- an amazing miracle of Abkhazia, located in New Athos in the depths of Mount Iverskaya, known throughout the world. She was found in 1961, and until then she hid her secrets. Local residents have long been interested in a large failure on the slope of Iverskaya Mountain, the steep walls of which went into the darkness, called the Bottomless Pit. For a very long time there were no brave souls who risked falling into the black abyss New Athos cave.
The first to try to descend into the hole was Givi Smyr, a resident of New Athos. But the failure turned out to be so deep that it was simply impossible to sink to the bottom without special equipment. To study the “Bottomless Pit,” a special expedition was created in 1961, in which Givi Smyr again took part. The remaining members of the assault four were Arsen Okrodzhanashvili, Zurab Tintilozov, Boris Gergedava.
They successfully overcame all obstacles and sank to the bottom of the cave. The walls and floor of the hole were covered with a thick layer of clay. The adjacent caves looked the same. Examining them one by one, speleologists discovered in one of them a strong draft of air from a small hole. Having squeezed through it one by one and illuminated the space, it was clear that the darkness was absorbing it and the light could not illuminate the vast spaces underground. The mystery of the Bottomless Pit was revealed - this miracle turned out to be a cave complex of 9 halls -.
After this expedition others followed. A huge amount of scientific material was collected and a detailed map of the cave was compiled. In 1965, speleologists even made a film about the unique beauties New Athos cave. Several years of hard work were spent in order for another of the attractions created by nature and man to appear in Abkhazia.
In 1975, an artificial tunnel was built to New Athos cave and the first train carried tourists along the “cave meter”. The journey to the cave begins from the lobby of the administrative building, located at the foot of the Iverskaya Mountain. The main entrance to the cave is located here. It is decorated with colored stained glass windows, mosaic panels and embossed paintings. You can buy souvenirs in small stalls. On the second floor you can sit in a pleasant cafe.
At the beginning of the excursion, tourists, at the invitation of the guide, go to the station - a mini metro, which is richly decorated with marble and granite tiles. The walls are decorated with panels of bright colors on fairy-tale themes. The entrance to the metro resembles a gate to the underground kingdom of a cave. The unique electric train "Tourist", designed for 90 people, arrives and the journey begins.
By the way, the electric train was designed by the design institute of the coal industry, and it was made at the carriage building plant in Riga. Road to New Athos Cave includes 3 stations: 1 tbsp. - “Entrance gate”, 2nd level - “Abkhazia hall” and 3rd level - “Anakopia hall”. The total length of the path is approximately 2 km.
New Athos Cave can be roughly divided into 2 parts. Part 1 is a series of vertical system of passages, as well as very steep crevices, up to 150 meters deep, and this route is unattractive and quite difficult. Part 2 of the route - the halls of the horizontal passage system. This route is the most attractive and interesting.
This is a huge karst cavity, the size of which rivals the largest dungeons in the world, such giants as the Shkocianska Cave (Yugoslavia) and the Carlsbad Cave (USA).
Its huge halls stretch for hundreds of meters. The cave has many galleries - intricately twisting ones. The landscape of the cave is unimaginable and varied: from the chaos of the gloomy lower halls to the most beautiful stalactite palaces. There are many lakes in the cave, the color of the water in them seems green.Some caves have amazing and a bush.
Open all year round. It has 9 halls. 6 halls that are available for display: the "Anakopia" hall - named after the ancient city of New Athos, the "Makhajirs" hall - named in honor of the peoples of the Caucasus, the "Nartaa" hall - the name is borrowed from the folk epic, the "Ayukhaa" hall - this is how the gorge sounds in the Abkhaz language, the “Apkhartsa” hall is an Abkhaz bowed musical instrument, the “Apsny” hall is translated from Abkhazian as “Country of the Soul”.
3 remaining, hall “named after. Givi Smyr", the "Speleologists" hall and the "Helictite" hall - natural laboratories for studying the cave, are closed to the public.
