Fortress Kalamita in Inkerman, Crimea: description, history, interesting facts and reviews. Inkerman

Kalamita is located on the eastern bank of the Chernaya River, on the top of the Monastic Rock. The fortress is the most valuable monument of medieval architecture and the main attraction of Inkerman. At the entrance to the city, at the top of the cliff, the ruins of the fortress are perfectly visible, towering over the road.

Fortress Calamita was founded to protect the commercial port of the Mangup principality of Avlita. Later, the port itself began to be called by her name.

The name "Kalamita" originally became known from the nautical charts of the Genoese of the 14th-15th centuries. Eight Christian cave monasteries and many cave churches were found in the rocks of Inkerman. The rock on which the fortification was erected is dotted with many caves. Some of them were of military importance, others were used as religious and sometimes even living quarters.

In order to explore in detail all the caves and tunnels, you need to have strong nerves. The height is just huge, pay attention to the excavator in the photo below, it looks like a small children's toy.

Steps to the second floor of the ancient dwelling of Kalamita

The special sanctity of the Kalamita fortress is explained by the legend that Pope Clement was sent into exile here under the Emperor Trajan (98-117). It is believed that the first cave - the temple of the Apostle Andrew - was built personally by St. Clement. Now this temple has been rededicated in honor of Clement. Having survived the peak of its glory during the reign of Theodoro, the monastery was abandoned in the Turkish era. The Turks were developing quarries, next to the monastery there was a port through which tens of thousands of prisoners were transported, and all this huge crowd - masons, prisoners waiting to be sent to slave markets, local residents - did not forget that this place was sacred. In 1634, Moscow tourists said that the local Christians were trying to somehow preserve the relics of the saints, which the Turks strongly opposed. The monastery was not an institution, but worked on a voluntary basis. In 1779, when almost all Greeks were taken out of the Crimea on the personal instructions of the Empress, the monastery was finally abandoned. In 1850, the church authorities turned their attention to him. Russian Empire... At the end of the Crimean War, rock churches are being restored here, the abbot's house with a house church (1867), the temple of Panteleimon (1895), Nicholas of Mirlikisky (1905), residential buildings with the Church of the Annunciation (1907) are being erected, the cave church of St. Martin (1867).

The rock is completely hewn, the cells are carved in three tiers and connected by stairs. In our time, the front walls of the cells have collapsed, and the interior rooms, hanging over the abyss, appeared to the world.

During the defense of Sevastopol in 1941-42, almost all the buildings of the monastery were destroyed, only the cave temples survived. The fortress of Kalamita also suffered - only parts of the walls and towers remained from it. The monument of special importance practically did not receive the attention of science, in war time he suffered irreparable damage. The restoration is underway, and it is almost impossible to restore even a part of the historical heritage.

As already mentioned, Kalamita is located on a huge plateau, protected from all sides by nature. There were 5 defense towers on the plateau, through the main tower the entrance to the fortress was carried out, and it has survived to our times best of all. Its restoration is underway.

Other towers of the fortress are much worse preserved:

Here is one of the best-preserved Inkerman towers

In the photo below you can imagine what the defensive structures of Calamita looked like in those days, the main towers were connected by a high defensive wall:

The Kalamita fortress is quite clearly divided into a public part near the first tower, and a residential area in the very depths of the fortress. There were no large estates, but there were very small houses, it was rather crowded. At the corners of the streets, in some places, there are even triangular structures, where three streets converged. Only ruins remain of the residential area:

This is what the ruins of Calamita look like:

From here you can see the Inkerman quarry. It was here that St. Clement:

Down the road

The quarry is still developing, not as actively as during the heyday of Calamita, but they are:

View of the Inkerman mine and the lake

Special equipment in the quarry

There are a lot of all kinds of wild animals on the plateau:

Between the towers of Calamita there is a small cemetery of the 19th-20th centuries.

Two monuments are particularly noteworthy. One of them, a granite obelisk with many traces of bullets, the inscription on it reads: "MT Medvedev, board mechanic, died at a glorious post on July 14, 1938" - and the image of the propeller. Nearby is a modest concrete tombstone - a person who has committed a feat of self-sacrifice is buried here. A simple and touching epitaph tells about this: "To the machine gunner Dmitrichenko, who died heroically on May 2, 1942, covering the retreat of the wounded, women and children."

