Would you like to be in a place far from civilization even for a day? To breathe in pure air, filled with the aroma of honey and pine needles, grass and forest flowers, instead of car fumes and eternal street dust? Enjoy a harmonious melody of bird-like twitter instead of the bored cacophony of the noises of big cities? Realize yourself is not a faceless cog in the huge human mechanism, but a single part of an infinite nature? Then go to Sochi - in the city there is such an amazing place ...
General information
This is a yew-boxwood grove, a unique, unique natural monument of the flora of the pre-glacial period. This is a natural open-air museum. There grow trees and shrubs that are simply no longer on earth. And the age of adult plant specimens exceeds 2,000 years. The relict yew-boxwood grove stretches along the eastern slope of the Akhun-mountain. From more than 600-meter height, you can enjoy stunning views of the sea, the city panorama, the surroundings all the way to Pitsunda and the Caucasus mountain range. Located Ahun in Khost - once an independent settlement, then a micro district within the city of Sochi. Khostinskiy microdistrict became famous not only for healing water sources, beaches, a huge number of tourists and tourists (with a population of 20 thousand people in the holiday season there comes 120 thousand). Its main attraction is the yew-boxwood grove, which since 1931 is a protected area and is a part of the Caucasian reserve.
Travel by time machine
The area of the park is rather big - 302 hectares. At the entrance you will be met by a sculpture of a leopard, bared his mouth in a menacing roar and sprung the body for a decisive leap. This guard, the embodiment of the ancient spirit, under the protection of which is a yew-boxwood grove. It as though warns visitors to be attentive and careful to this corner of nature, incomprehensibly preserved its original appearance in spite of the destructive management of man. The spirit grasps, when you go among those very species of trees that grew here and 30 million years ago. Looking at them, imagine how our planet looked once. The Sochi Yew-boxwood grove is a real time machine that carries us to an endless past! And she got her name thanks to berry yew and boxwood - very rare now and very valuable plant species.
Originality of rocks
Berry yew is also called mahogany, or greens. This is a coniferous breed, in which instead of usual shishikok berry grows, and the color of wood reminds famous ship's pine trees glorified by Shishkin . The height of trees varies from 10 to 20 meters. But the yew-boxwood grove in Sochi is affected by another - the age of green pets. It's hard to believe, but real aksakals grow here. After all, the age of a yew is neither much nor a little, but fifteen hundred years! And this is even with the most favorable growth conditions. In general, the handsome men raise their peaks to the sky for 3.5-4 thousand years! These are long-livers, are not they?
Incidentally, note, we bring such interesting information from the world of botany. Sochinsky yew-boxwood grove, the photo of which you see in the article, belongs to the category of young. But in Scotland grows Fortingale 5-thousand yew. And, as it is customary to talk about youthful pensioners, it is remarkably preserved, strong and cheerful. As the legends say, Pontius Pilate was born under him, in his shadow were the children's games and the fun of the future first procurator of Judea. That's great, is not it? True, yew trees grow very slowly, several millimeters per year. Probably, this is the secret of their longevity.
Way-road
Is not it true that you already seem curiously curious about the yew-boxwood grove? Getting to it is the second question that occupies you. Calm down: it's easy. If you are in Sochi, then you should go to the Khost district. Next, find Samshitovuyu street. You can walk or by shuttle bus to drive up. On public transport, get to the stop with the mysterious name "Blue hole". Then go on foot a mile and a half. An asphalt road will lead you directly to the gate of the reserve. If you are going to the stop of Khosta-Golubaya Gorka (Most), then the time to the park will be reduced to 15 minutes. Similarly, if your place of permanent rest is Adler.
Tiso-boxwood grove (reserve) is open from 9 am to 6 pm. Experienced people advise to go on a hike after lunch - then less influx of tourist groups. And take a little food, so as to have a bite: the nature always plays an appetite! Naturally, the entrance fee is paid by ticket. The exception is children under 7 years old. Excursions are conducted along the small and large routes. The second, of course, is more interesting, since it lasts almost 4 hours, it involves traveling along gorges, bathing in a mountain stream, penetrating the virgin part of the "jungle". But it is also more complicated, requires some physical endurance. True, all inconveniences are more than offset by enthusiastic emotions and positive vivid impressions.
Wonder Box
But let's return to one more permanent inhabitants of the park, which gave it the name - boxwood. Unlike their neighbors - yew, these trees belong to the breed of undersized, almost dwarfish. Their usual height is 2 meters. Sometimes they reach 10 m. However, this does not detract from their value and uniqueness! First, the wood of these evergreen "dwarfs" is so strong that the trees are called iron. And heavy, so it sinks in the water. This breed has another name - axle. The colchis boxwood growing in the grove is unique and listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation. It is interesting that Orthodox Christians in Georgia, and Catholics in Western Europe have long decorated the churches and their homes with wreaths of boxwood branches on Palm Sunday.
Other flora and fauna of the reserve
In addition to these relicts, there are about 300 species of various plants growing in the grove. This is a laurel cherry bush (the same one, the wreath from which the winners were crowned in ancient Greece and Rome), wild walnut (hazel), yellow rhododendron, linden and hornbeam, oaks and maples, Chubushnik, Colchis clamping - here is a small list of available representatives of the reserve's flora. Add to them tropical lianas, fragrant honeysuckle, wild grapes. And an endless variety of meadow motley grass. In general, according to scientists, every fifth representative of the plant world in the grove is a relic or endemic. Some of them are found only here - and nowhere else in the world. As for the fauna, it also affects diversity and diversity. Here there are bison, deer, moose, chamois and Transcaucasian tours, roe deer and wild boars, squirrels, rabbits, raccoons, mink, otters, beavers. And also predators: lynx, wolves, bears. Plus small rodents, snakes and lizards ... 8 species of animals from the yew-boxwood grove are listed in the International Red Book, 25 - in the Red Book of the Russian Federation.
Welcome to the wonder-reserve!