View of a cave in New Athos. New Athos cave in Abkhazia. Flora and fauna of the New Athos Cave

One of the amazing wonders that the nature of Abkhazia is so generous with is known throughout the world New Athos Cave. This colossal karst cavity rivals in size the most famous dungeons in the world. This route with magnificent stalactite palaces and lakes under a stone sky will remain in your memory for a lifetime.

The New Athos Cave is a unique system, which in its beauty, diversity, extent, tourist attendance and mystery is not inferior to the Carlsbad Cave in the USA, or the Postojna Cave in Slovenia. At the same time, the New Athos cave is not the largest cave in Abkhazia. The huge karst cavity is a complex system of labyrinths. For millions of years, the cave hid its secrets in the depths of the mountain. The discoverer of the cave, a 16-year-old resident of New Athos, artist Givi Smyr, was the first to risk descending into the hole in 1961 and told speleologists about his discovery. Since 1975, the cave has been open to tourists. Since 2001, the discoverer Givi Smyr has been the director of the New Athos caves complex.

The Metropolitan in the New Athos Cave is an amazing object railway transport- opened on July 4, 1975 to transport tourists to the cave inside the Apsara (Iverskaya) Mountain. By the end of 1975, the contact-battery electric train “Tourist” was built in two copies at the Riga Carriage Works, at that time the main Soviet manufacturer of multi-unit rolling stock. It was a specially designed, unique, fundamentally new rolling stock with a contact-battery power system, specifically designed for the New Athos cave. The line has a length of 1291 m and 3 passenger stations. The train passes them in 3 minutes at a speed of up to 30 km/h. The regular passenger flow is 0.7 million people per season, that is, up to 2 thousand people per day. In 2014, the New Athos Railway acquired a new modern electric train. The total capacity of the electric train is up to 120 people.

The total length of the route inside the cave is about 2 km, it passes through 8 halls, the walls and ceilings of which are richly decorated with sinter formations: stalactites, stalagmites and stalagnates. The air temperature in the cave is always constant - +11 degrees. (We recommend bringing a sweater or light jacket, as well as shoes with non-slip soles). Mini-metro trains to the depths of the cave depart approximately every 20 minutes as excursion groups form.

Halls of the New Athos Cave

Each cave room is unique and beautifully illuminated.

Hall of the Mahajirs. Most Big hall The cave is named in honor of the memory of the Mukhajirs - Abkhazians, who were forcibly resettled to Turkey and the countries of the Middle East. Among the piles of dark stones of the cave rises White Mountain. Near the mountain there are white columns of nascent stalagmites, a little further there is a dark depression with yellow fangs of limestone blocks. Sometimes you can see a cold, muddy lake here. The calcite floor of the side gallery is torn in places, and through the holes you can see the second bottom, along which a transparent stream runs almost silently.

Hall "Nartaa". The hall is covered with clay layers. At the lowest point of the hall, at 36 m above sea level, there is a “living” lake of the cave - colonies of crustaceans live in it. In the cracks of the clay floor there is a beetle that has no eyes. On the southern wall of the hall you can see fancy figures made of stones. Near the Nartaa hall there is a Corallite Gallery, the walls of which are covered with corallites - snow-white balls stuck to each other in hundreds of thousands.

Hall of Speleologists. Hall named after Givi Smyr. The Speleologists' Hall is the highest hall of the cave, its height reaches 97 m. From the round bottom of the hall, littered with boulders, sheer walls rise upward, converging at a great height into a dome. The stone vault of the hall is dotted with many tectonic cracks and oval holes. These are the mouths of karst wells opened by ancient collapses, the so-called “organ pipes” - the lower part of the karst systems through which water and air enter the cave. This room is home to bats - relatively low air humidity and moderate temperature create favorable conditions for them. In the southern part of the Speleologists' Hall there is a passage to the hall named after Givi Smyr, which is located above the other halls of the cave. The floor of the hall is covered with frozen waves of cream-colored limestone. The most important decoration of the hall is the magnificent stone jellyfish.

Hall "Ayuhaa". The length of the hall from north to south is more than 100 m. Along the dark yellow ten-meter walls of the hall, black horizontal stripes stretch along the entire length - depressions in the rock filled with clay particles. Such cracks in the limestone separate the ancient lower strata from the younger upper strata. But both of them were formed hundreds of millions of years ago. The hall is decorated with hundreds of stalagmites made of translucent orange and red calcite.

"Apkhartsa" Hall. Nature chose the Apkhartsa hall as the center of harmony of sounds. A person’s voice or a musical note, sounding under its oval dome, acquires amazing richness and depth, and is colored with rich overtones. There is music in the hall, sometimes artists of the Abkhaz State Choir give concerts, performing Abkhaz folk songs.

Apsny Hall. In front of the entrance to the hall there is a four-meter stalagmite, and in the hall itself there is an unusual cave “waterfall”. From a thirty-meter height, a huge frozen stone shaft “falls” from a hole in a high steep wall. Water flows along the smooth surface of calcite “waves”. There is always maximum air humidity in this room.

Hall "Anakopia". Finally, the cave has reserved the most stunning spectacle - a cave waterfall in the Anakopia hall, the likes of which do not exist on the earth’s surface. From a hole in a high steep wall, a huge, forever frozen stone shaft falls into the hall from a height of thirty meters. Its heavy “jet”, almost bursting into huge drops, rushes to the ground and stops, not reaching it some two meters. Real water flows along the smooth wavy surface of the calcite waterfall. The lowest hall of the New Athos cave has a length of 150 m, a width of 50 m, and a height of more than 20 m. There are two underground lakes - Anatolia and Goluboe. The mirror of the lakes lies at 36 m above sea level, their average depth is more than 25 m. Once the water level in the lakes rose, and the waters flooded most of the hall. Traces of these floods have been preserved - dark brown horizontal stripes from the surface of the lakes almost to the ceiling. Now the cave waters exit through a drainage tunnel into the Manikwara River gorge.

The helictite grotto is distinguished by the amazing beauty of rare sinter forms. The wall is covered in sparkling white calcite, backed by orange, lilac, greenish and yellow stalagmites. The patterned floor consists of many small trays with thin walls. The main wealth of the grotto is helictites or eccentric stalactites. It is still unclear why these mysterious cave creatures grow in defiance of gravity upwards, sideways, in an unimaginable zigzag, but not downwards. The ceiling of the grotto is covered with thousands of small helictites of various colors - from dark red to light pink. Some reach more than 10 cm in length. Excursions in the grotto are not conducted, since the presence of a person changes the temperature and humidity of the air, which can lead to their death.

Cost of a ticket to the New Athos Cave in 2019

Another miracle of the Iveron Mountain is the Anakopia Abyss, better known as the New Athos Cave. She hides deep underground, in the mysterious depths of this sacred mountain, and occupies a cavity whose volume exceeds 1 million cubic meters!
The study of the New Athos cave began in 1961, when local Givi Smyr climbed to a height of 220 meters above sea level, and then descended into a deep crack in the surface of the Iverskaya Mountain, popularly called the “Bottomless Pit”.

Such cracks are not uncommon for limestone massifs, such as the mountain. The fact is that limestone dissolves in water. If the surface is damaged by something and water seeps through the crack and fills it with its turbulent flows (for example, during rain or heavy melting of snow), then the limestone gradually dissolves, forming a cavity. Since the limestone rock is not homogeneous, this washing out of the mountain's building material occurs in different directions, constantly changing its route and intensity.

