Karadag Nature Reserve in Crimea. Where is on the map, photos, excursions

The Karadag Nature Reserve, located on the territory of the Crimean, a very ancient mountain range of volcanic origin, is a multifaceted natural complex, on the basis of which a huge scientific, environmental and educational work is carried out.

The beautiful and mysterious Karadag has always attracted the attention of not only scientists and tourists, but also people of creative professions: writers, artists, poets.

Location and climate

The Karadag Nature Reserve (Crimea) stretches along the Black Sea coast from the valley of the Otuzka River to the Koktebel basin.

The nearest city is Feodosia, which is the administrative center of the district of the same name, located 36 km away; on the border of the natural monument lie such settlements as Koktebel, Shchebetovka, Kurortnoye. Coordinates of the center of the reserve: 44°55’55” s. w. 35°13’44” w. d.

The climate of Karadag is identified as transitional from sub-Mediterranean to moderately continental. Winters in the reserve are mild, without persistent frosts; summers are hot and arid. The hottest months are July and August.

There is little precipitation, in warm and cold periods approximately equally. The snow cover remains on the peaks of the mountains for 50-65 days.

Air temperature (0C), water temperature (0C), precipitation (mm), number of sunny days

The excursion programs in the Karadag Nature Reserve are designed for year-round reception of tourists, but the most comfortable period for visiting is considered to be the end of spring, summer months and early autumn (September).

How to get

You can get to the reserve by public transport (bus) or car. It is more convenient to consider Feodosia and Koktebel as starting points. Bus N101 departs from these settlements with a final stop on the Biostation route. The ticket price is 250 rubles.

The car will cover the distance between the points in about 1 hour. From Feodosia, you should leave along the Simferopol highway (P23), transit Koktebel, Shchebetovka, and turn towards Mount Medovaya near the village of Kurortny.

You can get to the territory of the reserve only as part of excursion groups, which are formed in all resort towns and villages of the Crimea.

Tourist buses depart from the hotels, the group is accompanied by a professional guide.

Karadag Natural Complex

The Karadag Nature Reserve is a free–standing ridge, part of the Crimean Mountains system. The main parts of the massif are the Coastal Ridge, which stretches along the coast and, in turn, consists of the Karagach, Khoba-Tele and others ridges, as well as the Holy Mountain, which has the shape of a dome and stands deep in the protected area.

The entire massif consists of volcanic rocks that were formed here as a result of multiple stratification of lava flows 173 million years ago. Once active volcanoes have gone out, turning into mountain ranges.

The peculiar, expressive formations of the mountain-volcanic group have long attracted the attention of not only scientists, but also people of creative professions. The sea surf created grottos and niches in the coastal rocks, formed steep cliffs, and washed away spacious beach strips. On land, outliers, ridges, and beams alternate.

The relief of Karadag was also influenced by the anthropogenic factor, quarries, drainage channels, and dams appeared here. During the planting of seedlings, terraces were arranged, roads were laid. Today, the reserve is located on an area of 2874.2 hectares, of which 809 hectares is the Black Sea area.

The highest point of Karadag is the top of the Holy Mountain (577 m), which consists of a greenish-colored piste (volcanic tuff) and looks powerful and mysterious. Centuries ago, the shrine of the goddess Kali was located here, but there are still rumors about the healing ability of the Holy Mountain.

The Golden Gate, a rock formation that has become the hallmark of the reserve, stands apart in the sea and attracts attention with its beauty and uniqueness. There is an opinion that whoever sees the sunrise through the arch will receive the fulfillment of any wish.

The gate rises 8 m above the sea, and the water column in this place is 15 m. Locals know the second name of the rock – “Devil’s Gate” and believe that it is here that there is an entrance to the underworld.

The history of the appearance

The Karadag Nature Reserve (Crimea) was officially established in 1979, and in 2015 the scientific organization became an object of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

But the history of the reserve begins earlier, at the very beginning of the XX century, when Dr. T.I. Vyazemsky, researching diseases of the nervous system, acquired a plot of land on the Black Sea coast and opened a specialized sanatorium. Due to lack of funds, the construction of the scientific center planned here was delayed until 1914.

Upon completion of the facility, the doctor transferred his brainchild to the care of a public organization at Moscow State University and died soon after. The scientific station began to bear his name.

The year 1917 brought with it a very difficult period, ruin, which led to the destruction of many cultural and scientific institutions, including a threat to the Crimean station. It was only thanks to the efforts of M.A. Voloshin, a poet, art critic and resident of Koktebel, that the Bolsheviks left the Karadag facility intact.

