What is Ai-Petri? It is difficult to answer this question with one or two sentences, it is even more
difficult to describe the multifaceted nature of this mountain massif,Where each tract is both surprising and delightful. Catch with climbers and climbers, tourists and excursionists, cave explorers and skiers, foresters and meteorologists, mushroom pickers and forest fruit lovers - everyone will tell about their own, but even these fragments combined will not give you an idea of Ai-Petri until you visit it. Ai-Petri is not the highest mountain of the Crimea, but it seems that God knows what a huge, because everything is in front of you. It is a mountain-castle, - a magical, sky-high castle. With ruined towers, with steep wall breaks, with prongs that have been eaten by time, a castle worthy of Byron's Manfred.
Ai-Petri
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Ai-Petri top
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Mount Ai-Petri and the cable car
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Ai-Petri is a peak and a mountain massif with an area of more than 300 km2, one of the massifs (also called yailas) stretched along the southern coast of the Crimea and forming the main mountain range. The Ai-Petrin massif extends from east to west by 25 km. The distance between its southern edge and the northern foot is more than 13 km. The conventional eastern boundary runs along the meridian of Mount Rock, separating the array from the neighboring Yalta yaila. In the west, Ai-Petri ends with a deep saddle Baydarskie gates.
However, most tourists remember not the whole array, but one of its peaks with a palisade of exotic stone pillars, called zubtsy. This peak is far advanced to the south of the protruding massif and is actually Ai-Petri, which gave the name to the entire plateau and became a symbol of the south coast.
The highest point of the whole massif is Mount Rock with an absolute elevation of 1346 meters above sea level, slightly less (1320 meters) Mount Quail (Benedet-Kyr). The very mountain Ai-Petri is much lower - its height is 1234 meters above sea level.
The cable car to Ai-Petri
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Clouds at the foot of Ai-Petri
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Road to Ai-Petri
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White balls on Mount Bedenje-Kyr (Perepelina mountain) are the protective domes of the radar installations of the military unit located here. As a joke on excursions they say that this is a station for tracking aircraft, satellites, UFOs ... Therefore, probably 15-20 years ago alien objects were discovered almost every week on Ai-Petri. The newspapers talked about them, and when the topic got bored, the mysterious aliens themselves ceased to appear.
Throughout the whole mountain range looks to the south, towards the sea, with formidable rocky walls: where strictly steep, where stepped, but everywhere inaccessible. Rare passes, through which people in ancient times paved trails and trolley roads, and now serve as passes from the South coast to the plateau.
The northern slopes of the massif are not so steep, they are completely covered by broad-leaved forests.
To the north small massifs of Boika and Sedam-Kaya are nominated. The Kokkozka river divides them. Many other rivers and streams escape from Ai-Petri. From its northern slopes flow tributaries Kokkozi: Auzun-Uzen and Sary-Uzen in the Grand Canyon of the Crimea, from the western - the rivers: Baga, Urkust, Uzundzh, from which the Black river is born in the small canyon - the most abundant in the Crimea. In the upper reaches of one of the left nameless tributaries of Uzundzhi there is a tract of Karadag forest. The rivers of the southern slope - short and shallow in summer - are stormy and dangerous in the flood. Hundreds of springs feed these rivers and among them the largest in the Crimea - the Skelsky spring.
Ai-Petri Panorama
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Vertex
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The northern part of the summit
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In the south of the sea shore, snow-white houses of the beauty of Yalta rise to the mountains. From the top of the massif on a clear day, the settlements of Gaspra, Oreanda, Foros, Koreiz, Simeiz, Blue Bay, Alupka are clearly visible ... In the west, in the Baydar Valley, there are the villages of Orlinoy, Podgornoye, Rodnikovoe, Rossoshanka, Novobobrovskoye, Peredovoe ... At the foot of the northern slopes In the dense gardens that connect with the forest, you can hardly see the villages of Polyana, Falcon, Mnogorechye, Lucky ... And only in the east, where Ai-Petri is bordered by another mountain massif - Yalta, there are no villages.
The southern cliffs of the Ai-Petrinsky massif and its northern gentle slopes are very picturesque, but there is no more charming panorama of the Southern coast opening from the summit. It's hard to find a Crimean who, at least once in his life, did not meet the sunrise on Ai-Petri. Right, for the sake of this one moment, when the fireball of the sun as if emerges from the dark blue depths of the Black Sea, it is worthwhile to rise to this height. Poet Valery Bryusov, having visited Ai-Petri, wrote: "The main charm of this species in its breadth. The horizon is not closed by other heights, it is open to the whole "infinity" of the sea, almost the whole of the Southern coast with its villages, parks, roads, streams marked as if on a huge map is deployed under your feet ".