The tour passes through six of the nine halls of the cave. The total length of the route is 1.4 kilometers, with a total excursion duration of one and a half hours. The cave has a constant internal air temperature of +11 degrees. The excursion route passes sequentially through the following halls: the Anakopia hall, the Mukhajirs hall, the Nartaa hall, the Ayukhaa hall, the Apkhyartsa hall, the Apsny hall. Novo-Athos Cave is open all year round.
Halls of the New Athos Cave
New Athos Cave: Hall “Anakopia”.
The underground route begins from the Anakopia hall. In the hall you can see a hole called the “Bottomless Pit”, from the study of which the New Athos Cave was discovered. The depth of the “Bottomless Pit” is 139 meters. The Anakopia hall is very large and has the shape of a bag.
The width of the hall is 150 meters and its length is 150 meters. At the bottom of the hall there are huge boulders that were once collapsed and the bottom is covered with a thick layer of (plastic) clay. The ceiling of the hall has many voids, which are nicknamed “Organ pipes”.
In the depths of the Anakopia hall, New Athos cave lies the underground lake “Anatolia”. It has very slippery clay slopes and is riddled with watercourses. The depth of Lake Anatolia is 25 meters and it is located at a level of 36 m above the level of the Black Sea. This is the lowest point New Athos cave . The water in it has a temperature of + 12-14 degrees.
The second lake in the “Anakopia” hall is “Blue”. Its length is 50 meters and width 25 meters. Its banks are very steep and drop into the water with 20-meter plummets. These two lakes are interconnected and their depth constantly changes depending on the time of year. Along the perimeter of the walls of the “Anakopia” hall, horizontal stripes of dark brown color are visible, parallel to each other, one above the other, to the very top of the cave. These are traces of repeated flooding of the cave, partially or almost completely, during floods. In the present, a drainage tunnel has been made from the hall and the water now flows into the gorge of the Manikwara River.
In the “Anakopia” hall and in the next hall there are very few drip-drip formations - stalagmites, stalactites, stalagnates. The only sinter formation that cannot be ignored is the formation in the form of a huge human skull, located at the entrance to the next hall.
New Athos Cave: Hall of the "Makhajirs".
The hall is named in honor of the memory of the Abkhazians - Mukhajirs and other peoples of the Caucasus, forcibly resettled to Turkey and the countries of the Middle East. For the Abkhazians, Mahajirism is a terrible tragedy that has brought the people to the brink of almost complete extinction. The Hall of the Mukhajirs is the largest hall of the New Athos Cave. The grotto is comparable in size to the largest grottoes in the world's caves. The length of the grotto is 260 meters, width from 25 to 75 meters, height from 20 to 50 meters.
The “Mahajir” hall is significantly watered; water constantly flows into it, seeping deep into the massif and causing alluvial sediments. Karst processes continue in the cave to this day. In the southern initial part, the hall of "Mahajirs" differs little from the hall of "Anakopia": the same gloomy high arches, blocky heaps, gray walls. You can constantly hear the rustling of streams of water falling from above. The Hall of the Muhajirs has the first underground miracle - the White Mountain.
It is located in the middle of the hall, a massive dome-shaped calcite structure, 15 meters high, with a circumference of 40 meters. Speleologists claim that “White Mountain” grows by 1 mm per year. Behind the “White Mountain” there is a low-lying basin. The basin, completely filled with thick deposits of plastic clays, the thickness of which in some places reaches 30 meters, is located at an altitude of 47 meters above sea level. The construction of the excursion path in this place was not easy. A steel cave bridge-overpass was built over the basin at a height of 18 m; it is 120 meters long.
New Athos Cave: Nartaa Hall.
The name, so close to the Caucasian peoples, was used from a folk epic. The word Narty means warrior-heroes. According to legends, they are not characterized by cowardice and cowardice. The Nart epic begins in the 7th century BC. The length of the Nartaa hall is 110 m. The width of the hall is 25 to 35 meters, the height reaches 45 meters. The siphon lake decorates this hall, located at its end. The lake is located at the lowest point of the New Athos system.