Actually, the New Athos cave itself was the result of such a process of “melting” of limestone rocks. True, this process lasted many, many millions of years, forming more and more new halls-cavities of the cave, provoking grandiose collapses inside the cave, as a result of which the bottom and the general appearance of its mysterious inner world changed...

One way or another, today the New Athos Cave is one of the largest not only in Abkhazia, but throughout the Caucasus, and its beauty is compared with the most beautiful caves in Slovakia, the USA and France.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE CAVE
New Athos Cave (originally the Anakopia Abyss) (Abkh. Athos Ҿytstәi аҳаҧы) is one of the largest caves in Abkhazia. It is located under the slope of Iverskaya Mountain.
It is a huge karst cavity with a volume of about 1 million m³. Near the cave there is the New Athos Monastery and the Temple of Simon the Canaanite.

The New Athos Cave consists of 11 halls, 6 of which host daily excursions, the next 2 - weekly, one hall is reserved for scientific work. The original names of the halls were changed to new ones twice: before the opening of the cave for excursions in 1975 and after the Georgian-Abkhaz war of 1992-93. The currently accepted names of the halls are:

Hall “Anakopia” (originally the hall “Abkhazia” with lake “Anatolia”)
The “Speleologists” Hall, also known as the “Mahajirs” Hall (initially qualified as two different halls - the “Georgian Speleologists” Hall and the “Disappearing Lake” Hall)
Hall "Narta", also known as the "Glinyany" hall (originally the "Sounds" hall with the "Nameless" lake (originally the "Zhaneliusov" lake))
Corallite Gallery (includes the original Chrysanthemum Hall, the Gypsum Grotto and the Stone Flowers Gallery)
"Apkhartsa" Hall (Abkh. Apkhartsa - a national 2-string bowed musical instrument; originally - the "Iveria" hall, also known as the "Youth" hall)
Gallery “Ayuhaa”, also known as “Canyon” (originally the “Tuff Dams” gallery)
Hall "Apsny" (originally the hall "Cascades", then called the hall "Tbilisi")
The Helictite Hall and the adjacent Gurov Grotto
Hall "Moscow" (originally the hall "Temple")
Hall "Givi Smyra", also known as the hall "Sukhum" (originally the hall "Fantasy")
The excursion route includes the Anakopia, Speleologists, Nart, Deer, Corallite Gallery, Apkhertsa, Ayukhaa Gallery and Apsny Halls. Music concerts are held from time to time in the Aphertz Hall. The helictite hall is used for scientific purposes.

The highest hall of the cave is the “Moscow” (“Temple”) hall. Its height is 54 meters.
The most beautiful halls of the cave are the Givi Smyr Halls, “Anakopia”, Helictite Grotto and Corallite Gallery (Gallery of “Stone Flowers”).
One of the attractions of the Anakopia hall is Lake Anatolia. The area of ​​the lake is 1000 m², depth 26 m, water temperature 10 degrees Celsius. Also in this hall is the “Blue Lake” measuring 1250 m².
In the Helictite Grotto room, reserved for scientific work, there is a large number of drip-drip formations - helictites. Here it is stone waterfall"Apsny", whose height is 20 meters, width - 6 meters (in the photo).
The New Athos cave has 4 entrances, 3 of which are artificial (in the “Anakopia” and “Apsny” halls they enter the underground railway stations), as well as a drainage gallery specially made from the hall of the “Disappearing Lake”. The only natural entrance through which they initially entered the cavity can be seen in the ceiling of the Anakopia hall. On the surface, this exit is adjacent to the village of Esher, in the form of a deep hole. New Athos Cave, diagram

New Athos cave. A mystery shrouded in darkness...
But first things first...
Millions of years ago...
New Athos, as you know, is famous not only for its clean and picturesque coastline, plantations of pyramidal cypress trees, alleys of bright, juicy oleanders and a variety of citrus fruits. Here, covered with a thick blanket of evergreens, rise two strict guardians of the city - Mount Athos (500 m above sea level) and Iverskaya (350 m above sea level) mountains, separated at the foot by the waters of the Psyrdzkha River. Both of these mountains are giant limestone massifs, cut here and there by deep cracks of various shapes and depths.
Since ancient times, people knew about the existence of a huge hole in the depths of the Iverskaya Mountain, but, perhaps, because of mystical fear, they did not risk going down and examining it. But, over time and as a result of the inexorable development of scientific progress, it was possible to find out that no mysterious forces were involved in the appearance of the cave. And the culprit is... time and water. Just everything.

There are several reasons for the formation of caves in nature - volcanic processes, abrasion, glacial movement, clasto-karst origin, aeolian origin, etc. But the most extensive and picturesque caves, with a great variety of tunnels and various cavities-halls, are formed in carbonate rocks, for example, in limestone massifs. One of which, as we have already found out, is Iverskaya Mountain.
Limestone is quite widespread in the world and is known to be a sedimentary rock. It is formed by deposits of calcium carbonate. And calcium carbonate, as we all remember from high school chemistry courses, dissolves very well in water.

Thus, rocks that contain calcium carbonate (limestone, marble, chalk) dissolve under the influence of flows of water carrying carbon dioxide. And water is saturated with carbon dioxide as it passes through the soil. Moreover, the more carbon dioxide the water contains, the faster the limestone melts.
How, in this case, has Iverskaya Mountain not yet “melted”, you ask? Not so simple. The fact is that water does not always manage to get to those very “soluble” parts of the mountain. The surface of a limestone mountain, abundantly covered with various vegetation, stones and other rocks, represents a kind of shell, a shield hiding the vulnerable interior of the mountain. And only where this shield is damaged does gradual destruction begin.

Skipping all the complex scientific explanations, I would like to note that as a result of the research, it turned out that the formation of the New Athos caves began more than 4 million years ago. This process, frankly speaking, is not fast. It always ends the same way - with the complete dissolution of limestone and the transformation of the mountain into a huge karst cavity. As the saying goes, “Everything that has a beginning has an end.” Any mountain, and with it the caves located in it, eventually “die”... We can only rejoice in the fact that in our lifetime (as well as in the next couple of million years) this will not happen, and we have the opportunity to admire the amazingly beautiful halls of this cave.
Research shows that the karstification of Iverskaya Mountain began not from above, from the top of the mountain, but from below, by forces groundwater.

As a result of the action of groundwater, an ancient siphon channel was formed to the Psyrdzkha gorge. There the water was finally able to break through to the surface.

An interesting fact is that the bottom of the southern part of the New Athos cave is significantly deeper than the bottom of its northern part. This is due to the fact that it was here, in the southern part, that the unloading of groundwater took place most rapidly and actively, and consequently, the process of dissolution of calcareous rock was much more active. In addition, the downward nature of the flow almost completely displaced groundwater from the northern part of the cave, thereby providing favorable conditions for the formation of dripping formations.

Thus, the New Athos cave was formed under the influence first of underground waters that filled its entire internal surface, and then, taking into account the vertical system of the cave, by the forces of flowing waters that flowed into the cave through the opening of the “Bottomless Pit” and through all the halls penetrating to the final destination of its journey - Hall “Abkhazia”.
The active part of the formation of the northern part of the New Athos cave has already passed, which cannot be said about its southern part, where groundwater still accumulates during floods, and, consequently, the process of changing the geography of the cave is still ongoing.