This grave testifies to the participation of the fortress in the Great Patriotic War. In 1942, the soldiers of the 25th Chapaevskaya defended in Inkerman rifle division, on the night of June 28, they were firmly entrenched at the boundary between the fortress and the Sugar Loaf Mountain. Former division commander T.K. The general writes:

"As soon as the Germans rose to attack, the crews opened fire on them with direct fire, and the attack immediately drowned. When the Nazis began to fire at our artillerymen, they hid the guns in the cave and remained unharmed."

The Inkerman quarry is filled with pure spring water, filled from the source of St. Clement:

Kalamita is just superb. Being at the top of the plateau does not leave the feeling of mystery. The energy of the place is simply amazing, the surrounding beauty is mesmerizing.

In the end, a few photos with interesting landscapes of Inkerman:

View of the Inkerman quarry and the Kalamita fortress

Jesus Christ in one of the ancient caves of Calamita

There is a railway near the fortress

Another quarry

In the Inkerman Valley, grass burns - a common phenomenon in summer. Many people do not hesitate before throwing a cigarette butt or match out the window :(

A window in the Calamita cave, once it was someone's dwelling ..

Another photo of the lake, it is very beautiful ..

The Kalamita fortress is located in the city of Inkerman, near the city of Sevastopol, on the plateau of the monastery rock. A visit to the Kalamita fortress is often combined with a visit to the St. Clement Monastery.

Geographic coordinates of the Kalamita fortress on the Crimea map GPS N 44.603475, E 33.608926.

Official date of foundation of the Kalamita fortress consider the year 1427, but many excavations carried out in these places indicate that the fortress was built on earlier structures, dating back to the 6-7th century AD. Archaeologists never got to the earlier layers, so it can be assumed that new finds and historical facts are still awaiting us.

In 1427, Prince Alexei, the ruler of the principality of Theodoro, decided to strengthen the Inkerman area and the entrance to the Inkerman Bay from the land side by building fortifications. The city erected in these places, like the port, bore the name Avlita, and was marked on Greek, and later on Tatar, maps. The name Kalamita literally translates from Greek as “Good bay”. Later, the Tatars changed the name of Kalamita to Inkerman, which is Turkic language translates as "Cave".
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The port of Avlita, with a convenient bay and a good trade interchange, began to be in great competition with the possessions of the Genoese, namely the port of the city of Feodosia. Most of the merchants preferred to unload some of their goods in Avlita and overland, under the auspices of the Theodorian principality and the Crimean Tatars, to ship their goods to the mainland. Another plus was the cheaper cost of the port and services and security in the transport of goods to the mainland, which the Genoese could not guarantee but offer.
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Due to the weakening of business, the Genoese merchants made a decision in 1433 to attack Avlit and Kalamitskaya fortress, and later to march against the Crimean khans. The Kalamite fortress fell after a month of battles and was partially destroyed.
The campaign of the Genoese against the Crimean Tatars was crowned with a major defeat of the Genoese, who were again thrown back to the shores of Feodosia.
Avlit and Kalamitskaya fortress again returned under the control of the Theodorian principality until 1475. In 1475, the Tatars attacked their ally, Theodorian principality, and ceased to exist.

In the 16th century Kalamite fortress was completely restored by the Turks and significantly fortified.
The fortress was relevant and had its own garrison until the end of the eighteenth century. After the transition of Crimea to the Russian Empire, the need for a fortress practically disappeared and it gradually began to collapse and crumble.
In the middle of the last century, the fortress was included in the composition of monuments of cultural and historical significance and taken under state protection.

Get to the Kalamita fortress the easiest way is from the territory of the Inkerman St. Klimentyevsky Monastery, following the signs and climbing the mountain along a small path. When you reach the Kalamita fortress, you will discover new unparalleled views of the mountains and the sea. The ascent to the fortress takes about 20-30 minutes. A visit to the Kalamita fortress is free. The visiting time is not limited. It is a heavenly pleasure to be on the fortress during sunset. A visit to the Kalamita fortress will be not only informative, but also interesting as a hike in the mountains and as another fascinating journey through the historical places of the Crimean peninsula.

Fortress Kalamita on the map of Crimea.

