Rope jumping on Kullyu-Kaya. Snake Gorge. Snake Cave (Crimea) From snakes to bats

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Snake Cave

There are countless beautiful, mystical places shrouded in centuries-old history on the peninsula. The mysterious Snake Cave in Crimea is considered the longest karst cavity in the foothills.

Origin of the cave and its name

The official version of the Snake Cave has nothing to do with snakes. The grotto is dissected by numerous, twisting passages, reminiscent of snake holes.

A more romantic version is reflected in the legend according to which in ancient times the cave was considered the dwelling of a dragon. The Tauri tribes, the first Indo-European settlers of Crimea, got rid of their defeated enemies, throwing them to be devoured by an insatiable monster. So the inhabitants sacrificed to the goddess Virgo, whom they worshiped and revered as the mistress of all life on earth.

The cave has been a natural monument of Crimea since 1969. It is located in the valley of the Alma and Salgir rivers, on the Inner Ridge of the Crimean Mountains. Its age goes back several centuries, going back to the 7th – 6th centuries. BC. It is assumed that it was used for rituals, as a source of water from karst reservoirs. Narrow and cramped, it was not suitable for permanent residence.

The cave has an explored length of over 320 meters. It is believed to be much longer.

Floors, galleries, cave corridors

Zmeinaya Cave Clean near Simferopol.

Secular movements of the earth's crust have led to piles and rubble. They divided the cave into three conventional floors. Waterless today, the grotto preserves the outlines of small lakes. You won't hear monotonous drops here.

No light gets into the Snake Cave, so you can only see its beauty with a flashlight on. Daylight comes no further than 15 m from the entrance.

The central entrance resembles the silhouette of a mushroom. When visiting the Snake Cave, three levels are immediately identified. Two of them: the middle and lower ones are suitable for inspection, the upper one is almost not preserved.

Between the floors there are unique vertical wells connecting them. Winding passages alternate with spacious halls. Destroyed during the collapse, the partition between the 2nd and 3rd floors united them into a large, high gallery. At the bend in the floor there is a well, 3.5 meters deep, leading to the first level. It is impossible to go down without special equipment.

The fabulously beautiful lower floor, in which calcite sparkles, shimmering in a rainbow of colors. Based on their level, it is not difficult to determine where the water reached. The absence of outlandish works of nature - stalactites and stalagmites - is surprising.

Numerous branches form corridors, the passage through which is hampered by holes in the floor and large boulders.

The temperature in the grotto is elevated, as evidenced by the color of the calcite crust preserved in places on the walls. It is thin, fragile, chocolate-colored, and unlike ordinary white deposits.

The remains of bones and skulls found by archaeologists prove the sacrifices of livestock (and sometimes people). Bone tools for piercing, fragments of ceramic dishes - bowls, goblets, confirm the assumption that the Snake Cave in the Middle Ages served as a sanctuary for the peoples living in the settlement not far from it.

Horseshoe bat inhabiting a cave

The cave climate is favorable for living and breeding of a rare species of bat – the great Horseshoe bat. This is a small animal (up to 35 g) with a horseshoe-shaped growth on its gray muzzle. The formation is located on the sides and in front of the nostrils. Serves as an echolocation device.

The Greater Horseshoe Bat makes calls with its nose, covering a distance of up to 8 m. Other bats spread sounds to a maximum of 2 m.

Horseshoe bats do not live in large groups. Their clusters contain up to 10 individuals. The animal is very useful. The animals are excellent orderlies; they feed on nocturnal insects, destroying, among other things, harmful blood-sucking insects.

With the massive visit to the Snake Cave, the number of individuals became smaller. The species is listed in the Red Book.

How to get to the Snake Cave in Crimea

The Snake Cave in Crimea is located at Cape Batareya. From the village of Chistenkoye (8 km from Simferopol along the Sevastopol highway) there is a dirt road leading to it. It starts at the end of the main street, behind the storey buildings. At the forest edge it bifurcates. The left side goes to the Inner Ridge, the right side gently rises through the forest to the cave.

A pine grove grows on Cape Battery. There is a path here that goes down to a cliff with a V-shaped gorge. At its highest point is the entrance to the Snake Cave.

Snake Cave on the map of Crimea

For curious tourists, exploring the cave does not end with one visit; it is both fascinating and tiring. In the village Clean conditions for relaxation have been created for the convenience of speleologists-researchers and excursionists.

The inexpensive hotel "Brigantina" will accommodate you for the night in rooms of varying comfort. You can also dine in the restaurant here. You can stay in the regional center, located nearby.

The Snake Cave in Crimea is a guaranteed novelty of impressions, fresh emotions, extraordinary sensations. In order not to spoil your vacation, you need to take care of comfortable clothes and shoes, preferably sports shoes.

You need to take water with you in a populated area, because... near the cave and inside, she is not there.

The name of this resort village, translated from the Adyghe language, sounds like “Valley of the Winds”. The village is very small, but it is extremely attractive for vacationers with its beaches and budget holiday prices. Surprisingly, it is more profitable to eat here in small cafes, although of course you can cook yourself. I will not describe local cafes, but rather tell you about local attractions, there are few of them, but they still exist.