The siphon lake is connected to the lake in the Anakopia hall, forming one water system with the river. Psyrtskha flowing on the territory of New Athos. The lake is “alive”. Due to small clay particles, the water is slightly cloudy, but despite this, a large number of translucent crustaceans feel at ease here. The largest ones grow up to 2 cm in length.
In the crevices of the clay floor of the hall lives an interesting species of insect - the tritus beetle; it differs from the earthly beetle in that it has no eyes. The Nartaa hall has bizarre sinter formations - stalagmites, red in color. They are translucent, light with a natural color. Stalactites fall towards them from above. In the depths, to the right of the not very large grotto, a huge boulder is visible, shaped like a fawn. It’s amazing how nature itself carved it out of solid rock. Just below, lies a block shaped like a monkey's head.
New Athos Cave: Ayukhaa Hall.
Due to the fact that the hall is lower and narrower, it was given the name “Ayukhaa”, translated from the Abkhaz language as a gorge. Its length from north to south is more than 100 m. Punched through the thickness of the mountain, as if struck by a giant hammer, it looks very powerful. Its height is from 10 to 30 meters, width from 10 to 20 meters. The bottom of the Ayuhaa hall is completely strewn with huge blocks of products that have become loose from prolonged chemical exposure.
Most of the hall is covered with “corallites” (plaster deposits). Only this cave has gypsum. Almost along its entire length, the ceiling of the “Ayuhaa” hall has the shape of an arc. The vault in some places consists of several wings. Here you can see perfectly preserved all kinds of recesses and recesses on the walls and vault. They were formed under the influence of stormy waters - these are ceiling “punishments”. Sheer walls and a flat, uneven ceiling create the impression of stern severity and simplicity.
Along the dark yellow walls of "Ayuhaa" along the entire length of its hall, at different levels there are black horizontal stripes, traces of former floods. Each such strip is a depression in the rock filled with clay particles. By inserting a metal rod, it will easily penetrate to the entire depth. In the past, the river formed a passage for itself, washing away rocks and forming the bed of an underground river and the Nartaa hall. In the present, nothing disturbs the silence of the hall - there is no sound of a waterfall or the murmuring of streams. This is the driest part of the New Athos cave.
The austere "Ayuhaa" also has its own decorations - chunky stalagmites consisting of translucent orange and red calcite. There are hundreds of them here. They resemble sleek and very clean gnomes lining the walls. Having descended the slopes, they pressed close to the excursion path, as if escorting tourists to the Iveria hall.
New Athos Cave: the Speleologists Hall and the Hall named after. Givi Smyr.”
To the northeast of the “Ayuhaa” hall there is a corridor, after which the “Speleologists” hall begins. It is the highest hall of the Athos Cave, with a ceiling height of 100 meters. The Speleologists' Hall has an almost perfect round shape, resembling a temple, which is why the hall was nicknamed the "Temple". The vault of the “Speleologists” hall is dotted with holes, of which there are many, among them there are ordinary tectonic cracks, dark holes of oval or round shape.
These holes are called “organ pipes”, through which water and air enter the cave from the surface. Hall named after Givi Smyr" is essentially a continuation of the "Speleologists" hall, the smallest and highest located hall of the New Athos cave. It is located at an altitude of 170 meters above sea level.
There is no tour of the hall; it is used as a natural underground laboratory. The climate of the cave has unique healing properties. The air in the cave is in an ionized state and there are practically no pathogenic microbes in it. There is no dust and therefore allergens. Research on the treatment of hypertension and bronchial asthma was conducted in the hall, with good results.
New Athos Cave: "Apkhartsa" Hall.
“Apkhiartsa” is a bowed two-stringed musical instrument - the eternal companion of the Abkhazian in all days. The main folk musical instrument of the Abkhaz-Adyghe people. This hall of the New Athos cave is named after him. The “Apkhiartsa” hall, with its natural shape, resembles a concert hall. The length of the Aphiartsa hall is 85 meters, the width is from 25 to 40 meters. The ceiling of the hall is arched, up to 15 meters high.
