Climbing to the Ai-Petri plateau by car, for which tourists climb up. Ai-Petri mountain range, tourism center

Ai-Petri

What is Ai-Petri? It is difficult to answer this question in one or two sentences; it is even more difficult to describe the diversity of this mountain range, where each tract surprises and delights. Talk to mountaineers and rock climbers, tourists and excursionists, speleologists and skiers, foresters and meteorologists, mushroom pickers and wild berry lovers - everyone will tell their own story, but even these fragments put together will not give you an idea of ​​Ai-Petri until you visit its top.

Ai-Petri is the peak and mountain range with an area of ​​more than 300 km2, one of the table massifs (they are also called yayls), stretched along South Bank Crimea and constituting the main mountain range. The Ai-Petrinsky massif extends from east to west for 25 km. The distance between its southern edge and northern foothills is more than 13 km. Conditional eastern border runs along the meridian of Mount Roka, separating the massif from the neighboring Yalta Yayla. In the west, Ai-Petri ends in a deep saddle Baydar Gate.

However, most often tourists remember not the massif as a whole, but one of its peaks with a palisade of exotic stone pillars called battlements. This peak of the protrusion of the massif, far extended to the south, is Ai-Petri itself, which gave its name to the entire plateau and became a symbol of the south coast.

The highest point of the entire massif is Mount Roca with an absolute elevation of 1346 meters above sea level, slightly less (1320 meters) Mount Quail (Benede-Kyr). Mount Ai-Petri itself is much lower - its height is 1231 meters above sea level.

Throughout its entire length, the mountain range faces south, towards the sea, with formidable rock walls: sometimes strictly vertical, sometimes stepped, but everywhere inaccessible. Rare passes, through which man laid paths and cart roads in ancient times, still serve as passages from the southern coast to the plateau.

The northern slopes of the massif are not so steep; they are completely covered with broad-leaved forests.

The small massifs of Boyka and Sedam-Kaya extend to the north. They are separated by the Kokkozka River. Many other rivers and streams run down from Ai-Petri. From its northern slopes flow the Kokkozka tributaries: Auzun-Uzen and Sary-Uzen, from the western slopes flow the rivers: Baga, UrkustaUzundzha, from which the Chernaya River is born - the most abundant in Crimea. In the upper reaches of one of the left nameless tributaries of the Uzundzhi there is the Karadag forest tract. The rivers of the southern slope - short and low-water in summer - can be stormy and dangerous during floods. Hundreds of springs feed these rivers, and among them the largest in Crimea is the Skelsky spring.

South of seashore The snow-white houses of the beautiful Yalta rise into the mountains. From the top of the massif on a clear day the villages of Gaspra, OreandaForosKoreizSimeizBlue Bay, the city of Alupka are clearly visible... In the west, in the Baydarskaya valley, lie the villages of Orlinoe, PodgornoyeRodnikovoeRossoshankaNovobobrovskoyePeredovoye... At the foot of the northern slopes in dense gardens bordering the forest, you can hardly see the villages of Polya well, SokolinoeMnogorecheChastlivoe ... And only in the east, where Ai-Petri borders on another mountain range - 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 top. It is difficult to find a Crimean who has not seen the sunrise on Ai-Petri at least once in his life. Really, for the sake of this one moment, when the fiery ball of the sun seems to emerge from the dark blue abyss of the sea, it is worth climbing to this height.

The mountainous Crimea, as we see it now, was formed in a relatively short period of geological time - approximately 1.5 - 2 million years.

The geological history is more or less reliably known Mountain Crimea, including Ai-Petri, starting from the end of the Triassic period (about 200 million years ago). At that time the territory of the present Crimean peninsula covered 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 area of ​​modern Mediterranean Sea and extreme northwest Africa.

Over the past 200 million years, the land area on which Ai-Petri is located was repeatedly brought out from under sea level, and then it was actively destroyed by exogenous forces, and then sank again under sea level. The depth of the dives was different, depending on it, either silts and sands were deposited at the bottom of the reservoir, which later transformed into clays and sandstones, or calcareous silts, which turned into limestones. Sometimes, with a significant rise in the nearby land and shallow waters of the basin itself, the land was actively eroded and huge masses of pebbles were carried into the basin. Cemented by marine sediments, they transformed into conglomerates.

