Uchan-Su, thundering just eight kilometers from Yalta, is well known: described, sung about and conquered. This legendary waterfall is the highest in the Crimea and in the whole Ukraine.
Uchan-Su River originates in the mountains at a height of 1233 meters under the precipice of Ai-Petri cliff, and at a height of 390 meters comes down with a waterfall height of 98 meters. It is twice as high as the Niagara Falls. The frantically gurgling water hits the ledges, flying water dust.
At the largest ledge is a statue of an eagle flying upwards to meet the jets flying downwards. The decorative eagle is actually crowned by a small water intake building.
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The water from it flows into the reservoirs on Mogabi Mountain.
The river Uchan-Su downstream forms two smaller waterfalls, flows to Yalta and falls into the sea in its center. Below the waterfall the river changes its name and becomes Vodopadnaya. Although above it turns out to be named in honor of the waterfall: Uchan-Su — «flying (falling) water» in Crimean Tatar. «Hanging water» — Cremasto-Nero is the name of the waterfall by Crimean Greeks. Another name is Autkinskiy waterfall, after the name of the Yalta suburb.
The waterfall itself has many names and seems to be multi-faceted: it looks different in different seasons. Stormy and rumbling in spring, in summer it is just a few streams. Sometimes in a special heat Uchan-su dries up. And in severe winters, the waterfall freezes, becoming an impressive ice block.
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This huge icicle was climbed by the famous mountaineer-pioneer Yuri Lishaev in 1986.
He recalls that the conquest was equal parts dangerous and marvelous. The waterfall in fact turned out to be not a solid ice massif: it was made up of individual frozen jets of icicles. Each ice tube shone rainbow in the sun, and there was water inside each of them. To start climbing, Yuri Lishaev waited several weeks for the base of the waterfall to freeze to the ground. As a result, he had to climb at -17 degrees Celsius for three hours, among large icicles coming off the waterfall. Later, the climber repeated the dangerous ascent even without insurance.
Uchan-Su is not only impressive in itself, its surroundings are full of sights, historical and natural monuments. On the outskirts of Yalta, the closest to Uchan-Su, lived Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, and his house-museum is very close to the waterfall. On the way to the waterfall you can visit the Valley of Fairy Tales, see the walls of the ancient fortress Uchan-Su-Isar. And the forest near the waterfall is made up of the famous Crimean pine trees, making the air especially clean.