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Nature Preserves Of Crimea
Gurzuf national park
Foros national park
Cape Fiolent
Nikitsky Botanic Garden
Karadag. The nature preserve, existing since 1979, covers an area of 2,874 hectares. It is located in the southeast part of the Crimean Peninsula and includes 810 hectares of the adjacent waters of the Black Sea, as well as the medieval settlement of Tepsen' with an area of 940 hectares.
The preserve landscape represents the mountainous ancient volcanic massif consisting of several ridges and peaks with original forms of the relief, numerous exposures of rare minerals (cornelian, chalcedony, agate, jasper) and rich southern forest flora. The preserve's gene pool is represented by the diverse vegetation, the animal kingdom, and the sea fauna. The Ukraine's only automatic station for the environmental monitoring of radiation and CO2 on the background level functions on its territory.
Kazantip. The nature preserve was founded in 1998 on the northwest coast of the Kerch Peninsula and covers an area of 450 hectares. The locality is very picturesque, with exotic rocks and bays. There is the reserved tract with the atoll-like promontory whose central low-lying part is enclosed with a ring-shaped limestone ridge. Of special interest are the limestones on which very rare relict endemic plants grow. The virgin islets offeather-grass, petrophylous, and shrubby steppes have survived in the territory of the preserve. The rare gene pool of the preserve comprises 58 species of plants and animals listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine.
Krymsky preserve. The nature preserve with an area of 44, 175 hectares is situated in the central part of the mountainous Crimea, and its branch - Lebedyni Ostrovy (Swan Islands) - on the group of low-lying sand-shell islands in the shallow Karkinits'ka Bay near the northwest coast of the Crimean Peninsula. The territory has been reserved since 1913, and got the status of a nature preserve in 1991.
The landscape of the central part of the mountainous Crimea consists of Jurassic rocks represented by shales, sandstones, and limestones. The reserve carries out reproduction and protection of valuable animals - deer, roes, moufflons, and others, as well as protection of unique beech, oak and pine woods. The Swan Islands are Ukraine's largest places of nesting and wintering of waterfowl.
In the Kryms'kyi preserve the nature museum functions and dendrozoological garden was organised, which represent unique mountainous-forest natural complexes, rare species of flora and fauna. Conducted tours are held in the preserve and the itinerary includes a visit to the Marmurova (Marble) Cave.
Mys Martian (Cape Mart'ian). The nature preserve, formed in 1973, is situated in the central part of the Southern Coast of the Crimea, near Yalta. Its area is 240 hectares, 120 of them are adjacent waters of the Black Sea.
The relief of the preserve is very picturesque. It abounds in numerous ravines, gullies, hollows, scours, and abrasion terraces. Notwithstanding its small territory, the preserve has concentrated typical Crimean flora (501 species) and fauna, many kinds of them are listed in the Red Book of Ukraine. The preserve is engaged in the protection and study of Mediterranean relicts and the aquatic complex of the Black Sea coast.
Oputsky. The nature preserve was organised in 1998 in the Lenins'kyi District and covers an area of 1,592.3 hectares (including the adjacent waters of the Black Sea).
Original landscapes and natural conditions favoured the formation and conservation of unique flora and fauna, natural complexes which have no analogues not only in the Crimea but throughout Ukraine.
The Opuk massif is actually the mesa of Opuk, the highest mountain on the Kerch Peninsula (183 m), whose slopes are divided into terraces of reef limestone and demonstrate visually the abrasive work of the sea.
The rare stock of the preserve includes 23 species of flora and 32 species of fauna listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine. The preserve territory is the Crimea's only place of nesting for the rose-coloured starling.
Yaltynsky Mountain Forest. The nature preserve was established in 1998. Its area is 14,230 hectares.
The relief of the preserve is mountainous, split up with numerous deep ravines and canyon-like valleys of small rivers. Very impressive are the conglomerations called "chaos" that appeared because of earthquakes and landslips, and whimsical rock formations among which the rocks Taraktash and Stavri-Kaia are notable for their fantastic outlines.
The flora of the preserve comprises 1,363 species, many of which are listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine. The diversity of natural conditions and vegetation cover are favourable to the rich fauna of the preserve.
There are many interesting objects of nature in the territory of the preserve: the Uchansu waterfall 98 m high; the Baidaro-Kastropol's'ka Wall; the Kuchuk-Koi stone chaos; the Nikits'ka Cleft; detached mountains, including Pyliaky Mountain, and lphigenia and lsar rocks; the Pendikiul' tract; and numerous caves.
Mys Ai-Ya (Cape Ai-Ya). Founded in 1982. Covers an area of 1,340 hectares.
In the territory of the cape the rocks of limestone make up here and there grandiose stone conglomerates.
