Mount Cat is one of the symbols of Simeiz. It rises above the village, separating it from the Blue Bay. What is interesting about this natural site? What attracts the interest of a huge number of tourists? Where is Mount Cat, and how to get there? Today we will talk about a unique natural rock, which stands out for its height and bizarre shape against the background of other neighborhood rejectors: Swan Wing, Panea, Diva.
Mount Cat: photo and history of the name
Where did this name “Cat” come from? At first glance, everything is obvious, the rock is really similar in shape to this animal, which is pressed to the floor and is preparing to jump. But the name comes from the Turkic "Kosh-Kai", where "kosh" means "doubles", "kaya" - a rock.
After the annexation of Crimea to the Russian Empire in the 18th century, the name was transformed by the Russian-speaking population into the more familiar - “Cat”.
There are other names of this rock in written sources, for example, Baka, which means “toad”, many tour guides confuse and name the object “Kush-Kaya” (a cliff located near Laspi Bay on Cape Aya and translated as “bird's rock”)
In Crimea there is another Mountain Cat, but it was so popularly called, it is located in the vicinity of the city of Sudak and is officially called Chatal-Kaya.
But in our article we will talk about a natural site, which is a landmark of the Simeiz village.
Characteristic
The rock is the most striking and interesting natural site in the Crimea. Mount Cat is an estranger from the Main Ridge of the Crimean Mountains, which gradually moved along the slope to the sea. The modern look formed about a million years ago.
The rock was a natural barrier dividing the southern coast of Crimea. But after the construction of the Sevastopol-Yalta highway (1972), Mount Koshka was artificially divided into two parts (the height of the southern section is 255 meters, the northern - 210 meters above sea level).
Settlement history
The mountain was inhabited as early as the 4th century BC. At its top, the remains of the Taurian settlements and the largest Taurus burial ground in the Crimea (6-2th century BC) are preserved. In the scientific literature it is called “Crimean dolmens”, they are located behind the highway.
Dolmens are megaliths in the form of a box. Now it is not reliably known for what purpose they were built. According to one version, these are ancient burial places, other scientists claim that they were used for religious purposes. Be that as it may, these are unique objects. Some blocks weigh about 5 tons, and it is unclear how they could be moved. It is also not clear to science how they could have been given the right rectangular shape.
In the Middle Ages, there were several fortifications on Mount Cat.
At the foot of the rock, on the Paneya mountain, opposite the Diva rock, archaeologists discovered a monastery with the remains of a 10th-century basilica, as well as a crypt with Byzantine burials dating back to the 8th-10th centuries.
In the 14-15th century, the Genoese rebuilt the monastery in their fortress "Panea".
Natural monument
Mount Cat since 1947 is a landscape monument. The rock and its slopes are covered with thickets of juniper, oak, pistachio, strawberry. It is striking in its cleanliness for the air saturated with the aroma of forbs and junipers.
The slopes of Mount Cat are a gigantic museum of landforms. Stone chaos is mixed with stone peaks, towers and diverse karst formations. All landforms, flora and fauna are under special protection of the state, and, of course, Mount Cat is a natural monument.
Legend
Crimea is full of mysterious myths and legends. The peninsula is one of the most beautiful corners of our homeland. Almost every stone here is covered with poetic and lyrical legends. This is no accident! For many centuries this earth has been shaken by turbulent historical events. The people connected them with the monuments of spiritual and material culture, peculiarly reflecting this in various myths. There are a huge number of legends associated with the history of Crimea, here is one of them.
A hermit monk settled in the rocks of Simeiz. He has done many bad deeds in his life. He was a powerful, cruel, fearless and merciless warrior. His enemies and innocent people were afraid of him. He ravaged the cities and villages, carried death and grief to all whom he met on his way. He was especially cruel to the girls.
But suddenly terrible visions began to torment him, he saw the mutilated and hacked victims everywhere. And he decided to atone for his prayers and repentance, settling in one of the caves of the rocks of Simeiz.
Years passed and people began to forget about the bloodthirsty and cruel warrior. He was already known as a wise and righteous man, and some even considered him a saint. He forgot about his monstrous deeds and began to consider himself a righteous man. And pride seized him. He began to look at people as being vicious and inferior.
And the devil, who had long hunted for the soul of a hermit monk, was waiting for this. He once decided to test it for steadfastness - whether he really changed or just hides his cruelty, greed and depravity well.
The devil turned into a cat, and on a rainy night he began to meow plaintively and scratch at the door of the hut. The old man took pity and let the animal into the house. So the cat began to live with him, she hunted at night, and slept during the day. In the evenings, she purred her songs, which painted hermit fabulous pictures of a happy family life in the circle of relatives and children. And the devil whispered in his ear that he could have all this, but he would have nothing. The monk became angry and threw the cat into the street.
Then the devil decided to check the old man again. On a beautiful day, when a hermit was fishing on the seashore, a beautiful naked girl caught him in the net. The old man could not stand it and kissed her on the lips.
The sky was angry with the hermit for his sacrilege and hypocrisy, and turned all three characters into stone as punishment. Since then, in Simeiz, the Rock of the Monk and Diva have stood, and the Cat lurked behind them.
The legend itself has many allegories, it all depends on the narrator.
If we ignore the images of myth, then geologically, these objects were formed as a result of the movement of the earth's crust. In Crimea, Mount Koshka is a rejector (as already mentioned), which broke away from the Main Ridge as a result of breaking tectonic plates. In ancient times, it belonged to a single massif - Ai-Petrinsky, breaking away from which it began to move to the sea. Bizarre shapes are explained by the weathering process. Of course, I really want to believe in a fairy tale, but the truth is more expensive.
There is practically nothing left of the cliff Monk. In Crimea in 1927, a strong earthquake occurred, as a result of which it was covered with deep cracks. And four years later, a strong storm fell upon her. The monk suffered his last punishment, disappearing forever from the face of the earth. In the place where he stood, now you can see only shapeless giant blocks, and only the base remained from the rock.
