There is an opinion that the name Khortitsa came from the name of the ancient deity of the Eastern Slavs Khors, who personified the sun. Some researchers deduce the name of the island from the Turkic-Polovtsian word “orta”, which means middle, located in the middle (in our case, between two channels of the Dnieper). The name Khortytsya is popularly correlated with the Ukrainian word “hort” (borzoi dog): in the outlines of the island, if you wish, you can see the silhouette of a greyhound sprawled on the run. Local historians also say "Big Khortytsya", meaning that next to this island is Malaya Khortytsia (in other words, Bayda Island).
So, even according to the most conservative estimates, people have known about Khortitsa for more than a thousand years, and have long used its natural gifts. But they began to be worthily protected only in Soviet times. In 1958, the first title was added to the name of the island - a natural monument of local importance. Since August 1963, by order of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR, Khortytsya has been declared a natural monument of republican significance, and since September 1965, also a state historical and cultural reserve. Khortytsya is part of the Dnieper Rapids geological reserve, founded in October 1974. To top it all off: on November 9, 2005, by decision No. 5 of the 24th session of the Zaporozhye city council, the whole land of Khortytsia and the islands of Bayda, Oak, Rozstebnoe, Three Stogs, rocks of Srednyaya and Gemini, as well as the Tract of Vyrva (total 2359.34 ha) transferred for permanent use to the National Reserve "Khortytsya".
The history of the island is so rich that it would be more than enough for a whole state of medium size. According to archaeological research, this island has been inhabited since the Paleolithic era. In particular, there are also early Slavic monuments here: the remains of settlements, burial grounds of the tribes of the Chernyakhov culture and the Ants. In 1223, Khortitsa was a gathering place for Russian princes before the battle with the Tatar-Mongols on the Kalka River. And at the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th centuries, this island - a reliable shelter for those who fled from feudal and national oppression - became one of the centers for the formation of the Zaporozhye Cossacks, and then a springboard for the Sich in protecting the southern borders from Turkish-Tatar aggression. In 1648, the Cossack army marched from here to the liberation war of the Ukrainian people. During the Russo-Turkish war (1735-1739), the famous naval commander, Vice Admiral N. A. Senyavin, arrived at Khortitsa. Under his leadership, a shipyard was laid here, on which the Cossacks and Russian craftsmen built an entire rowing flotilla, which played an important role in the military operations on the Black Sea. Somewhere on the island there is also the still unfound grave of Admiral Senyavin, who died here from the plague in 1738. After the defeat of the Sich by the tsarist troops on June 5, 1775, Khortytsya, as a gift from Catherine II, went to Prince Potemkin. In 1789, Potemkin handed over the island to the treasury, and a year later, new owners came into the possession of Khortytsia - the Mennonite Germans.
By colonizing the Sich places, the queen hoped to eradicate the freedom-loving spirit of Zaporozhye. Her calculations were justified: the colonists barbarously destroyed centuries-old oak forests, linden groves, thickets of wild pears. The timber trade was one of the most profitable items of income. In December 1916, the Germans, who lived on Khortitsa, sold the island to the Alexander city government for 772 thousand 350 rubles. Khortytsya was often visited by prominent people. On its slopes there is a path of the great Kobzar, who visited here in August 1843. In 1878, the composer N. V. Lysenko came here, in 1880 - I. E. Repin with the young Valentin Serov. In 1891, Maxim Gorky visited Khortytsia, and Ivan Bunin a little later...

But the ancient Khortytsia never knew such a pilgrimage as it began in 1927. People from all over the country came here to become witnesses and participants of a great historical event: right opposite the northern cliffs of the island, the construction of the Dneproges began ... A new history of Khortitsa began ... All these and subsequent events will be reflected in the expositions of the museum complex under construction on Khortitsa .
We will turn to the unique nature of the island, on a relatively small territory of which (only two thousand five hundred and sixty hectares) fit samples of almost all types of landscape typical for the south of Ukraine. The formation of the island is associated with tectonic (that is, caused by fluctuations in the earth's crust) processes of the Quaternary period, as a result of which the Ukrainian crystalline shield split. The Dnieper, flowing from the northwest to the southeast, rushed along the split directly to the south, breaking through the heaps of granites. However, the river could not overcome the rocky area on the site of Khortitsa and bypassed it from two sides. Separate rocks and islands of the old channel of the Dnieper, no doubt, are cut off from the main massif - Khortitsa.
Khortitsa is the largest island on the Dnieper: its length is twelve kilometers, and its average width is two and a half. The base of Khortitsa is made up of granites, whose age is determined by two billion years. These granites stand out especially in the highest (up to thirty-five meters) northern part of the island. With a granite chest, the island cuts through the waters of the Dnieper. The northwestern edge of the island is also dressed in granite. Now Zaporozhye climbers train on these rocks. To the southeast, the island gradually decreases, turning into a flooded part up to one and a half meters high. Between the rocks and floodplains there is a steppe cut by picturesque beams.