Soon it was recognized as a National Park, trees cut down earlier began to be preserved here again, plantings resumed, stone quarries closed.

In 1937, the station received the status of a scientific biological station, a marine area was added to its territory, which allowed for research of the marine environment. Over the years, the biostation belonged to different scientific structures of Ukraine and the USSR, continuing to conduct research on land and sea.

In 1979, it officially became a state nature reserve, carrying out scientific, environmental and environmental education activities.

Flora

The Karadag Nature Reserve (Crimea) has collected on its territory almost all the vegetation found on the peninsula.

Over 1,160 species of vascular plants, high-stemmed and low-growing trees and shrubs, 313 species of lichens, 82 species of mosses cover the land of the reserve. Carpets of macrophyte algae (178 species) and bottom microscopic algae cover the seabed.

Trees

About 50% of the reserve’s land area is forested. The woody flora is represented by the rocky oak, which grows at altitudes from 400 to 450 m. It forms shady forests where the trunks reach a height of 20-40 m.

Below there are such trees as:

• maple;
• hornbeam (up to 25 m);
• ash tree is tall (up to 20-30 m);
• mountain ash glogovina (12 m) and others.

Shrubs

Dogwood is one of the most common shrubs of the reserve. It reaches a height of 3-4 meters and blooms in February – March. In the Turkic language, its name sounds like “red”, since the juicy fruits ripened in August – September cover the bush with a scarlet color. The drupe berries taste sweet and sour, have a pleasant aroma and are used in cooking.

The warty birch bark is a shrub usually 1-2 m high, although it can grow taller in shady places. Its fruits are inedible, all parts of the plant are poisonous, but the shrub is very much loved by gardeners and designers, as it makes a magnificent hedge.

Jasmine, rosehip, hawthorn also grow in the reserve, and a grass, flowering carpet in different months is formed by a folded snowdrop, two-leaved copse, Marshall’s crested, beautiful saffron and other plants. The beauty of the blooming nature reserve can be admired from mid-spring to mid-summer.

Lichens and mosses

Lichens, of which there are more than 300 species, are very sensitive to the purity of the air. They die even with a small concentration of sulfur dioxide, and they feel at ease in Karadag. They can grow on rocks, tree bark, on the ground. They grow by only a few millimeters per year, but they live for several hundred years.

Mosses occupy a prominent place in the list of plants of the reserve: homalotecium silky, leukodon squirrel, hypnum cypress.

Flowering plants

The most careful attitude in the reserve is to the flowering representatives of the flora that grow only on the Crimean peninsula. This is 30% endemic.

The folded snowdrop, blooming at the beginning of the calendar winter, is listed in the Red Book of Europe; rare plants include nectaroscordum ash-loving (one of the most valuable Crimean endemics), Crimean peony, spotted jasnotka, Crimean lumbago, 45 species of orchids.

Relict plants

A special place in the list of unique plants of Karadag is occupied by plant relics that have survived to the present day without significant changes since the distant pre-Glacial times.

These are:

• shrubby jasmine, which has chosen to inhabit the southern slopes of the Crimean Mountains and blooms in May – July;
• pistachio is blunt-leaved, which lives up to 1000 years and grows up to 8-12 m;
• The juniper is evergreen, growing in the lower tier of the mountain; it lives up to 600 years.

Underwater flora

The underwater world is home to 178 species of macrophyte algae. These are algae of different colors that are well known to everyone who has ever vacationed at sea: brown, green, blue-green, small fish and crabs usually hide in them.

Phytoplankton swim, as a rule, closer to the surface of the water, without sinking to a depth of less than half a meter. It is food for shellfish and fry.

Fauna

The Karadag Nature Reserve (Crimea) is distinguished by a variety of fauna representatives. Its peculiarity is that steppe, forest and south-coastal species live on a relatively small territory of the reserve. There are about 5 thousand animals in Karadag, of which more than 500 are red–listed.

Insects

Insects are the leaders here in terms of the number of species (9,000). The diversity of butterflies is great – 1,700 species; there are also those that begin to flutter very early in spring or even in the winter months, during a period of temporary warming. This is a multicolored garden of bright red color with wings up to 6 cm. In the middle of spring, bumblebees wake up, southern blackheads, swallowtails, and pigeons appear.