150 - 160 million years ago, volcanoes were active in the vicinity of Ai-Petri, their remains can be seen near the villages of Melas and Foros.

During numerous uplifts and subsidences of the earth's crust, marine sediments, which were transformed into layers of rock under the weight of overlying sediments, were repeatedly crushed, cracked and moved. Naturally, the older the rocks, the more dislocated (disturbed) they are. Plastic rocks - clays with layers of sandstones - were bent into bizarre folds, stronger ones - limestones, conglomerates - were torn into separate blocks. Some blocks were moved over long distances by the powerful forces of the earth's interior. In Crimea, in particular on Ai-Petri, such movements reach a kilometer in the vertical direction and several kilometers in the horizontal direction.

The most ancient rocks that make up Ai-Petri can be seen in the valley of the Kokkozka River in the cliffs above the road that leads from Bakhchisarai through Sokolinoe to Yalta. These folds, cut by a river valley, consist of rhythmically interlayered rocks of the Tauride series - sandstone, siltstones, mudstones, colored in different tones. Above the rocks of the Tauride formation are the rocks of the Middle Jurassic (since they are younger). These are the same overconsolidated clays, interlayered with sandstones, rocks that resemble a “layer cake”; geologists call it flysch. In appearance, the flysch of the Taurian formation differs little from the flysch of the Middle Jurassic, however, they are relatively weaker dislocated and bent into gentler folds.

Rocks of the Tauride series and Middle Jurassic form the base of the Ai-Petri massif. Above them lie limestones. The contact line runs at different absolute levels, but generally does not exceed 500 - 600 meters. Only in one place (in the Besh-Tekne tract) flysch rocks were pushed by underground forces to a height of 1000 - 1100 meters onto the surface of the plateau.

In the mountainous Crimea, for about one and a half million years, active karst processes have been quietly occurring on the surface and deep in the depths of the mountains, leading to the formation of craters, basins and caves of various sizes and shapes. There are three karst areas on the Ai-Petrinsky massif: Western Ai-Petrinsky karst region, located between the Baydar Gate pass and the peak of Merdven-Kayasy; Central, occupying the middle part of the massif between the peaks of Merdven-Kayasy and At-Bash; Eastern, lying between the peaks of At-Bash and Roka. The Central Ai-Petri region is most intensively karstified. 218 underground cavities and more than 1,330 karst sinkholes were discovered here. In total, there are 302 underground karst cavities (caves, wells, mines) on Ai-Petri, 12 of which are declared natural monuments local significance: Skelskaya, Crystal HangingHoneyPearlMiskhorskayaRockfallSyundurlyuDruzhbaGeofizicheskayaCascade and Danilcha-koba.

If karst dominates on the top part of the plateau, then below, at the foot of the slopes, there are landslides, rock-falls and mudflows. Landslides form in any mountains, especially where the geological situation contributes to this. In Crimea, conditions for the formation of landslides are favorable, so 452 landslides were recorded on the southern coastal slopes alone, 112 of which are active. At the foot of Ai-Petri you can see many large and small landslides, nine of them are major: Malassky, Chernobugorsky, Mukhalatsky, Kuchuk-Koysky, Kikeneizsky, Dolomiysky, Alupkinsky, Golden Beach, Chukurlarsky.

Along with the loose material, very large limestone blocks, broken off from the main mass of rocks - outliers - also slide down the slope. Among the softer rocks surrounding them, they look like picturesque rocks. The outcasts include the Mogabi mountains near Yalta, Krestovaya in Alupka, Koshka in Simeiz and many others.

The climate of Ai-Petri is characterized by sharp contrast. Average annual temperature air temperature on Ai-Petri is +5.9°C. In the mountains, in the same month, the average daily temperature can be very different. On Ai-Petri in January it is +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 the Yailas 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, average temperature it is –3.8°C.

40% of precipitation on the Ai-Petri Plateau falls in the form of rain, 60% in the form of snow. On average, 1052 mm of precipitation falls on Ai-Petri per year (in Yalta only 635), with 160 mm in January alone. Stable snow cover lasts from mid-December to March. Due to thaws in the whitish areas of the yayla, the snow disappears completely by 50-70% several times during the cold period of time.