The bottom is covered with blocks and clayey deposits. A person's voice or a musical note sounding under its oval dome acquires amazing richness and depth. There is always music for visitors here; artists of the Abkhaz State Choir sometimes give concerts under the arches of the Apkhartsa hall. Single amber-colored stalagmites formed in the hall. On the ceiling of the hall there are oval-shaped recesses - “organ pipes”.
New Athos Cave: Apsny Hall.
The Abkhazians call their small country “Apsny”, which in Abkhazian means “Country of the Soul”. The “Apsny” Hall has a small hall length - 85 meters, its width is from 30 to 45 meters. The height of the hall is from 15 to 45 meters. Every centimeter of space simply delights the eye - the Apsny Hall is the most beautiful of the halls of the New Athos Cave.
It fascinates with its frozen, bizarre sinter formations, as well as its frozen calcite stone waterfall. Its height is 20 meters. Water flows over its smooth surface. In the Apsny hall, placer-drop formations - oolites (cave pearls) - were found. This is the last room that ends the tour of the cave.
New Athos cave: Helectite grotto.
Above the “Apsny” hall, about 25 meters, there is an incredibly beautiful “Helectite” hall. Another miracle of the New Athos cave - there are many complexly formed sinter helectites. These are the same stalactites, their structure and chemical composition are practically no different from ordinary ones, but their growth does not obey any laws, and so far remains a mystery.
Thin, almost like threads, they hang vertically from the ceiling. They can bend at an angle, twist, wrap around neighboring stalactites with their threads, merging with them, then breaking away again and continuing their growth. Helectites, contrary to the law of gravity, can grow upward, towards the ceiling of the cave.
Bizarre and twisted or curved helectites are rarely found in caves. Therefore, the Helectite Hall serves as a natural laboratory for scientific purposes. Due to the low ceiling, there will be no tours of this room.
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The beautiful natural wonder of Abkhazia is the New Athos Cave. The giant karst cavity rivals in beauty the most famous dungeons on the planet.
Many halls. The total length is about 2 kilometers, the maximum depth is almost 200 meters.
People enter the cave in underground railroad cars, like a subway. The length of the road is more than a kilometer, three stations. There are about five trailers, each containing about 20 people. While waiting for the trip, everyone makes some kind of creepy jokes. And they play sad music.
A lot has been written about the New Athos Cave: the history of discovery, versions of formation, dimensions, volumes... A bunch of different impressions, stories from tourists... Discs, photographs taken by cave workers are sold, and can be purchased in the cave itself. Well, what else is there to surprise?
I can confidently say: no matter how much you read, no matter how much you watch, no matter how fascinatingly described, narrated, or beautifully photographed, it cannot be compared with personal impressions.
Having read in numbers about the volume of the cave, you cannot feel it. You need to visit and see how huge it is!
Excursion to the New Athos Cave
Having learned that the temperature in the cave of New Athos in Abkhazia is constantly +11, people begin to dress as if they were going to the North Pole.
I’ve been there twice – in the summer, when it’s +33 outside, and in November, when it’s +22 outside. I didn’t take extra clothes and didn’t get cold. It's not cold inside, just cool, almost no air moving, high humidity. But it’s easy to breathe, the air is fresh.
The only thing is scary to walk on the paths - they are wet and slippery.
No, they’re not slimy, you can’t slide on them, they’re just smooth and shiny – it feels like you’re driving on ice. But from our group of almost a hundred people, no one fell.
The guide's story is accompanied by an Abkhaz choir. There is also an indoor hall where concerts are held. excellent acoustics.
The transitions from hall to hall to the observation decks are man-made, some are very high and long.
120-meter bridge in the hall of the Mahajirs of the New Athos cave
So, with my fear of heights, strictly in the middle, holding onto the railings on both sides, and also trying to look around and out of the corner of my eye down (at the same time, my body immediately trembled and my legs gave way), slowly and sadly I moved forward towards the unknown.
Everything is so mysterious, interesting and incredibly beautiful!
Skull in the dark
The New Athos cave has many grottoes, galleries, and underground lakes.
Eleven halls with unusual sinter mineral formations are open to tourists. The names are telling and reflect the appearance: Skull, Stone.
First you walk through huge stone halls, in which there are almost no stalactites and stalagmites.
