SIMFEROPOL, March 30 – RIA Novosti (Crimea). In Crimea, several projects for the reconstruction of the Ai-Petri plateau are in development: it is planned to create the world’s longest zip line, a small eco-town and a rock garden, said Anri Kanunov, a freelance adviser to the head of the Yalta administration.

Earlier, the head of Crimea, Sergei Aksenov, promised by May to restore order on the plateau of Mount Ai-Petri, which is chaotically built up with hotels, cafes and retail outlets. One of the reconstruction projects was developed on behalf of the city mayor Andrey Rostenko.

"IN this moment this project is also being approved by the ministries of the Republic of Crimea and will subsequently be presented to the head of the Republic of Crimea Sergei Aksenov,” the press service of the mayor’s office quotes Kanunov as saying. According to him, several ideas are currently being considered to create a small eco-city on Ai-Petri , intended for recreation and entertainment. At the same time, no permanent buildings are planned on the plateau. Among the projects to be implemented, the most interesting, according to Kanunov, are a rock garden, glass observation decks and a stone labyrinth made of gabions (volume products of various shapes made of twisted wire mesh with hexagonal cells).

The world's longest zip line with a length of 2.6 kilometers may also appear here (currently the longest such structure is located in the Copper Canyon of Mexico - 2545 meters). Zip-line is a descent along a steel rope with a lift off the ground through the air.

In addition, in the area cable car It is planned to make a special area for relaxation and walking on the plateau, where a dry fountain will be located. The issue of holding international competitions is being considered balloons, construction of the chapel. The plateau will also have bike paths and tracks for downhill snowmobiles, parking for cars and excursion buses, Helipad. “But there will be no numerous catering establishments and souvenir stalls on the plateau. There will only be one stationary cafe, located at the upper station of the cable car and the adjacent souvenir rows,” assured Kanunov.

© Photo courtesy of the press service of the Yalta administration

Ai-Petri plateau reconstruction project

The Ai-Petri plateau is located above Yalta at an altitude of approximately 1200 meters above sea level, where a high-altitude cable car is laid from the coast. Part of the plateau territory is included in the Yalta Mountain Forest Reserve. During the Ukrainian period, illegal trade facilities were unauthorizedly built on Ai-Petri, which Crimeans call “shalmans”. The cafe offers tourists food and draft alcohol, which is often not certified. Attempts to ban illegal activities on the plateau have previously met resistance from traders.

Ai-Petri

What is Ai-Petri? It is difficult to answer this question in one or two sentences; it is even more difficult to describe the diversity of this mountain range, where each tract surprises and delights. Talk to mountaineers and rock climbers, tourists and excursionists, speleologists and skiers, foresters and meteorologists, mushroom pickers and wild berry lovers - everyone will tell their own story, but even these fragments put together will not give you an idea of ​​Ai-Petri until you visit its top.

Ai-Petri is a peak and a mountain range with an area of ​​more than 300 km2, one of the table massifs (they are also called yayls), stretched along South Bank Crimea and its constituent parts mountain range. The Ai-Petrinsky massif extends from east to west for 25 km. The distance between its southern edge and northern foothills is more than 13 km. The conditional eastern border runs along the meridian of Mount Roka, separating the massif from the neighboring Yalta Yayla. In the west, Ai-Petri ends with the deep saddle of the Baydar Gate.

However, most often tourists remember not the massif as a whole, but one of its peaks with a palisade of exotic stone pillars called battlements. This peak of the protrusion of the massif, far extended to the south, is Ai-Petri itself, which gave its name to the entire plateau and became a symbol of the south coast.

The highest point of the entire massif is Mount Roca with an absolute elevation of 1346 meters above sea level, slightly less (1320 meters) Mount Quail (Benede-Kyr). Mount Ai-Petri itself is much lower - its height is 1231 meters above sea level.

