Crimea is not without reason called the Earth in miniature, everything is here: subtropics and steppes, deciduous forests and relict pines, sea and lakes, flat rivers and turbulent mountain streams, waterfalls and mountains of indescribable beauty. And many of these beauties are covered with legends.
White rock or Ak-Kaya in the Crimea is one such miracle. It is located not far from Belogorsk, in the valley of the Biyuk-Karasu river, in the east of Crimea. This place is little known for tourists, although it has a very rich history.
The giant White Rock in Crimea, 120 meters high, was once the bottom of an ancient ocean. When the water receded, the rock rose over the steppes of the Crimea. And since then, for millennia, it has been blown by the winds and washed by the rains, turning the age of mammoths into a kind of impregnable fortress with caves and bizarre towers, grottoes and niches, relief patterns, columns and "honeycombs", which for millennia knocked out the particles of rock carried by the western winds.
The age of the White Rock in the Crimea is judged by the fossilized remains of ancient animals and fish. Not so long ago, in one of the quarries of Ak-Kai, the remains of an ancient whale were found, which had lain in a layer of limestone for more than 50 million years, while the numerous remains of mammoths, a primitive bull, a saiga, and a cave bear cannot be counted.
Historical past of Ak-Kai
People have always lived on the White Rock in Crimea. Fresh water, many caves and grottoes, a lot of flint - all this favored people, even the steep cliff helped during the hunt. The very first inhabitants of the rocky caves were Neanderthals - not so long ago, archaeologists found perfectly preserved remains of a mother with a child, and the bones are 150 thousand years old.
Later, the Scythians came here, this is evidenced by the many Scythian burials on the White Rock plateau in the Crimea. Then the Sarmatians lived here, their ancestral signs - tamgas - were found on the stones. In the Middle Ages, Tatars lived here, and in 1783, on the Ak-Kaya plateau, Prince Potemkin took the oath of office to Russia from the Tatars.
The White Rock in Crimea is overgrown with all sorts of legends about treasures, ancient dragons and tunnels that stretch for many kilometers. The most famous legend tells about the treasures of the Golden Burrow. On the sheer wall of the White Rock in the Crimea, at an altitude of 52 meters, there is a cave, into which it is almost impossible to climb without climbing equipment. They say that a treasure was hidden in this cave by robbers, which has not yet been found. The second popular legend says that a tunnel leads from the Golden Burrow to Feodosia, this is also, of course, fiction. But anyone who sees the White Rock in the Crimea, especially at the time of sunset, doubts - what if this is true?
How to get there
You will have to get to Ak-Kai in several stages:
- buses go from any city of Crimea to Belogorsk;
- at the Belogorsk bus station, you need to take a minibus going to the village of Belaya Skala;
- once in a village, you have to walk several kilometers to the north, towards the bridge over the river;
- a path leads to the White Rock plateau, it is better not to look for it yourself, but to find a guide, since the path is quite steep.
One of the most beautiful places in Crimea. The mountain rises over 100 meters above the valley. From it, as well as from the foot, insanely beautiful views open up. At these moments, I am glad that I got a quadrocopter: under other circumstances it would have been necessary to look for a helicopter and pay the pilot to take a shot, but now it is enough to start the miracle machine for 5 minutes.
The White Rock is immortalized not only in numerous photographs, but also in films. It was here that the films "The Headless Horseman", "The Man from the Boulevard of Capuchins", "The Leader of the Redskins", "Armed and Very Dangerous" and many others were filmed ...
There were two options for climbing the mountain: a long detour and a short one through a ravine (visible in the frame on the left side of the mountain). On the map, the short path suddenly ended, but we decided to go - in vain that we have SUVs?
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We drove on, the road was getting worse and narrower, when suddenly it rested against a stone wall a meter high:
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The rolled track seemed to tell us that we are not the only smart and cunning guys who decided to save time:
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No matter how many times I shoot cars in the mountains, there is always one story: in the photo it seems that the car is almost level, but in fact it is at a large angle. The only thing that gives out the slope in this frame is the figure Artyom that climbs up the slope:
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Having turned around somehow, we go down:
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White rock, Ak-Kaya - the pearl of the mountainous Crimea, located in the heart of the peninsula not far from Simferopol and Belogorsk, it rises majestically against the background of emerald valleys and blue sky sparkling in the sun with milky walls.