Imagine high steep hills, from the slopes of which, as if with a knife, huge chunks were cut, leaving straight rocky walls. And under the walls of the road, houses ... There is also a railway embankment and crosses of churches, and on top, on a hill, there are high ruins of an ancient fortress. It looks very impressive. And I was still thinking whether to go or not. But everything turned out by itself. From Yalta I was returning along the Sevastopol highway, Sevastopol decided to go around the ring road and from afar, not far from the road I saw the ruins of the Kalamita fortress (I had seen them in the photo before). So I realized that I was in Inkerman.

F Ortetsya Kalamita. Nadbramna bashta ta bashta No. 2

M onastir of St. Clement. Trinity Church

Schemes of the fortress Kalamita and the monastic (clickable). Another scheme from the travel guide:Sightseeing Crimea. Guide. 50 popular routes. - Publishing house "Biblex", 2009.

Inkerman is located near the mouth of the Chernaya River (here it forms a bay). Until 1991, this city was called Belokamensk, and from 1957 to 1976. it was generally part of Sevastopol. Although separate locality existed here long before the founding of Sevastopol. It was called Kalamita and was a significant fortress of the Greek-Byzantine principality of Theodoro.

Theodoro, as a separate state, appeared in the 12th century. The capital of this principality was the city of Mangup. The principality waged a constant struggle with the Genoese colonies for the right to own the South Crimean coast. From the east, the principality was guarded by the fortress Funa, and from the west - by Kalamita. The latter was considered at the same time the main trading port of the principality, although the port itself, located at the mouth of the Chernaya about a kilometer from the fortress, was called Avlita.

The toponym "Kalamita" is translated in different ways. From modern Greek it is "good cape", from ancient Greek - "reed", although there are other interpretations.

Nadbramna bashta ta bashta No. 2

The Kalamita fortress and the settlement located under its walls were a significant staging post in the trade of the south with the north. Therefore, the Genoese considered Kalamita a dangerous competitor for their own port, located in Cembalo (present-day Balaklava). They repeatedly attacked the fortress of Theodorites and even captured and burned it in 1433. Theodoro recaptured and rebuilt Kalamita, but in 1475 the fortress was captured by the Turks and it became Turkish for a long time.

The Turks significantly rebuilt the fortress and renamed it. The new name - Inkerman ("cave fortress"), the fortress received for the abundance of caves located around. These caves were mostly artificial, formed as a result of the extraction of white stone.

The Kalamita fortress and the Turkish Inkerman are very different fortifications. Kalamita had thin walls (about a meter thick), which were covered with a thin parapet. Warriors moved along the walls on wooden platforms. The fortress had five rectangular semi-towers. The walls and half-towers were built on mortar. There were no ditches.

The Turks significantly rebuilt the fortress. The walls were made twice as thick (from the outside), the half-towers were also strengthened and closed from the rear, a dry ditch was cut down, and a barbican was built. An artillery casemate was built over the tunnel of the gate.

Riv from pechery

The present Kalamita consists of dilapidated towers and insignificant remnants of walls, a shallow stone moat with casemate caves and a large wooden cross on the site where the church once stood. There is also a cave monastery, right under the fortress, but more about it later. All this, on the one hand, under the mountain, is surrounded by a railway embankment, and on the other - by a deep terraced quarry. Although Kalamita does not look gloomy at all. Here there are sad and sluggish ruins, and these are cheerful and cheerful. Romantic.

The rock on which the remains of the fortress stand is now called the Monastery. The fortress fence limits the extreme part of the rock from those sides where it is accessible to pedestrians. And from the side of the cliff it is impossible to climb the slope, so there are no fortifications here.

The road to the fortress now passes through a tunnel under the railway embankment. Further, through the ancient cemetery, she rapidly climbs up and rests against a gate tower, standing on the edge of a many-meter cliff. The next tower (No. 2) stands 12 meters from the gate. From it begins a dry moat-trap carved in stone with caves, which served as a kind of pillboxes.

Tower number 3 is angular, so it is very powerful and measures 12x13 meters in plan. The peculiarities of its construction are difficult to understand, because the tower is very destroyed (almost completely). The tower protrudes forward beyond the line of the walls and was supposed to flank the moat.

B arbakan (bashta number 4)

Tower number 4 is the best preserved, so it is the most interesting. Carried out beyond the moat, this tower served as a barbican and was actually an independent fortress building. It was connected with the main fence by a wall laid across the moat. On top of this wall, soldiers could move from tower to fortress and back. In the 18th century, tower number 4 housed a prison. There used to be two more towers, but not much remains of them.