From the history of the discovery...
Let's take a moment to look at the history of the cave's discovery.
In 1961, a brave resident of the city of New Athos, Givi Smyr, first descended into the “Bottomless Pit”. Thus began the development and research of this unique natural monument, which continues to this day.
After Givi told the speleologists about his achievements, it was decided to conduct a speleological expedition. This is how the participants in these events describe their impressions: “The initial section of the Bottomless Pit is a 30-meter shaft with sheer walls. Eight people descend into it one after another. The first shaft is followed by a steeply inclined gallery, which turns into an abyss; according to preliminary data, its depth is 45 meters. We entered the middle part. This tiny platform, falling into the depths, is occupied by a lake. Above it, in the form of a narrow chasm, hung a steeply inclined gallery, and below the lake - a shaft shrouded in impenetrable darkness with a wide opening and steep, concave walls. This is the most inaccessible section of the abyss. Storming and overcoming this barrier, 6 people find themselves at a depth of 105 meters from the surface; for auxiliary work on the way back, we leave two at the “landing” site...

Alternating vertical and steeply inclined passages at a depth of 140 meters led us to a rather large elongated hall. At the end of this hall we encountered an almost impassable gap. Is this where “Bottomless” ends? But at a height of 2 meters from the bottom, A. Okrodzhanashvili notices a small round hole, and we, one after another, crawl into it. After 4-5 meters we found ourselves in a truly grandiose void. Its bottom is cluttered with gigantic blocks of limestone, the rays of lanterns scatter without a trace in the space shrouded in darkness, never reaching the ceiling and the opposite wall. Overcome with excitement, we looked at each other; I couldn’t believe that we were underground.

As if on a ladder, moving along a slippery riverbed, we descend lower and lower, where the rocky bottom and giant boulders are gradually hidden under powerful deposits of plastic clay. A wide, strongly inclined corridor was passed, at the end of which there was a lake. It is not difficult to guess that this is the remnant of a vast water basin, the level of which rises significantly from time to time. We crossed this hall and across it, but could not get a clear idea of ​​either its volume, or the shape of its vault and the contours of the bottom.

Returning to the narrow gap, we headed north - in the direction from which the roar of the waterfall was heard. With great caution we descended the slippery, blocky heap of a wide corridor and soon found ourselves at the foot of the White Mountain, from which a waterfall fell. The calcite “mountain” was “built” over centuries from calcium carbonate released by water. On its dome-shaped surface, a charming landscape of “crystal” lakes with water as clear as a tear opens up, and from the ceiling, near the crack from which the water streamed, slender rows of stalactites hang. We descend along the White Mountain, sliding along its northern slopes; Having then climbed the slope of the floor of the clay basin, we enter a “dead” dry valley. Somewhere below there is a wide entrance, but we followed the main highway... Meanwhile, the control period of our underground wandering had expired, we had to return, otherwise we would be left without light!

Thus ended the first underground expedition into the depths of the Iverskaya Mountain. It lasted 18 hours! During this time, speleologists and Givi Smyr, without even having time to walk around and properly examine all the halls, already realized that the open cave was a real masterpiece of nature.

For further study of the cave, its microclimate, morphology, geology, mineralogy, hydrology, etc. it was necessary to form special camps located directly underground. This decision was dictated by the extremely difficult descent and ascent into the cave, which invariably took a lot of time and effort. Participants in underground expeditions were forced to carry a lot of equipment, food, instruments, sensors and other equipment, as well as many other things necessary for work and life into the depths of the cave. Tents were pitched there, in which the pioneering scientists lived for up to 10 days! The same White Mountain was chosen as the place for the tent - the only source of purges drinking water In a cave.

The first such expedition took place in 1963: “Finally, a tent was pitched at the foot of the White Mountain, and it seemed that the surroundings of this dead kingdom came to life. Despite the fatigue, the mind was overcome by the thought: how long does the vast underground gallery last? Will we be able to at least inspect the entire system of underground passages this time? The first underground night was spent in sweet sleep. By morning, the fatigue had passed without a trace, and with fresh strength we began to explore the underground palaces that had not been visited by anyone.”
In 1964, the third scientific expedition into the subsoil was created. This time, the researchers spent more than 105 hours underground. The total weight of the cargo they lowered into the cave for work exceeded 2.5 tons. A group of 21 scientists not only studied the underground depths and took soil samples for further research, but also conducted the first filming here. Based on the results of the research, it was decided to improve the cave so that its amazing and mysterious beauty becomes accessible to all people.

For this purpose, an artificial tunnel was dug at the foot of the Iveron Mountain, connecting the underground kingdom with the outside world.
The underground carriages, reminiscent of subway cars, are designed for 90 seats. These unique cave electric trains, which have no analogues in the world, called “Tourist”, were designed at the Coal Industry Design Institute and specially created at the Riga Carriage Works. They will take you to the artificially created entrance to the first underground cave hall - Abkhazia (Anakopia), from where concrete paths (their total length is about 1.5 kilometers) will lead you through all the halls of the New Athos cave. For the convenience of tourists, special observation platforms, bridges, overpasses, ramps and stairs have also been built. Artificial lighting was installed in the cave.
This is how, since 1971, the once mysterious and frightening “Bottomless Pit” has turned into one of the most amazing wonders of Abkhazia, known throughout the world and visited daily by thousands of lovers of the mysteries of nature. New Athos Cave

An amazing miracle of natural architecture - New Athos Cave.
So, the discovery made by Givi Smyr in July 1961 led to the fact that a little more than ten years later, one of the wonders of Abkhazia - the New Athos cave - was revealed to the world. Scientists explored 11 halls of the cave. Six of them offer daily excursions for everyone. Underground trailers sometimes operate until 11 pm. In the other two halls, tours are available once a week. Research work is being carried out in one room and is closed to the public.
In the cave there are the following halls - “Anakopia”, the attraction of which is Lake “Anatolia”, the “Speleologists” hall, the “Deer” hall, the “Nart” hall, and in it the “Nameless” lake; Corallite gallery with the “Chrysanthemum” hall, “Gypsum” grotto and “Stone Flowers” ​​gallery located in it; the “Apkhertsa” hall, the “Ayukhaa” gallery, the “Apsny” hall, the “Helictite” hall, which is also adjacent to the “Gurov” grotto; "Moscow" hall, "Givi Smyr" hall.

Of these, the “Anakopia”, “Speleologists”, “Natra”, “Deer”, “Apsny” halls, as well as the “Corallite” gallery, the “Akhertsa” and “Ayuhaa” gallery are open to the public. Scientific research is carried out in the Helictite Hall, and the Moscow Hall, due to its specific features, from time to time becomes a concert hall.
It is worth noting that the New Athos cave is not the most voluminous or even the longest cave in Abkhazia. The volume of the Snezhnaya cave is much more significant, and as for the length, there are dozens of much longer caves. But, be that as it may, one thing remains undoubted - the New Athos cave is the most beautiful cave Abkhazia.
In the distant 60s of the last century, scientists and speleologists had to overcome difficult obstacles, descend through narrow openings and tunnels from great heights in order to admire the beauty of the New Athos cave. Specially created artificial entrances to the cave have made life much easier for nature lovers. Today there are 4 exits - three artificial and only one natural. It is located in the ceiling of the Anakopia hall. It was here that speleologists first set foot on the bottom of the cave. On the surface, the hole is a deep crevice emerging in the vicinity of the village of Eshera. Three other exits were created for the convenience of tourists by blasting rocks. Exits are located at the Anakopia and Apsny halls. Both are tied to the Underground Railroad. As for the third artificial exit, it was created to drain water from the cave. It is located in the “Disappearing Lake” hall (a component of the “Speleologists” hall).
Well, a fascinating journey into the underground kingdom begins at the gates of a slender, bright building located at the foot of the Iverskaya Mountain. In the lobby of the building, decorated with mosaics, various stained glass windows and embossing, you can purchase entry tickets, the right to photograph and videography and various local souvenirs. The room resembles a metro station. In essence, that is what it is. The combination of granite and marble, colored panels based on mythological scenes, set visitors up to visit a real underground fairy tale.

