Everyone who goes on vacation in Crimea and gets to Feodosia from Simferopol, 12 kilometers from the capital from the highway notice an interesting cave and do not miss the opportunity to see it. However, this cave, or rather, the grotto, deserves a purposeful visit — after all, tens of thousands of years ago it was home to ancient people.
Wolf Grotto is the first Paleolithic cave site discovered in Ukraine and Eastern Europe. It was discovered in 1880. The personality of the person who discovered it is also interesting — the discoverer was K.S. Merezhkovsky, brother of the famous poet D.S. Merezhkovsky. When he was still a student, surveying the Crimean caves, he discovered the Wolf Grotto. After the excavations, many materials were lost, but up to our time have reached the information that then the young scientist found in the cave remains of wild bull, roe deer, saiga, red deer, badger, mammoth, wild horse, bison, wild boar, mouflon, cave hyena, wolverine and many other extinct and extant species of animals. The flint tools found in the Wolf Grotto are evidence that the cave was the site of primitive hunters. Once in the cave, one can imagine how they sheltered here from bad weather and predators, sitting by the fire, roasting their prey — animals unseen by modern people.
The Wolf Grotto became world famous after Merezhkovsky’s theory that the monument belongs to the Moustier culture, which existed up to 300-30 thousand years ago, was confirmed by the authoritative scientist G. Mortillier. It was the first find of this type in Eastern Europe.
Wolf Grotto is a spectacular and large cave. It is located in the picturesque valley of the Beshterek River, at a height of 18 meters above the river: a vast green area, with small bushes, sloping to the valley and framed by rocks looks mysterious because of a clearly visible shadow in the form of the letter «P» — the entrance to the ancient cave.
The Wolf Grotto is about 15 meters long and 11-12 meters wide in some places, the height of the cave is greater in its middle part and much less in its depth. A walk through this cave is a fascinating and interesting activity, and the impressions from visiting the place where primitive people lived will remain for many years. The atmosphere of this attraction of Simferopol is unique, because this place keeps the memory of those who were here more than 30 thousand years ago.