The Crimean ground beetle is a relict flightless beetle that lives only in Crimea. It has shiny wings of dark color: from blue to black. Its length is 5-6 cm, when in danger it shoots a burning secret.

In May, even more butterflies appear (Circe marigold, forest mother-of-pearl), grasshoppers (steppe dybka, isophia Crimean), beetles (deer beetle up to 8 cm long), cicadas.

Birds

Due to its geographical location, Karadag is a unique place for studying avifauna. There are borders between land and sea, as well as between mountainous and steppe areas, which in a small area creates various elements of relief and, accordingly, the growth of different plants (from steppe to forest).

This, in turn, provides a rich food base for birds. Now there are almost 250 species of birds in the reserve, some of them live here permanently, some come for the winter.

Constantly living – pheasant, woodpecker, magpie, crested lark, mountain bunting, thrush, peregrine falcon, Syrian woodpecker and many, many others. At least 130 species of birds come here for the winter, their appearance occurs in October-November, and return to the north in March-April.

These include sparrowhawk, linnet, goldfinch, cormorant, screamer swan, diving duck, mallard. There are almost no freshwater reservoirs in Karadag, because waterfowl winter on the water and the coastline of the Black Sea.

Amphibians and reptiles

Currently, Karadag is the most studied area of the Southern Crimea by herpetologists. According to carefully adjusted statistics, the most common species in the reserve (almost everywhere) are the green toad, lake frog, Crimean lizard, grass snake and yellow-bellied poloz. Their number is consistently high.

Closer to Koktebel, where there are reservoirs, there is a marsh turtle. A particularly careful attitude of the staff is aimed at narrow–range, red-book species – the Lindholm lizard, leopard skimmer, Mediterranean gecko.

Mammals

The reserve is home to about 30 species of mammals:

• bats – 14 species;
• rodents – 6 species;
• Predators – 4;
• Cetaceans – 3;
• Artiodactyls – 2;
• hare–like – 1.

Here you can see the common squirrel, jerboa, mouse, rat, moth, Mediterranean bat, wild boar, bottlenose dolphin, fox, badger and other animals.

How is the guided tour of the reserve organized?

The Karadag Nature Reserve accepts excursion groups all year round. There are 2 museums, a Marine Mammal Research Center, and two eco-routes on its territory.

Bolshoy Karadag Ecological Trail

The 7 km trail passes the slope and crest of the Coastal Ridge, then leads through the pass, located at an altitude of 360 m and returns to the starting point. There are special platforms on the route, it is fashionable to relax here and admire the views.

Along the way, tourists will see the Ivan the Robber Rock, the Golden Gate Arch, Mount Svyataya and other natural attractions.

The cost of tickets for adults is 800 rubles, for children from 7 to 14 years old – 500 rubles.

Ecological trail named after Dr. T.I. Vyazemsky

The acquaintance with the history of the creation of a unique object, as well as with the life path of its creator, takes place on a short route through the territory of the center. Its length is 1.5 km. During the walk, tourists will see the manor park, the monument to T.I. Vyazemsky, century-old pine trees with the names of Shura and Adya, as well as some other attractions of Karadag.

The cost of tickets for adults is 300 rubles, for children – 200 rubles.

Karadag Museum of History and Nature

The museum, founded in 1915, was originally housed in a small room. Today it owns six hundred valuable exhibits. Four sections: historical, geological and mineralogical, land and sea – introduce visitors to the nature reserve, flora and fauna, and ongoing changes.

The ticket price for adults is 300 rubles, for children – 200 rubles.

Center for the Study and Adaptation of Marine Mammals

The Marine Mammal Research Center began operating in the 1960s, becoming the first in the USSR. Today, not only scientific, but also educational work is carried out here.

The cost of tickets for adults is 800 rubles, for children – 500 rubles.

Memorial Park-estate of T.I. Vyazemsky

The first plantings in the park were made in 1915, then it was expanded and replenished at different times. Today there are 100 species of plants growing here. The territory is conditionally divided into historical (trees planted in the first half of the XX century grow here) and “new”, which appeared after the construction of the dolphinarium building. (1970s).

It is always cozy here, it smells of pine needles, and there are many evergreens. You can visit the park for free.

The Karadag Nature Reserve is a unique place that is interesting for all residents and guests of Crimea to visit. To get more complete information, you should purchase a ticket from a travel agency and listen to the story of a local professional guide about the amazing Karadag.

Video about the reserve

Crimea. Karadag. An excursion with an unusual guide:

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