Rock Shishko, an observation deck with a view of Ai-Petri
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Pine and Ai-Petri
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Today, you can climb to the top of Ai-Petri in 15 minutes by cable car. It does not turn off even for the winter, and in the midst of the holiday season near the lower station, huge queues gather. An hour and a half, two, three, sometimes more, have to be defended before landing in a wagon to unorganized tourists. With a trip you almost always pass these "legendary" lines.
Mountain Crimea, as we see it now, was formed in a relatively short span of geological time - approximately 1.5 to 2 million years.
The geological history of the Mountainous Crimea, including Ai-Petri, has been more or less reliably known since the end of the Triassic period (about 200 million years ago). At that time, the territory of the present Crimean peninsula was covered by the waters of the ancient Tethys ocean, which existed throughout most of the history of the globe (until the Neogene period). In the latitudinal direction, the ocean stretched across the southern edge of the Eurasian continent, the region of the modern Mediterranean Sea and the extreme north-west of Africa.
Over the past 200 million years, the land on which Ai-Petri is located has been repeatedly removed from sea level, and then it was actively destroyed by exogenous forces, and then again plunged into sea level. The depth of the dives was different, depending on it, either silt and sands were deposited at the bottom of the reservoir, later transformed into clays and sandstones, or calcareous muds that turned into limestones. Sometimes, with a significant rise in the closely located land and shallow waters of the basin itself, the land is actively eroded and huge masses of pebbles are transported into the basin. Cemented by marine sediments, they were transformed into conglomerates.
150 - 160 million years ago in the vicinity of Ai-Petri, active volcanoes, the remnants of them can be seen near the villages of Melas and Foros.
Many more complicated geological processes occurred with the most popular mountain in the Crimea: the terrain changed, more and more approaching the modern one. Only 1,5-2 million years there is Ai-Petri in this form, as now.
In the mountainous Crimea for about one and a half million years and on the surface and deep in the bowels of the mountains imperceptibly active processes of karsting, leading to the formation of various in size and shape funnels, hollows and caves. In total, 302 underground karst cavities (caves, wells, mines) are located on Ai-Petri, 12 of them are declared to be nature monuments of local significance: Skelsky, Crystal, Hanging, Honey, Pearl, Miskhor, Rockfall, Friendship, Geophysical, Cascade and Danilcha-koba .
About a hundred thousand years ago Neanderthals came to Ai-Petri, pursuing beasts. Then it was on whom to hunt - on the peninsula there were more than 110 species of mammals.
View from Mishor
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Mountain cliffs on Ai-Petri
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Mount Ai-Petr
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The Cro-Magnon people lived on the yail. Near the meteorological station, more than a thousand items of their life were found; These stone tools are 8-10 thousand years old. Later, in the IV-III millennium BC, the inhabitants of the plateau cultivated this land, bred livestock, fished, molded pottery from clay, and made jewelry. But in the Iron Age, people did not settle on a plateau.
Russian academician P.S. Pallas mentioned the remnants of the very teeth of the Christian church, probably in honor of St. Peter. So the name of the mountain - Ai-Petri could appear. In the Middle Ages, people lived on the northern slopes. From the end of the 15th century, after the Turkish conquest, the villages were emptied, and the plateau of the Main Ridge remained only pasture. Now this is part of the Crimean reserve.
They did not live here either in the ancient era, or in the early Middle Ages. Only a few detachments of Taurians, Romans, then Byzantines, Genoese passed through the plateau ... Everyone needed this road-a path from the steppe to the sea, north to the south, from summer to winter and again into summer. Hunted, surpassed slaves, guarded merchant caravans. ..
With the change of epochs, the prevailing views on values change. And only tourists, noble in their thirst for beauty, still climb this, the top of the sacred mountain - to admire the panorama of the southern coast of the Crimea from a bird's-eye view.
The break of the Ai-Petri peak
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Fog in the mountains, and on the Ai-Petri sun
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View of Ai-Petri from the Vorontsov Palace
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Climate Ai-Petri differs sharp contrast. The average annual air temperature on Ai-Petri is + 5.9oC. In the mountains in the same month, the average daily temperature can be very different. At Ai-Petri in January, it happens to be + 11.4 ° C ... -20.4 ° C, in February + 11.5 ° C ... -26.5 ° C, and in August + 27.1 ° C ... -2.3 ° C. The warmest month on yail is July, less often August. The average July temperature is 15.6 ° C, but the maximum is much higher - it reaches 32 ° C. The coldest month is February, its average temperature is -3.8 ° C.
40% of precipitation on the Ai-Petrin plateau falls in the form of rain, 60% - in the form of snow. On average, for the year, Ai-Petri falls 1052 mm of precipitation (in Yalta, only 635), and only in January 160 mm. Stable snow cover lasts from the middle of December to March. Due to the thaws in the whitish sections of the yajla, snow falls completely by 50-70% several times over a cold period of time.