Regarding the development of the tourist opportunities of the cave, Givi Smyr, who has been the director of the New Athos caves complex since 2001, said: “In the future, we may make a drift that will lead the people to a completely different place - closer to the site of primitive man.” As a result of studying nearby territories, scientists came to the conclusion that other underground complexes, cut by numerous branches and siphons, are hidden in the depths of New Athos. So, perhaps soon underground carriages will take you there too...
An interesting fact is that the structural features of the New Athos cave made it possible to place here a unique seismic laboratory capable of detecting and monitoring nuclear weapons tests throughout the world. The laboratory was under the jurisdiction of the USSR Ministry of Defense and then the Russian Federation. But in 2003, it was closed. In addition, the laboratory of the Center for Studying the Nature of Time of the Mathematical Institute named after M.V. was once located here. Steklova.

So, we have finally reached the most interesting part of our story - a journey into the mysterious and bizarre world of the underworld...
But before we look into the amazing halls of the underground palace, let's look at the dictionary and find out the meaning of several terms.
stalagmites (Greek: Drop) - sintered mineral formations (mostly calcareous, less often gypsum, salt), growing in the form of cones, pillars from the bottom of caves and other underground karst cavities towards stalactites and often merging with them, forming a stalagnate;
stalactites (Greek: dripping) - chemogenic deposits in karst caves in the form of formations hanging from the ceiling (icicles, straws, combs, fringes, etc.). The terms “stalactite” and “stalagmite” were introduced into literature in 1655 by the Danish naturalist Ole Worm.

Depending on the composition of the rock through which cave water passes, it can dissolve other chemicals in addition to calcium carbonate. Then the sinter formations are painted in soft colors: yellow and reddish shades are given to them by iron oxides, bluish by copper salts, and greenish by chromium compounds. Where dark purple and even black stalactites occur, the limestone probably contains manganese impurities.

Hall "Anakopia".
The journey into the amazing, enchanting world of underground fairy tales begins from the “Anakopia” hall (original name - “Abkhazia”). This is not the largest, but the most “elegant” hall of the New Athos cave. It was here that speleologists and scientists descended more than 50 years ago to discover for themselves, and later for the whole world, this amazing miracle of nature.
The hall is shaped like a stone bag. Bottom area - 4570 sq.m. The walls of the hall consist of light gray, sometimes white, limestone. For this reason, tourists often call the hall a white castle. There are some weird ones here and there deep cracks, descending from the ceiling and falling to the base.
There is simply deafening silence here, only occasionally broken by the sound of falling water. The humidity in the hall is always one hundred percent. It's connected with big amount cracks through which water from the surface of the Iveron Mountain seeps into the underground depths. The temperature here also does not change and is +14 degrees. A narrow concrete path stretches neatly along the stone floor of the cave room. To approach the first observation deck, you need to walk along it a little uphill, about 30-40 meters. From this place the high ceilings of the hall are clearly visible - the length of the hall exceeds 150 meters, width - 50 meters, depth - more than 20 meters. There is a clearly visible gap in the ceiling of the hall through which light penetrates from the surface. It was through this gap that Givi Shalvovich Smyr first penetrated into the depths of the then unexplored cave.
Both the walls and ceiling are very damp here. The warm lighting of colored lamps gives the already amazing and enchanting room an even greater shade of mystery and fabulousness.
From the romantic semi-darkness of the cave, amazing underground lakes emerge as bright green spots, resting at a depth of 36 meters, in thick limestone wells. These are lakes “Anatolia” and “Blue Lake”. At one time, these two seemingly dead lakes (their mirrors, due to the lack of wind, were completely motionless) flooded the entire Anakopia hall with their waters. This happened during particularly heavy rains and floods. The largest flood since the opening of the cave occurred on December 12-14, 1971. Then a temporary lake with a depth of 45-50 meters was formed in the hall, with a total volume of water exceeding 150,000 sq.m., while the area of ​​the lake itself was 4,500 sq.m.
The lakes are fed both by waters flowing down through numerous cracks in the surface of the Iverskaya Mountain, and by sources entering through unknown underground channels. Both lakes have a siphon connection both with each other and with other lakes in the cave system.
When improving the cave, the builders decided to dig a drainage channel here, through which excess water could come to the surface. This canal now releases raging streams of icy underground water into the Manikwara River gorge. Thus, this beautiful, majestic hall of the New Athos cave is no longer in danger of being flooded again.
In 1986, researchers sank to the very bottom of the lakes and found out that the depth of the “Blue Lake” reaches 10-12 meters, and as for Lake Anatolia, resting in a deep stone well, its depth exceeds 28 meters. The water temperature is 10-11 degrees. In general, this indicator is practically the same at the depth of lakes.
Skillful lighting makes the already bright surface of the water emerald.
Another amazing attraction of the Anakopia hall is a huge, multi-meter stone... waterfall! It is shaped very much like a human skull. From somewhere in the depths, from the wall of the cave, a huge stone stream is knocked out, which “freezes” without ever reaching the bottom of the cave. And from above, water flows quietly and calmly along the surface of the giant waterfall. Here and there it gets stuck in the smallest recesses of the stone miracle, giving it a special radiance when hit by light. Both the color and architecture of this amazing cave wonder of nature are amazing.
The floor of the hall is covered with huge blocks of stone, fragments of stalactites and gypsum that have fallen from the ceiling. The presence of sinter formations in the karst cavity and the natural collapse of rocks is not surprising, but where could gypsum come from in limestone rock? Unclear…
Undoubtedly, the Anakopia hall is one of the most beautiful halls of the New Athos cave.

