Mangup-Kale: Beauty and Mystery

Have you ever heard about the so-called cave cities of Crimea? Mangup-Kale, lost in the mountains, is one of the most famous. By the way, why "cave"? Yes, because ruthless time has left very little of the beautiful palaces, comfortable homes and impregnable walls of the fortress: vaults, dungeons, underground chapels - in a word, the caves ...

But once Mangup was the capital of the principality of Theodoro, whose lands stretched from the river Kacha to the borders of Chersonese, from Alushta to Balaklava. The heyday of Mangup-Kale fell on the XIV-XV centuries. In those years, the unapproachable city, built on the plateau of Baba Dag Mountain, amazed travelers from Europe with its beauty and wealth.

But still, at the end of the XV century, the invincible army of Turks after six months of siege took Mangup. Cannons and hunger helped. The Turks could not find any gold in the city. According to rumors, it is still hidden here. But it's not worth looking for. They say that greedy gold diggers jumped into the abyss, walking into the fog at the child's voice calling them.

And also above Mangup often see mysterious glowing balls. That is why all kinds of seekers and "contactors" willingly organize their camps here.

But first of all, you should come here to take a bird's-eye view of the world, enjoy the majestic splendor of mountains, which look like stormy ocean shafts, dissolve in the sky, which seems to be reachable by hand, plunge into the gloom of caves with traces of frescos and wet darkness of a bottomless well...