From the memoirs of old-timers, recorded by local historians in the last century, we can imagine the original appearance of the island. Oaks, in the shade of which entire herds of horses hid in the summer, feather grasses the height of a man, a diverse fauna - wolves, foxes, wild horses and the steppe saiga antelope, goats, wild boars, beavers, otters. In the sky over Khortitsa there were shelducks, swans, cranes, wild geese, ducks, cormorants, bustards, partridges, little bustards... There were so many fish in the channels and lakes that “women took rows and spares and caught as much as they can’t catch now and seine." In total, about 960 species of plants grow on Khortitsa, 560 of them are representatives of wild flora. Biologists call feather grass and thyme endems. This means - plants with a limited area of ​​u200bu200bdistribution. So tearing them is a crime, you can’t call it otherwise. In total, twenty endems were found on Khortitsa. Among them are the Dnieper ragwort, Savran onion, sleep-grass, irises, Dnieper cornflower ... In addition to endems, there are also relics here, that is, plants that inhabited our planet millions of years before the appearance of man on it. On flooded lakes one can see the pinnate leaves of the water fern, floating "without a rudder and without sails", with a bunch of roots not attached to anything. Of all the inhabitants of Khortitsa, only the chilim (water chestnut) can measure the antiquity of the genus with the fern. In July, on the stems of chilim in the water, you can find fruits - very hard, brownish, the size of a walnut (hence the name). These fruits are edible, they were eaten in the last century, which is why chilim is now a very rare plant. However, is the whole value of plants - in their rarity or antiquity? How much beauty in the piercing gaze of the Adonis flower (Adonis)! How pristinely fresh is the chistyak - its leaves and petals always shine, as if freshly washed. The small flowers of the goose onion are touching ... But the yarrow is proud and inaccessible: it is with its leaves, they say, that the hero of the Trojan War, Achilles, healed the wounds of his friends!
There are very few virgin areas where grasses grow on Khortitsa. These are the slopes of the beams of Shantseva, Bashmachka, Lipovaya, Gromushina, Naumova, Shirokaya, Kostina, Kornetovskaya, Muzychina, Sovutina, Molodnyaga and others. The remnants of the forest (bairaki) grow in the beams, where the Tatar maple, oak, elm, black and silver poplar, and pear prevail. Most of the island is covered with a young artificial forest of pine and maple - these are the fruits of the work of the Khortitsky forestry. More than 30 species of animals, 120 species of birds, ten species of reptiles, five species of amphibians live here and in bayraks, but mainly in the floodplain forest in the south of the island. The most numerous among birds are waterfowl (kryzhny, teal, flats). Many ducks even hibernate on flooded lakes and on the Old Dnieper, which does not freeze even in severe frosts. There are many gulls on the island, especially herring ones, as well as herons. In 1979, a yellow heron was registered here - a guest from the south. After a long break, black kryaks returned to the Khortitsa marshes: motor boats (not all, unfortunately) began to bypass these places. And one of the floating islands - mostly nameless - can rightly be called Owl. The island is small, about a hundred meters long and no more than fifteen wide - and it seems to be no different from the neighboring ones, but the owls have chosen it. In winter, they flock here for the day. Of the diurnal predators, the kestrel is the most common. Local historians count only a few pairs of black kites. Until 1977, a pair of white-tailed eagles also nested on the island. But the tree on which the eagles nested fell, and the family moved downstream of the Dnieper, although they still fly to the floodplains to hunt. In a secluded corner, if you are lucky, you will see a shy, handsome pheasant. They were brought here in the 50s. There is also a handsome aborigine on the island - a golden bee-eater, reminiscent of the feathered inhabitants of the tropics with its coloring. Her relatives really live there, and the bee-eater nests in the cliffs of the steep banks of the Dnieper. On sandbanks, on the swampy shores of lakes, the observant eye will notice traces of roe deer and wild boar. Muskrats, foxes, hares found shelter on the island. There are white martens, sometimes moose swim. And quite rare on the island, as well as in our area in general, is a cute animal dormouse - a small rodent that looks a little like a mouse, a little like a squirrel, but in general does not lose its individuality.
And now we will follow to the southern part of the island, to the marshes. This is a very special world, and even a little mysterious in its lurking, wild beauty. It is not easy to get there, and it is better not to disturb this precious peace once again. But we were lucky: my grandfather, a native Khortychan, willingly agreed to give us his skiff. “There is no way out of these lakes in the Dnieper. So ride." We push off with oars from the viscous bottom and go out to the reach of Lake Golovkivskoe. We silently look around for a while - not so much in order to orient ourselves, but in order to completely distract ourselves from worldly troubles. I wanted to surrender to the will of the current and quietly contemplate everything around, but there is no current in the lake, and we again took up the oars.