The southern coast of Crimea is a strip of the Black Sea coast up to 2 km wide. It starts from Cape Ayia in the west and ends with the Karadag massif in the east. It is striking in the variety of picturesque corners, each of which is a masterpiece of an artist named Nature.
Crimea. South coast. The Velvet season
September in Crimea is perhaps the best time. The people, having received their share of tan and healing Crimean air, subsided. There was no fuss, and the sun weakened its ultraviolet fire. And the sea is still gentle and warm.
Beach holidays in September are successfully combined with excursions. The sights of the South Coast are both a geological tale captured in stone and human history, which is kept by fortresses, museums and palaces.
Beautiful name - Fiolent
The attractions of the South Coast are located in five regions: Sevastopol, Big Yalta, Alushta, Sudak, Feodosia. Those who rest in Sevastopol simply can not visit Cape Fiolent: the harsh beauty of these places is difficult to describe. You can get to it by buses No. 5, 72 from the TSUM stop.
"Fiolent" is translated as "frantic," "stormy," "cruel." In stormy weather, the sea here is raging with crushing force, ships that are nearby are scattered in chips.
This could have happened with the Greek ship in the distant 861, if not for the prayers of the sailors to St. George. As soon as the crew of the ship saw on a rock 100 meters from the shore of the Saint himself, the storm immediately stopped. The place was called - Rock of the Phenomenon. Grateful sailors founded a monastery in the rocks of the cape, which operates today. A huge cross was erected on the mountain of St. George, so it bears another name - the Rock Cross.
From the monastery down to the Jasper beach with white sand and clear water leads a staircase of 800 steps. In other places of the rocky cape, descent to the sea is very dangerous. Also, do not take risks when sailing to the rock of the Apparition without insurance. A duel with sea waves, even at a short hundred meters, can end in failure. Let's not forget: Fiolent means "frantic."
Ayazma - the blessed land
Beauty requires sacrifice. In order to enjoy the unique charm of the Crimean wildlife , you need to give up beach laziness at least for a day, get dressed in sportswear and get ready to overcome obstacles.
The Ayazma tract is wild and secluded beaches, a unique game of colors of the sea, the sun, rocks and plants. Here, among stone boulders and sea spray, Stankevich’s pine grows. Her curly branches with long needles and large cones are the main decoration of a deserted, almost cosmic landscape.
Juniper high - the second endemic that the Ayazma tract is famous for. Ten-meter candles fill the air with a healing aroma and make the lungs work at full strength.
The most famous place here is Fig Beach, a tent metropolis of romantics. Today it is equipped with minimal amenities (toilets, garbage cans, firewood, water) and is paid.
Anyone who decides to make his way east through the cliffs and stone blockages of the coastline, after about a kilometer and a half rests on a sheer cliff - the end of Ayazma tract. "Blessed land" (as Ayazma is translated from Greek) is replaced by "The Lost World" - this is the name of the beach, which is sheltered behind a 600-meter-high rocky wall. It is accessible only from the sea, a place even more secluded, limited in the east by the protected cape Ayia.
It remains to add that all the way along the Ayazma tract can be done on foot from Balaklava, and it is 8 kilometers.
Places of power of the "golden-woven" cape
The southernmost point of Crimea is Cape Sarych, which in Turkish means "gold-woven". This spur of the ridge of the Crimean Mountains is composed of golden yellow limestone. Fans of all inexplicable and beyond can attract the unusually strong energy of this cape. In its juniper thickets, Odysseus was hiding from the Cyclopes.
Nearby is Mount Ilyas-Kaya - ascent to it starts from the “46th kilometer” stop of the Sevastopol-Yalta highway. At the top of the mountain once stood the Church of St. Elijah. Those who managed to get here come to a prayer state - from the universal expanse of the surrounding panorama. The mountain is crowned with a cross with the inscription: "Save and save."
At the foot of Ilyas-Kai - a statue of their seven acute-angled stone blocks with an altar in the middle - a mystical place where enlightenment comes and fulfilled cherished desires. Temple of the Sun. He leaves no one indifferent - not even scientists.
Every evening, the Sarych lighthouse, a witness to naval battles, lights its beam. In 1914, in 14 minutes, the Russian squadron hit well-aimed shots of two of the newest German cruisers, who hastily retired to Turkish harbors. Sunken ships and the underwater Stone Garden - rocks destroyed by an earthquake - are attractive for diving.
Cape Sarych is the starting point for yachting along the western coast of Crimea. Lovers of the romance of wild beaches can stay in a tent camp equipped with necessary amenities; lovers of comfort - in boarding houses of Foros in the area of the presidential dacha of Gorbachev.
Comrade Amet-Khan Sultan
Big Yalta, like a magnet, attracted the famous sights of the South Coast. In Alupka, two very different museums will attract the attention of vacationers. The Vorontsov Palace does not need to be imagined: being located at the foot of Ai-Petri, it is important to let you admire yourself. The second museum must also be searched along the curved Alupka streets (22 Yalta Street). And it is not the luxury and richness of the interiors that delight here, but the person to whom the museum is dedicated. In front of the building is a monument to Amet-Khan Sultan - a pilot, twice a Hero of the Soviet Union.