Mountainsides are covered with relict forests of Pitsunda pines (var. Stankewiczi), high juniper (Juniperus exce/sa), and small-fruited strawberry tree (Arbutus andrachne). Here live rare species of animals and birds: hardshell, Black Sea bottle-nosed dolphin, peregrine, eme, and many others.
Mys Fiolent (Cape Fiolent). Founded in 1996. Covers an area of 31.7 hectares.
Situated on the westernmost part of the Southern Coast of the Crimean Peninsula. For two kilometres the coast consists of volcanic rocks that form a gently sloping dome. On the seashore, there are numerous niches, stone chaoses, miniature islets, and abrasion arches. Especially impressive are the pointed cliff of Cape Fiolent and the huge Grotto of Diana. The beauty of inanimate environment is enhanced with the thickets of junipers, clematises, and ivies. Of the plants growing here, high juniper (Juniperus exce/sa) and Crimean cotoneaster are listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine. Among the rare species of animals there live the Crimean gecko, glass lizard, and Crimean mole cricket.
Plakucha Skelia (Weeping Rock). Founded in 1989. Covers an area of 21.7 hectares.
Situated in the valley of the River Western Bulhanak. The territory represents a picturesque piedmont tract with the ledge rock fault, in the lower part of which a niche had formed wherefrom underground water drips out like tears, hence the name of the preserve.
Grand Canyon of the Crimea. Founded in 1974. Covers an area of 300 hectares.
The canyon represents a deep gorge with vertical slopes more than 300 m high and a bottom narrowing at times to two-three metres. The mountain river Auzun-Uzen' runs along the narrow canyon bottom forming almost twenty nameless waterfalls. On the floor of the bottom, at the foot of waterfalls stones moved by water over the ages hollowed out numerous original water baths and cauldrons. The largest of them is "The Bath of Youth" with the temperature of water 9-11° Of great interest is the flora in the territory of the canyon: rare species of ferns, relict evergreen jasmine, endemic saxifrage, etc.
Novyi Svit. Founded in 1974. Covers an area of 470 hectares.
The preserve is a mountainous maritime massif on the Southeastern coast of the peninsula. It is one of the Crimea's most picturesque monuments of nature. In its territory rare species of plants - Crimean pines and relict Sudak pines - can be found, as well as a natural park of treelike juniper.
Urochysche Karabi-Yaila (Karabi-Yaila Tract). Founded in 1978. Covers an area of 491 hectares.
The reserve is situated on the lower Karabi-Yaila karst plateau of the Main Ridge of the Crimean Mountains. It represents a tableland with interesting karst topography (shafts and wells), covered with the upland meadow steppe with occasional trees and shrubs. Of 500 species of plants on Karabi-Yaila more than 50 are medicinal herbs.
Urochysche Kubalach (Kubalach Tract). 0-5 Founded in 1978. Covers an area of 526 hectares.
The reserve is a mountain-forest tract on the east of the Crimean foothills. This is the only place where a very rare endemic - Cyclamen Kuznetsovii - lives in natural state. This plant, notable for its decorativeness, elegance and beautiful fragrant pink flowers, is listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine.
Kachynsky Canyon. Founded in 1974. Covers an area of 100 hectares.
The reserve presents an erosion canyon in the valley of the River Kacha. The depth of the canyon reaches 140 m, and its width is 150 m. On its rocky slopes of limestone and marl picturesque promontories-bastions are rising, and at their bottoms are huge grottos-niches. Sites of primitive men with flint implements and bone remains of extinct animals were found in the grottos. The slopes of the canyon are overgrown with a forest of pubescent and durmast oak, hornbeam, hazel, dog-rose, and barberry.
Krasnyi Mak. Wonderful archaeological monuments have survived in the territory of the village and its environs, among them Eski-Kermen cave town (5th - 6th c.), a medieval feudal castle-fortress hewn in rocks. There are many natural and man-made caves in the neighbouring rocks. One of the rocks houses a small cave Church of Donators with fragments of 12th - 14th-century frescoes.
Crimean Astrophysical Observatory. It is Ukraine's largest observatory and one of the major in the world. Situated in the settlement of Nauchnyi, it has a state-of-the-art equipment which permits to carry out astrophysical researches of various objects of the Universe, here the Sun's behaviour is observed, and stars, planets, comets, and far galaxies are investigated.
The staff of the observatory will acquaint you with the unique observatory equipment and show various space objects.
Kuchuk-Kois'kyi Stone Chaos. Monument of nature of the local status, which presents a huge chaos of upper Jurassic limestone blocks formed as a consequence of a big landslide.
Kurortne. The surroundings of the settlement are very picturesque. The valley and slopes of the adjacent mountains are covered with woods, orchards, and vineyards. There are also mineral springs there. Near the village, a medieval settlement was found, with churches, dwelling houses and a burial ground. It was founded in the late 7th c. by Byzantine farmers and wine-makers who erected a church here.