Why it is worth visiting White Rock (Ak-Kaya) in Crimea:
✦ This is an extremely picturesque and unusual place in its beauty
✦ This is the oldest natural monument of republican significance
✦ The sites of primitive people have been discovered here
✦ Historically important events took place here
✦ The ancient temple of the Sarmatians and the golden tombs of the Scythians were found here
✦ This place is steeped in legends: labyrinths, dragons, treasures and treasures
✦ Famous films were shot here: "The Man from the Boulevard des Capucines", "The Headless Horseman", "The Leader of the Redskins" and others
Get a travel guide for the White Rock (Ak-Kaya) route that includes:
✦ Description of White Rock
✦ Detailed route how to get by car from Simferopol and Kerch to Belogorsk
✦ Driving maps and area plan
✦ A selection of cultural and historical facts about the place
✦ Travel Tips
✦ Information about guides, transport and accommodation in Crimea
Guide to the White Rock route
Interesting details about the White Rock (Ak-Kaya) in Crimea
This limestone work of natural art conquers with its grandeur. The triangular cliff rises 325 meters above sea level, and the distance from the foot to the top is more than 100 meters. A vertical wedge of rock cuts through the green meadows of the valley like a mighty icebreaker. On the sides of this giant ship, the wind, like portholes, has created picturesque niches and grottoes, which can be reached and sheltered from the scorching Crimean sun in the cool shade of the caves.
Legends say that the White Rock caves hide in their depths the beginning of a multi-kilometer labyrinth leading southeast to the Black Sea coast. In ancient times, giant werewolf snakes and fire-breathing dragons, abducting beauties, hid their prey in the labyrinth, and in the Middle Ages, robbers reliably hid priceless treasures and treasures from prying eyes.
In the last century, in Krasnaya Balka, in the vicinity of Ak-Kai, archaeologists discovered several dozen sites of primitive man, which are at least 30,000 years old. According to the number of anthropological remains found, this place is recognized as one of the largest Paleolithic monuments in Europe and the only place in the world where a collective burial of primitive people was found. Even the ancient man was not alien to the beauty of the White Rock and the Black River Valley.
A wonderful place to live at all times has left us traces of bygone eras. Once inhabited by mammoths and cave bears, giant deer, saigas and primitive bulls found food in the valley, where herds of horses graze today.
More than two thousand years ago, the White Rock served as a sacred temple for the nomadic people of the Sarmatians. They left us a legacy of their ancestral signs, carved in the stone of the caves, as evidence that this land belonged to them.
In the era of the Scythians, Ak-Kaya had a capital status, a large city with a fortress was located here. The Scythians crowned the White Rock plateau with their mounds - magnificent tombs of kings and local nobility, who were buried in rich gold decoration along with chariots, horses and servants.
Perhaps not all of the burial mounds have been found, and there is still a place for discoveries and searches for ancient treasures.
In the Middle Ages, these lands were owned by the Crimean Khan, he lived with his family in a large house at the foot of the White Rock. And at its top gathered Crimean aristocrats - Murza, who made important government decisions. Here, criminals were executed, throwing them off a steep cliff.
In the 18th century, on the White Rock plateau, the Crimean nobility took an oath of allegiance to Russia, when, with the light hand of Catherine II, under the leadership of the great Russian statesmen Suvorov and Potemkin, Crimea became the "Pearl in the crown of the Russian Empire."
In the Soviet era, White Rock became famous as the filming location of the legendary Soviet cinema: "The Man from the Boulevard des Capucines", "The Leader of the Redskins", "Chipollino" The Headless Horseman "," Armed and Very Dangerous "," The Plane Flies to Russia "," Code of the Apocalypse "," Day of Wrath "," The Star and Death of Joaquin Murieta "- this is not a complete list of films that were filmed in the picturesque valley.
Each epoch leaves its mark on this place, creating a special energy of space, which can be felt only by arriving here. And, if time permits, it would be good to spend a few days here, in nature in a tent by the fire, in order to fully enjoy the beauty of this place, and maybe even reveal some of its secrets.