The length of daylight hours on Ai-Petri is great - 2325 hours.
And the undesirable whims of nature here, though, represent inconvenience and danger, but still - the phenomena are still short-lived.
Crossing Ai-Petri from the south to the north or in the opposite direction, even the layman notices a certain regularity in the distribution of vegetation: the slopes are clad in forests, meadow-steppe vegetation dominates the plateau. Yaila is amazed by the wide expanses of open spaces with occasional clumps of trees and shrubs. Unlike other Crimean yayl Ai-Petrinskaya has natural forest massifs along the edge of precipices, in the Central Karst Plateau and along erosion-karst valleys in the western part, but a large part of the plateau is covered with meadow-steppe vegetation.
Vegetation in the mountains is truly rich and diverse. On the southern slopes grows beech forest with an admixture of pine. From the height of 1000 - 800 meters above sea level, the belt of the Crimean pine begins, which in the first tier grows with oak, and in the second - with a juniper prickly. Below 400 meters the belt of shrub communities from junipers, grabinnik, dzhidereleva and many other bushes with an admixture of oak begins. Here you can find a pistachio tuscan, strawberry tree with a kind of smooth reddish bark, the thin outer layer of which changes yearly, and with evergreen leaves, yellow-colored jasmine, shrubby species of wadding, puzyrnik and much more. In the forests there are many fruit-berry trees and shrubs. Almost all common species of mountain ash grow on the slopes of Ai-Petri and on the plateau: common, large-fruited, birch, Greek and others.
So what is Ai-Petri? It is unlikely that you can hear an exhaustive answer to this question ...
Ai-Petri - a legend about the abode of winds
The king rested on a stone bed, warmed himself in the summer sun, and his gentle beard was blown by gentle light winds. Krasiv was the king of the Winds, his long hair curled from the clouds and clouds, and the blue sky cloak streamed down his mighty shoulders. Every time of the year the tsar gave his wondrous colors. He loved the old king to build fairy-tale castles and cities. He slowly inflated the white towers, erecting air fortresses and palaces. The clouds became the poetry of air vortexes, the sons of the king of the Winds, violent and affectionate winds. Each of them in its own way created bizarre forms of clouds, selected shades of color, height, density, speed of flight above the ground.
But many troubles were borne by the raging winds of huts, huts, caves, where human tribes huddled. The wind extinguished the fire in the bonfires, or was carried by a fiery flame, burning everything in the way. People decided to find a peace agreement with the king of the Winds. The leaders of the coastal tribes gathered. From many peaks and valleys came soldiers and camped by the fire on the beach. For a long time they sat by the fire, holding advice, exchanging thoughts. They could offer nothing to the tribes inhabiting the rocky plateau, they did not know what gifts to please the king of the Winds, so that he could tame his mighty and frenzied strength. And suddenly Peter, the quietest and most unattractive warrior, said:
"I will conquer the Wind!"
The leaders laughed:
- You grow up, warrior! Strengthen your muscles, and then you will boast!
Peter did not answer, but went to the mountains, to the abode of the Winds. For a long time he climbed the rocky steeps. Around, wailing howling, laughed and whistled mysterious invisible creatures.
"Away, witches and wolves!" I'm not afraid of you! - Peter drove away the cheerful forest spirits. Finally, I reached the royal throne. The giant-wind was basking in the sun, and, grinning, waited for his future winner. The drafts had already whispered to the king about the advice of the soldiers on the beach. Peter got up on the rock to appear higher, and said:
- King of the Winds, from now on you will serve a man and work for him!
The king of the Winds furious with the impertinent words and blew with all his might to let the warrior fall into the cliff. But Peter snatched a bull's bubble from behind his bosom, raised it above his head and soared into the sky. The wind blew, and Peter skillfully controlled his flying wing and slid over mountains, forests, rocks. Even more fierce wind blew, but nothing I could do with a daredevil. Then the wind stopped blowing so that Peter fell on the rocks and crashed. But he, skillfully controlling the light wing, sank directly into the sea on a floating log. Then the wind brought down formidable trees on him, trying to drown him in the sea depths. But again Peter raised a bull's bubble above his head - and as if he had sailed a wave above the wave, and carried it to the shore.
People who understood the brave duel understood that Peter had not boasted of nothing. He showed everyone how to conquer the wind. People began to build fishing boats and put light sail-wings on them. And on land to build winged windmills. People ceased to be afraid of the wind, because he became an assistant in their difficult and difficult life. A mountain, the abode of the winds, was called Ai-Petri, which in Greek means "Saint Peter", in gratitude for what he taught people to fight the wind ...The top of the Ai-Petri mountain is considered to be the windiest place in the Crimea, a wind power station was built on the plateau.
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