Mount Kastel description and photo - Crimea: Alushta (Topic)

Mount Kastel description and photo - Crimea: Alushta. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photos and a map showing the nearest significant objects.

Photo and description

At a distance of about five kilometers from the city of Alushta, there is one of the most beautiful places on the Crimean coast - Mount Kastel, rising 440 meters above sea level. The mountain got its name from the fortress, which in ancient times was located on its top, now almost nothing remains of it. An ancient legend says that the fortress served as the last resting place of the legendary ruler of ancient Sugdaya - Queen Theodora. When her principality was captured by the Genoese, the noble Theodora with her loyal subjects took refuge in Kastel, where she died in battle, betrayed by her own brother.

Mount Castel is a truly unique natural monument. Here you can find a variety of vegetation, ranging from rare species of snowdrops, medicinal herbs and ending with unique lianas that envelop the trunks of ancient trees, descending in an emerald waterfall from the treetops to the very bottom. The slopes of the mountain are covered with evergreen shrubs - jasmine, cistus, butcher, and a rare species of fern grows on the mountain - a thin-leaved anagram.

Although since the 30s of the last century, scientists-archaeologists knew about the existence of ancient remains of aqueducts and triple row of wall fortifications, excavations have never been carried out on Kastel, which probably made it possible to keep intact the unique population of small-fruited strawberries, which grows only on this mountain and is of great scientific value.

Kastel, like Ayu-Dag, are failed volcanoes: the earth here reared up and formed a bowl-shaped depression, but there has never been an eruption, it's just such a freak of nature. On the southern slope of the massif, nature has formed an original form of ribs, ridges, bastions, various talus and a chaotic arrangement of stone placers. Geologists here find various minerals - calcite and pyrite, which are widely used in school collections to study rocks in geography lessons.

Sea currents at the foot of the mountain give the large pebbles an oval shape, this place is popular with tourists and is called "Golovkinsky's Granary". From the top of Kastel, a stunning view of the southern coast of Crimea opens, from here you can see the western part of Ayu-Dag and almost the entire coast, right up to the eastern side of the Sudak Mountains.

Mount Kastel can be climbed by two routes: from Vinogradnoye from the side highway, or from the Azure along the sea coast. The second path is traditionally considered more difficult and dangerous, but the magnificent mountain landscapes that open before the amazed eyes will not leave any tourist indifferent.

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Topic: Mount Kastel description and photo - Crimea: Alushta.