But there are lakes of a rich blue color.
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New Athos Cave- one of the caves of Abkhazia, located in the depths of the Anakopia Mountain near New Athos.
History of the New Athos Cave
For a long time, the attention of the residents of New Athos was attracted by a large failure not far from the slope of Anakopia, and then also Iveron Mountain. This failure-well with sheer walls was called by the locals as the Bottomless Pit. At different times, the Bottomless Pit and cave were called the Anakopia Abyss, then the Iverskaya and New Athos abyss.
Nobody knew what was there at the bottom. For the first time, a resident of New Athos, Givi Smyr, tried to descend into a bottomless pit. However, he never reached the bottom of the pit.
In 1961, a special expedition of the Institute of Geography of the Academy of Sciences of the Georgian SSR was organized to explore the Bottomless Pit, which consisted of five speleologists. Zurab Tintilozov, Arsen Okrodzhanashvili, Boris Gergedava and discoverer Givi Smyr discovered the bottom of the hole at a depth of 135 meters. The darkness that absorbed the light of the lanterns spoke of the enormous volumes of emptiness underground. This is how the New Athos Cave was discovered. The first expedition lasted 18 hours, later there were others during which they discovered other halls of the cave.
In the mid-1960s, it was decided to improve the cave and open it to tourists, since New Athos was rapidly developing as a popular resort. An administrative building was built at the foot of Iverskaya Mountain; a tunnel with an iron length of 1.3 kilometers and stations was built to the cave. "Entrance Gate", "Apsny Hall" And . Made for working in a cave electric train "Tourist" by special order at the Riga Carriage Works.
The New Athos cave competes in size with the most famous caves in the world, such as the Škocjan Cave in Yugoslavia and the Carlsbad Cave in the USA.
Excursions to the New Athos Cave
Cave operating hours: all year round, from 9:00 to 18:00. Depending on the season, opening hours and days may vary; in the summer, concerts are held in one of the halls. The length of the tourist route is about 2 kilometers, the duration of the excursion is 1.5 hours. During the excursion it is forbidden to leave the pedestrian area, as this can lead to injury. The temperature in the cave is about +14...+16 degrees.
Paid photography may result in a fine if you do not have a photography coupon. It is worth remembering that the illumination level of the cave is low; photography can only be done with “serious” equipment and a tripod.
Cost of the excursion in 2016: 500 rubles.
Halls of the Cave
The cave in New Athos consists of 9 halls; excursions to the New Athos cave are conducted along a route of 6 halls.
- Hall "Anakopia"
- Hall "Mahajirs"
- Hall "Nartaa"
- Corallite gallery
- Apsara Hall
- Hall named after Givi Smyr
- Hall "Ayuhaa"
- Apkhartsa Hall
- Apsny Hall
- Helictite grotto (and the adjacent Gurov grotto)
After the collapse of the USSR, the halls of the cave were renamed, judging by the new names - for political and historical reasons. Thus, the Abkhazia hall was renamed Apsny, then the Anakopia hall, the Georgian speleologists' hall - the Speleologists' hall, then the Mahajirs' hall; Clay Hall - in Nartaa, Canyon Hall - in Ayukhaa, Moscow - in Apsar, Sukhumi (originally called Fantasy) - in the Givi Smyr Hall, Youth aka Iveria - in Apkhartsa, Tbilisi or Cascades Hall - in the Anakopia Hall.
The standard excursion route passes through the halls: Anakopia, Mahadzhirov, Nartaa, Corallite Gallery, Ayukhaa Hall, Apkhyartsa and Apsny. Musical concerts are sometimes held in the Aphyartsa Hall. Access to the Helictite Grotto is prohibited for tourists - scientific research is carried out there.
This is the very first hall of the underground kingdom - the tourist route begins from here. There are no special attractions in the hall, except for two lakes - Lake Goluboe and Lake Anatolia. The bottom of the Bottomless Pit is also located here.
During the excursion, the composition of the Abkhaz choir “Song of the Rock” is played in the hall.