Hall of “Speleologists” (“Makhadzhirov”).
Behind the steep shore of the “Blue Lake” the path gradually begins to go down and leads us to the “Speleologists” hall. This is the largest hall of the New Athos cave. It was named in honor of the pioneer speleologists from the Vakhushti Institute of Geography of the Academy of Sciences of the GSSR and their Abkhaz colleagues, who were the first to descend to the bottom of the cave and conducted several scientific expeditions here. It was in this room that the speleologists set up camp, where they lived throughout the entire study.
The length of the hall is 260 meters, the height reaches 50 meters, the width is from 25 to 75 meters. The bottom area is 10635 sq.m., and the volume is 290875 sq.m. For a long time, the “Speleologists” hall was considered the largest cave hall in Abkhazia. But after the discovery of the Snezhnaya cave, he lost his primacy. On the territory of the “Speleologists” hall it was quite possible to place, say, three football fields.
The monotony of the hall is somewhat broken by a dome-shaped stalagmite structure, the so-called White Mountain, created by the waters of the spring, a trickle stream falling from a height of 25-30 m. The “Mountain” is located in the middle part of the hall. Expeditions of the Institute of Geography named after. Vakhushti Academy of Sciences of the GSSR, who worked for days in the dungeons of New Athos, organized base camp at the foot of this “mountain” and used the water of this spring, almost the only one in the entire cave system, for drinking. The height of the “mountain” is 5-15 m, the circumference reaches 35-40 m. On the ridge platform of the White Mountain, miniature lakes with a depth of 15-45 cm are scattered, then filling clear water, then absolutely. During the year, the source above the White Mountain functions for only 6-7 months, which means that under current physiographic conditions, the White Mountain, according to our rough estimates, is growing at a rate of more than 1 mm per year. If you could look deep into this stalagmite “mountain,” you could see numerous layers of calcium carbonate of varying thickness and color. In the vicinity of the “mountain”, on the opposite walls of a wide corridor, at various heights, crevices open with traces of strong weathering and well-preserved drip-drip aggregates.
Behind the White Mountain is the lowest (47 m above sea level) section of the hall - a funnel-shaped basin, entirely filled with thick deposits of plastic clay.”
In the same room there is the “Disappearing Lake” - a huge clay stone funnel. The bottom of the funnel is covered with a giant plug, preventing anyone from looking into its mysterious depths. From time to time, a very interesting phenomenon could be observed here - the plug suddenly began to vibrate, sway and, in the end, was displaced by a stormy stream of water rising directly from the bottom of the cave, through unknown channels. So in place of this clay vessel a muddy, cold, cave lake appeared. Before the exploration of the New Athos cave by scientists, this lake seriously influenced the structure of the cave’s relief. But today such a disaster no longer threatens the Speleologists hall. Excess water leaves the cave through a specially dug artificial drainage channel. So the lake level now does not exceed the level of this second drainage tunnel.
The water that has risen from the deep abyss, having stood there for a couple of hours, again disappears into the deep corridors of the cave, and the clay that rises at the same time forms a new thick and durable plug at the neck of the funnel.
In general, the two parts of the huge “Speleologists” hall - the “White Mountain” hall and the “Disappearing Lake” hall are very different in appearance. The White Mountain hall is more elegant, bright and colorful. Located to the left of the concrete path, the White Mountain rises like an iceberg among giant gray stone blocks, giving the hall a solemn appearance. The White Mountain itself is already a “bright spot” in this dark kingdom, and droplets of water falling on it reflect light in all directions, creating the feeling that the entire mountain is glowing from within. Numerous small, still very “young” stalagmites “grow” abundantly around the mountain.
As for the “Disappearing Lake” hall, it is quite gloomy here due to the abundance of clay deposits. The bottom of the hall is completely dotted with winding, deep ravines.
Here and there there are huge blocks of stone that have fallen from the equally gloomy and gray ceiling of the hall. The light shines on the huge dark brown clay spots and is absorbed by them, without having time to please the eye. And only when the disappearing lake rises from the underground depths, everything around comes to life and becomes brighter and more cheerful.

Hall “Nartaa” (“Clay”)
The next stop on the excursion route will be the Nartaa Hall, the former Hall of Sounds (so named because of its amazing acoustics).
In general, the decoration of the hall can be called ascetic. It is much smaller than the first two halls of the cave. There are much fewer drip-drop formations here - stalactites and stalagmites. But clay deposits of various shapes and sizes are abundant. But this is not what makes the Nartaa Hall so interesting, but its amazing underground life. An interesting insect lives here - the trichus beetle. Similar beetles are often found on the surface of the earth, but here, in the depths of the cave, this small inhabitant has undergone significant changes - due to the centuries-long absence of light in the halls of the cave, the need for vision has disappeared. Now this bug is blind, but, it should be noted, is very active. In this room, small, nimble triwhiskers are found almost everywhere - under every stone, under every “patty” of clay, in every crack of the floor.
Other inhabitants of the Nartaa hall are millions of small (no more than 2 cm) translucent crustaceans. They live in the waters of one of the two main attractions of the hall - the “Nameless Lake”. This lake is one of three living, siphon lakes of the underground kingdom. The water level in it depends significantly both on the flow of underground water and on the amount of water penetrating into the bowels of the hall through cracks in the ceiling. Unfortunately, today there is no reliable information about the size of the lake and its depth.
With specially equipped observation deck a whole cascade of green limestone deposits located on the southern wall of the hall is clearly visible.
Another attraction of the hall is the “Deer” grotto, named after truly unique masterpiece natural sculpture. The outlines of the animal are so realistic and clear that it is difficult to believe that the image was not touched by a human hand. The deer's head is turned slightly to the side, as if its peace had suddenly been disturbed by curious travelers, and it turned around to see what had happened.

Corallite Gallery
The Nartaa hall gradually moves on to the next interesting room of the underground kingdom - the corallite grotto, or corallite gallery. Here the walls of the hall seem to move, squeezing the stone bag and making it possible to better see all the features of the natural architecture of the cave. The entrance to the gallery is guarded by gigantic blocks of stone, apparently torn from the ceiling during a strong earthquake.
This is one of the driest halls of the cave. Here the humidity level is much lower, despite the presence of a lake. But judging by the corallite deposits found on the walls of the hall (corallites are snow-white small balls that cover the surface of the cave walls in abundance; their clusters in shape strongly resemble corals, which is why they got their name), we can confidently say that once upon a time the hall was completely flooded. Today, this snow-white stone carpet reflects the light falling on it and gives the hall a fairy-tale touch.
Not far from the wall, a “large family” of meter-long orange-yellow stalagmites is comfortably located.

Apsar Hall (Moscow Hall).
Leaving the corallite gallery, we find ourselves at a fork. The steps of the tourist path will lead you straight to the gates of another amazing underground kingdom - the Apsara Hall.
The first amazing detail of the hall is a huge piece of rock at the entrance to the hall, hanging directly above the path. Now it is supported on all sides by concrete piles, but, paradoxically, even before the construction of this additional fortification, the stone had absolutely no intention of moving anywhere, much less falling.
The “Apsar” hall (originally called the “Tuff Dams” hall) differs from all previous ones in its shape - the walls of the hall form an almost even circle, which, in combination with numerous round outlets in the ceiling and walls of the hall, creates an amazing acoustic effect. These holes are nothing more than the result of dissolution of limestone rocks. Obviously, the water seeping through cracks in the surface of the Iverskaya Mountain accumulated in the bowels of the earth, gradually eroding its rock. Thus, over time, long tangled tunnels were formed from karst cavities, which eventually found an exit in the huge Apsara stone bag. Now these tunnels, so-called. "organ pipes" - favorite place bat habitat.
The Apsara Hall is the highest hall of the New Athos Cave. The height of the light limestone vaults, gradually merging into a kind of dome, reaches 70 meters. Thanks to the “organ pipes” and other openings in the vaults - cracks, the room “breathes”. The air here is alive, you can feel the wind blowing. Sometimes, during strong gusts of wind on the surface, a muffled whistle can be heard inside the hall.
The almost circular floor of the hall is strewn with fragments of rocks that probably collapsed as a result of an earthquake. In addition, the dungeon is additionally decorated with multi-colored stalactites and stalagmites, sometimes located directly on blocks of collapsed rocks.
In the southern part of the hall, the walls seem to move apart, allowing the traveler to enter the Givi Smyra hall (Sukhum hall).

