Vorontsovskaya cave - the underground miracle of Sochi

And did you know that, except for the beaches, the sea and the sun, in Sochi there is a completely different world, unknown and full of secrets. This is the underground kingdom of the Vorontsov caves. And there are a whole system here! This article will tell you what the Vorontsovskie caves are like, how to get to them and what interesting things can be seen there.

Why Vorontsovsky?

The complex of Sochi caves is called Vorontsovskie. And this is not because there are many ravens, as it might seem. The caves have received such a name from the nearest village - Vorontsovka.

And the village - from the name of the landowner, who at the beginning of the twentieth century owned this land, where there are also caves. His name was Hilarion Vorontsov-Dashkov. And all the settlements on the territory of his former possessions are named in his honor. For example, Vorontsovka, Illarionovka, Dashkovka.

Cave System

Vorontsovskie caves in Sochi occupy the third place among the longest caves in Russia. The total length of the entire system is 12 kilometers. It includes several caves: Vorontsovskaya cave (its length reaches 4 kilometers), Labyrinth (3.8 km), Cabaña (2.3 km) and Dolgaya (despite the name, the shortest of the Vorontsov caves - 1.5 km in length ).

In the depths of the caves, two rivers originate: Kudepsta and Eastern Hosta. The system has 14 different inputs and outputs. The largest part of the complex is Vorontsovskaya cave.

From the ocean floor

Vorontsovskie caves were formed in limestones, which were deposited more than 120 million years ago. The lower tiers of the caves appeared about 2 million years ago, and the upper ones - no more than 1 million years.

Once upon a time, where the Vorontsov caves are now located, there was a huge ancient ocean called Tethys. Millions of years ago on our planet there were terrible cataclysms: the seas dried up, the continents fell through, and the mountains, on the contrary, rose from the sea depths. So once the territory of the Caucasus has risen to a modern height, and the seabed of the dried-up ocean has turned into mountain ranges.

Even today in the caves are clearly visible layers of marine sediments, particles of petrified sea inhabitants: shells and hedgehogs. Each of the layers can tell about its epoch a lot of interesting.

In the Vorontsov caves at various times lived and saber-toothed tigers, and woolly rhinoceroses, and cave bears, and wolves, and wild boars, and even leopards. Researchers and archaeologists found in the caves the remains of foci, traces of parking lots and rookeries of the oldest tribes.

At different times the caves were used in different ways. So, there were people's dwellings, places for bloody rituals, warehouses, and prisons. In the Vorontsov caves ancient bone knives and arrows of the Circassian tribe were found.

Grotto of "Prometheus"

The most interesting and visited cave from the whole complex is Vorontsovskaya cave. It is the longest, wide and beautiful. Of course, not all of its territory is accessible to tourists, but only some part (somewhere around 400 meters).

The first hall, which will meet you at the entrance to the Vorontsovskaya cave is the grotto of "Prometheus". It takes more than ¼ of the entire excursion part. The first thing you should pay attention to is the height of the vaults. More than 20 meters in height. On the right, just near the entrance, is a huge pile of boulders. These are traces of a collapse. The walls and ceilings of the mainsail are decorated with flowing, reminiscent garlands. There are a lot of them here, and they are very diverse. When water seeps through the cracks in the ceiling, falling drops of water are mixed with limestone, which gives rise to stalactites. In the cave there are a lot of such transparent icicles, as well as stalagmites - stone pillars growing towards them. When the pillars and icicles are joined, a column is formed - stalagnate.

Music Hall

There is also a Music Hall or a Variety Hall. It is named so because its wall has a transverse ledge, on which, as on a platform, it is possible to rise. To the right of the scene is the "organ". It is a woolly form in the form of a musical instrument. If you hit them, you can hear a wide variety of sounds. In the very center of the arch hangs stalactites in the form of a huge theatrical chandelier.

All the walls of the hall are covered with incrustations in the form of grape clusters. The floor is strewn with corallites, which resemble a silver carpet. Here and there you can see "baths" with crystals of calcite. It seems that nature was amusing and fantasizing, creating Vorontsovskie caves of Sochi.

How to get there

The first option is to purchase a ticket for the excursion.

The second option is to get by yourself. In this case, you should take bus number 127 "Khosta - Kalinovoye Lake", which departs from the bus station in the village of Khosta. Take the bus to the final stop and go to the place where the sightseeing buses stop (from the station directly, towards Vorontsovka). You will not miss the parking lot, as next to it - a monument to the dead pilots in the form of the tail of the aircraft.

Further from the parking lot you climb along a dirt road leading upwards along the Sochi National Park. On this road, which then passes into a rather narrow path, you will come directly to the grotto of "Prometheus", from which the Vorontsovskaya cave begins. Just do not go anywhere, so as not to get lost in the green jungle.