Also on the territory of Kalamita there are remnants (in fact, only foundations) of a medieval Christian temple. It was built by the Theodorites, but it was probably destroyed by the Turks, although this is not known for certain.

In the 17th century, Inkerman turned into Big city and significant shopping center... Trade with the southern coast of Crimea passed through it. The fortress at that time was considered powerful enough, but the Cossacks were able to capture and destroy it (but which ones are unknown). Then, of course, the fortress was rebuilt.

In 1773, a crew of Russian ships, under the direction of the navigator I. Baturin, drew up the first plan of the city of Inkerman. According to the plan, there were seven houses inside the fortress, and around it there were another 50 houses, united in eight blocks. Under the mountain there was a village with the same name as the fortress - Inkerman. There were 30 more houses in it.

Regular Russian troops first appeared in Inkerman in the spring of 1777. They stayed here for two years. Under the leadership of the legendary General Suvorov, the Russians built several coastal batteries (including in Inkerman). But in 1779, Suvorov's troops left Inkerman, and the fortification was destroyed (so that the Turks would not get it).

R uiny fortetsi Kalamita (nimetske photo 1942)

After the annexation of Crimea to Russia in 1783, the Inkerman fortress lost its significance, although it still had to perform its military functions. So in 1854-1856, during the Crimean War and heroic defense Sevastopol, Kalamita was the stronghold of the Inkerman position of the Russian troops. And during the second defense of Sevastopol during the Great Patriotic War on the Monastyrsky Hill, the soldiers of the 25th Chapayevskaya rifle division firmly held their positions. At the foot of the mountain, on the territory of the monastery of St. Clement, there is now a monument to the heroic arrows.

The monastery rock is riddled with many caves. In one of them, in the 7-9 centuries, the cave monastery of St. Clement of the Pope was founded. This saint was one of the first popes and died as a martyr in Chersonesos at the hands of the Roman soldiers of the emperor Trajan (he was drowned, tied to a stone anchor).

The monastery consisted of three cave temples, the largest of which was the temple of St. Clement. There was a monastery until 1485. Then, under pressure from the Turkish Inkerman garrison, the monks left the monastery.

M onastir of St. Clement of Ninita on the cob XX century.

In 1852, on the initiative of Archbishop Innocent, a small monastery was reopened in the caves - the Inkerman Cynovia in the name of St. Clement. During the Crimean War, the monastery was closed again, but was revived in 1867. Then they restored three cave churches, built a ground church - Trinity, and also built the house of the abbot. Later, in honor of the miraculous salvation of the emperor Alexander III, another ground temple was erected under the mountain - St. Panteleimon, and in 1907 on top of the Monastery Hill in memory of Crimean war built the Church of St. Nicholas. This church has not survived, although in German photos from the period of the defense of Sevastopol (probably 1942), the ruins of the church are still standing, as are the ruins of several other buildings.

A unique staircase cut into the rock led from the cave temples to the Monastyrskaya Mountain. It still exists today.

Go to the skeleton

M Onastir of Saint Clement

The monastic complex was returned to the monks after the collapse of the USSR. The restoration of the monastery began. The Church of the Holy Trinity and the abbot's chambers were restored. Shattered in soviet period the temple of St. Panteleimon was rebuilt from scratch. We carried out restoration work in the cave temples.

There was another church in the monastery - Saint Eugraphius. The temple was founded in the 13th century, and at the beginning of the 20th it was restored. But in the Soviet period, during the development of a limestone quarry, the unique temple, with the remains of medieval frescoes, was completely covered with soil.

The complex of the monastery of St. Clement and the Kalamita fortress, located above the monastery, constitute a very interesting and spectacular tourist attraction. On occasion, be sure to visit! Recommended.

Text and photo by Roman Malenkov

When writing the following guide was used: Venikeev E.V. Sevastopol and its surroundings. - Moscow: Iz-in "Art", 1986.

І nkerman quarries

Inkerman is rightly considered the "gateway" to the Crimean Tatar Crimea. On the road passing through this city you get from Sevastopol and (in the second case - getting off at the railway station) to - the capital of the former Crimean Khanate. However, in the 15th century, this nascent state had to put up with the power of the Genoese colonists. The closest outpost of the Italian government is the Calamita fortress. Inkerman, in fact, began with its construction - but still during the Byzantine rule.