Laspi Rocks. The rocks represent a massif of upper Jurassic limestones with an original steep relief. In this natural sanctuary grow such trees as Arbufus andrachne, a Juniperus excelsa whose age is almost 500 years, pubescent oaks, and Crimean pines. There is a bas-relief monument to the writer and talented engineer N. G. Garin-Mikhailovsky, who worked on the first project of the Yalta-Sevastopol' road.
Lazurne. The history of the village is associated with the life and activity of N. P. Suslova-Golubeva, the first in Europe woman physician, Doctor of Medicine. The last 25 years of her life she spent here, in the house of her husband Academician A. Y. Golubev, rendering assistance to patients free of charge. Her grave is near the house, among the cypress trees.
Lenine. The urban settlement, the administrative centre (its former name is Sim Kolodiaziv - seven wells) of the district, lies on the flat plain on each side of the railway. The neighbourhood abounds in archaeological monuments. There is a site from the Mesolithic-Neolithic period, as well as sites of the Bronze Age, Scythian burial mounds, and an ancient Greek settlement of the 3rd - 1 st c. BC.
Male Sadove. Three rocky promontories, whose slopes are covered with the greenery, tower over the village. On one of them stands the Siuren's'ka Fortress. The defensive wall with a round tower was built presumably in the 8th c., later a church painted with frescoes was arranged on the second tier. There are also the remains of the small cave Chelter-Koba Monastery that appeared in the 8th c. The church hewn in the sheer cliff has survived, as well as the cells located in two tiers, the refectory, and utility and defensive caves. The remains of primitive man sites were found in grottoes.
Marmurova pechera (Marble Cave). The cave is situated in the lower plateau of Chatyrdah. This is realIya museum of nature. In the richness of stalactite and stalagmite decoration, as well as improvements and firstrate services for excursionists it ranks among the first five most famous caves in Europe.
The speleo-complex Marble Cave includes also Emine-Bair-Khosar and Emine-Bair-Koba caves.
Masandra. This is the historical centre of wine industry of the Crimea. The major place of interest in the settlement is the Masandra Palace of Emperor Alexander III, a monument of landscape architecture.
Miskhor, resort. The warmest place on the Southern Coast of the Crimea. Its main sight, the Miskhors'kyi Park, is a monument of landscape gardening.
Mitridat Mountain. The most remarkable place in Kerch, it is the ancient history of the town.
The remains of Panticapaion were found on the mountain. The Great Mithridates Staircase of more than 400 steps leads to the top of the mount. It was built in 1833-1840 after the design by A. Digbi, the Italian architect working in Russia. At present, the Glory Obelisk rises over the Mithridates Mountain, and near it the Eternal Flame burns in honour of soldiers who fell in battles during the defence and liberation of the city in the years of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.
Mramorne. The name of the village (marble) originates from the beautiful rose marbelised limestone whose deposits are excavated in the local quarry. An underground museum functions in the Great Quarry.
Nikita. The Nikits'ka cleft is a monument of nature that vividly demonstrates the immense might of land forces changing the landscape relief. As if split by a gigantic sword, the rocks form a gloomy cold gorge. The 20metre kingdom of rocks is supplemented with stone chaoses, slide-rocks and deep fissures. Close to the settlement lies the Nikits'kyi Botanical Garden, one of the oldest scientific institutions of the Crimea.
Novyi Svit. One of the most picturesque places in the Crimea, which is testified by its former name Paradise. Here is located the landscape reserve of the same name. Worth seeing is a building in the style of a medieval castle crowned with four towers. It was built by L. S. Golitsyn for employees of the winerY, and he with his family lived in the palace. One of the buildings housed Golitsyn's museum - a large and rare collection of art faience, porcelain, and glass from different countries. Nowadays, it is the museum of the history of the champagne winery.
Oreanda The settlement has preserved its inimitable romantic beauty and peace so rare on the seacoast. Among the architectural structures of interest is a semi-rotunda built as a park pavilion on the rock by order of Governor-General M. S. Vorontsov in 1843.
In 1885, on the site of the burnt-out palace the Intercession Church was built, which was decorated with rich mosaics by the Venetian master Antonio Salviatti.
Oreanda has a number of interesting objects of nature as well. Krestova detached mountain is a monument of nature. Here competitions in rock climbing are held. Many times it was visited by the famous mountaineer Mikhail Khergiani, and his outstanding sports achievements are commemorated in the memorial plaque mounted on the rock. From the Oreanda Park runs the Kurchatov trail named after the great physicist, an ardent populariser of hiking.