In addition to the incredible beauty and cultural and historical heritage, the White Rock is fraught with another unusual property - it changes its color depending on the time of day, weather conditions and the time of year. For example, on a clear summer day, against the background of the blue sky, Ak-Kaya casts a delicate color of creamy vanilla, shining in the golden rays of the sun. A herd of red horses looks especially picturesque in such a frame - the background of emerald grass stretching in all directions of the valley, vertical peaks of milk rocks, and azure sky create a unique palette of colors. And at sunset, for a few magical minutes, White Rock becomes a solar mirror, casting a lilac-pink halo of the setting sun and bringing happy tourists unforgettable romantic moments.
You can talk endlessly, but all this is worth seeing with your own eyes ...
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One of the most interesting natural attractions of Crimea is the White Rock near Belogorsk. It can be clearly seen from the Kerch-Simferopol highway, but we advise everyone - take the time, turn to it, take a closer look!
White rock on the map of Crimea:
April-May is the best time for an excursion to the White Rock (Ak-Kaya, Turk.). In the spring, its rather modest vegetation has not yet withered in the sun, and most importantly, Vorontsov - amazingly beautiful wild peonies - bloom in Krasnaya Balka.
White rock - a miracle of Central Crimea
We drove up to Belogorsk at 8 o'clock, when the rock was still in a light morning haze, so we decided to start exploring the surrounding sights with a visit to the Suvorov oak. The highway along its entire length from and partly to Belogorsk now resemble a huge construction site - the Tavrida highway, bridges over rivers, a canal are being built:
Crimea has not seen anything like it for a long time.
Suvorov oak and Biyuk-Karasu
The 800-year-old oak itself is simply amazing (diameter 4m, circumference 10m, crown 40m), you feel like an ant next to it:
This is not only a botanical, but also a historical monument - under it our famous commander A.V. Suvorov in 1777 accepted the surrender from the envoys of the Turkish Sultan. This happened after the 10,000th Russian army defeated the 40,000th Turkish army not far from this place.
From the oak, we went to the rock, but crossing the bridge over the Biyuk-Karasu river, we decided to first drive up to it, it was too beautiful it winds in these places:
Then they turned to the rock itself, to the very place that resembles the bow of a ship. Its height is 325 meters above sea level, over 100 meters above the valley. In Crimea, there are many such cuestas - mountains, steep on one side and gentle on the other. We previously talked about an excursion to a similar -. But White Rock is undoubtedly the most unusual one.
Many probably recognized this landscape from Soviet and Russian films, of which more than a dozen were filmed here. Therefore, I, too, immediately became indignant - I see Texas, but where are the cowboys on horseback? Immediately, as if by my order, the horses appeared, but the unlucky "cowboy" ran screaming behind.
Onosma bloomed at the foot of the White Rock - a plant in the Red Book with funny yellow bells:
Yellow flowers are noticeably predominant in the area, especially on the arid yayla - the flat top of the mountain, but more about it later.
Admiring the white bulk hanging overhead, we decided to climb into the grotto. In fact, there are many grottoes, caves and other depressions in the White Rock. It is not for nothing that about 40 sites of ancient people were found in these places.
Altyn Teshik, Uch-Koba and Krasnaya Balka grottoes
There are two large caves at the nose. The first, looking like a huge drop and inaccessible for an ordinary tourist, is Altyn Teshik. A rich treasure is allegedly hidden here by robbers. Now the cave is inhabited by birds (like in a bird's market).
The second is called the Lower or Big Grotto. There is a steep but quite accessible path to it. At this time, the summer adonis (adonis) and the hybrid poppy (not the samoseyka that makes the Crimean fields turn red in May, but its earlier and smaller brother) bloomed in her.
Once in the grotto, judging by the excavations, there was a Sarmatian sanctuary. Now at the entrance to the grotto a huge hawthorn grows, just blooming the first flowers.
Inside, unfortunately, everything is not so great. Too many "Neanderthals" visit it these days.
Mice lay near the grotto, dropped the kestrels, several pairs of which were actively scurrying around, then flying away, then returning to the rock, where they were greeted by the sharp cries of chicks.