Throughout its entire length, the mountain range faces south, towards the sea, with formidable rock walls: sometimes strictly vertical, sometimes stepped, but everywhere inaccessible. Rare passes, through which man laid paths and cart roads in ancient times, still serve as passages from the southern coast to the plateau.

The northern slopes of the massif are not so steep; they are completely covered with broad-leaved forests.

The small massifs of Boyka and Sedam-Kaya extend to the north. They are separated by the Kokkozka River. Many other rivers and streams run down from Ai-Petri. From its northern slopes flow the Kokkozka tributaries: Auzun-Uzen and Sary-Uzen, from the western slopes flow the rivers: Baga, UrkustaUzundzha, from which the Chernaya River is born - the most abundant in Crimea. In the upper reaches of one of the left nameless tributaries of the Uzundzhi there is the Karadag forest tract. The rivers of the southern slope - short and low-water in summer - can be stormy and dangerous during floods. Hundreds of springs feed these rivers, and among them the largest in Crimea is the Skelsky spring.

South of seashore The snow-white houses of the beautiful Yalta rise into the mountains. From the top of the massif on a clear day the villages of Gaspra, Oreanda, Foros, Koreiz, Simeiz, Blue Bay, the city of Alupka are clearly visible... In the west, in Baydar Valley, lie the villages of Orlinoye, PodgornoyeRodnikovoeRossoshankaNovobobrovskoyePeredovoe... At the foot of the northern slopes in dense gardens bordering the forest, you can hardly see the villages of Polyana, SokolinoeMnogorecheChastlivoe... And only in the east, where Ai-Petri borders on another mountain range- Yalta, there are no villages.

The southern cliffs of the Ai-Petrinsky massif and its northern gentle slopes are very picturesque, but there is no more charming panorama of the southern coast that opens from the top. It is difficult to find a Crimean who has not seen the sunrise on Ai-Petri at least once in his life. Really, for the sake of this one moment, when the fiery ball of the sun seems to emerge from the dark blue abyss of the sea, it is worth climbing to this height.

The mountainous Crimea, as we see it now, was formed in a relatively short period of geological time - approximately 1.5 - 2 million years.

The geological history is more or less reliably known Mountain Crimea, including Ai-Petri, starting from the end of the Triassic period (about 200 million years ago). At that time the territory of the present Crimean peninsula covered the waters of the ancient Tethys Ocean, which existed for most of history globe(before Neogene period). In the latitudinal direction, the ocean stretched across the southern edge of the Eurasian continent, the area of ​​modern Mediterranean Sea and extreme northwest Africa.

Over the past 200 million years, the land area on which Ai-Petri is located was repeatedly brought out from under sea level, and then it was actively destroyed by exogenous forces, and then sank again under sea level. The depth of the dives was different, depending on it, either silts and sands were deposited at the bottom of the reservoir, which later transformed into clays and sandstones, or calcareous silts, which turned into limestones. Sometimes, with a significant rise in the nearby land and shallow waters of the basin itself, the land was actively eroded and huge masses of pebbles were carried into the basin. Cemented by marine sediments, they transformed into conglomerates.

150 - 160 million years ago, volcanoes were active in the vicinity of Ai-Petri, their remains can be seen near the villages of Melas and Foros.

During numerous uplifts and subsidences of the earth's crust, marine sediments, which were transformed into layers of rock under the weight of overlying sediments, were repeatedly crushed, cracked and moved. Naturally, the older the rocks, the more dislocated (disturbed) they are. Plastic rocks - clays with layers of sandstones - were bent into bizarre folds, stronger ones - limestones, conglomerates - were torn into separate blocks. Some blocks were moved over long distances by the powerful forces of the earth's interior. In Crimea, in particular on Ai-Petri, such movements reach a kilometer in the vertical direction and several kilometers in the horizontal direction.

