Mount Ai-Petri

What is the Ai-Petri? This question is difficult to answer in one or two sentences, even harder to describe the diversity of the mountain range, where each tract and surprises and delights. Talk with mountaineers and rock climbers, hikers and tourists, skiers and cave explorers, foresters and meteorologists, mushroom and berry lovers - each tells of his own, but even put together these fragments do not give ideas about Ai-Petri, yet never been to the top.

Ai-Petri - the pinnacle and the mountain area of ​​300 km2, is one of the dining rooms of arrays (also called yaylami) extending along the southern coast and up the main mountain range. Ai-Petri array stretches from east to west on the 25t km. The distance between the southern edge of the parapet and the northern foot of a 13ti km. Conditional eastern boundary runs along the meridian of Mount Doom, separated from the adjacent array Yalta plateau. In the west of Ai-Petri ends deep saddle Baidar gate.
But most tourists do not remember the array as a whole, and one of its vertices with a palisade of exotic stone pillars, known as teeth. This peak is far to the south ledge nominated array is actually Ai-Petri, gave name to the whole plateau and became a symbol of the South Coast.

The highest point of the entire body - Mount Doom with an altitude 1346 m above sea level, slightly less (1,320 meters) mountain quail (Beneden-Kir). The very same mountain Ai-Petri is much lower - its height of 1234 meters above sea level.

White balls on the mountain poor-Kir (Quail Hill) - a protective dome radar located here military unit. As a joke, the excursions say it is tracking station for aircraft, satellites, UFO ... Because, probably 15-20 years ago over the Ai-Petri almost weekly detected extraterrestrial objects. About them excitedly told the newspaper, but when the topic bored - stopped appearing themselves mysterious aliens.
Throughout the mountain looking to the south, towards the sea, menacing rock walls: where strictly steep, where step, but everywhere remote. Rare mountain passes, through which people in ancient times of cart paths and paved roads, and now serve as passages from the southern coast to the plateau.
The northern slopes of the array is not so steep, they completely cover deciduous forests.
To the north pushed small tracts Boyka and Sedam-Kaya. Share their river Kokkozka. Many other rivers and streams running down from the Ai-Petri. On its northern slopes of the tributaries flowing Kokkozki: Auzun Uzen and Sary-Uzen in the Grand Canyon of Crimea, with the west - the river, Baga, Urkusta, Uzundzha from which is born in the small Black River Canyon - the most abounding in the Crimea. In the upper left of one of the unnamed tributary is Uzundzha tract Karadag forest. The rivers of the southern slope - short and shallow in the summer - there are stormy and dangerous in high water. Hundreds of these springs feed the river and among the largest in Crimea - Skelskaya source.

In the south, from the coast to the mountains rise beautiful white houses Yalta. From the top of the array on a clear day are clearly visible settlements Gaspra, Oreanda, Foros, Koreiz Simeiz Blue Bay, the town of Alupka ... In the west, in the valley Baydarskaya lie village Eagles, Podgorny, spring, Rossoshanka, Novobobrovskoe, best ... at the foot of the northern slopes in dense orchards, interlocking with the forest, one can hardly make out the village of Polyana, Falcon, verbose, happy ... and just to the east, where the Ai-Petri borders with other mountain ranges - Yalta, no villages.

The southern cliffs of Ai-Petri array and its northern gentle slopes are very picturesque, but no prettier panorama of the Southern coast that opens from the top. Krymchanin hard to find that at least once in my life to watch the sun on the Ai-Petri. Right, for this one moment, when the fiery ball of the sun seemed to pop up out of the dark blue depths of the Black Sea, stands up to this height.

Today, on top of Ai-Petri can be reached in 15 minutes by cable car. It does not turn off even in the winter, and in the midst of the holiday season near the bottom of the station going long queues. An hour and a half, two, three, sometimes more, have to defend before boarding the van unorganized tourists. On tour you will pass almost always these "legendary" queue.

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

More or less accurately known geological history of the Crimean Mountains, including Ai-Petri, from the late Triassic period (about 200ot million years ago). At the time of the Crimean peninsula of what is now covered with water of the ancient Tethys Ocean, which existed for much of the history of the world (to the Neogene period). In the latitudinal ocean stretched across the southern edge of the Eurasian continent, the area of modern Mediterranean and the extreme north-west Africa.

Over the past 200 million years the land area on which the Ai-Petri, multiple output from the sea level, and then it is actively destroying exogenous force, and then he sank below sea level. Diving depth was different, depending on it on the bottom or postponed silts and sands, converted later into the clay and sandstone or limestone sludge, turns into limestone. Sometimes, with a significant picked to be close to the land and shallow waters of the basin, the land eroded and actively communicated to the pool huge masses of pebbles. Cemented marine sediments, they were transformed into conglomerates.

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

Much more complex geological processes occurred with the most popular mountain Crimea: varied terrain, more closer to modern. Only 1.5-2 million years, there is Ai-Petri in a way it is now.

In the mountainous Crimea for about one and a half million years and on the surface and deep within the mountains quietly proceed karstovaniya active processes leading to the formation of different size and shape of craters, hollows and caves. Overall, the Ai-Petri 302 underground caverns (caves, wells, mine), of which 12 natural monuments of local importance: Skelskaya, Crystal, Hanging, Honey, Pearl, Mishor, Kamnepadnaya, Friendship, Geophysical, Cascade and Danilcha-Koba .

About a hundred thousand years ago, the Ai-Petri went in pursuit of animals, Neanderthals. Then it was hunted - on the peninsula vodilos more than 110 species of mammals.

Crossing the Ai-Petri, from south to north or vice versa, even a layman notices a pattern in the distribution of vegetation slopes clothed with forests, on a plateau dominated by meadow-steppe vegetation. Yayla affects broad expanses of open space with a few clumps of trees and bushes. Unlike other Crimean jajl Ai-Petri has natural forests along the edge of the cliffs, in the Central Plateau and the karst erosion and karst valleys in the west, but most of the plateau is covered with meadow-steppe vegetation.

The vegetation in the mountains is truly rich and diverse. On the southern slopes of the growing beech forest with a mixture of pine. From the height of 1000 - 800 meters above sea level starts now Crimean pine, which grows in the first tier with oak, and in the second - with the prickly juniper. Below 400 meters begins now shrub communities of juniper, oriental hornbeam, derzhidereva and many other shrubs with a touch of oak. Here you can meet tupolistnuyu pistachio, strawberry tree with a distinctive smooth reddish bark, thin outer layer which changes annually, and with evergreen leaves, zheltotsvetny jasmine shrub species vyazelya, Puzyrnikov and more. Forests are fruit trees and bushes. On the slopes of Ai-Petri plateau grow almost all current rowans: pine, macrocarpa, Berek, Greek and others.

So what is the Ai-Petri? It is unlikely that this question can be heard complete answer ...