Further along the mountain we drove by car, admiring the bizarre outlines of rocks and grottoes (this group of grottoes is called Uch-Koba), and stopped at the foot of Krasnaya Balka. It is named so in honor of the Vorontsov (narrow-leaved peony), which covers it with a crimson-scarlet carpet for one to two weeks every spring:
We were a little late, so most of the peonies faded and the beam looked rather modest:
But in the bush at the foot of the yayla, the spring adonis, also a rare protected plant, began to bloom.
On the plateau (yayla) of the White Rock
Another minute or two and we are on the yayla, from where an unusually beautiful view opens up to the surroundings. That is why, although you can climb to the top by car, we advise you not to do this, but walk along the cliff on foot.
This walk will take an hour at most, and the impressions will last a lifetime.
The Ak-Kaya massif, composed of Paleogene and Cretaceous limestones, is part of a low, but picturesque inner ridge of the Crimean Mountains, separating the Main ridge.
The plant community of the plateau can be safely attributed to the type of asphodeline steppes, thanks to this plant, asphodeline, which resembles young pines:
They were just beginning to bloom, delighting the bumblebees, whose long proboscis can only reach the deeply hidden nectar:
We also met among insects, the Red Book Crimean sailing butterflies and a friendly company of large caterpillars of the ringed silkworm (or some of its relatives). Apparently they have already eaten everything where they hatched and have just paraded to a new place:
We brought binoculars, so we got the opportunity to admire not only the life of insects, but also birds.
The most interesting (and beautiful) were the kestrels, who completely ignored us, flew along the rocks, from time to time teaming up with neighbors to drive away crows and ravens from their nests. There were also a lot of swifts, but it was difficult to see the black lightning, but the loud "rustle" of their wings was perfectly heard.
Here is the edge of the White Rock, I am resting on the sharp bow of the "ship":
Once the heads of the Tatar clans were elected here, here, in front of Bohdan Khmelnitsky, they threw prisoners off the cliff in order to hasten him with a ransom, here in 1783 representatives of the Crimean Tatar nobility swore an oath of allegiance to the Russian Empire before Prince Potemkin.
Now on the right hand you can see how the fields are turning green, the pine forest is darkening in the distance:
On the left, the following lunar landscape prevails:
By the way, it is convenient to start the excursion route along the wide trail that runs between these hills and the White Rock, climb it up, then go through the plateau, go down the Krasnaya Balka and return to the beginning of the route along the road along the cliff. We drew it on the map.
We went back not along the cliff, but approximately in the center of the plateau and almost immediately began to stumble upon local orchids:
In general, there are many orchids in Crimea and all are protected by law, you cannot pick them.
In 7-10 minutes, a leisurely walk from the edge of the cliff, there is a quarry where a stone was once cut for neighboring settlements:
Since Karasubazar (now Belogorsk) was the trading capital of the Crimean Khanate for a long time, he needed a lot of stone.
Interesting fossils were found nearby:
These are nummulites (because they resemble coins), the shells of unicellular organisms of the order of foraminifera. Imagine, 100 million years ago, unicellular (!) Organisms built houses for themselves, resembling spiral flying saucers, the size of a silver royal ruble! By the way, the Egyptian pyramids were built from such nummulite limestone.
Alas, we could not determine the name of this fossil, with our meager knowledge in paleontology, perhaps part of the shell of a spirifer.
Finally, we admired how the rhinestone found right there shimmers in the sun:
At the edge of the plateau, they wandered a little, examining from above the caves covering the edge of the ravine, they found a descent, and suddenly, from the dry and almost bare steppe, they fell into the "jungle" - dense thickets of trees and bushes, which are carefully braided by ivy, simultaneously climbing the rocks.
There are a lot of caves, or rather grottoes, there are a lot of them, they are dry, comfortable, it is not surprising that ancient people settled in them. Moreover, the plateau served as a convenient hunting ground - surrounded the animal and drive to the cliff.
Finally, again admiring the amazingly bright peonies, we got into the car and drove on.