The most ancient rocks that make up Ai-Petri can be seen in the valley of the Kokkozka River in the cliffs above the road that leads from Bakhchisarai through Sokolinoe to Yalta. These folds, cut by a river valley, consist of rhythmically interlayered rocks of the Tauride series - sandstone, siltstone, mudstone, colored in different tones. Above the rocks of the Tauride formation are the rocks of the Middle Jurassic (since they are younger). These are the same overconsolidated clays interlayered with sandstones, rocks that resemble a “layer cake”; geologists call it flysch. In appearance, the flysch of the Taurian formation differs little from the flysch of the Middle Jurassic, however, they are relatively weaker dislocated and bent into gentler folds.

Rocks of the Tauride series and Middle Jurassic form the base of the Ai-Petri massif. Above them lie limestones. The contact line runs at different absolute levels, but generally does not exceed 500 - 600 meters. Only in one place (in the Besh-Tekne tract) flysch rocks were pushed by underground forces to a height of 1000 - 1100 meters onto the surface of the plateau.

In the mountainous Crimea, for about one and a half million years, active karst processes have been quietly occurring on the surface and deep in the depths of the mountains, leading to the formation of craters, basins and caves of various sizes and shapes. There are three karst areas on the Ai-Petrinsky massif: Western Ai-Petrinsky karst region, located between the Baydar Gate pass and the peak of Merdven-Kayasy; Central, occupying the middle part of the massif between the peaks of Merdven-Kayasy and At-Bash; Eastern, lying between the peaks of At-Bash and Roka. The Central Ai-Petri region is most intensively karstified. 218 underground cavities and more than 1,330 karst sinkholes were discovered here. In total, there are 302 underground karst cavities (caves, wells, mines) on Ai-Petri, 12 of which are declared natural monuments of local importance: Skelskaya, KristalnayaVyshayaya HoneyPearlMishorskayaRockfallSyundyurlyuDruzhbaGeofizicheskayaKaskadnaya and Danilcha-Koba.

If karst dominates on the top part of the plateau, then below, at the foot of the slopes, there are landslides, rock-falls and mudflows. Landslides form in any mountains, especially where the geological situation contributes to this. In Crimea, conditions for the formation of landslides are favorable, so 452 landslides were recorded on the southern coastal slopes alone, 112 of which are active. At the foot of Ai-Petri you can see many large and small landslides, nine of them are the main ones: Malassky, Chernobugorsky, Mukhalatsky, Kuchuk-Koysky, Kikeneizsky, Dolomiysky, Alupkinsky, Golden Beach, Chukurlarsky.

Along with the loose material, very large limestone blocks, broken off from the main mass of rocks - outliers - also slide down the slope. Among the softer rocks surrounding them, they look like picturesque rocks. The outcasts include the Mogabi mountains near Yalta, Krestovaya in Alupka, Koshka in Simeiz and many others.

The climate of Ai-Petri is characterized by sharp contrast. Average annual temperature air temperature on Ai-Petri is +5.9°C. In the mountains, in the same month, the average daily temperature can be very different. On Ai-Petri in January it is +11.4°C…–20.4°C, in February +11.5°C…–26.5°C, and in August +27.1°C…–2.3°C. The warmest month on the Yailas is July, less often – August. The average July temperature is 15.6°C, but the maximum is much higher - it reaches 32°C. The coldest month is February, with an average temperature of –3.8°C.

40% of precipitation on the Ai-Petri Plateau falls in the form of rain, 60% in the form of snow. On average, 1052 mm of precipitation falls on Ai-Petri per year (in Yalta only 635), with 160 mm in January alone. Stable snow cover lasts from mid-December to March. Due to thaws in the whitish areas of the yayla, the snow disappears completely by 50-70% several times during the cold period of time.

The duration of daylight hours on Ai-Petri is long - 2325 hours.

And the unwanted vagaries of nature here, although they represent inconvenience and danger, are still short-term phenomena.

Crossing Ai-Petri from south to north or in the opposite direction, even a non-specialist notices a certain pattern in the distribution of vegetation: the slopes are covered with forests, the plateau is dominated by meadow-steppe vegetation. Yaila amazes with its wide open spaces with sparse clumps of trees and shrubs. Unlike other Crimean yailas, Ai-Petrinskaya has natural forests along the edges of cliffs, in the Central karst plateau and along erosion-karst valleys in the western part, but most of the plateau is covered with meadow-steppe vegetation.

