Azish cave is a miracle of Adygea

In the Apsheronsky district in the Krasnodar Territory is located a unique creation of nature - Azish cave, which is extremely popular with tourists.

The first researchers appeared in it in 1910. There are memories of this trip of one of the participants of Kosmy Kasyanovich Shevyrev's group, in which he describes in detail the expedition and the general structure of the cave.

The entrance to its cavity is the hole that formed after the collapse of a large part of the roof above the upper hall. Down leads the metal ladder, which was built much later than the appearance of the first researchers. They went down the log and self-made ladders.

The Azish cave reaches a length of 690 meters, a depth of 37 meters and its total area is 1900 square meters. There are several magnificent large halls in it, and a river flows along the bottom of the lower floor. To our great regret, during the last century almost all stalactites were knocked down in the easily accessible parts of the cave, only large deposits remained. It was estimated that only in the gallery at the entrance more than four thousand of these formations were destroyed.

Despite everything, the Azish cave is still amazingly beautiful today. Now here are guided tours of spacious halls, which adorn massive streams. At the end of the upper floor there is a small room, which was called "Altar" by the pioneers. Behind him is a ledge leading to the Bogatyrsky Hall. From it you can go down to the underground river in different directions . However, this part of the cave is still poorly equipped for mass excursions. Further along the river, you will be blocked by a huge ledge six meters high, from which the water falls with a crash. Big Azish cave is one of the five most beautiful caves in Europe.

According to scientists, all this underground splendor appeared under the influence of water, which for millions of years blurred the rocks. In other words, the Azish cave is of karst origin. In Adygea they say that it happened in those distant times when the Earth was covered by the ocean, which in our time was called "Tethys". Experts believe that the age of the cave is more than two million years.

Since 1987, the Azish cave (photo) has become a national natural monument, where thousands of tourists from all over the world come annually.

Its main colors are white and brown. On the walls of magnificent halls stone waterfalls are streaming. From the very bottom rush upward stalagmites, "growing towards". Quite often they fuse with stalactites, forming powerful stone columns of amazing, extraordinary shapes - stalagnata. One of them was called the "Tree of Happiness". This education is located on the most recent site of the excursion route, in the Wedding Hall. As they say, the "Tree of Happiness" has recently turned three hundred and fifty thousand years old. Many tourists come here only to touch his trunk and utter the cherished desire. The hall is called "Wedding", because all Adygean newlyweds come here to whisper their desire.

"Tree of Happiness" is located in the center of a powerful power flow. If you hug his trunk and stand there for about ten minutes, you can feel that many of the once-disturbing problems have remained deep underground.