in the direction from west to east.
From other numerous and interesting natural objects of the Main Crimean ridge a special place belongs to Cape Fiolent, composed of volcanic rocks, laccolith near the villages of Sokolinoye, Klyuchevoye and others, more than 50 vertical karst mines and wells surveyed in recent years by karst experts from the Institute of Mineral Resources of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (a deep vertical natural mine with a depth of 246 m on Ai-Petri, mines Tisovaya, Majestic on Karabi-yayle and others); the most extensive underground hall in Crimea Karani Koba(about 3000 sq. m); pine-plane and other flag-shaped wind-shaped trees on Ai-Petri plateau; beech forest on Mount Agarmysh (about 4 ha) and etc.
Monuments of nature of the Crimean foothills
Crimean foothills borders the Main Ridge from the north and from the northwest with a wide strip. Its territory extends from the Heracleian Peninsula in the southwest to the region of Feodosia and the Kerch Peninsula in the east.
As a result of long-term erosional dismemberment, the Inner and Outer cuesta ridges and depressions separating them arose in the foothills. The cuesta ridges are characterized by steep southern slopes and gentle northern ones. The inner Crimean ridge is lower than the Main one. Its average height is about 500 m, the largest - up to 766 m above sea level. The outer ridge is even lower: its maximum height does not exceed 350 m.
The rocks of these ridges are also different. The inner Crimean ridge is composed mainly of Cretaceous and Lower Tertiary marls and limestones. On its steep slopes, original forms of weathering and shallow cave grottoes are often formed. In the latter, there were usually sites of primitive man. The Outer Range is characterized by younger Upper Tertiary rocks. The forms of weathering are also less expressive here; almost no caves.
Foothill ridges are separated by wide longitudinal depressions and valleys. Between the Main and Inner ridges lies a south-longitudinal wooded depression, and the Inner and Outer ridges are separated by a north-longitudinal valley. The rivers flowing through the Crimean foothills, cutting through the cuestas, form original transverse canyon-shaped valleys.
If the southern steep slopes of the foothill ridges are characterized by geological and geomorphological monuments of nature, then the northern, gentle slopes are vegetative.
Within the Crimean foothills there are 10 independent landscapes. This is what we will see as we move from west to east.
In addition to the described reserved corners of nature, in the Crimean foothills there are many other objects that are interesting for a nature lover. Of particular interest are Belbek , kachinsky, Alma and other canyon-like incisions of the valleys, dissecting the Inner Crimean ridge; interesting forms of weathering are also found here; cave-grottoes of Suren , wolf grotto, Kosh-Koba and others, in which the bones of the ancient fauna of the Crimea were found; Mangup-Kale, Mount Sheludivaya and other typical erosional remnants; areas of the asphodeline steppe and others.
Monuments of nature of the Kerch lowlands
The lowland area is located in the east of the mountainous Crimea and covers the territory of the Kerch Peninsula. Its relief is characterized by the presence of a large number of low (100–190 m) ridges, mud hills, depressions with salt lakes. The most significant ridge - Parpachsky - extends almost across the entire peninsula: from the railway. station Vladislavovka to the east to the village. Marfovka and then, turning to the south, rests against the Opuk mountain in the Black Sea. The remaining ridges of the Kerch Peninsula are of short length. Most of them are characterized by a closed elliptical shape. Many of the ridges are formed by Tertiary reef limestones and therefore their summits have a rocky appearance.
The vegetation of the Kerch lowlands is predominantly steppe, but the coastal ridges are characterized by frigana (a community of dry-loving semi-shrubs) and residual shrub thickets. Natural differences make it possible to identify two landscapes here: one is peneplainized, enclosed within the arc of the Parpach ridge, the other is a ridge-hilly landscape along its outer periphery. Monuments of nature located in these landscapes, we will consider sequentially, moving from north to south.
Astana (Oysulskaya) floodplain . Plavnya is located on the northern coast of the Kerch Peninsula, east of Lake Aktash. The banks of the estuary-flood, overgrown with reeds, are an excellent habitat for migratory and nesting waterfowl in the Crimea.
.In addition to the described reserved memorial places of nature, in the flat, steppe part of Crimea, other peculiar objects are also interesting: a gorge with fossil oncolites in the cliffs of Tarkhankut south of Olenevka; Bakal lake and braid; "droughts" and sea swamps of Sivash; dry rivers of Chatyrlyk and Samarchik; areas of virgin steppes on the ridges of Tarkhankut and in the Sivash region; Nizhnegorsk and Saki forest park plantings and others.
The oldest oak in the Crimea and Russia (the "pedunculated" oak) has been living for 800 years in the area of the "White Rock" (Belogorsk), in the apple orchard in the village of Yablochnoe. According to scientists and researchers, this oak is at least 800 years old, so it is rightfully considered the oldest oak tree in Crimea and Russia. Until recently, this oak was called "Four Brothers" for the 4 large branches of which it consisted. But after one of the snowy winters, one branch could not stand it and broke, since then it has been lying untouched. In 1997, this oak received the status of "Natural Monument of Local Importance" and is now officially protected by the state, has appropriate signs and fences.
Oak bears the name "Suvorovsky" in honor of the Russian commander A.V. Suvorov, who in 1776 in these places with his army of 10 thousand soldiers defeated the enemy Turkish army of about 40 thousand. After that, under this oak, Suvovov received the ambassador of the Turkish Sultan.