The vegetation in the mountains is truly rich and varied. On the southern slopes there is a beech forest with an admixture of pine. From an altitude of 1000 - 800 meters above sea level, the belt of Crimean pine begins, which grows with oak in the first tier, and with prickly juniper in the second. Below 400 meters, a belt of shrub communities begins: junipers, hornbeam, hornbeam, and many other shrubs with an admixture of oak. Here you can find pistachio obtufolia, strawberry tree with a peculiar smooth reddish bark, the thin outer layer of which changes annually, and with evergreen leaves, yellow-flowered jasmine, a shrubby type of elm, bladderwort and much more. There are many fruit trees and shrubs in the forests. Almost all common types of mountain ash grow on the slopes of Ai-Petri and on the plateau: ordinary, large-fruited, bereka, Greek and others.

So what is Ai-Petri? It is unlikely that you can hear an exhaustive answer to this question...

CD "Sights of Crimea" -

Greetings! Not all drivers decide to climb the Ai-Petri plateau by car; there are also those for whom the trip becomes entertainment. Undoubtedly, the route is memorable and picturesque - the higher you climb, the more you admire the panorama of the southern coast of Crimea.

I receive many questions about the situation on Ai-Petri in the 2020 season. It seems that on Maslenitsa the Crimeans had such a good winter that it left the peninsula far and long and was noted only on a few mountain peaks. I decided to collect all the available information in in social networks and add it to this article. It's about about entertainment on the plateau, prices and road conditions.

Dear readers! The article was written a long time ago, but is still in demand, so I constantly update it and add relevant information. (Personal photographs and photos from social networks for 2020 were used). Updated 02/06/2020

Road to Ai-Petri

There are four ways to climb Ai-Petri: on foot, in your own car, by cable car or with carriers. Each option has its pros and cons, but you should definitely use at least one. For walking routes There are diagrams on the web.

In January 2019, the Ai-Petri plateau was the most popular place For active rest. Hundreds of tourists posted their pictures on social networks from the snow-covered mountain: some on sleds, some on skis, and some in a kilometer-long traffic jam. IN new year holidays the movement was paralyzed, there were weirdos who got up on summer tires (they had to be pulled out).

photo from the VK group “Weather on Ai-Petri”.


Dear people, before traveling in winter, check the weather conditions online! If you don't care about yourself, think about your children! Rescue services cannot reach some areas.

Count on capabilities of your car: 4x4, spikes or chains, full tank. Current information ingroup on VKontakte “Weather on Ai-Petri”.


The mountain serpentine leading to the plateau is the longest and most winding in Crimea. Depending on the weather conditions some sections or the entire road may be closed, as warned by a sign at the beginning of the path or by guards. There are landslides, landslides and avalanches here.

Since 2019, the road to Ai-Petri has been serviced by the Krymavtodor enterprise. To ensure road safety in winter, the road is cleared of snow and sprinkled with a sand-salt mixture.

Previously, there was an unspoken rule for visiting Ai-Petri: ascent to the plateau along a narrow serpentine road before 12 noon, descent - after 12 noon. Now motorists ignore this rule and create problems for themselves, others and rescue services.

Road T 0117 leads to the Ai-Petri plateau, and then along the northern slope, through Grand Canyon Crimea, in the Bakhchisaray district. The second name is the old Yalta highway. Along the route there are springs, interesting rocks and the most famous waterfalls Crimea: (on the southern slope) and Silver Streams (on the northern slope).

On February 4, 2020, the road to Ai-Petri from Bakhchisarai was closed due to the threat of an emergency.

“In order to ensure road safety, from February 4, 2020, until the cause that caused this situation is eliminated, traffic from the 30th to the 46th km highway Bakhchisaray - Yalta - this is the entrance to Ai-Petri from Bakhchisaray - temporarily suspended for all types Vehicle“, - said the Ministry of Transport of the republic.