Parkove. The settlement is interesting first of all for its landscaped park with sculptures, a monument of landscape gardening of the early 20th c. The sculptor A. 1. Matveev decorated the park with original dynamic sculptures of boys, young men and young bathers in 1905-1912. Here, in 1899 A. P. Chekhov received M. Gorky at his cottage.
Partenit. In the past, there was a medieval settlement of Partenit, which means maidens' in Greek. Two military sanatoria - Frunzens'ke and Krym - work here now. An age-old park rich in subtropical plants grows in the territory of the Frunzens'ke sanatorium. In the Krym sanatorium, an interesting 122-m long tunnel faced with Armenian tuff attracts attention. Here the modernity and the past coexist. The glass dome of the winter garden rises next to the memorial stele with the inscription testifying to the fact that at the beginning of the 20th c.
Saky. The oldest balneological resort. As early as 1827 the first institution for mud-cures was established in the town. There are also mineral springs, a great support in medical treatment. The town has a rich Kurortnyi park laid out in 1890 where almost 80 species of trees and shrubs grow. Monuments to Lesia Ukrainka and Nikolai Gogol remind that they underwent treatment in Saky.
Sanatorne. The main object of interest in the settlement is the Melas Palace, dis inguished for its original architecture, which was built in the 1830s - 1840s on the estate of L. A. Petrovs , Russian statesman, participant in the Patriotic War of 1812. A vast park was laid out here at the same time. In it, there are original rock conglomerations, debris of giant blocks, and whimsical bays. The Melas Park is a monument of landscape gardening. At present, the palace is one of the buildings of the Melas sanatorium.
Sarych Cape. This is the southernmost point of the Crimean Peninsula and, perhaps, the warmest. At the top of the cape stands the Sarych lighthouse, which gives light signals to the ships. The government's summer residence Zaria lies on the eastern slope. In 1991, the first and last USSR President M. S. Gorbachev stayed there during the August putsch.
Bel'bekskiy kanyon (Canyon). The place where the River Bel'bek forced its way through the Inner mountain range. The depth of the canyon is 160 m, its width - about 300 m. This is an original erosion gorge the sheer slopes of which comprise a rare complex of original natural sculptured figures resembling now gigantic monsters, now Egyptian sphinxes. The Crimea's largest plantation of the European yew grows on the left bank of the Bel'bek.
Ak-Kaia Mountain. A unique landscape and archaeological monument of the Crimea also called Bila Skelia (The White Rock). It is a formidable rock 325 m high. The mountain formed in consequence of erosion and weathering of paleogene and upper cretaceous limestones and marls. More than 20 Mousterian sites (40-100 millennia ago) have been found here, as well as a settlement from the 8th - 10th c. The Ak-Kaia region was very convenient for life of primitive man: plenty of grottos and shelves, river water, a flint deposit in the local marl. Almost 400 species of plants grow here and some of them are listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine.
Koshka Mountain. The picturesque rock massif is one of the biggest detached mounts of the Southern Coast. The whimsical outlines of the mountain (kishka means cat in Ukrainian) explain its name. The mountainsides represent a veritable museum of relief forms: gravitation stone chaoses alternate with grandiose peaks and towers and numerous karst grooves. Kishka Mountain is the Crimea's only habitat of Fumana thymifolia listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine.
Manhup-Kale Outlier. The mesa with the remains of a large "cave town" and an altitude of 581 m. In its 40-70-metre deep precipices formed by bryozoan upper Cretaceous limestones were found more than 80 grottos and shelves, several caves, and numerous man-made caves-crypts of cult or husbandry function (archaeological monuments of the 6th - 15th c.). In the 10th - 15th c. there was a large town, the capital of the Theodora Principality, destroyed by the Turks in 1475. The slopes of the mountain are grawn with pubescent oaks, hornbeams, briers, hazels, and the Crimean pine can be found.
Kara-Tau Mountain. It is one of the most important massifs of beech wood whose age is about 200 years and it plays a significant part in soil and water conservation.
Karabi-Yaila Trough. The mountain depression with unique vegetation where the Cerastium Biebersteinii dominates, the Crimean endemic listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine.
Kyzyl-Koba Red Caves. The longest (13,1 km) cave in limestone has 6 horizontal floors-tiers, grandiose halls and numerous galleries adorned with tiff dripstones. Some stalactites reach 5-8 m. In the lower tier an underground river forms a system of cascades, lakes, and a waterfall. Kyzyl-Koba is also known as a monument of archaeology: here bones of cave bears were found as well as material vestiges of the Kyzyl-Koba culture.
Soldats'ka Karst Pit. It was found by Feodosiia speleologists and named in honour of victorious Soviet soldiers (soldat means soldier), There are stalactites and stalagmites in the pit an\! a permanent water flow in its bottom, It is the deepest pit in the Crimea.