This hall has a second name - the Speleologists' Hall. This is the largest hall of the cave: its length is 260 meters, its height is up to 50 meters, its width is up to 75 meters. A tunnel was made in the hall in the gorge of the Psyrtskha River to drain water; before this, the hall and the pedestrian path were flooded and excursions were conducted in the reverse order, starting from the Apsny hall to the flooded place. There is also a long pedestrian post built in the hall for the same reason.
Nartaa Hall
In the Nartaa hall there is the 3rd lake in the cave - Nameless.
Apsara Hall
This is the highest hall of the cave: the height of the hall vaults reaches 70 meters. Thanks to the “organ pipes” and other openings in the vaults, the hall “breathes” and you can even feel the wind blowing.
Corallite gallery
The corallite gallery is a huge gorge more than 100 meters long.
Hall named after Givi Smyra
The former hall of Sukhumi, now the hall of Givi Smyr - the discoverer of the cave. From 2001 to this day, Givi Smyr has been the director of the New Athos Cave.
Ayuhaa Hall
Previously, a river flowed through this hall, and horizontal water marks are visible on the walls of the hall. In the same hall there is a majestic stalagmite “Patriarch”.
Aphartsa Concert Hall
Hall with very good acoustic properties. For this reason it is often called a concert hall, and sometimes concerts are actually held here.
Abkhazia is a land rich in natural wonders and natural attractions. One of these miracles is known throughout the world.
This huge karst cavity, hidden for millions of years by the Iveron Mountain, in its scale easily competes with world-famous dungeons. For example, with the Carlsbad Cave in the USA or with the Yugoslav Škocjan Cave.
This natural miracle of Abkhazia was discovered not so long ago, only in 1961. 14 years later, the first tourist train passed through an artificially made tunnel through the cave.
The huge halls of the cave and very interesting galleries, winding in intricate meanders, stretch for hundreds of meters. The depths of the Iverskaya Mountain hide many secrets, many of which are beyond the control of even the wildest imagination.
Coming down here for the first time, not a single tourist even imagines what miracles the New Athos dungeons will greet him with.
The extraordinary cave landscape is amazing: there are both magnificent stalactite palaces and incredibly frightening gloomy halls.
Bright green cave lakes filled with many microscopic living creatures living in the dark, a unique harmony of sounds and the endless beauty and variety of fantastic crystal formations formed over millions of years - all this can be found and seen here in the New Athos cave.
Having completed the tourist route under the stone sky, you will forever leave a lot of unforgettable impressions in your memory.
Research of the New Athos Cave
Back in the old days, local residents noticed a strange failure on the slope of Iverskaya Mountain. Bottomless pit- that’s what they called this strange, mysterious well, going deep underground and dissolving in the darkness of the mountain depths. The brave souls who would dare to go down there, as it became clear, were not found until the middle of the 20th century.
Givi Smyr is the name of the first discoverer of the bowels of the New Athos cave. But this simple resident of New Athos did not have special equipment, without which, alas, it is impossible to get to the bottom of the cave. A whole specially assembled expedition descended here in 1961. Givi Smyr himself was part of this expedition.
An assault group of four people managed to get to the bottom of the cave, overcoming all the obstacles of the mysterious well along this difficult path.
At first it seemed that the clay, which thickly covered both the floor and walls of the cave, indicated a dead end and the end of the abyss. But this was not the case: one of the holes in the wall was experiencing a powerful draft of air.
The explorers dared to squeeze through the gap, and the darkness that instantly swallowed up the light of their flashlights spoke of incredible underground empty spaces. This is exactly how the New Athos cave was discovered - one of the natural wonders of Abkhazia.
After this expedition there were others, thanks to which a detailed map of underground cavities was compiled and a large amount of scientific data was collected.
In 1965, a film about the beauty of the cave was released. It took speleologists many years of hard work for another attraction to shine on the Black Sea coast.
Excursions to the New Athos Cave
Tours of the cave are available throughout the holiday season - from May to November.
Traveling through the dungeon world takes place approximately like in the subway, in a small tourist train that can accommodate about ninety people, and makes stops at three stations - Entrance Gate, Apsny Hall, Anakopia Hall.