The duration of daylight hours on Ai-Petri is long - 2325 hours.

And the unwanted vagaries of nature here, although they represent inconvenience and danger, are still short-term phenomena.

Crossing Ai-Petri from south to north or in reverse direction, even a non-specialist notices a certain pattern in the distribution of vegetation: the slopes are covered with forests, the plateau is dominated by meadow-steppe vegetation. Yaila amazes with its wide open spaces with sparse clumps of trees and shrubs. Unlike other Crimean yailas, Ai-Petrinskaya has natural forests along the edges of cliffs, in the Central karst plateau and along erosion-karst valleys in the western part, but most of the plateau is covered with meadow-steppe vegetation.

The vegetation in the mountains is truly rich and varied. On the southern slopes there is a beech forest with an admixture of pine. From an altitude of 1000 - 800 meters above sea level, the belt of Crimean pine begins, which grows with oak in the first tier, and with prickly juniper in the second. Below 400 meters, a belt of shrub communities begins: junipers, hornbeam, hornbeam, and many other shrubs with an admixture of oak. Here you can find pistachio obtufolia, arbutus with a peculiar smooth reddish bark, the thin outer layer of which changes annually, and with evergreen leaves, yellow-flowered jasmine, a shrubby type of knit, bladderwort and much more. There are many fruit trees and shrubs in the forests. Almost all common types of mountain ash grow on the slopes of Ai-Petri and on the plateau: ordinary, large-fruited, bereka, Greek and others.

So what is Ai-Petri? It is unlikely that you can hear an exhaustive answer to this question...

CD "Sights of Crimea" -

Several projects for the reconstruction of the Ai-Petri plateau are being developed in Crimea. All of them are under consideration by the relevant departments and ministries of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

As the correspondent of the portal “” reports, one of these projects was developed on behalf of the head of the Yalta administration, Andrei Rostenko.

"IN at the moment this project is also being approved by the ministries of the Republic of Crimea and will subsequently be provided to the head of Crimea Sergei Aksenov,” said Anri Kanunov, a freelance adviser to the head of the Yalta city administration.

According to him, this week another project for the reconstruction of the Ai-Petri plateau was published in some media, including on Internet portals, provided by the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of the Yalta City Administration, which is now also under consideration in the capital of Crimea .

“We don’t yet know which of these projects will be approved and with what amendments, so it’s premature to talk about what will be located on the plateau,” emphasized Anri Kanunov.

At the same time, he said that there are several ideas for creating a small eco-city on Ai-Petri, intended for recreation and entertainment, where interesting objects will be concentrated, as harmless to nature as possible and attractive to tourists. At the same time, no permanent buildings are planned on the plateau.

Among the projects expected to be implemented on the plateau, the most interesting, according to Anri Kanunov, will be a rock garden, glass observation decks and a stone labyrinth made of gabions (volume products of various shapes made of twisted wire mesh with hexagonal cells). The world's longest zip line, 2.6 km long, may also appear here (currently the longest Zip Line - 2545 m is located in the Copper Canyon in Mexico).

In addition, in the area of ​​the cable car on the plateau it is planned to make a special area for relaxation and walking, where there will be a dry fountain (a fountain equipped with a special grate from under which jets of water shoot out, and the niche of the pool with water itself is hidden under the grate). Thanks to this design, people can come close to the dry fountain, walk along its grating - in a word, be in the very center of events.

The issue of holding international competitions is also being considered. balloons, and a number of other interesting entertainment activities that reflect the general environmental concept of the development of this territory, without causing irreparable harm to nature.

As Anri Kanunov explained, in addition to the above, on the plateau it will be possible to ride bicycles in the summer and snow scooters in the winter. For these purposes, special bicycle paths and downhill paths will be organized here. At the same time, there will still be the opportunity to ride animals, but all this will be in a modern, civilized form.

And for cars and excursion buses It is planned to make two parking lots on the plateau. It is expected that there will also be helipad, which will be intended, among other things, for search and rescue operations, which is especially important in winter, when you climb the plateau at road transport quite problematic.