Ozhau-Tepe Volcano. The biggest periodically active mud volcano in the Crimea, its height being ,116 m above sea level. The sides of the conical mountain are cut by gullies and covered with fescue and wormwood. Burning gases periodically rise from the depths of the earth and throw out fluid mud through the crater. The largest eruption took place in 1927.
Demerdzhi Tract. This monument of nature is a geological formation that appeared as a result of centuries-old weathering and resembles either people or animals and more often towers and columns. Especially numerous are whimsical pyramids, pillars, mushrooms, and towers in the famous Dolyna Pryvidiv (Phantom Valley).
Karasu-Bashi Tract. There is a mighty karst spring and a waterfall where the River Biiuk-Karasu originates.
MONUMENTS OF LANDSCAPE GARDENING
Alupka Park. Covers an area of 40 hectares. Founded in 1820-1840 under the guidance of the German gardener Karl Kebach. The Alupka Palace (see National and State Historico-Cultural Preserves) and park represent an integral architectural-artistic ensemble.
The kilometre-Iong main alley passes from east to west through the entire park territory. It separates the Upper Park from the Lower that faces the sea. By the character of its layout the Lower Park divides into the palace and seaside parts. The dominant feature of the Lower Park is the Vorontsov Palace and the adjacent territory. The territory in front of the palace consists of three terraces decorated with parterres, borders, sculptures, fountains, and a waterfall, descending to the sea. The alley of pyramidal cypresses parallels the seacoast and above it runs an oleander alley. The main seaside alley passes through the age-old Aleppo pine grove.
The southern extremity of the Alupka Park is the seashore. Sage-green and greenish-ochre rocks of whimsical forms and outlines present a picturesque sight. One of the highest rocks with a lookout point, which stands farther away of the seacoast, is called the Aivazovsky Rock in honour of the outstanding marine painter. Not far of the rock stands the Tea House, a pavilion built in the neo-classical style by the architect F. Elson in 1834. The exhibitions of works by the Crimean artists are periodically held in it.
A characteristic feature of the Upper Park is the surprising diversity of its landscapes. There are large glades, meandering paths, ponds, and waterfalls. Ponds are enhanced with whimsically set rock fragments that turn into the Great Chaos - a natural conglomeration of gigantic rock debris. Another place of interest in the Upper Park is the Small Chaos, a labyrinth of paths and passages among the dark boulders with artificial grotfos and streamlets. Between the Great and Small Chaoses there are three artificial ponds with decorative fishes, white and black swans, and golden ducks. The centre of the Upper Park composition is formed with four open landscaped glades: Platan, the adornment of which are two giant sequoias and the monkey-puzzle, a very rare relict tree; Sunny, where the Crimean oldest cypress grows that was planted as far back as the late 18th c.; Contrast, one of the most picturesque formed on colour and Iight-and-shade contrasts; and Chestnut, wonderfully beautiful in autumn. Altogether, there are about 200 exotic species, varieties, and garden forms of trees and shrubs. Here are found groups of stone pines, cedars of Lebanon, common yew, planes, chestnuts, cypresses, giant sequoias, and small-fruit strawberry tree (Arbutus andrachne). Age-old trees are one of the major adornments of the park. Here grows a holm grove, the only one on the Crimean Peninsula. The park has many fountains and artificial waterfalls: the Oriental fountain (1830-1840), the Gothic fountain (1829), The Fountain ofTears (1851), the Shell fountain (1946).
Foros Park. Covers an area of 70 hectares. Founded in 1834. It is the landscaped park with elements of the regular style. The park territory has a hilly relief with a gradual decline to the sea.
Ancient landslides at the foot of the mountains piled up chaotic conglomerations of rock blocks and debris that make up a part of the park landscape composition. The park is based on the natural forest in which high junipers (Juniperus exce/sa), turpentine trees, pubescent oaks, ashes, and maple trees grew.
The park is divided into three sections. The lower seaside section is separated from the middle part by a garden road and stretches from Tykha Bay in the east to the former hippodrome in the west. In the middle part of the park, there is The Paradise, a favourite place of holiday-makers, with six miniature lakes built on different levels and joined into a single cascade with miniature waterfalls, making up one of the most picturesque park compositions. Above The Paradise, a forest park ascends the slope.
A mansion (1891) has been preserved in the territory of the park and now it is one of the buildings of the Foros Sanatorium.
Gurzuf Park. Covers an area of 12 hectares. Founded in 1808-1812 in the valley of the mountain River Avunda. The park is laid out in the landscape style with regular elements. Almost 110 species and forms of trees and shrubs grow in it, among them conifers, particularly stone, Pitsunda (var. Stankewiczi), Crimean, grey-leaf, Aleppo, and Pallas pines; Atlas, Himalayan, and Lebanon cedars; common, horizontal, and Arizona cypresses; mammoth trees and common yews. There are also broad-leaved evergreens: holms, strawberry trees, bay laurels, and trifoliate lemons.