Hall "Ayuhaa" (hall "Canyon").
So, having taken a left turn at the fork, we find ourselves in the next amazing hall of the underground palace - the “Ayuhaa” hall. The shape of the hall resembles a large elongated gorge. In essence, this is so - hundreds of years ago the hall was a valley of a cave river, the waters of which periodically flooded the walls of the room.
The length of the hall from north to south reaches several hundred meters. The height of the walls is over 10 meters. The ceiling of the hall, unlike the ceilings of the previous rooms, is flat, without natural growths and irregularities. The floor surface is uneven and littered with huge stones. In general, the hall cannot be called richly decorated and elegant. But there is one interesting detail that makes the Ayuhaa hall stand out - dark brown stripes stretch along its walls - soft clay deposits. Scientists claim that if you insert a thin, sharp stick into them, it will easily penetrate the entire depth of the wall. This is possible due to the plasticity of clay, which, however, does not allow limestone rocks to delaminate. According to experts, such stripes separate younger layers of limestone from older ones. Be that as it may, both have been around for many millions of years.
Dozens of small stalagmites of orange and reddish colors are scattered along the tourist path. They resemble the lights on an airfield runway and give the austere hall a festive look.

“Helictite” grotto (salon).
If we go up a little narrow staircase, we will see a locked lattice door. But this is not the entrance to a technical room, as happens in the metro and other underground tunnels. This is the entrance to the most amazing, most richly decorated, but at the same time the most “fragile” hall of the New Athos cave - the “Helectite” salon. The beauty of the interior decoration of the hall is so bright and varied that it seems that we are in a cave museum, and around us are unique exhibits of ancient underground natural architecture.
One of the walls of the salon is covered with a snow-white carpet of calcite deposits sparkling in the light. This is a kind of stone waterfall. Its height is almost 20 meters. Nearby are stalactites of amazing beauty and a wide variety of colors - bright orange and pale yellow, lush green and deep purple, scarlet and slightly pinkish... They look especially impressive against the backdrop of snow-white calcite.
The surface of the floor resembles the surface of the moon - it, like craters, is completely covered with shallow small depressions that were once filled with water. Millions of years ago there were small lakes (gurs) here, fed by water flowing through the cracks in the ceiling.
But the biggest truly unique treasure of this room is the funny-shaped, eccentric and incomprehensible helictites! Like a shaggy, fluffy blanket they cover the ceiling of the cave. So what are helictites? Essentially, these are stalagmites. Their principles of education are similar. But, unlike stalagmites, helictites do not grow from top to bottom, which is quite logical, given the influence of gravity. They grow in the direction in which they themselves “want”, i.e. sideways, zigzag, down a little, then to the side, then up again... Amazingly, these amazing cave formations do not seem to be affected by gravity at all. Trying to solve this mystery, scientists hypothesized that perhaps other processes, such as weathering, are more influential in the formation of helictites. Other scientists believed that the structure of helictites is simply much more fragile than that of stalactites and stalagmites. When exposed to carbon dioxide-saturated water, they dissolve much faster than other rocks. If we add to this the change in temperature and the blowing of the wind, it turns out that “where it blew, it dissolved.” It's difficult to say how true this theory is. To date, researchers have not been able to find a convincing explanation for the helictite phenomenon.
But whatever the history of the origin and development of these amazing terry growths, one thing is clear - a small change in temperature is enough environment so that the little beauties disappear. That is why the helictite salon is closed to tourists - even with a small crowd of people, the temperature in the room will change and ruin all the beauty of the hall. Millions of small and large helictites of various shapes and colors - from blood-red and even red-black to pale pink - will disappear forever without the possibility of recovery. Thus, the Helictite Salon became a kind of cave reserve, open only for research by scientists.

A little about the climate...
So, we made a fascinating journey through all the halls of the cave palace of the New Athos cave. We found out how and when this miracle of nature appeared, which is due to the abundance of amazing “decorations” of various shapes and sizes. What else can you tell about this unique monument of natural architecture? Perhaps it's worth stopping at climatic features caves that played a big role in the formation of its decoration.
As we have already understood from the above, the emergence of drip-drip formations in the cave was facilitated by water penetrating through the cracks and cracks of the Iveron Mountain. But this is not the only factor. The movement of air in a cave, which affects the weathering process, should also not be underestimated. The intensity of the air flow is evidenced by the fact that the pressure inside the cave (755-756 mm Hg) is practically no different from the pressure on the surface (756.6-756.9 mm). Consequently, the cave halls are well ventilated. But how, you ask, can air get underground? And how can he move? The answer to this question is of particular interest: the fact is that in caves with a descending profile of longitudinal profiles, i.e. tunnels, the air enters “from above” and, under the influence of the temperature difference, begins to move down, pushing out colder (the air temperature in the cave ranges from 12.6 to 14.4 degrees Celsius), “lower” air. Passing through all the cracks and crevices of the Iveron Mountain, the air saturates the Naboathon cave with oxygen and other important elements, including, naturally, carbon dioxide, with the direct participation of which the disintegration of calcareous rocks occurs, and, as a consequence, the appearance of drip-drip formations. As for the air humidity inside the cave, it exceeds 90% in almost all halls, and in some reaches 100% (Anakopia hall).
An interesting fact: according to research, the radioactive background inside the New Athos cave is 100 times higher than the radioactivity of the open seaside strip. There is also increased air ionization in karst cavities.
Speaking about the speleofauna of the cave, it should be noted that in addition to the cave inhabitants listed above, various invertebrates (worms, mollusks), cyclops, isopods, nifargus, troglocaris, puaciiformes, centipedes, and insects (colleges, orthoptera, beetles) live here. Thus, we can say with confidence that the cave is inhabited.
Another interesting fact- for a long time it was believed that due to the lack of light, vegetation could not appear in the cave, with the exception of mosses and various fungi. But during one of the expeditions, scientific speleologists made interesting discovery: “...in the New Athos cave, near the White Mountain, potatoes and onions thrown onto clay soil sprouted in absolute darkness. But the long shoots and sprouts were colorless. There, near the White Mountain, another interesting phenomenon was observed: fresh sticks, used by the previous expedition as supports for tents, began a second life underground. Tender colorless stems appeared on them, side shoots emerged from the main branch and even tiny leaves opened. It happened at a depth of 145 meters, in pitch darkness.”

INGURI RIVER - HERE!

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SOURCES OF INFORMATION AND PHOTOS:
Team Nomads
http://abkhazia.rf/recreation-and-tourism/attractions/Novo-Athos/Novo-Athos-cave
http://www.capone-online.ru/all-maps/apsny/apsnymap_nacave2.jpg
V. N. Dublyansky, V. V. Ilyukhin. The largest karst caves and mines in the USSR. M.: Nauka, 1982. - 137 p. : ill.
http://www.rgo-speleo.ru/
V.N.Dublyansky, A.B.Klimchuk, V.E.Kisilev and others. Large karst cavities of the USSR. III. Speleological provinces of the Greater and Lesser Caucasus. Kyiv, 1987. Dep. in VINITI ZIONT, No. 1112-B87.
Wikipedia website.
http://www.rwon.ru/
http://www.abhaztur.com/upload/files/peshhera_2.jpg

New Athos Cave- a miracle of nature in the depths of the Iverskaya Mountain, occupying a cavity with a volume of more than 1 million m³. This karst cave is the result of the melting of limestone rocks, which lasted for millions of years. People are used to calling it “Bottomless Pit” for the deep collapses and cavities inside the mountain.

The discoverer of the New Athos cave was 16-year-old Givi Smyr. In 1961, he told speleologists about his discovery, who began seriously studying the grotto. When Givi grew up, he was appointed director of the New Athos complex. The total length of the intra-rock corridors is more than 2 km. Here one hall smoothly flows into another. On the ceilings you can see sculptures frozen over centuries, among which stalactites, stalagmites and other sinter formations flicker.