Where is the settlement in Inkerman?

The ruins of the Kalamita fortress can be found on the Monastery Mountain, towering over the residential sector of Inkerman from the east. Located very close to the fortification.

Kalamita on the map of Crimea

From the history of fortification

The first name of the bastion (it was built by the ancient population for defense against the Avars) remains unknown. The Genoese were informed that the remains of the fort bear the name of Gazaria, which is understandable - the temporary rulers, the Khazar Jews (the first Karaites), had already used the fortifications on this hill.

The construction was also used for state purposes by Prince Theodoro Alexy - the only Theodorian port of Avlita should have resisted the enemies. He called Gazaria "Kalamita" ("good harbor"). A few years later, the Italians made the outlier the basis for their own fortress. But it was the Theodorian designation of several military towers, Kalamita, that appeared on their sea map. A conflict arose between the Genoese and Goto-Byzantine traders, which they soon took advantage of. Crimean Tatars by forcing the Italians to cooperate.

The fate of the citadel was decided by the Crimeans in their favor. Having become full-fledged masters of the Tauride Mountains and the western coast of the peninsula, they, in alliance with the Genoese, tried for several years to defend themselves against the powerful Ottoman Empire... Nevertheless, having "overturned" the last bastion of Byzantium - Constantinople, the Turks in 1475 unleashed their force on the Crimea. Taurida became Ottoman, but the Porta officially allowed the Tatars to trade slaves on the quays of In Kerman (thus the Turks renamed Avlita), receiving a percentage from the slave trade.

At the end of the 18th century, the Turks themselves had to defend themselves. However, Kalamita had already turned into ruins - the Ottomans did not even protect it, having previously evacuated numerous artillery crews to another place.

Legends of the Inkerman fortress

Many argued that among the ruins of the Kalamita fortress, one could hear the groans of slaves beaten to death who could not be sold. And it was also rumored that the ghosts of the soldiers of the English garrison who were trapped in a trap, who defended the bridgehead on the Monastery Hill during the time, lived here. Then so many soldiers of the British Empire had never died anywhere, because the Anglo-Boer and the First World wars have not started yet.

What is interesting about visiting the fortress in Inkerman?

Fortress Kalamita, Inkerman - all this can be called a complex of amazingly combined with each other creations of nature, permeated foothills, and masterpieces of man, located on the monastic heights of bastions and temples.

The fortification is not without reason called by the Muslims In Kerman - "cave fortress". Below we see only towers and walls erected on the surface of the mountain, however, gradually reaching the top,
we notice the passages to the rocky cavities, where even before the formation and even before the coming to power of Justinian, there were Christian underground churches.

It is no coincidence that even now near Kalamita there is one of these - Panteleimonovskaya, in the area of ​​the most ancient cells. On the territory of the temple building there is also the Inkerman Klimentovsky Monastery, and even lower (closer to the Simferopol highway) is the Dmitrievskaya Church. The path to the ancient towers passes through all these objects.

The territory of the fort is always open to the public. You just have to be careful on some trails. In some places, mountain trekking becomes extreme - you even have to climb. On the lower part of the slope (leveled) there is a fragment railroad disappearing into some bizarre half-tunnel. All in all, it has a great personality for stunning selfies.

What can we say about the top, from which you can see the entire channel of the Chernaya River, which is, in fact, Inkerman. It is here that all five towers stand, some of them even have a road cut in the rock.

How to get to Calamita?

You will never forget the Kalamita fortress. How to get here - any travel resource will indicate where you can also find a lot of photos, ours is no exception. The easiest route is to get to Inkerman and find the stop "Vtormet". The next landmark is a gas station, the next one is already temple complexes, from which the ascent begins.

It is also easy to get from the center by car to the Kalamita fortress, on the map the route looks like this:

Tourist notes

• Address: Karyernaya street, Inkerman, Sevastopol, Crimea, Russia.
• Coordinates: 44 ° 36′11 ″ N (44.602954), 33 ° 36′32 ″ E (33.609006).

Each time tourists are more and more surprised by the Crimea. The Kalamita Fortress is a must-see for everyone who decides to see Inkerman. For many of them, the goal is an excursion to the ancient pillars of Orthodoxy. In conclusion, we offer a short video about this attraction. Happy viewing!

