Mezmai

Mezmay is a small village in the mountainous and forested part of the Apsheronsky District of Krasnodar Krai. In the Adygean language, its name means “forest of wild apples”. Here, in a forested hollow surrounded by ridges, less than a thousand people live.

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Video: Mezmai

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Highlights

The crystal air and the beauty of nature attract many travelers, artists and parapsychologists to Mezmai. Fans of extreme sports, ecologists and those who like to spend a vacation in the mountains come here. In Mezmai there is a historical monument – a burial ground created in the times of ancient Rome. And in the vicinity of the village on the Lako-Naki plateau you can see cascading waterfalls, clear rivers, alpine meadows overgrown with flowers, thickets of boxwood and yew, picturesque caves and canyons. Because of its remoteness and inaccessibility, the mountain village is often called “Bear’s Corner.”

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Archaeologists have found in the Mezmai Basin a lot of interesting finds that allow us to conclude that people settled these places several thousand years before our era. Once there was a shelter of the Circassian leader Mohammed-Amin, from where groups of mountaineers gathered for wars with the Turks and Russians. Then the surrounding lands began to settle the Kuban Cossack army.

Mezmay settlement was founded in 1868, and its first residents were gold miners and loggers. During the Soviet era, a railroad was laid from the settlement through the Guam Gorge to Apsheronsk, with the help of which valuable wood was exported from the Lagonaki Plateau.

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In recent years, the village is actively developing as a center of mountain and ecological tourism. It has built several tourist bases and guest houses, hotels and private estates, where travelers can stay at any time of the year. There are also several stores, a post office and a pharmacy in Mezmai. And on Zavadovaya Polyana on the outskirts of the village, the popular bardic song festival “Clear Sky” takes place every summer.

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In the summer, travelers prefer to hike around Mezmai. Visiting tourists go rock climbing and rafting on mountain rivers, and in winter time snowmobile riding is popular.

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In Mezmay go also in order to restore health. The village is far from the noise of megacities and automobile highways. To heal and gain strength helps clean forest air and healing thermal springs, located 18 km from the village, in the village of Nizhegorodskaya.

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Climatic features

Mezmay is located in a temperate climate zone. The mountains and the proximity of the Black Sea have a strong influence on the weather in the village. Winters here are not harsh, and the temperature stays at +1…+3 ° C, rarely dropping below zero. A lot of precipitation falls during the year. In winter there is a thick snow cover on the slopes, and in summer, especially in June, it can be rainy.

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The summer season in Mezmai is not hot. From June to August, the thermometer rises to +22…+25 ° C. Such conditions are most favorable for those who do not tolerate heat.

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Natural Monuments

The village stands in the valley of the Kurdjips River, near the confluence of the Mezmai River, at an altitude of 666 meters above sea level. In Adygean language “Kurjips” means pear water. The river got its name because pears grow everywhere in its valley.

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A few tens of meters from the outermost houses of Mezmai begins the beautiful Upper Kurdjip Gorge, which grows many red-listed plant species. First of all, these are relict berry yew and Colchis boxwood. Unfortunately, the gorge does not yet have a nature protection status, and therefore industrial logging is carried out there. Yew and boxwood groves are cut in many places by the tracks of logging trucks. According to the plan, only beech and fir trees are being cut, however, yews are suffering from fallen trunks and are damaged under the tracks of skidders.

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Another picturesque gorge – Guam Gorge – is located between Mezmai and the village of Guamka. It is laid narrow gauge railroad, but nowadays it does not work. Guam Gorge is a real ecological and botanical open-air museum.

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When the Ice Age ended, a deep mountain lake was formed in the northwest of the canyon, which occupied a large karst sinkhole. The Kurdjips River flowing out of this natural reservoir flowed through the deep Guam Canyon over several thousand years.

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The rocky slopes rise 600 meters above the river, and beautiful cascading waterfalls rush down from them. The gorge is covered with boxwood, fir, beech, ash and high-mountain maples, and the undergrowth is occupied by thickets of juniper, hawthorn, dogwood, azalea and rosehip. The mountain slopes are inhabited by bears, wild boars and martens, and eagles can often be seen soaring over the cliffs.

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South of the Mezmai village, the Kurdzhips River flows in a narrow picturesque canyon, above which there are several other natural attractions. A few hundred meters from the last houses, on the right bank of the river, near the mouth of its right tributary is the Palm Waterfall. It has a height of about 7 meters. In August, and also in late fall, it dries up completely.