Settlement Ak-Kaya and grotto Kok-Koba
Soon after the Red Beam, the rocks move apart and the road turns to the right towards Vyshenny. On the left hand there will be a rock:
There is the Scythian settlement of Ak-Kaya (III century BC, III century AD) on it. On the plateau itself, numerous round and square holes remind of this:
Some of the buildings have been excavated just below (opposite the Kok-Koba grotto):
The size of this settlement was inferior only to the Scythian Naples, excavated near Simferopol, and alternately belonged to the Scythians, Romans, Khazars. The total area of the settlement is 10 hectares, that is, there is still digging and digging, and many interesting discoveries await us. Perhaps it will be possible to prove that this is the medieval fortress of Fulla, mentioned in the annals as standing at the "cave with a spring".
After examining the settlement, we went to the same "cave with a source" - to the Kok-Koba grotto:
It is huge and extremely picturesque:
When we entered through a small side entrance, a herd of cows was resting there, then a herd of schoolchildren, much more frisky and noisy, joined our company:
The uniqueness of the grotto is that its water oozes directly from the walls, in places it drips from the ceiling, and in the center it forms a waterfall of drops that gather in a small bowl cut into the rock and flow down into a stream overgrown with reeds at the foot of the grotto.
All this is unusual and very beautiful.
Grotto Kok-Koba was the last point of our journey. Through Vishennoye we entered the track, and once again admiring the White Rock from it, we set off home full of impressions.
GPS g. 45.104846,34.624079 (format used in online maps)
GPS gm. 45 ° 6.907 ", 34 ° 37.444" (format used in navigators and geocaching)
GPS g.m.s. 45 ° 6 "17.45", 34 ° 37 "26.68"
White rock (Ak Kaya) is a one-hundred-meter sheer wall of limestone, like the whole Crimea, of origin. The rock, well viewed from the southern directions, gave its name to Belogorsk, becoming its landmark as a monument of nature, archeology and history.
Monument of nature, archeology and history
On the northern slopes of Ak-Kai, four sites of a primitive man of the Mousterian era were discovered, a Neanderthal skull was found, proving that civilization arose not only on the territory of Europe. It was not so bad to live there - water, black earth soil on which something tasty grew, many grottoes and caves in which you can hide from the beast and bad weather. A high cliff made it possible to practice driven hunting - around were found the remains of a mammoth, a saiga, a cave bear, a giant and noble deer, a primitive bull, a wild horse, and an onager.
Caves in White Rock
There are many legends about caves and grottoes in the White Wall. In the cave "Golden Burrow", the entrance to which is located 52 meters from the foot and 49 meters from the edge of the cliff, there used to be a dragon that abducted beauties from all over the area. And the robbers kept their gold there, which gave it such a name.
They also said that this cave lasts until Feodosia itself, but only climbers in 1960 were able to check this. As it turned out, this is not a cave, but a high grotto, where the sun's rays never fall, which is why it seems so bottomlessly black.
According to the fourth legend, the sea once overflowed around the White Rock, and even somewhere on the rock you can find iron rings for mooring ships. Well, in the place of the Crimea there was not a sea - the Tethys ocean, only there were no people then, and on the young Earth there was only one continent - Pangea.
The closer you come to the rock, the more majestic it seems, these rocks are millions of years old and they are made of billions of ancient mollusk shells, just as small in relation to you as you now appear before this rock.
And in 1783, Prince Potemkin took the oath of the upper classes of the Crimean Khanate, which ended the centuries-old struggle of the Russian Empire for the Crimea.
Be that as it may, the rock is just very beautiful. You can drive up to it from Belogorsk, knowing the coordinates, you can climb the embankment to the right of the two main grottoes, there is even the possibility of an under-drive drive along the road with coordinates. 45 07.272; 34 36.265.
To the left of the rock is the Red Gully - a cold gorge. It got its name from a huge number of red wild peonies blooming here in late April - early May. In general, the place is worth a visit, and on the way you can hug the centuries-old
In the Middle Ages, White Rock became a place of execution - they loved to throw off prisoners from it, who, before death, could contemplate all the beauty of the nearby lands. Not the best consolation, but people have always been cruel. So they blackmailed Bogdan Khmelnitsky, hinting that they could hurry up with the ransom of prisoners.
Even if you do not have time to go upstairs, visit at least the lower cave - its atmosphere evokes thoughts of an ancient sanctuary. It is light and dry there, the entrance is comfortably shaded by a tree, and, perhaps, any view from the window will envy the sight.