We can say with all confidence that the road to Ai-Petri is one of the most dangerous roads Crimea, so tired drivers and beginners have nothing to do there!

You can climb Ai-Petri by cable car or by transport that provides transportation.The list of carriers on the Ai-Petri plateau was published in the VKontakte group “Weather on Ai-Petri”.

Since August 2019, MUP "Yaltagortrans" has been providing transportation (during the warm season) from Miskhor and the Yalta bus station to the Ai-Petri plateau using a licensed taxi. The price of a one-way trip is 450 rubles. per person.

“Taxis will be dispatched as they are loaded from the points of sale of subscriptions. In the area of ​​the Ai-Petri plateau, dispatch and boarding of passengers will be carried out. In the future, the directions and types of transportation by licensed taxis will expand.”

For those who don’t know what the serpentine road on Ai-Petri looks like, a route map.

What to do on Ai-Petri in snowy weather

In January 2020, there is significantly less snow, but there are plenty of people willing to get into the winter atmosphere.


From January 20, 2020, the cable car will be closed for annual scheduled maintenance. Last day of work is January 19. It is planned that the cable car will resume operation in the spring.


For lovers walking routes Ascents are organized. For example, a 5 km route starts on the Koreiz trail (44.440463, 34.08323), past the Baba-Ali-Tekne spring (44.455722, 34.070383) with a transition to the Miskhor trail and ends at the upper cable car station. Along the picturesque trail you will go from autumn to winter and be impressed by the picturesque landscapes.


For extreme sports enthusiasts, the Ai-Petri tour company organizes individual jeep tours with a visit to the Forelevo trout farm (look for the official website on the Internet), where there is a Russian wood-fired bathhouse, there is the opportunity to fish and taste delicious dishes from freshly caught Crimean trout .


Map ski slopes on Ai-Petri.




Prices for ski lifts for 26 km in January 2020:

  • for a small one - 500 rubles.
  • for a large one - 1000 rubles.
  • set of skis - from 500 rub.
  • board - from 500 rub.
  • large cheesecake (snow tube) - 600 rub.
  • standard cheesecake - 500 rub.

They ask for a document as collateral. The lift starts operating at 10 am.

Important! Message from the State Public Institution of the Republic of Kazakhstan “CRIMEA-SPAS”:

DESPITE RESCUE WARNINGS, TOURISTS CONTINUE TO NEGLECT SAFETY RULES WHEN SNOW TUBING

The Minister of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Crimea, Sergei Shakhov, informed that tourists, contrary to the warnings of rescuers, continue to ignore safety rules when snowtubeing, receiving various injuries. Over the weekend, rescuers on patrol on the Ai-Petri plateau provided assistance to 4 tourists injured while snow tubing.


To the side of the ski lift, local chefs prepare pilaf, kebabs and shurpa for sale. You can bring your own food and have a picnic by renting a gazebo with barbecue. Rental cost - 1500 rubles. for a day.


Snow lies longest on the northern slopes of the plateau; it usually remains until March-April.

View from the meteorological station. Silence and tranquility... The teeth of Ai-Petri are clearly visible in the distance; it is there that the upper station of the cable car is located, the most high point 1234 m and Trekhglazka cave.


WITH observation deck A clear expanse opened up - a turquoise sky with glimpses of azure, immersed in the sea surface of the Black Sea. Evergreen shrubs and trees frame Alupka and Koreiz with their thickets.




There is neglect and chaos all around. Private houses, barns, cafes, shalmans, construction sites. After just 15 minutes you forget what kind of devil you came up here for.

The “highlanders” do not want to improve the territory because of unresolved land issues. Environmentalists are sounding the alarm and calling for a halt to economic activity on the territory of Ai-Petri and to limit the carrying capacity for the development of eco-tourism. But we realized it too late: many entrepreneurs have been working here for decades. The circle has closed and now all hope lies in the new government, which will make a rational decision so that “the wolves are fed and the sheep are safe”...