Halls
The cave has only eleven halls, of which only half are accessible to tourists, the rest are closed to tourists.
The first thing tourists will see is the majestic Apsny Hall - a huge, humid and quiet white-stone palace, giving the impression of a giant immersed in eternal sleep.
In the light of the spotlights, two most picturesque underground lakes catch your eye - Anatolia and Goluboe. These beautiful and serene-looking lakes used to behave very unpredictably, which caused a lot of trouble for the workers of the tourist complex.
It happened, after many months of calm, when, it would seem, nothing foreshadowed trouble - these lakes suddenly began to rise and overflow their banks, flooding most of the hall.
The eye of an observant tourist can notice dark brown lines on the gray walls of the Apsny hall, running horizontally - one after another, starting from the water surface and up to the ceiling - all these are traces of former floods. Judging by these traces, the Apsny Hall in the recent past was almost completely flooded during these flood disasters.
But now, thanks to the constructed drainage tunnel, the rebel waters of the cave lakes splash out into the gorge of the Manikvara River.
The largest hall in the New Athos cave is the Hall of Speleologists, the dimensions of which are 260 meters in length, 75 in width, and 50 in height.
It was quite difficult to choose a path to build an excursion path here. Laid along the bottom of the hall, there is a risk of constantly being flooded during floods; if it ran on the eaves along a sheer wall, there would be a risk of collapse.
Therefore, another way was found: an overpass was erected at a height of eighteen meters above the cave ravines.
Moscow Hall - rarely accessible to visitors, this is the highest hall, the height of which is 70 meters, has amazing acoustics, so music concerts are sometimes held here.
Helictite Hall
The helictite hall is currently closed to tourists and is used exclusively for scientific research.
The real pearl of the Anakopia hall is an absolutely fantastic looking stone waterfall, where a huge stone shaft, reminiscent of an ice block, falls from the wall of a cave from a height of 30 meters, not reaching the surface of the earth, while real water flows along them, flowing from this cascade, and forming streams below, rushing into cracks and cracks.
It is worth visiting the cave to see this fantastic spectacle of absolutely unearthly beauty!
But Anakopia Hall is the wettest of all, the relative humidity here reaches 100%. Here, moisture is everywhere: droplets of water flow along the walls, water seeps from cracks in the ceiling, and there is even steam in the air. And all because there is a small underground spring in the cave area.
It was water saturated with calcium carbonate that created many such fantastic formations as the stone fountain.
All this extraordinary beauty of the hall is illuminated by colored spotlights and creates the impression of a fabulous home of the good spirits of the mountains.
New Athos caves on the map
Operating mode
Conditions of visiting and prices
- A tour of the New Athos Cave can only be done as part of a group led by a guide; the tour lasts one and a half hours.
- Tourists must take into account that it is quite cold in the cave - the average temperature in the halls is about +14 degrees or even lower.
- The price of a ticket for a tour of the cave is only 400 rubles, for children under 8 years old it is free. Photo and video shooting are paid separately - 50 rubles.
The first day in New Athos turned out to be eventful, but it wasn’t enough for me. Today I really wanted to see the New Athos Cave. Even on the OSM maps we saw something that we didn’t notice yesterday: the grotto of Simon the Canaanite. It's time to close this gap.
Having settled into the city, we learned that it is not so easy to get into the New Athos Cave. Most of the time, excursion groups are packed, and single tourists are squeezed into the empty seats. The entrance to the cave opens every hour (if I'm not mistaken), and the number of visitors is strictly limited.
New Athos Cave: how to get there, ticket prices
Cave coordinates in New Athos: 43.09058, 40.81014
There is a small parking lot opposite this building. People also simply leave their cars on the side of Kyahba Street, as there are not enough parking spaces, especially in the middle of the day.
You can independently get to the New Athos Cave from another city in Abkhazia without a car by bus. Ask the driver to stop at the Rakushka stop. From there it's a few minutes walk. This is what a stop looks like:
Cost of tickets to the New Athos cave and visiting time
The cost of visiting is 500 rubles per person. Photo and video shooting - plus 50 rubles. But I’ll share a little life hack: Don’t pay extra for filming. No one is watching this inside the cave!
