The best natural creations are amazing — where it seems that our Mother Nature has tried the most, a person is truly breathtaking, and the eye and soul can’t get enough of the opening beauty. It is a real pleasure — just to be in such places. And none of the guests of Crimea should not deny themselves in such a pleasure, so everyone should see the rock Ak-Kaya, first of all, to give yourself an unforgettable moment that will be remembered forever.
White Rock is a unique natural object, the only one of its kind in Crimea, one of the few in the world. This rock, located near the village of the same name White Rock about 5 km from the town of Belogorsk, because of its beauty has become one of the famous «actresses» — it can be seen in the movies «Man from Capuchin Boulevard», «Mirage», «Cipollino», «Armed and Very Dangerous», «Headless Horseman», «Dungeon of Witches», «Escape to the End of the World», «Code of the Apocalypse» and others.
Everyone who travels along the highway Simferopol-Feodosia, will certainly notice this attraction. And almost everyone begins to be interested in what he saw from the window of transport. And in the end pleasantly surprised that this is one of the most famous natural treasures of the Crimea, holding a lot of evidence of ancient eras, an invaluable fund for research archaeologists and scientists studying the past of our planet.
The appearance of the White Rock impresses to the core of the soul, and subject to emotion fans of the beauty of nature and at all plunges into a rapturous-excited state. Overhanging over the valley, where lies a small village of the same name, until 1948. was called Ak-Kaya (hence the second name of the rock), it seems some impregnable castle of white stone. Grottoes, pillars-towers, caves and oval niches in the upper part of the steep cliff soaring 100m upwards, piles of stone blocks, screes and erosion hollows in the lower part — all this makes the appearance of the cliff even more interesting and fantastic. In reality, this inspiring treasure is the result of weathering and erosion of sandstone and limestone over millions of years.
Once upon a time in prehistoric times, the rock was the ocean floor of Thetis, like many of today’s mountains and cliffs that form the unique face of Crimea. When the water left, nature «chiseled» by winds, rains and sun its present masterpiece. About the prehistoric past of Ak-Kai tell fossilized remains of the inhabitants of the ancient reservoir — fish, mollusks. It is not difficult to find such fossils in the vicinity of the rock — there are a lot of them here, you should only look closely. And about 30 years ago a sensational find was discovered here — the remains of a unique amphibian whale, the age of which is about 50 million years old. When similar remains were discovered in Pakistan, the Americans made a lot of noise out of it, and the Crimean amphibious whale, discovered 6 years earlier, remained little known.
Many more interesting facts can be told about this miracle of nature. If we move in chronological order, the next after the prehistoric ones are various finds relating to primitive times: thus, more than 20 stands of primitive man and his remains, a lot of artifacts, remains of such extinct animals as onager, mammoth, cave bear, etc. were found here. The Sarmatians, whose signs were found in the caves of the White Rock, once lived here, and the Scythians left many burial mounds on the plateau, including royal burials. In the Middle Ages, when Tatar khans dominated Taurica, here, in Belogorsk (then called Karasubazar), which became the capital of the Crimean Khanate, lived representatives of the noble Shirin family, descendants of Genghis Khan, whose daughters were married by the Gireys.
In those times, the White Rock was the site of horrible events: it was the place of execution of slaves sentenced to death, who were thrown down from a height of 100 meters. Because of this, in 1620 B. Khmelnitsky visited here 2 times and was forced to watch his allies perish. During the next Russian-Crimean war on the plateau of the rock was the headquarters of General A.V. Suvorov, who defeated the Shirin hordes, then here was signed a treaty declaring the independence of the Crimea from Turkey, and in 1783, the final event of the Russian-Crimean wars — Prince G.A. Potemkin took the oath of all segments of the population of the Crimea to the Russian power.
Horseback riding, bicycling or hiking on the White Rock is an interesting event that will give a lot of pleasant memories. Opening from the top of the plateau panoramas of the Crimea, ancient human sites, fossils that are millions of years old, archaeological excavations — all this awaits those who spend their holiday in the Crimea, and loves an informative vacation.