“All over the world in such inaccessible mountainous areas there are specially equipped helipads, which are primarily intended for emergencies,” emphasized Anri Kanunov.

But there will be no numerous catering establishments and souvenir stalls on the plateau. There will only be one stationary cafe left, located on top station cable car and adjacent souvenir rows.

“There are many disputes and disagreements in social networks prompted by information about the appearance of a church on the plateau. I would like to clarify that this will be a small chapel, which will be located on the side highway on the plateau, near the Alpine Ski Club,” explained Anri Kanunov and added that the administration of the city of Yalta is ready to accept for consideration any proposals to increase the attractiveness of this cluster, subject to strict control over the safety of the existing ecosystem of the plateau.

Crimean photoblogger Sergei Anashkevich aka aquatek-filips says: “ Better than the mountains there can only be mountains. And even though the mountains in Crimea are not high, they are still mountains. Demerdzhi, Karadag, Chatyrdag, Karabi, Babugan, Echkidag and, of course, Ai-Petri. I love going there. Each place is interesting in its own way at different times of the year. Somewhere there is incredible autumn, somewhere there is summer grass, and somewhere there is spring awakening.

On Ai-Petri in the spring you are almost guaranteed to encounter frequent fogs. Or rather, these are not exactly fogs. These are clouds that creep onto the plateau from the sea. And then during the day you can be under the clouds, above the clouds, inside the clouds, or watch how the clouds break against the rocky walls of the mountains... Backpack, water, tea, camera... The rest is unnecessary. To remain more space for emotions."

(Total 24 photos)

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1. Early April morning on Ai-Petrinskaya Yayla, as the plateau is correctly called. Pleasant sunny weather. In the distance you can see locator balls on Bedene-Kyr.

2. Southern slopes. The Ai-Petri Yaila itself is a plateau stretching for more than 20 kilometers from west to east, gradually narrowing towards the east.
And in the place where it turns into the Yalta Yayla, the distance between the southern and northern slopes is a little more than a kilometer, which allows you to observe two completely different landscapes in a short time. On one side there is the sea, steep rock walls and coniferous forests, and on the other, which can be quickly reached in 15 minutes - mountain peaks to the horizon, covered with beech forest, lakes, villages and Sevastopol 40 kilometers away on the very horizon.

4. There are even birch groves. They were planted by hand in the 60s

5. Road on Ai-Petrinskaya Yayla.

6. Taraktash rocks on the southern slope of the plateau. The Taraktash trail winds down along them, along which you can get from Ai-Petri to the Uchan-Su waterfall and further to Yalta

7. The famous “window” in the form of a cross in the rock

8. One of the countless talus gorges descending towards Yalta.

9. The eastern side of the Ai-Petrinskaya yayla stretches, passing into the Yalta, then the Gurzufskaya and into the Babugan-yayla.

10. Let's go to northern slopes plateau. From here it looks completely different. In the distance is the Boyka massif

11. This is what Sevastopol looks like from the Ai-Petri plateau. Due to the distance of 40 km and the haze, we had to apply rather harsh photo processing.
Otherwise, we would only be able to see the dim outlines of the city in the distance.

13. View of the foothills. Below lies the Belbek Valley.

14. While we were observing the Kachin Valley, dense clouds began to descend on the plateau. Let's return to the southern slopes, because it is there that you can fully observe both the movement of clouds above and below your feet, as well as their formation when air masses break against these steep rocky walls

15. Clouds cover the sun and sink lower and lower

16. The wind literally tears off pieces from them and “drops” them onto the rocky slopes

17. A cloud just rushes along the wall right under your feet

18. I turn my head back, and there everything is completely different. The sky literally fell down

You can get to the Upper station of the Miskhor - Ai-Petri cable car, from where the trail to the Ai-Petri Cogs begins, from the village of Miskhor to the west of Yalta, as well as to minibus, which departs from the Yalta bus station. However, this excursion would not be complete without seeing the Great Chaos of Alupka Park, also west of Yalta.

Scheme of the Ai-Petrinskaya yayla and the Boyko massif, the author is not yet known to us.

