Kazantip Bay is such an object, which is more known in the circle of musicians and informals of various kinds, than in the sphere of professional ecologists and geographers. The bay is located on the southern coast of the Kerch Peninsula, which, in turn, is the eastern part of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. This Mecca for musicians and informals starts with Cape Kazantip and ends with Cape Chagany.
The coastline of Kazantip Bay is equal to 25 kilometers. On it 5 smallest settlements of Crimea are comfortably located:
1. Mysovoye village, formerly called Kazantip;
2. Azovskoye settlement, consisting of 10 yards;
3. Novootradnoe or former kadylyk of the Kafin kaimakanstvo Adzhi-Bai;
4. Nizhnezamorskoye, which appeared in 1948 as a designation of a fishing base.
5. Golden or Alatay village, as Crimean Tatars called their settlement, referring to the amazing color of the coastal sand, similar in its coloristic range to the famous precious metal.
By the way, one of the main factors attracting informal public to Kazantip Bay is the condition of local beaches. Golden color and surprisingly soft mixture of quartz-limestone sand with shells have become an ideal platform for daytime recreation and the best springboard for night trans-parties — but only on some parts of it.
By the way, similar sand is famous for the southern coast of the Iberian Peninsula — Costa Bravo, Costa del Sol, Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol. But, unfortunately, this is where the similarity ends. After all, in Spain, the entire coastline is considered a national treasure and pride, so absolutely all beaches in the Kingdom are equipped with changing cabins and showers, medical and lifeguard stations, crowned with «blue flags» and equally available to all citizens and visitors of the country.
Here, on the Costa del Kazantip, the only service offered is the shade from a narrow-leaved sucker tree, and the landing of foresters selling firewood, beer and water. On the other hand, the lack of civilization allows guests to rest in an economical mode, provided that they take everything they need with them. Some tourists specifically choose the beaches of Kazantip Bay to live in conditions as close to virgin nature as possible. Moving 100 meters away from each of the 5 villages, gentlemen-recreationists are guaranteed to forget about civilization, cigarette butts in the sand and shouts of vendors: «Pa-hal-va, pa-hal-va honey-ova!».
All villages, which are strung like beads on the shoreline of Kazantip Bay, are connected by regular bus service with Kerch and nearby Shchelkino, distant from Mithridates’ favorite town by a distance of 75 km, and from the bay itself — Kazantip Cape.
By the way, if guests resting from civilization on the beaches of Kazantip Bay are tired, they can be offered the following entertainment. First, they can search for the remains of the ancient settlement of ancient Hellenes, mentioned by Claudius Ptolemy under the name «Heraclium». Active tourists, who do not sit still, have repeatedly found between Cape Kazantip and Zhelyaevsky amphorae shards, produced approximately in the III century BC.
Secondly, practically next to Kazantip beaches is the cape of the same name. And it is the venue of the annual festival «Kazantip», during which it becomes clear that the sea is rippling and waves just from the sounds of music. By the way, the Republic of «KaZaantip», like Copenhagen’s free city of Christiania, has been enriched with sports beach competitions, Zimoffka, Maevka and the right to Fast Married ceremony. This is a civil state where a marriage is contracted and valid only within the Republic.
Thirdly, guests of Kazantip beaches await rest in Shchelkino, the most ecologically clean resort in Crimea. And little things: those who wish can take part in the local kitesurfers’ hangout and find landscapes familiar to the public from Fyodor Bondarchuk’s movie «Inhabited Island».