Due to the peculiarity of the relief, Ai-Petri is called yayla - summer pasture. Since ancient times, settlements have been built on the plateau, but the biggest “contribution” was made by homo sapiens.

Perhaps the only object that is in its place is the monument to the Crimean partisans of the Great Patriotic War who died in battle in December 1941.


The road to Ai-Petri was important during the Second World War. It was along this route that the Nazis transferred troops and equipment towards Sevastopol. The partisans managed to blow up a section of the road and prevent the enemy’s plans from being realized, but they all died in an unequal battle.
At the cost of incredible efforts, the soldiers were able to protect their land; their memory should be passed on from generation to generation, and not disappear under scaffolding...

Approximately 35 km from the top of Ai-Petri, there is a parking lot and hiking trail in the Grand Canyon of Crimea. I have already talked about this route in my report.

What's happening on Ai-Petri in January 2020.


There is competition between the “highlanders” and the owners of the cable car for their client. Time will tell how events will develop. The article will be updated.
Thank you for attention!

At the moment, several projects for the reconstruction of the Ai-Petri plateau are being developed in Crimea. All of them are under consideration by the relevant departments and ministries of the Republic of Crimea. One of these projects was developed on behalf of the head of the Yalta administration Andrey Rostenko.

At the moment, this project is also being approved by the ministries of the Republic of Crimea and will subsequently be provided to the Head of the Republic of Crimea Sergei Aksenov, said a freelance adviser to the head of the Yalta city administration Anri Kanunov.

This week, another project for the reconstruction of the Ai-Petri plateau was published in some media, including on Internet portals, provided by the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of the Yalta City Administration, which is now also under consideration in the capital of Crimea.

We don’t yet know which of these projects will be approved and with what amendments, so it’s premature to talk about what will be located on the plateau,” Anri Kanunov emphasized.

At the same time, he said that there are several ideas for creating a small eco-city on Ai-Petri, designed for recreation and entertainment, where they will concentrate interesting objects, as harmless to nature as possible and attractive to tourists. At the same time, no permanent buildings are planned on the plateau.

Among the projects expected to be implemented on the plateau, the most interesting, according to Anri Kanunov, will be a rock garden, glass observation platforms and a stone labyrinth made of gabions (volumetric products of various shapes made of twisted wire mesh with hexagonal cells). The world's longest zip line, 2.6 km long, may also appear here (currently the longest Zip Line - 2545 m is located in the Copper Canyon in Mexico).

In addition, in the area of ​​the cable car on the plateau it is planned to make a special area for relaxation and walking, where there will be a dry fountain (a fountain equipped with a special grate from under which jets of water shoot out, and the niche of the pool with water itself is hidden under the grate). Thanks to this design, people can come close to the dry fountain, walk along its grating - in a word, be in the very center of events.

The issue of holding international hot air balloon competitions and a number of other interesting entertainment events that reflect the general environmental concept for the development of this territory, without causing irreparable harm to nature, are also being considered.

In addition to the above, on the plateau there will be an opportunity to ride bicycles in the summer and snow scooters in the winter. For these purposes, special bicycle paths and downhill paths will be organized here. At the same time, there will still be the opportunity to ride animals, but all this will be in a modern, civilized form.

And for cars and excursion buses it is planned to make two parking lots on the plateau. It is expected that there will also be a helipad here, which will be intended, among other things, for search and rescue operations, which is especially important in winter, when you can climb the plateau at road transport quite problematic.

All over the world, in such inaccessible mountainous areas, there are specially equipped helipads, which are primarily intended for emergencies,” Anri Kanunov emphasized.

But there will be no numerous catering establishments and souvenir stalls on the plateau. There will only be one stationary cafe, located at the upper station of the cable car and the adjacent souvenir rows.