You can climb the plateau to the ruins of Kalamita from the territory of the Inkerman St. Clement Monastery, passing through the old monastery cemetery. But we weren't sure if this path leads to ancient fortress, and not to the internal monastic outbuildings, therefore, leaving the monastery, we went to the plateau by a roundabout way.

Suddenly, our path ended at the edge of a cliff, as if it had been cut with a huge knife under the paved railroad.

The right direction does not guarantee the achievement of the goal, but it allows you to see the goal from the right angle.

A little more detour, and now the ancient ruins of Kalamita appeared in front of us.

The name "Kalamita" has several interpretations, one of which, translated from Greek as "Kamyshovaya", is fully justified because of the mouth of the Chernaya River overgrown with thick reeds, near which the fortress is located. For the first time the name "Kalamita" is found on the nautical charts of the Genoese of the XIV-XV centuries.

The history of the emergence of Kalamita is reliably unknown, and, like most, is lost in the mists of time.

After numerous studies and excavations, scientists came to the conclusion that the first fortifications on the Monastery rock appeared in the 6th century and were built by the Byzantines to protect the approaches to Chersonesos. What was the fortress in early middle ages and how she lived for several hundred years, probably, will remain a mystery to us.

The history of Calamita, starting from the 15th century, is not so vague. At this time, the principality of Theodoro was in conflict with the Genoese colonies. To gain access to the sea, the theodorites in the bay near the mouth of the Chernaya River built the port of Avlita, which violated the Genoese trade monopoly on the Black Sea. To protect him, Prince Alexei in 1427 began to rebuild an abandoned early medieval fortress on the Monastic Rock.

Military conflicts repeatedly arose between the Theodorites and the Genoese, but none of them resisted the Turkish invasion of Crimea in 1475. Having captured Kalamita, the Turks renamed it Inkerman, which means "Cave Fortress". With the advent of firearms, it became necessary to strengthen the fortress, which was done by the new owners - the walls were thickened, the towers were fortified and rebuilt, a powerful semicircular tower was erected, carried out behind the moat and connected to the main fortress wall by a passage.

By the middle of the 18th century, the fortress lost its defensive significance, and after the annexation of the Crimea to Russia, it was not used as a military fortification. The abandoned fortress was slowly crumbling. She suffered especially during the first and second defenses of Sevastopol - in the Crimean and Great Patriotic War.

Even now, in a dilapidated state, the power of the fortress is felt. On the southern and western sides, Kalamita was protected by the steep 50-meter cliffs of the Monastery Rock, and on the northern and eastern sides by fortress walls with six towers and a moat carved into the rock.

An ancient road led us to the gate tower.

This is the first semicircular tower from the western cliff with an arched opening, in the vault of which a stone is laid with the image of a cross and the inscription "I want to be here in Russia."

Not far from the first tower there is another well-preserved semicircular tower. They were connected by a fortress wall, now destroyed, the road between the towers has already appeared in our time.

The second is a semicircular tower

The second tower was supposed to additionally protect the entrance gate. It was rebuilt by the Turks. The shape of the loopholes made it possible to fire and be inaccessible to the enemy from the outside.

From the second tower begins a ditch carved into the rock.

It stretches along the fortress wall to the southern cliff of the Monastery rock. In its middle part (between the third and fifth towers), many caves have been cut in the walls of the ditch, the purpose of which, most likely, was economic.

The third tower is almost destroyed. It was an angular, rectangular tower, rebuilt at every stage of the fortress's existence.

The best preserved is the fourth tower - the newest, was built by the Turks.

It is taken out behind the moat and connected to the fortress by a wall-passage that crosses the moat. There was a prison in the tower.

The fifth and sixth towers, as well as the third, are badly destroyed.

In the early medieval period, the entrance to the fortress was located at the fifth tower. After the restructuring by the Theodorites, a gate was left there for sorties.

Behind the sixth tower, the fortress wall ended with a sheer cliff of the Monastery rock. Standing on the edge of the plateau, our gaze opened up a valley stretching in the sunset rays of the sun, going into the blue mountains, and to the left of it - the Zagaytanskaya rock, cut by caves.

Panorama of the Pervomaiskaya Valley (click to enlarge)

There are also many caves in the Monastery rock. In some of them you can go down from the plateau.