Description of the attraction
The Bolshaya Fanagoria cave is a natural monument, which is located on the right bank of the Ayuk River, 12 km south-west of the Fanagoria village, at the confluence of two streams - the Peshchernaya Shchel and Burlachenkovaya Shchel. The length of the cave is slightly less than 1500 m, and the height is 25 m.
The first written records of the cave date back to 1666. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, despite the difficult path to it, the pilgrims very often visited the cave, who here turned with prayers to God.
There is a version that the karst channel of the Fanagoria cave went all the way to the Black Sea, and this is about 25 km. Colonel V. Kamenev, who was a participant in the founding of the park under Mount Abadzekh, having visited this cave in 1881, said that the cave is not only of historical, but also of speleological and medical value.
The cave passages are laid along the largest cracks. The Great Fanagoria Cave is a whole gallery, which in some places expands into fairly large halls. The entrance to the cave is 1.5 × 1.5 m. Further, a narrow corridor stretches, which turns into the first hall with drips. There are four large halls in the cavity. The largest is the third hall, which is 34 m long. All subsequent halls are about 30 m long, 15 m wide, and up to 30 m high.
Over the entire period of its existence, a huge number of drip formations have formed in the cave. On the walls you can see drip calcite crust and calcite drusen. Some incrustations reach 4-5 m. There are also many depressions, caverns and niches in the walls of the cave. One of the attractions of the cave is a stone waterfall, which is a powerful calcite drip at the site of a previously existing stream.
High ionization of air in the Big Phanagoria cave has a beneficial effect on the human body, contributing to the healing of many ailments.