The first cave train carrying tourists was launched in 1975. The depths of the grotto are best explored on this excursion train. It departs every 20 minutes from new group tourists. The main attractions are hidden in 8 halls. The air temperature in them almost always remains at +11 ºС. Therefore, all visitors are advised to take warm jackets and jackets, as well as comfortable shoes.

The largest hall of the complex is the Hall of Speleologists, but this is only if it is considered in conjunction with the nearby Hall of the Vanishing Lake. The total length of the room is 260 meters, and the ceiling height in some places reaches 90 meters. It is noteworthy that the New Athos Grotto is neither the largest nor the longest in the country. However, in terms of popularity, it is one of the most visited attractions in Abkhazia and the entire North Caucasus.

From the Hall of Speleologists you can easily get to the Hall named after. G. Smyra, which is located an order of magnitude higher than other cave “rooms”. In this hall, visitors encounter a unique natural object- “stone jellyfish”. An extraordinary cave “waterfall” in the form of frozen calcite forms can be seen in the Apsny Hall. No less interesting is the Helictite Grotto with multi-colored stalactites against the background of a white calcite wall. Tourists are not allowed into this grotto for the sake of preserving rare helictites.

In the lowest hall of the complex called Anakopia there are two underground lakes with average depth at 25 m. Here, a 30-meter calcite waterfall once flowed from holes in the wall, frozen without ever reaching the ground. Today real water flows across its surface. Initially, only one natural passage led to the New Athos Cave in the form of a deep chasm from the village of Esher to the present-day Anakopia Hall. Over time, three more artificial entrances were created for tourism purposes, through which an underground train was launched.

The duration of a tour of the New Athos dungeon is usually 1.5 hours. in winter special regime opening hours: the cave is open only on weekends and Wednesdays. Underground photography and video shooting are paid separately. There are several other frequently visited attractions in this corner of Abkhazia. In particular, the New Athos Monastery. Getting to your destination from Sukhum will not be difficult. You need to take any bus from the bus station towards Psou or Gudauta. New Athos will be in 20 minutes. The stop closest to the cave is “Shell”.

Abkhazia is a land rich in natural wonders and natural attractions. One of these miracles is known throughout the world.

This huge karst cavity, hidden for millions of years by the Iveron Mountain, in its scale easily competes with world-famous dungeons. For example, with the Carlsbad Cave in the USA or with the Yugoslav Škocjan Cave.

This natural miracle of Abkhazia was discovered not so long ago, only in 1961. 14 years later, the first tourist train passed through an artificially made tunnel through the cave.

Huge cave halls and very interesting galleries, winding in intricate meanders, spread over hundreds of meters. The depths of the Iveron Mountain hide many secrets, many of which are beyond the control of even the wildest imagination.

Coming down here for the first time, not a single tourist even imagines what miracles the New Athos dungeons will greet him with.

The extraordinary cave landscape is amazing: there are both magnificent stalactite palaces and incredibly frightening gloomy halls.

Bright green cave lakes filled with many microscopic living creatures living in the dark, a unique harmony of sounds and the endless beauty and variety of fantastic crystal formations formed over millions of years - all this can be found and seen here in the New Athos cave.

Having done a tourist route under the stone sky, you will forever leave a lot of unforgettable impressions in your memory.

Research of the New Athos Cave

Back in the old days, local residents noticed a strange failure on the slope of Iverskaya Mountain. Bottomless pit- that’s what they called this strange, mysterious well, going deep underground and dissolving in the darkness of the mountain depths. The brave souls who would dare to go down there, as it became clear, were not found until the middle of the 20th century.

Givi Smyr is the name of the first discoverer of the bowels of the New Athos cave. But this simple resident of New Athos did not have special equipment, without which, alas, it is impossible to get to the bottom of the cave. A whole specially assembled expedition descended here in 1961. Givi Smyr himself was part of this expedition.

Assault group from four people managed to get to the bottom of the cave, overcoming all the obstacles of the mysterious well along this difficult path.

At first it seemed that the clay, which thickly covered both the floor and walls of the cave, indicated a dead end and the end of the abyss. But this was not the case: one of the holes in the wall was experiencing a powerful draft of air.

The explorers dared to squeeze through the gap, and the darkness that instantly swallowed up the light of their flashlights spoke of incredible underground empty spaces. This is exactly how the New Athos cave was discovered - one of natural wonders Abkhazia.

After this expedition there were others, thanks to which the detailed map underground cavities and collected a large amount of scientific data.

In 1965, a film about the beauty of the cave was released. It took speleologists many years of hard work for another attraction to shine on the Black Sea coast.

Excursions to the New Athos Cave

Tours of the cave are available throughout the holiday season - from May to November.

Traveling through the dungeon world takes place approximately like in a subway, in a small tourist train, which can accommodate about ninety people, and makes stops at three stations - Entrance Gate, Apsny Hall, Anakopia Hall.

Halls

The cave has only eleven halls, of which only half are accessible to tourists, the rest are closed to tourists.

The first thing tourists will see is the majestic Apsny Hall - a huge, humid and quiet white-stone palace, giving the impression of a giant immersed in eternal sleep.

In the light of the spotlights, two most picturesque underground lakes catch your eye - Anatolia and Goluboe. These beautiful and serene-looking lakes used to behave very unpredictably, which caused a lot of trouble for the workers of the tourist complex.

It happened, after many months of calm, when, it would seem, nothing foreshadowed trouble - these lakes suddenly began to rise and overflow their banks, flooding most of the hall.

The eye of an observant tourist can notice dark brown lines on the gray walls of the Apsny hall, running horizontally - one after another, starting from the water surface and up to the ceiling - all these are traces of former floods. Judging by these traces, the Apsny Hall in the recent past was almost completely flooded during these flood disasters.

But now, thanks to the constructed drainage tunnel, the rebel waters of the cave lakes splash out into the gorge of the Manikvara River.

The largest hall in the New Athos cave is the Hall of Speleologists, the dimensions of which are 260 meters in length, 75 in width, and 50 in height.

It was quite difficult to choose a path to build an excursion path here. Laid along the bottom of the hall, there is a risk of constantly being flooded during floods; if it ran on eaves along a sheer wall, there would be a risk of collapse.

Therefore, another way was found: an overpass was erected at a height of eighteen meters above the cave ravines.

Moscow Hall - rarely accessible to visitors, this is the highest hall, the height of which is 70 meters, has amazing acoustics, so music concerts are sometimes held here.

Helictite Hall

The helictite hall is currently closed to tourists and is used exclusively for scientific research.

The real pearl of the Anakopia hall is an absolutely fantastic-looking stone waterfall, where a huge stone shaft, reminiscent of an ice block, falls from the wall of a cave from a height of 30 meters, not reaching the surface of the earth, while real water flows along them, flowing from this cascade, and forming streams below, rushing into cracks and cracks.

It is worth visiting the cave to see this fantastic spectacle of absolutely unearthly beauty!

But Anakopia Hall is the wettest of all, the relative humidity here reaches 100%. Here, moisture is everywhere: droplets of water flow along the walls, water seeps from cracks in the ceiling, and there is even steam in the air. And all because there is a small underground spring in the cave area.

It was water saturated with calcium carbonate that created many such fantastic formations as the stone fountain.

All this extraordinary beauty of the hall is illuminated by colored spotlights and creates the impression of a fabulous home of the good spirits of the mountains.