Be sure to bring a sweatshirt and wear pants, otherwise you will freeze.
Weekend: Mon, Tue, Friday - sanitary day.
Very important information. We visited the cave in August. In theory, August is the busiest month. If you're planning a visit in another month, read on anyway. I strongly advise you to come to the box office and queue up early! BEFORE the box office opens!
The first excursion starts at 9 am, we arrived at 8 and there was already a crowd of tourists. It was a miracle we managed to buy tickets. Soon the cashier closed the box office, posting a notice that there were no tickets until such and such a time. It’s very disappointing to come/arrive and not have time to buy a ticket for that day! We were lucky and got into the cave the first time.
When the time came for the start of the excursion, the guide took us into the hall, from where we would take an underground train to the cave. Video of the train arrival:
Then the fun begins! New Athos Cave is the best we've ever been to. Don't feel overpriced; you'll get a lot of experience for your money. Huge halls and many cave beauties await along the way.
All photos were taken on a phone. Many of them are unfortunately unclear. So much the better: there will be more surprises for you when you visit!
At the beginning of the excursion we are greeted by this cute face:
Hall "Anakopia" It amazes the imagination: how huge it is! You can't tell the scale from the photo, you have to go there yourself. Red sand gives you the feeling that you are on another planet.
For scale, I took a photo of my group. The photo is blurry, but the other one is not.
Typical Martian landscape:
Every room has unreal beauty. How I regret that I didn’t take a normal camera with me! The lighting doesn't allow me to take normal photos with my phone.
These are the icicles hanging from the ceiling:
The New Athos cave has the largest and most beautiful stalagmites that I have ever seen anywhere.
The sinter formations form unusual figures, and each figure has its own unique outline. The guide talks fascinatingly about each cave hall, and you will learn many new facts about the cave.
In addition to various sinter formations, in the cave you will see a clear lake. Unfortunately, I don’t have a photo of the lake: everything is blurry.
Carefully thought out lighting gives the halls a haze of mystery, in which the stalagmites look somehow mystical.
Figures appear in every corner, and you involuntarily begin to revive each of them. Visiting such places greatly develops the imagination.
Inside the grotto there is a bright red light in the Apkhyartsa hall:
Another huge stalagmite:
In the Apsny hall we see sagging, shaped like real waterfalls. The atmosphere and impressions are indescribable. I write all this and remember how great it was. I would like to come and go down into the cave again.
These formations remind me of parachutists descending from a height to the ground:
The hour and a half of the excursion flew by in a flash. It's time to return to the surface. Back we climb through a tunnel cut into the rock. A few minutes of ascent, and then we open the massive gates. We go outside and bask in the rays of the gentle sun, sharing our impressions of what we saw.
Grotto of Simon the Canaanite
After the cave I wanted to go somewhere else. And we decided to see what kind of point it was on the map: the grotto of Simon the Canaanite. Yesterday we passed by some cash register, this is probably it.
There is a walking trail along Psyrtskha River. Incredible nature! Be sure to go.
Trees grow right on the rocks. It’s hard for them in such conditions:
There is a picturesque bridge across the river. The river itself is clean, the water is refreshingly cold. Almost no people.
Psyrtskha runs among the stones:
For how long or short, we walked along the pedestrian path. And suddenly stone steps of delightful picturesqueness loomed ahead. 🙂
All the way we admire the beauty of the river. Water with a bluish tint. Real, mountain.
To climb into the grotto, you will have to puff. The steps are steep and narrow. It's hard in the heat. We overcome the last meters, and finally explore the cool cave.
Inside there are candles, icons and a very old slab with a drawing of a cross and text on it.
A visit to the grotto of Simon the Canaanite and the New Athos Cave is rich in unforgettable impressions. After a rich cultural program, it was decided to spend the rest of the day at sea, swimming, relaxing and discussing what we had seen.
The sea in Abkhazia is clean and the beaches are pebbly. There are not many people, even though it is August.
