Solo

An old Crimean legend says:

‘Have you ever been in Crimea? Everything you can find here: you can find sea, you can find mountains, you can find steppe. Ascend the mountain, look around and regret about those, who have never been here. It is so beautiful around. Behind the mountain the sea and the sky are together, both of them are blue, even hard to say what has the deepest blue. The man from Crimea can travel a lot of lands but at the end he says: the best place of the world is Crimea. This is our land. A good place to live, no need to die…’

I am completely agreed with this legend. Agree and ready to vote for it, to sign for it and will always repeat it. In order to make my repeats not too much monotonous I will include in it short stories about different places of our unique Crimea.

Story #1. Ilias-Kaya Mountain.

In case you are a local Sevastopol citizen, trip to Ilias-Kaya Mountain can be some kind of week-end hike-tour for you. Really, it is not too far, and the route is not requires special tourist skills from you.

Preliminary part of this trip can by made in scheduled bus or in own car by “Sevastopol-Yalta” road right to the turn to Laspi Bay. A good orienteer is a roadside café “Myth”.

Now imagine, that we are just descend from the rout-bus and looking around. If we turn to the sea, on the right will be blue Laspi Bay, framed with green pine forests, and Cape Kush-Kaya at the horizon. Mountain ridge of Baydarskaya Yayla arising behind us. It looks so sublime and inaccessible! And on the left it is a good view of Ilias-Kaya massif. Covered with morning dove-colored mist it looks very similar to a gigantic frog on the green hummock. Behind this frog arises predatory shark’s fin. This fin is our destiny point: top of Ilias-Kaya Mountain (681 meter)… O, please, don’t panic! It is not too far and too high. The devil is not so black, as painted. And you never know what you can do till you try!

Author and photographer - Yevgeniya Solovjova as known as Solo :)

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Let’s start from a nice trip by forest path. It takes not more than 30-40 minutes, but it is really admirable. Tree limbs are closing over our heads like ark vaulting; wind smells with grass, greenery and freshness; sunlight rays penetrate the leaves and tickle our faces. All this accompanied by birds’ songs and cicadas’ chirrs. Guaranteed: I will like it!

The main thing you have to keep in mind – at all crossroads take right fork and do not walk down into the raving. In this case you’ll successfully get your destination.

And now, while we are traveling by the pathway, I’ll tell you a little about our aim point. Ilias-Kaya at Crimean-Tatar dialect means “Saint Ilya’s” or “St. Elijah’s Mountain”.  St. Elijah takes a very special place at Christian mythology: he governs thunderstorms. Thrilling peals of thunder, bolts of lightning, rain streams – these elements show well the St. Elijah’s fight against the hordes of dark, evil spirits. He strikes them down with his lightning arrows.

According to historic information at the very top of Ilyas-Kaya Mountain at X-XV centuries A.D. was situated a medieval monastery and a Church of St. Elijah. And the whole mountain was called after this monastery. French traveler and social anthropologist Dubois de Montpereux leaved a detailed description of the St. Elijah’s sanctuary at the top of the mountain. But times are passing, and now at this place it is hard to find any traces of monastery. It is even hard to find the sharp place of the church. But above the recent remains of the monastery and beyond beautiful panorama from the mountain top, which we could see in a half of an hour, this place beckons travelers with the new and very tempting legend. Ilias-Kaya is one of the most famous Crimean power places; it has an extremely strong positive energetic. To be precise, there are two power places, and they have an algoristic order of attendance. The first one is situated at the top of the Ilias-Kaya Mountain some meters behind the church remains. When you visit it, you can discharge yourself from all negative, collected during previous years, clean your mind, and calm your thoughts. And only after this symbolist ‘misogi’ procedure you can pass to the main enigma of this place: the Solar Temple. Amongst tourists (both, esoteric and usual ones) this place has a lot of names: the Stone Flower, Keban-Kaya (Stack-mountain), Sugar heads, Seven Fingers, Devil’s Fingers, Chamomile, Power Flower, Crimean Stonehenge, Dragon’s Teeth. Official name of this place is Tyshlar Rocks. And this amazing massif confirms all its names. Six jags (or petals) form a complete circle. Their sides are lopsided inwards and make up something similar to a flower or (in modern definitions) a parabolic reflector antenna. The central round stone focuses this antenna somewhere to culmination.

According to superstitions, after ascending to the top of Ilias-Kaya, you can go to the Solar Temple, stand at its central stone at the power ground zero point and concentrate at your wish or question… You will certainly receive necessary answers, obtain what you ask for, your wish will come true… But this could happen only in case if you are ready for these gifts and knowledge! And keep in mind, if you want to receive something, one day you’ll be needed to pay for it and give something back. Just to keep equilibrium balanced :) 

And here we are: at the mountain slope. Our first stop will be at the eastern side. From here we could perfectly see the southern point of Crimea and the whole Ukraine – Cape Sarych – and the landscape of the Southern Coast. Above us stands a lonely wild berry and mountain wind flaps in its leaves. Right behind this berry a long time ago was situated the St. Elijah’s church.

Our next pathway lies on the very edge of shark’s fin and on the end of it we could entirely revel in the perfect beauty of this place. The deepest blue of Black Sea laps right under our legs. Evaluate the real distance helps the “Sevastopol-Yalta” road: from here it looks like a thin ribbon. Everything else underneath is also seems small like children’s toys: reddish puzzles of roofs of the famous Gorbachev’s villa, matchboxes of the new modern hotel “The Dream Bay” at Laspi Bay, fragile bricks of quays, translucent constructions of the transmitting radio-tower at Cape Sarych. And on the contrary how colossal and monumental look mountain massifs around!

Great piles of stones of Ilias-Kaya are frozen at impossible inclination; Yayla Ay-Petri stretched out along the horizon and vanishes at sea-sky blueness; behind the Kalanykh Ridge at the north hides the turquoise basin of Chernorechenskoye water-storage. And behind you opens its petals to the sun and sky the Stone Flower! Let’s go down to it.

It is hard to describe the precise rout to the central stone of the Flower. Small paths connect together all six “petals” and the center. You should choose one and relay to your “six sense” and hope for good behavior of the local gnomes and goblins :) And from every certain “petal” you will see completely different panorama. Depending of your imagination in the shapes of Tyshlar Rocks you can see sphinx, and funny poodle, and raised dragon… Here you will be immersed with the magic atmosphere of this place, feel yourself united with the nature, hear the secret whisper of leaves, lie down on the rock, feel its warms and observe the clouds far ahead… but look down: something wonderful could be found either at heaven or right at your feet. Solid rock was split in parts with the small tender sprout of exotic flower. Look at it and try to answer: what is more powerful in this world.

And when turning back to your usual life, to the noise and bustle of big city, don’t forget to thank this wonderful place for providing you the day of rest, good spirits and composure tête-à-tête with nature. Heartfelt thanks are also a good answering gift, I think.