New Athos caves on the map

Operating mode

Conditions of visiting and prices

• A tour of the New Athos Cave can only be done as part of a group led by a guide; the tour lasts one and a half hours.
• Tourists must take into account that it is quite cold in the cave - average temperature in the halls it’s about +14 degrees or even lower.
• The price of a ticket for a tour of the cave is only 400 rubles, for children under 8 years old it is free. Photo and video shooting are paid separately - 50 rubles.

New Athos is a popular seaside resort, which is located northwest of Sukhumi (21 km). This is very beautiful place Abkhazia. The hills on which the city is located are covered with orange, lemon, olive and tangerine groves.

Cypress alleys stretch throughout the resort; in the coastal area, laurels and palm trees, bananas and magnolias, eucalyptus and oleanders delight the eye. There are also ponds surrounded by weeping willows. The mountain slopes are covered with deciduous trees - beech, hornbeam, oak and others. But most of all tourists are interested in the caves in New Athos.

From the history of the city

In the 4th century, the Abkhazians built a fortress called Anakopia. After the unification of Georgia in the 11th century, Anakopia became one of the largest coastal centers. However, in the XIV-XVII centuries, during the feudal fragmentation of Georgia, Anakopia lost its economic and political significance.

The revival of the city took place in 1874, when monks arrived here from Holy Mount Athos (Greece). The tsarist government allowed them to establish a monastery in Abkhazia. After this, at the foot of the Iverskaya Mountain they built the New Athos Monastery, which later became one of the largest places of worship Caucasus. And the settlement that formed around it with residential buildings, churches, cells, parks and gardens was called New Athos. The modern resort town, as we know it, appeared at the beginning of the 20th century on the site of a former monastic settlement.

New Athos Cave

Keeps many secrets ancient photo which you can see below is one of the largest in the republic. It is located under the slope of Iverskaya Mountain. This is a huge karst cavity. Its volume is one million cubic meters. The cave is located near the monastery of the same name. Its length is about 1900 meters, the maximum depth exceeds 180 meters.

History of discovery

Since ancient times, the attention of local residents has been attracted by a huge well on the slope of Mount Iverskaya. They called the well with steep walls a “bottomless pit.” For a long time, there were no brave souls who would dare to go down there.

Local resident Givi Smyr was the first to decide on the dangerous descent. However, without special equipment he was unable to reach the bottom. An expedition was created in 1961 to explore the “bottomless pit”. Having overcome obstacles on their way, the assault four consisting of Arsen Okrodzhanashvili, Zurab Tintilozov, Givi Smyr and Boris Gergedav descended to the bottom.

A huge layer of clay that covered the floor and seemed to indicate the end of the abyss. In any case, this is how the other caves of New Athos ended. Suddenly, in one of the small holes, the researchers felt a strong draft of air, and the brave men squeezed forward one by one. The darkness swallowed up the light of the lanterns. This indicated grandiose underground volumes previously unseen in these places. This is how a cave was discovered in New Athos (Abkhazia).

The first expedition was followed by the following. Speleologists compiled a map of the cave, collected a huge amount of scientific material, and made a film. Years of intense and often dangerous work were required in order for another unique attraction to appear on the Black Sea coast, created by nature and people.

The cave became accessible to tourists coming to New Athos in 1975. Today there are nine halls open, every day you can be part of excursion group visit six of them. Another two can only be seen once a week. One room is currently closed to the public, as it is reserved for research and work of scientists.

underground road

Nowadays, thousands of tourists visit New Athos every year. The cave is definitely included in their excursion route. Acquaintance with the mysterious failure begins with a special transport system, which was launched before the opening of the cave to the public.

The assembled group is invited to occupy the carriages of the narrow gauge railway, which will take them through the halls and make an intermediate stop in the “Abkhazia” hall. The road is fully electrified, the rails are under constant voltage (300 V). After the train arrives at the station, you must allow tourists to exit from the opposite side, and then you will be allowed to enter the carriage.

The doors of the cars of this underground transport are opened manually. The length of the road is about two kilometers. General route The underground tour is 1.4 kilometers. The metro takes visitors to a depth of 160 meters.

Excursion

The duration of the excursion is one and a half hours. The group is necessarily accompanied by a guide who talks about the history of the opening of the cave and, of course, separately about each of the halls.

The caves of New Athos (photos, even the best quality, are not able to convey their grandeur and power) are distinguished by a constant, rather low temperature (+11 degrees), so you need to take warm clothes with you. The cave is damp in places, so you will need comfortable shoes with non-slip soles.

Halls

The cave in New Athos (Abkhazia), as we have already mentioned, has eight halls accessible to the public. Almost all of them have names (old and new). In the very first hall where excursionists enter (“Anakopia”), there is a small blue Lake"Anatolia".

Speleologists' Hall

The largest room in the cave. Previously, it was called the hall of the Muhajirs. It is named after the speleologists of the Vakhushti Institute and the first researchers who worked in the depths of the mountain for a long time.

"Narta"

Previously it was called clay. In it you can see a lake, clouded by clay rocks, in which small crustaceans live, and around it live unusual trimus beetles that have no eyes.

"Ayukha" (formerly "Moscow")

This low and narrow hall, according to scientists, was once a river bed. Its massive vaults are painted in various shades of gray.

"Akhertsa" ("Iveria")

And here tourists are amazed by the acoustics. Every sound here becomes surprisingly melodic. Sometimes the Abkhazian choir performs here.

Apsny Hall

The former Tbilisi hall fascinates with its beauty. The extraordinary view of a stone waterfall, which seems to fall from a height, makes a huge impression. This is the highest hall. The height of its ceilings reaches one hundred meters. This room does not sparkle with special cave decorations, but it is truly beautiful. This is noted by everyone who visited New Athos. The cave here resembles a full of grandeur, a calm and powerful giant who plunged into a thousand-year sleep. The colors of this room are dim and simple - brown clay and gray rough limestone.

Helict Hall

When you enter this hall, you feel as if you are in another dimension. Helactites - formations growing from the ceiling, in some incredible way suddenly curl upward or throw out countless thread-like shoots in different directions. Scientists are still studying the nature of their growth.

To appreciate the beauty of this underground kingdom, you need to come to New Athos. The cave, each of the halls of which is beautiful in its own way, can only be truly appreciated upon personal inspection.

The design of the halls is undoubtedly of great importance for perception. Music plays here, stalagmites and stalactites are illuminated in different colors. A visit to the cave leaves the most vivid impressions. There is a souvenir pavilion on site, where you can buy fragments of crystals, stalagmites, stalactites, a disc with a film about the cave, and beautiful postcards as souvenirs of the excursion.

How to get there?

Getting to New Athos is quite easy. Minibuses run regularly from nearby cities - direct and going towards Gudauta and Psou. WITH central square Pitsunda and railway station Buses go to Sukhumi. The road is excellent - in 20 minutes you will find yourself in New Athos. Tourists need to get off at the “Rakushka” stop and focus on the New Athos Monastery, visible from any point.

New Athos (caves): opening hours

IN summer time(May - October) the cave awaits guests every day, from 9.00 to 18.00. During the autumn-winter period, excursions are held on Wednesdays and weekends.

New Athos (caves): reviews from tourists

The vast majority of people who visited the caves claim that they will remember this excursion for the rest of their lives. Everything here is amazing: from the unusual metro to the majestic cave halls. Bizarrely intertwined rock formations, intelligently illuminated, amaze the imagination.

Many note that interesting story the tour guide, accompanied by music, makes an amazing impression. Tourists advise everyone going on an excursion to take a powerful camera with them. There is not enough light in the caves, but the views here are simply fabulous.