A man with such a difficult name was born in Alupka; his father is a native of Dagestan, his mother is a Crimean Tatar. The Soviet childhood of the 30s naturally ended in a flight school, where his talent as an air ace was discovered. The war that he flew from the first to the last day, sharply emphasized the verge of his talent. In the battle over Yaroslavl, Amet-Khan flashed the fascist Junkers with the wing of his plane, left his car in the enemy’s belly to fall down, and he jumped by parachute. Amazing tales of the sorties of Comrade Sultan are kept by the museum. In difficult Stalinist times, he did not renounce his nationality: the Crimean Tatar. And when asked what kind of people he considers himself a hero, he answered that he was a Hero of the Soviet Union.
Parks - a delicate matter
The sights of the South Coast are not only picturesque beaches, cliffs, palaces and museums. Tremendous aesthetic pleasure is provided by walks in the parks of the peninsula.
The very first in Crimea was laid Gurzufsky park. Gurzuf was in 1808 a wild Tatar village with one magnificent mansion belonging to the Duke of Richelieu - the Governor-General of the entire southern region. He brought the European park culture to the Crimea: landscaped paths, trees with fancy haircuts, alleys, squares with fountains and sculptures - the Italian style. Then the famous Nikitsky Botanical Garden with plants from all over the world was laid, in September a chrysanthemum ball is held here . Vorontsov Park in Alupka is a combination of classic and free English park style. Massandra Park in the landscape (English) style is considered the most beautiful - a skillful imitation of laid-back natural landscapes. An even greater effect is produced by the combination of local landscapes with the elegance of Versailles style in Aivazovsky modern park - this is a celebration of nature in all its joyful splendor.
Fountains, busts, alleys ...
But back to the foot of Ayu-Dag Mountain. The main attraction of two large local sanatoriums is one Gurzufsky park. Gurzuf, and not Yalta and Alushta, was the first Crimean resort. Railroad builder P.I. Gubonin at the end of the 19th century built the first hotels here. Nice buildings with elements of the Russian style are now comfortably placed among parklands that are more than 200 years old.
F. Chaliapin, V. Mayakovsky, A. Chekhov and other great classics, who once walked in the park, now froze in the alley of busts; A. Pushkin is allowed to sit down on a stone at ease. On a bronze bench, cross-legged, V. Lenin freely settled down; Crouching next to him, those who wish can take pictures in the company of the former leader.
Exotic plants from all over the world have found a second homeland in the park. Topiary art is presented here in all its glory - tree cutting. Green sculptures compete in elegance with the antique.
Fountains “Night”, “Rachel”, “Girl with a jug” and others, of course, adorn the park, but also require constant care.
The object is located in the possessions of the sanatoriums "Gurzufsky" and "Pushkino". For those who do not rest in them, entry is paid, only with a guided tour.
“Faithfulness is Power”
The beauty of nature seems to put a stamp on the souls of the people living among it. Cape Plaka, located on the eastern side of Ayu-Dag Mountain, keeps a story of love and fidelity of two women who lived in these places. The base of the cape is a very dense volcanic lava, it is covered with shells of hardened clay rocks. As clay crumbles from the surface of volcanic porphyrite, all earthly calculations crumble before the power of love.
The story began in 1825. The owner of these places A.M. Baruzdin did not let his daughter Maria go to Siberia for her husband, the Decembrist I.V. Podzhio. The marriage of Mary with her second husband, A. I. Gagarin, was joyless. Twenty years later, upon learning of the death of Poggio in Siberia, she immediately died from a stroke.
The estate Kuchuk-Lambat remained in the possession of Prince A.I. Gagarin. The name of the settlement is translated as "Small Lampada" - Cape Plaka was the location of the lighthouse. The 50-year-old prince recklessly falls in love with a young girl Anastasia Orbeliani, she happily marries him, despite the huge difference in age. Three years of boundless happiness ended in the death of her husband in the Caucasus.
The young princess Gagarina comes to the Crimean estate of her husband and lives here for 50 years under the canopy of Cape Plaka, being faithful to her first love. At the end of her life, she builds a castle in which they dreamed of living with A. I. Gagarin. A strange, soul-moving impression leaves this Gothic structure with a pointed orange roof and weathercocks - a ghost of knightly times and knightly manners.
Echo of the Bosporus Kingdom
In the Sudak region of the southern coast of Crimea in Soviet times, the fortress of Asandra was discovered, which is one of the ten oldest fortresses in the world. At an altitude of 70 meters, it hangs over the sea in the vicinity of the village of Veseloe.
Archaeologists associate her appearance with the name of the Bosporus king Asander, her age is more than two thousand years. Walls of three meters wide and six meters high covered a garrison of soldiers fighting pirates. The buildings are well preserved and attract here not only scientists, but also all history buffs.