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If you go even higher, you can see the Isichenko Cave. The huge karst cavity stretches for more than 1600 meters, but its lower passages are separated by a siphon, which is a serious obstacle for researchers. Near the entrance to the cave, three waterfalls flow down the slope, and the largest of them is known as Isichenko Falls. Both natural objects are named in honor of Yuri Isichenko – the head of a student group from Dnepropetrovsk, whose members were the first to visit the cave in 1973.

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Mezmai Cave

To see the Mezmai Cave, you need to go to the Glubokaya gully, which lies between the peaks of Mezmai and Uriel. The entrance to the cave is located on a steep cliff. The karst cavity is 26 meters deep and over 210 meters long.

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Members of the North Caucasus Paleolithic Unit discovered the Mezmaiskaya cave in 1987. Five years later, the remains of a 2-month-old Neanderthal infant were found in it. They were much better preserved than similar skeletons found on the territory of Europe.

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Some time later, scientists were waiting for a new sensational find. They found in the cave fragments of the skull of another Neanderthal child, whose age was 2 years. Neanderthals lived in these places 70-40 thousand years B.C., even before the appearance of man. The unique findings in Mezmai are known to all researchers of the world.

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In addition to human remains, in Mezmai cave was found volcanic ash, formed during the eruption of Kazbek. About 40,000 years ago, along with Kazbek, volcanoes in the Apennines region and the Svyataya Anna volcano in the Southern Carpathians became active. The apocalypse led to the onset of a “volcanic winter” on the planet.”

Paleontologists found bison bones in the cave. After the research it became known that during the late and middle Paleolithic period in the vicinity of Mezmay lived four species of these animals.

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Archaeological sights

Mezmay is a place of famous archaeological finds. Once the Great Silk Road passed through the mountain spurs of Lagonaki. Caravans ferried goods from China to Byzantium along it, and Sarmatian warriors guarded the road.

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On the northwestern outskirts of the village is a monument of federal importance – a dirt necropolis, which appeared here in Roman times. Recently in the Mezmaisky burial ground scientists found an unexcavated burial of a warrior 2.2 thousand years old. The burial contained two bronze helmets, long and short iron swords, the remains of three horses, a wild boar and a cow.

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On the steep slopes of the Upper Kurdjip Canyon are the ruins of the Tmutarakan defense rampart. Ancient defensive structure was erected in the place where caravan trails could cross the canyon from one slope to another. Over the centuries, the ancient rampart has grown into the ground and covered with vegetation. Nowadays it is an interesting object for research and there is a hiking trail along the rampart.

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On the southern slope of the Guam ridge you can see the ruins of ancient megaliths – dolmens.

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Museum “Blacksmithing of Kuban”

In the south-eastern part of Mezmaya village there is a museum telling about the formation and traditions of blacksmith craft. The central place in it is given to the blacksmith’s workshop, recreated on the model of forges of the late XIX century. In the exposition you can see the works of masters with personal stamps, forging tools and rare archival photos. In addition, the Mezmai museum introduces visitors to carpentry, cooperage and wheel craft.

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Bard Song Festival

Every year on the first weekend of August many guests come to Mezmay for the musical festival “Clear Sky”. The festival of bard song is often called “Podgrushinsky” and is held on a large glade, not far from the western outskirts of the village.

Mezmay receives singer-songwriters and amateurs of bardic song from different parts of the country, and guests are accommodated in tents or wooden houses of the mountain camp “Zavadova Polyana”. There is a well with clean spring water 200 meters from the bard’s glade.

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How to get there

Mezmay village is 60 km away from the district center – the town of Apsheronsk. To get here by car, you need to drive 180 km from Krasnodar or 80 km from Maikop.

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For motorists there are two options for the way to Mezmai. The first – through Maikop and the village of Kamennomostsky. From there you need to drive towards the village of Guzeripl, and not reaching the village of Dakhovskaya, turn right, across the highway bridge over the Belaya River. In 2 km after the TK cave “Nezhnaya” turn right again. From here to Mezmai 12 km of dirt road, which can only pass by high-capacity vehicles.

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The second variant of the way passes from Apsheronsk through the village of Nizhegorodskaya. Previously, the asphalted road went only to the village. Now the asphalt was laid almost all the way to Mezmay, so this option is available for any kind of transport.

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From Apsheronsk to the village of Guamka can be reached by shuttle buses that leave at 6.00 and 12.00 on all days except Monday, at 15.00 daily and at 14.00 on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. The rest of the way to Mezmai (9 km) is on foot along the Guam Gorge, along the old narrow gauge road.

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From Apsheronsk to Mezmai there are also direct Kamaz shifts. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays they depart at 14.00, and on Saturdays – at 13.00. From the bus station in Apsheronsk to Mezmai you can take a cab. For a group of several tourists this option will not cost much.

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