City Beach. Since the village is a resort, it is quite logical to start your story from the beach. The beach is sand and pebbles, clean and well-groomed. It is equipped with everything you need and there are sun loungers, canopies and other amenities of civilization. Kids will certainly enjoy this beach, because there is a whole bunch of entertainment for them here - inflatable slides, frogs, bananas, etc. Adults can dispel the sun's bliss by riding a water scooter or renting a catamaran. Well, those who are quite satisfied with passively lying on the beach can add pleasant moments to their vacation by ordering a massage session. You don’t have to worry about your safety, since there is a group of professional lifeguards working on the beach. During the day it is fun and noisy, and when evening comes, cafes and restaurants open.

Snake Gorge. There is nothing to do here with children, I’ll tell you right away, and a little later you’ll understand why. This is a kind of gathering place for creative, informal people, hitchhikers and bards. The people are diverse and there are even very intelligent individuals. Essentially, this is a tent city. By the way, why this gorge was called the snake gorge is not clear to me personally, since not only will you not see snakes here, but you won’t find them even if you really wanted to. Mainly from living creatures, there are glowing crickets and crabs, which serve as a source of food for the residents of the tent city. Vacationers in this area are cheerful, but penniless, and that’s why they not only eat crabs, but also sell them. This area was chosen by informals for two reasons - the presence of a source of drinking water and the close proximity to a nudist beach. I highly recommend not staying here, especially if you are with children and drunken orgies are an unacceptable sight for you, but as an excursion site, the snake gorge is quite suitable.

Nudist beach. This beach is not official. It is located one kilometer on foot from the central beach, if you move towards Mount Hedgehog. It attracts vacationers with its wildness, but oddly enough, there are always very few people here. The reason for this could be two things. Firstly, the beach itself is pebbly. Although it is clean, it does not have the slightest signs of civilization. Secondly, you need to swim very carefully, since the bottom is not level and there are a lot of stones and boulders.

Cape Shapsho. It looks like a piece of land that juts out into the river of the same name. You can also call it a mountain peak, the height of which is 677 meters. It is located between the Rattled Gap and the river. The name of the cape, translated from the Adyghe language, sounds like “tamed horse.” Why it was given this name is incomprehensible to me, since even in the silhouette of the hill one cannot discern even the slightest hint of the outline of a horse. Anyway. In the river valley, at the very foot of the peak, people live in two villages - Defanovka and Moldavanovka. The nature here is very picturesque, but it is impossible to describe it in words, since this place is one of those that you need to see with your own eyes.

Dzhubga River. The length of the river is twenty-one kilometers. It originates on the slopes of the Greater Caucasus Range, and the mouth is the place where the village of the same name is located, and which we are actually talking about. It is here that the river connects with the waters of the Black Sea, flowing into it. The waters of the river are relatively calm and you can even swim here. Vacationers prefer to swim in the sea and go on boat trips and excursions along the river.

Museum "Wonders of the Forest". It is located in the urban village of Dzhubga, on Chernomorskaya Street at number eight. The founder of the museum is a local and very gifted woodcarver Anton Mikhailovich Gzhelyak. No special building was allocated for the museum, since it is located where Anton Mikhailovich lived and created his masterpieces. Even if you forget the address where this museum is located, you can find it without any problems, because right in front of the house there is a wooden sculpture of an eight-meter dinosaur. In principle, this dinosaur is a kind of calling card of this place. The house is divided into two exhibitions, the first of which is presented in the form of the personal belongings of the talented author, but the second includes most of his works and has about one and a half thousand of a wide variety of wooden figurines.

Water park "Dzhubga". Here's dessert. Just like a good housewife, I left the best for last. Surprised? I was no less surprised than you when I found out that in an ordinary urban village there is a very decent water park. So, this water park is the largest in the Tuapse region. Please note that there are slides here that have no analogues anywhere else in Russia. I can’t help but describe to you in a nutshell the Ufil Flying Boards slide. This slide is also called a flying slide and for good reason, since it has a lot of ups, downs and sharp bends. For adults, the real test will be the Tsunami slide, which is not allowed for children under the age of twelve. For the little ones there is a special swimming pool with safe slides. The water in the children's pool undergoes special filtration and if a child swallows water, there will be no consequences.
The water park is located in the village of Dzhbuga, on Novorossiysk Highway, building 10-A. Working hours are from ten in the morning to twelve at night. In the evenings, there are often parties for adults - foam parties. The cost of a ticket depends directly on the time of visit, for example from 10 to 14 the price of an adult ticket is 1200 rubles, and a child ticket is 800 rubles. From 14 to 19 - adults 1000 rubles, and children 600 rubles.

Not far from the village of Dzhubga, located on the Black Sea coast several tens of kilometers from Tuapse, you can see a beautiful gorge, popularly called the Snake Gorge. This unique creation of nature has long been chosen by lovers of “wild” and extreme recreation.