The park is adorned with numerous monuments and sculptures. Its central alley features busts of A. Pushkin, Lesia Ukrainka, V. Mayakovsky, A. Chekhov, M. Gorky, F. Chaliapin, and A. Mickiewicz. It is also decorated with fountains The Night, Rachel, A Nymph, Orpheus, and A Bather. The planning structure of the park in the time of its floruit has been preserved, only its north and southwest sections were changed.
Kharaks'kyi Park. Covers an area of 15 hectares. Founded in the second half of the 19th c. Situated on the southern slopes of the Crimean plateau.
According to its planning and the species composition the park is divided into two parts: the western laid out in the regular style, and the eastern in the landscape style. A remarkable monument of park architecture - the Athenian pavilion with marble columns surrounded with stone pines, Lebanon cedars, and cypresses stands on one of the coastal precipices. The landscaped part of the park represents the remains of a natural forest with prevailing high junipers (Juniperus excelsa), oaks, hornbeams, and ash-trees. Altogether, almost 200 species and forms of trees and bushes grow in the park.
Cypress Park. Covers an area of 9 hectares. Founded in the early 20th c. in the territory of the Artek international children's centre. The park is arranged in the landscape style with elements of the regular style. Its distinctive feature, which has determined its name, is cypress alleys and groves. The vegetation includes about 180 species and forms of trees and shrubs, including many exotic, especially coniferous, like stone, grey-leaf, Aleppo, yellow, and Montezuma pines; Lusitanian, Monterey, and Himalayan cypresses; deodar and Himalayan cedars; mammoth trees, and others. The species composition of deciduous trees is very rich and includes bay laurel, myrtle, biwa, oleander, etc.
Livadia Park. Covers an area of 40.1 hectares. Founded in the first half of the 19th c. The architectural ensemble of the park includes the White Palace (1911), Fredericks' Palace (1916) and the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (1864).
The park is based on a natural forest, exotics are planted mainly in its central part. The territory consists of steep mountain slopes that here and there turn into precipices with gullies, rock elevations and terraces. About 180 species and forms of trees, shrubs, and Iianas grow in the park. Its major attraction are giant sequoias and pines growing on the light-green glades. Among the oldest trees in the park mention should be made of individual specimens of holm and pyramidal oaks. Group compositions include cypresses, oaks, Himalayan, Lebanon and Atlas cedars, a grove of Sudanese pines and an olive grove. Platans are the common trees in the park and there are several varieties of pines, firs, and magnolias.
The park is decorated with fountains, the 80-metre metal fence twined with Iianas (roses, wisterias, and vines). and pavilions Rose, Turkish and Laurel.
Massandra Park. Covers an area of 44.1 hectares. Laid out in the landscape style in the first half of the 19th c. Here grow more that 200 species of garden trees and shrubs. Along with local plants - pubescent oaks, strawberry-trees, turpentine trees, high junipers (Juniperus excelsa), Crimean pines, and butcher's-brooms - many exotics grow in the park, particularly cypresses, mammoth trees, Atlas and Himalayan cedars, bay laurels, evergreen magnolias, cryptomerias, bamboos, insignis pines, bark pines, bristlecone firs, and others.
The park consists of three sections - Upper (with the palace and park). Middle and Lower Masandra.
It is one of the most beautiful parks in the Crimea, its territory being a huge terraced amphitheatre facing the sea. There are many wonderful landscaped compositions of pines, spruces, firs, old cypresses standing near a small oval pond, as well as alleys of palms and roses.
Miskhor Park. Covers an area of 23 hectares. Laid out in the late 18th c. Here grow about 100 species and garden forms of exotic trees and shrubs, including Aleppo, yellow and big-cone pines, Arizona and Guadeloupe cypresses, oleanders, and bamboos. There is a colour-music fountain in the park.
A bronze sculptural group Mermaid on the shore represents a water nymph appearing from the sea with a child in her hands, and on the sea-front stands the fountain The Girl Arzy and the Thief Ali Baba.
These sculptures are associated with the legend about the abduction of beautiful Arzy by Ali Baba who sold her to the harem of the Turkish sultan. The Mermaid sculpture and the fountain were executed in the early 20th century after the design by the well-known Estonian sculptor, Academician of St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts A. G. Adams.