Mount Ai-Petri dominates Yalta at an altitude of 1234 meters. Several rounded, column-like teeth give special beauty to its silhouette. They rise approximately 70 meters above the cable car station.

Ai-Petri mountain range, tourism center

Main ridge Crimean mountains divided into yayls - separate massifs with a hilly surface.

You can get to Ai-Petrinskaya Yaila along the highway from Yalta or from Miskhor by cable car. It was laid in 1987, its length is 3 km, the ascent time is 20 minutes.
The Ai-Petri teeth form four large (12-15 m high) and a number of small steep peaks composed of reef limestones.
The huge bazaar offers all kinds of oriental dishes. Wonderful conditions for active tourism, riding horses and camels, mountain biking, jeeps, paragliding, filming military adventures and science fiction.
Near the Zubtsy there is a protected Beech Grove, the largest on the Main Ridge. Nestled at the edge of the yayla is the “Airplane” pine tree, which is about 300 years old.
Tourists usually visit the Ai-Petrinsky meridian - a stone globe with accurate geodetic data, a viewing platform on the Shishko rock, a weather station, Mount Bedene-Kyr (several ski lifts operate here in winter), and the Trekhglazka cave, equipped for excursions. On the slope near the highway from Yalta to Ai-Petri you can see a “drunken” pine grove - a centuries-old forest of Crimean pine, disturbed by a landslide.

The limestone rocks of all three ranges of the Crimean Mountains (as well as many river valleys cutting through them) are literally stuffed with the fossilized remains of marine organisms: snails, bivalves, worms and corals.
As a rule, limestone rocks have a layered structure and are even drawn on diagrams as rows of rectangles laid one on one.
The southern cliff of Ai-Petri does not show us anything like this: this entire powerful colossus from the base above Alupka and Miskhor to the Zubtsy is a smooth stone geyser.

Ay-Petri mountain is located near Yalta resort. The highest point of Ay-Petri mountain is about 1234 meters. How can you get to Ay-Petri mountain? Go to the busstation in Yalta town. It will take 30 or 40 minutes to get to Ay Petri mountain from Yalta town by bus or by your own car. Ay-Petri is the name of the mountain peak, as well as it’s a plateau. A view from Ay-Petri is spectacular.

The weather on Ay Petri is very cold in winter and very hot in summer. Ay Petri is the biggest area for tourists visiting this mountain every year.
Ay-Petri mountain is one of the biggest plateau of Crimea and every visiting this area has an opportunity to see all power of this mountain. Ay-Petri is a very ancient coral reef that rises from the sea bottom many years ago. Ay-Petri’s ancient history is a rich one and many archeological groups work here every year.

Ay-Petri is a famous tourist attraction all the year round. It is a place for skiing in winter and hiking in summer.

SIMFEROPOL, March 30 – RIA Novosti (Crimea). In Crimea, several projects for the reconstruction of the Ai-Petri plateau are in development: it is planned to create the world’s longest zip line, a small eco-town and a rock garden, said Anri Kanunov, a freelance adviser to the head of the Yalta administration.

“At the moment, this project is also being approved by the ministries of the Republic of Crimea and in the future will be presented to the head of the Republic of Crimea, Sergei Aksenov,” the press service of the mayor’s office quotes Kanunov as saying. According to him, today several ideas are being considered to create a small eco-city on Ai-Petri, intended for recreation and entertainment. However, no permanent buildings are planned on the plateau. Among the projects to be implemented, the most interesting, according to Kanunov, are a rock garden, glass observation platforms and a stone labyrinth made of gabions (volumetric products of various shapes made of twisted wire mesh with hexagonal cells).

In addition, in the area of ​​the cable car on the plateau, it is planned to make a special area for relaxation and walking, where a dry fountain will be located. The issue of holding international hot air balloon competitions and building a chapel is being considered. The plateau will also have bicycle paths and tracks for downhill snow scooters, parking for cars and excursion buses, and a helipad. “But there will be no numerous catering establishments and souvenir stalls on the plateau. There will only be one stationary cafe, located at the upper station of the cable car and the adjacent souvenir rows,” assured Kanunov.

© Photo courtesy of the press service of the Yalta administration

Ai-Petri plateau reconstruction project