A lot of controversy and disagreement on social networks was caused by information about the appearance of a church on the plateau. I would like to clarify that this will be a small chapel, which will be located on the side of the highway on the plateau, near the Alpine Ski Club, - explained Anri Kanunov and added that the Yalta administration is ready to accept for consideration any proposals to increase the attractiveness of this cluster with the condition of strict control over the safety of the existing plateau ecosystem.

Photos of the renovated section of the plateau near the upper cable car station, where the ugly town of Tatar cafes and shops were demolished in May of this year, were posted on Facebook by Crimean resident Irina Pavlenko.

Over the past couple of months, little has changed there: the same geometric paths with soil for lawns between them, a wrought-iron fence along the cliff, the remains of cafe foundations filled with concrete and rather dull dark gray paving slabs. It still doesn’t look much like a presentation of a plateau reconstruction project with glass barriers and balconies hanging over the cliffs, and whether it will be similar at all is unknown.

Something relatively new: on the plateau, not far from the upper station of the cable car, a helipad with the sign H - Helicopter appeared.

It’s not entirely clear what spoiled helicopter passengers should do here. Perhaps they can make a stop here on the way from Simferopol airport to expensive villages and hotels on the South Coast to ride along the yayla in jeeps or go hunting, saving time on the ascent along the serpentine road from Yalta or Bakhchisarai. Because it’s not tempting to just walk here yet, and it’s not just the inclement weather in which these pictures were taken: there’s emptiness all around.

However, next to the cable car station there are frames for renting bicycles. Judging by the logos, this business will be handled by the Freeright organization created under the ex-mayor of Yalta Andrei Rostenko, which has become a business monopolist on the Yalta embankment.

The same organization monopolized, according to local entrepreneurs, and paid access to the teeth of Ai-Petri. To get there on foot through the woods, you need to pay the occupant of this booth. At least in the warm season.

Whether it’s an accident or a pattern, there is a characteristic sloppiness observed on the approaches to the object of the traditional “single business” for these places.

The oasis of market chaos that reigned here on several hectares for more than 15 years has also been preserved after reconstruction. It is now concentrated near the building of the upper station of the cable car, which once became the property of Nadezhda Olefir, the former wife of Yalta deputy and businessman Leri Svanidze. The only cafe area with the simple name “Verkhnee” is located here. Andrei Rostenko now publicly allowed only her to feed and supply tourists on the plateau.

Bicycles for rent will appear here only next summer. But if the asphalt road leading to the cable car from the side of the descent to Yalta is not cured of the giant holes, riding on them will be problematic: the dirt roads on Ai-Petri are completely rocky. And no one is in a hurry to invest in high-quality repairs of the road surface - the remains of asphalt have so far been simply leveled with a grader and covered with crushed stone.

However, the sprouts of spontaneous trade are also sprouting through the tiles laid by the developer Evgeniy Kabanov. This man, even on a cold and dank day, in the whistling wind, sells wine by the glass. Most likely, it is fake - some kind of tinted compote with alcohol, God forbid it is ethyl. Just six months ago there was a lot of such goodness here in almost every Tatar cafe.

These roadblocks also remain from “Tatar” times. Dark-skinned guys from companies sponsored by the ex-head of the Bakhchisarai Mejlis, Akhtem Chygoz (convicted of involvement in organizing clashes under the walls of the Supreme Council of Crimea on February 26, 2014), charged those who wanted to park 100 rubles. Now these fences protect the pedestrian zone. It is not yet clear whether they will charge money for travel inside in the summer.

To the right, where the paths paved with paving slabs are visible, there was an array of demolished cafes. On the left - the outline of the cable car station is visible in the fog. Let's hope that the empty earthen beds between the paths will be planted with grass and ornamental shrubs, as envisaged by the project.

View of the same place from the other side. The photo was taken at the beginning of this summer, immediately after the voluntary-forced demolition of the shalmans. Here you can see what the space, now paved with tiles, looked like.

And this photo was taken several years ago. Just for comparison. To judge more objectively, make allowances for sunny weather.