Miskhor Park is a monument of landscape art, it was installed earlier than the other Crimean parks - at the end of the XVIII century. There on the area of 23 hectares there are nearly 100 kinds and forms of exotic trees and bushes. The groups of trees atternate with the glades in the landscape park. Arizona and Guadelupe cypresses, Aleppo and Coulter pines, palms, bamboos, oleanders, are neighbours with local forest kinds (pubescent oak, Crimean pine, pistache amblyophyllous). The colour-musical fountain works in the park. Nobody would pass by the two sculptural groups: they are bronze "Rusalka" (Mermaid) and fountain "The girl Arzy and robber Ali-baba" built on the seaside, both of them were made by motives of Crimean tatar legends. They radiate one of the many moments of abduction of the girls by Turkish pirates and selling of them into the harems of Stambul pashas and beys. The sculpture "Rusalka" (Mermaid) is the third. The first one belonged to the famous Estonian sculptor A.G.Adams and became a victim of the storm on the Black Sea. The second one depicted the mermaid with a baby in her hands and fish tail, its composer is unknown, the date of its statute is unknown too. At the beginning of 1980 during the beach measuring the mermaid had to be removed and she lost her tail and hand. Then there was taken the solution to safe restored original as the museum thing and to install the new sculpture shot from bronze at Miskhor seaside. The third mermaid is bigger than the previous ones; it was made in Kiev and in 1984 it was installed on the big four-metres boulder found in the district of Maly Mayak. But strictly speaking now she is not a mermaid but a mother with baby because this sculpture has not enough poetry.
Park of the Ut'os and Karasan Sanatoria. Covers an area of 23 hectares. Founded in 1812-1814 in the landscape style. The park consists of two sections: one belonging to the Ut'os Sanatorium (5 hectares) and that of the Karasan Sanatorium (18 hectares).
The section at the Karasan Sanatorium is famous for its old palace of the Rayevskys built in the Moresque style in a dense grove of stone pines in 1887.
Here grows a great number of exotic kinds of trees, groves of stone, Aleppo, and grey-leaf pines; horizontal and pyramidal cypresses; palms; Atlas, Lebanon and Himalayan cedars. The age of the majority of trees is more than 100 years. Several specimens of the turpentine tree, listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine, have survived of the natural forests.
The composition of the section in the territory of the Ut'os Sanatorium agrees with the architecturalplanning solution of the Karasan Park. Here grow more than 250 kinds and forms of arborescent and shrubby species. Mention should be made of valuable trees the age of which is 200 years and more: common yews, box-trees, platens, cedars, cypresses, and bay trees.
Nikitsky Botanic Garden
This botanical garden with the area of 876.6 hectares, one of the country's oldest, is known all over the world. The first trees brought from other continents were planted there, near the Greek settlement of Nikita in 1812. The founder and first director of the garden was Ch. Steven, a Swede by origin, the famous scientist and researcher of the Crimean flora.
The collection of the Nikits'kyi Botanical Garden numbers 240,000 species, kinds and forms of plants. Unique and very valuable monuments in 'the park are the bamboo grove planted in 1912, a thousand-year old turpentine tree, a 700-year old olive tree, a 500-year old common yew, an evergreen sequoia planted in 1840, the 100-year old alley of pyramidal cypresses, and a mammoth tree 33 m high and 1.7 m in trunk diameter.
The Nikitsky Garden maintains close contacts with numerous foreign scientific institutions. Here function departments of flora, nature protection, dendrology and decorative gardening, floriculture, pomiculture, subtropical and nuciferous cultures, new industrial plants, mobilisation and introduction of plant resources, biochemistry of plants, physiology of plants, agro-ecology and plant nutrition, plant protection, cytogenetics, and research-organisational.
Kalos Limen Republican Historico-Archaeological Preserve. The preserve is situated in the urban settlement of Chornomors'ke and was founded on the basis of Kalos Limen (Fair Haven) site, the remains of which have survived to the present day. Here were found remains of defensive walls and ceramics, 3rd - 2nd c. BC, remains of the town wall and a dwelling house.
Stary Krym Historico-Cultural Preserve. The preserve includes the remains of the medieval town of Solkhat (13th - 18th c.) and the Museum of A. S. Grin, a branch of the Grin Memorial Museum in Feodosiia. The museum is opened in the house where the writer spent two last years of his life. Here, in the town cemetery there is his grave.
The ancient town of Solkhat is represented by the remains of a defensive wall, ruins of the large madrasah, the Oz Beg Mosque (1314), and the Surb-Khach Mosque (1338).
Bakhchysarai State Historico-Cultural Preserve. This preserve has several branches: the former Khan's Palace, the Museum of Archaeology and Cave Towns, the Literary-Artistic Museum, and the I. Haspryns'kyi Museum.
