Digital Wanderer

We live as long as we fly

Crimea — 8, Cave City of Eski-Kermen, Part 2

First off – about the ultra-deep siege well. Obviously, it once held water, but now it's leaky and empty. The scale is still impressive though.

A deep, very dark stone passage or vertical shaft. Its gray, textured walls have vertical depressions, and dried leaves are visible on the right side.

The depth beckons and beckons

A group of people descends into a dark cave opening among the rocks. In the foreground, seen from the back, is a person in a red t-shirt and blue bandana, and ahead of them two men are making their way down the rocky slope deep into the crevice.

But we're brave guys, we climbed inside without a second thought

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Geared up properly – this is where the helmets came in handy. Vova has an interesting little thing on his head – a GoPro

Three people are making their way through a narrow stone grotto with uneven walls and a floor covered in dry leaves.

It looks even more intimidating in the photo than in real life. But it definitely wasn't easy

However, compared to what awaited us the next day, this is nothing

View from a dark grotto onto a wide valley covered with a forest in autumn colors. A light rocky wall of a plateau rises on the horizon under a cloudy sky.

The well has holes, I mean windows

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You could only call these stairs by a huge stretch of the imagination

The silhouette of a person in dark clothing and a helmet climbing out of a dark rock passage toward a bright opening. Below, stone-carved steps disappear into the darkness.

Reminds me of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"

 

A dark entrance to a cave or grotto with steps carved into the rock leading down to the left. On the right, a damp rocky wall covered in patches of moss and light lichen is visible.

We even found a spot where little mosquitos were swimming in murky water, but we decided not to drink it

 

View from inside a stone grotto through two natural rock openings of a sprawling autumn deciduous forest with colorful trees below.

The well got full of holes over the centuries. Or maybe there used to be wooden walls here, who knows

 

View from above down a deep rocky passage with uneven stone walls. Three people are standing at the bottom looking up; one of them is waving.

Finally, we made it to the bottom. A good ten or twenty meters of height, mind you

 

A man in black sports clothing and a helmet with a GoPro camera squeezes through a narrow rock opening, looking right at the viewer.

Climbing back up isn't easy either, especially in cycling shoes, which are completely unfit for this

 

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But the sky is so close!

 

A man in glasses and a blue tank top stands inside a rocky cave, pointing towards the autumn forest visible through the opening.

Freedom seemed so near, but there was still a 10-meter climb ahead

 

Let's continue the story about the city.

An ancient rock temple carved into soft stone, with an open bright space on the right where two icons hang on the wall, and a dark entrance deeper into the cave on the left, with a sign about a 7th-9th century basilica-type temple.

Basilica-type temple (judgment hall) from the 7th-9th centuries

An ancient cave city with rooms carved into the rocks and rectangular window openings. Figures of people are visible on top of the rocky plateau against the background of autumn trees and a cloudy sky.

The city is large, it's got all sorts of stuff

A young woman in a red t-shirt, black leggings, and a bandana with a camera around her neck stands in the opening of a cave carved into the rock and looks down.

By all sorts of stuff I mean endless caves, grottoes, and pits, as well as holes, openings, and passages

Panoramic view of a rocky landscape with weathered white cliffs and cave formations in the foreground. A person in a blue tank top stands on one of the rocks, surveying the vast valley and distant hills under a bright sky.

In places they are roofless

Three lizards sitting on gray stones overgrown with green plants and multicolored lichen.

The current inhabitants of the cave city, they couldn't care less about the missing roofs

A girl in a red t-shirt and a blue bandana stands among limestone rocks with cave openings, resting her hand on a stone in the foreground. She's wearing outdoor gear, including a backpack and fingerless gloves.

Olya

A massive rocky cliff overgrown with green ivy and lichen, with visible dark openings and a deep crevice, hangs over the autumn forest.

That's how our cities will end up in hundreds or thousands of years

 

Four men are positioned in rock-carved niches and openings of an ancient cave city. Two are standing in the upper openings, two are sitting in the lower ones.

There's plenty of space, tens if not hundreds of thousands of people must have lived in the city

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Time to take another breather

 

The entrance to an ancient cave carved into the rock, with a dark rectangular opening and a small window nearby. The stone surface is covered in lichen, and a dry wooden branch is leaning against the base of the rock.

Steps and windows are present

An ancient cave city carved into rounded rocks with numerous artificial grottoes and openings, surrounded by green vegetation against a hilly landscape.

Gnawed eggs again

An emerald-green cave with rough stone walls and an uneven floor, looking out through several openings onto a brightly sunlit green landscape.

Lots of light, our ancestors loved spaciousness

A young man in hiking clothes sits on a rock, holding a helmet, against the background of a cave entrance and a hilly area under a bright sky.

The gallant conqueror of peaks, valleys, and the Arctic – the one-man band Vova "Hell" of Travelling.Lv

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And his permanent  relief crew

A huge gray boulder with a wooden window and orange lichen is situated among autumn trees; stone steps and a person are visible on the left.

On the way back we came across a temple again

Three mountain bikes are parked by a green signpost with empty white plaques. In the background is a field with dry grass and bushes, behind which a large precipitous rock rises under a cloudy sky.

But our iron horses await us below, and we need to move on