Every year, with the onset of May, Snake Gorge, which has incredible energy, literally attracts bikers, informals and creative people - in a word, all those who are alien to social prejudices. They set up a whole tent city here, life in which in the evening begins to play with bright colors: the silence is now and then interrupted by melodic or, on the contrary, expressive sounds of a guitar, discordant singing and cheerful laughter can be heard around the fire.

This atmosphere is very much to the taste of lovers of romance and adventure.
Leaving this amazing corner, you find yourself straight on an extensive beach, which is a favorite vacation spot for nudists. But it’s not just lying in the scorching sun that attracts visitors. An obligatory point of the program is an inspection of the gorge itself, along the bottom of which flows a small winding stream rich in crabs and crayfish.

The pristine picturesque nature of such a paradise, which can be reached on foot from Dzhubga, truly captivates the eye. Here you can breathe freely and easily.

There are many legends about the place, located in the Simferopol region, behind the village of Levadki. Here, archaeologists have found traces of ancient peoples, Scythian mounds, catacombs, and in one of the rocks is the famous Snake Cave, where, according to legend, a real dragon once lived. And now in the darkness of the cave tunnels live rare bats with a wingspan of almost half a meter...

The road here leads from the final stop of minibuses in the village of Levadki. The settlement itself was first mentioned on a military topographic map of 1892 as a Russian settlement with four courtyards. Now about a thousand people live here. And in the coming years, the population should increase another three to four times, because, according to the development concept of the village, by 2029 two microdistricts with schools and kindergartens should appear in it.

To get to the clearing, you need to drive perpendicular to the highway from the stop along an asphalt road, and then a dirt road of questionable passability, through an old cemetery. In a clearing measuring several tens of hectares, adjacent to a coniferous-deciduous forest, you can see excavated Scythian burial mounds. Near one of them there is a broken concrete stele, reminiscent of the tragic death of two policemen here. Local residents told us a story about how, back in Soviet times, archaeologists stumbled upon the burial of Scythian kings here, filled with gold jewelry. They left two policemen to guard the mound overnight. But in the morning they were found dead, and the mound was completely looted. Information about this was hidden then, so to this day you can only hear the story of the clash between the police and the robbers from the lips of old-timers. Despite the fact that the territory is guarded by foresters, the local boys manage to find antique coins, remains of pottery and weapons in the surrounding area. And grave diggers continue to leave deep trenches after their work every winter. By the way, near Chistenky, archaeologists discovered a Scythian settlement with the remains of a double line of defensive structures, which indicates the importance of this fortress, perhaps even no less than Scythian Naples. They excavated 13 graves, crypts and even underground catacombs.

Ancient seashore

The view from the cliff is truly unique: from here you can clearly see Chatyr-Dag, and the rocky cliffs of cave cities stretch to the east. A great place to relax from the bustle of the city. The clearings in the forest are equipped with wooden tables, benches and even toilets. It feels like you are in a nature reserve somewhere in Austria or Switzerland.

By the way, local residents have more than once found mooring rings for ships on cliffs. But where they came from here is difficult to guess. Perhaps at the time of the Great Flood there was a seaport here... Historians are silent on this matter, but there is a theory according to which once upon a time the Black Sea was a freshwater lake, and after the end of the Ice Age it was filled with the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, pouring through the Bosphorus Strait . This is how oceanologists explain the appearance of a hydrogen sulfide layer in the Black Sea. A layer of light salty water preserved the antediluvian lake in the depths, in which a huge amount of hydrogen sulfide accumulated as a result of the decomposition of freshwater organics. By the way, in legends you can find evidence that the sea water level reached the highest Crimean mountains. Later, when the water receded, Crimea became a peninsula familiar to us. The fact that a long time ago the coast was much further is evidenced by sunken cave cities and stone structures found by divers in the area of ​​Tarkhankut and Chersonesos.

From snakes to bats

The famous Snake Cave is located in one of the rocks. This is one of the most beautiful and largest karst caves in the foothills: its length is 310 meters. However, the light fades already 15 meters from the entrance, so it is not easy to determine its boundaries, given the many winding passages. Local residents assure that from the Snake Cave you can get into ancient underground passages. There were cases when tourists went inside the cave and did not return back. Did they really end up in the underworld?

According to the official version, the cave was named Zmeina due to the fact that it has many branched passages reminiscent of snake holes. But according to another local legend, a dragon lived here. In ancient times, enemies captured in military campaigns were allegedly thrown to him from cliffs. By the way, ancient Greek historians testify to this when describing wild and unbridled Tauri. True, according to their version, the victims were dumped in honor of a certain goddess of the Virgin.

No snakes or dragons were found in the cave, but it is known that it is home to a rare species of bats listed in the Red Book - great horseshoe bat. It is not dangerous for humans: the horseshoe bat feeds on mosquitoes, flies, cockroaches - in general, it is an excellent orderly!

According to one of the scientists, among the Kizil-Kobin people the cave served as a ancestral sanctuary, and later, in the Middle Ages, it served as a pagan temple. This is evidenced by the bones of domestic animals found in the cave along with fragments of molded pottery, with which, apparently, ritual ceremonies were performed.