The main component of the preserve is the Bakhchysarai Palace, which comprises not only the main administrative ensemble but a housing estate of the medieval feudal type, built in the late 15th - early 16th c. The complex of the Khan's Palace includes several palatial buildings, the harem, more precisely its extant part, the Falcon Tower where, according to legend, falcons trained for hunting were kept in mews, the Great Khan's Mosque built in 1740, the family cemetery of the Girays, the former rulers of the Crimea, the mausoleum of Maria, a captive from Podillia, who became the favourite wife of the cruel Krym Giray. Of special interest is the covered fountain courtyard with the Golden Fountain built in 1733 and the famous Fountain of Tears, Selsebijl, as is inscribed on the monument erected in 1764. The Aleviz Portal is the most remarkable part of the palace constructed by the outstanding Italian master Aleviz in 1503.
The Museum of Archaeology and Cave Towns situated in the palace has more than 100,000 wonderful exhibits. The museum visitors show a great interest in the exhibition of cold and fire arms. Here are represented the finest specimens made by the armourers of the 17th - 19th c.
Siuren', pechera-hrot (Cave-grottoes). F-3. In the caves, sites of primitive men from the early Palaeolithic and Mesolithic time were found. Near the caves, on the left bank of the Bel'bek River a tower rises and a part of the fortress wall. This is the Siuren's'ke Fortification, an advanced stronghold or a feudal castle built in the early medieval time.
Skel's'ka Cave. The reserved cave with the conglomeration of blocks, a monument of nature. In the upper part of the conglomeration there is a hall adorned with snow-white incrustation.
Sokolyne. The village lies surrounded by orchards and forest-gardens. There are picturesque rocks Orlynyi Zalit (Eagle's Flight), the partisans used one of them as an observation point during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.
Soniachna Dolyna. Here live excellent masters - wine-growers and wine-makers. The famous vintage wines Chernyi Doktor (Black Doctor) and Chernyi Polkovnik (Black Colonel) are made of grapes grown here.
In the village, the church, an architectural monument ofthe 10th - 15th c., rises on the hill. The traces of human habitation of ancient times have survived, including Tauric settlements.
Sotera, balka (Gully). The reserved area with original forms of relief - stone mushrooms. The place where valuable palaeontological finds were made.
Staryi Krym. The history of the town is millennia-old, which is testified by architectural monuments, the remains of the fortifications of the medieval town of Sol khat (see National and State Historico-Cultural Preserves). Staryi Krym attracts holiday-makers with its natural riches: clear salubrious air, oak and hornbeamoak forests and beech groves in its outskirts, interesting karst topography - the Bezdonny (Fathomless) karst pit and the Lysiachyi Khvist (Fox Brush) Cave.
Sviata Mountain. This mountain is a miraculous museum created by nature itself. It is a unique geological formation with diverse plant and animal life. The top of the mountain is a kingdom of chaotic conglomeration of stone towers, pillars, and peaks. All of them are forms of igneous lava weathering. Of great interest is a series of sculptures on the top of the seaside range Karahach - the King and the Queen with the Retinue, the rocks Warrior and Monomachus's Cap. Nearer to the sea stands a huge Sphinx rock (or the Devil's Finger).
This gigantic statue guards the entrance into the wild gorge Hiaur-Batch. The steep slope of the gorge leads to the Serdolikova (Cornelian) Bay. The panorama of Karadah opens from the sea: the picturesque Rozbiinyts'ka (Robber's) Bay protected by the Ivan the Robber Rock, the Prykordonna (Boundary) Bay with the majestic arch of the Zoloti Vorota (Golden Gate) at the entrance, and rocks Lev (Lion) and Sion (Elephant).
Syvash Sound. A unique monument of nature. Quite often mass media call it a natural storage of chemical elements. The Syvash brine, 'salts-saturated water, does not differ from the sea water in its composition, but the salt concentration here is five times higher than in the ocean. Syvash covers the area of approximately 2,560 sq km, while its depth is only 2-3 m. Despite the high salinity of water quite a number offish species live in it. In summer the decaying vegetation emits sulphuretted hydrogen, so Syvash has another name - the Putrid Sea.
Uchansu Waterfall. The highest waterfall in the Crimea, its height being 98 m. It is especially spectacular after heavy rains and in spring, when snow melts in the mountains, while in a dry summer it practically dries up. However, high age-old pines, which grow around the waterfall, are always beautiful, like the entire surroundings and healing mountain air full of their redolent smell.
Ut'os. The village is situated on the Plaka rocky promontory, resembling from one side a profile of an owl, with volcano rock outcrop. In ancient times the Greek settlement of Lampas (lamp, torch) stood here. The major object of interest is however the old park of the Karasan and Ut'os Sanatoria (see Monuments of Landscape Gardening of the Republican Status).
Velykyi Kastel, balka (Gully). The reserved area where sections of the virgin feather and motley grass steppe have survived as well as thickets of relict bushes.
Vovchyi Grotto. The grotto is a karst cavern where a settlement of primitive hunters from the Middle Palaeo lithic period was located. The remains of bonfires, stone implements, and mammoth, cave bear and wild horse bones were found here.