On the eastern outskirts of the Alushta amphitheater there is the famous
Ghost Valley and chaos on the slope of Mount Demerdzhi, a natural monument of national importance.
The slopes of the mountain are dotted with bizarre stone sculptures, reminiscent of either people or animals, but more often towers and columns. In the evening and at night, the figures amaze with their fantastic outlines. At the southern tip of the mountain, one of the weathered figures from the side of the trolleybus track resembles a female bust. Tourists call it "the profile of Catherine II". However, close up, this stone statue has no resemblance to a human figure - rather, it resembles the head of a sphinx.
There are especially many bizarre pyramids, pillars, mushrooms, towers on the southwestern slope of Mount Demerdzhi, in the Valley of Ghosts. One of the pillars - the Giant - is a stone mass with a diameter of 5 m, rising up to 25 m. Pillars and columns of smaller sizes, up to 10-20 m high, are piled up on its sides. There are more than a hundred such stone "ghosts" here. Stone sculptures resemble idols, a monk in a hood, an outlandish bird, fantastic animals, fortress bastions...
The peak of Demerdzhi is raised 1240 meters above sea level. The flat area is covered with dense tall grass, conducive to relaxation. Surprising silence all around, noisy roads remained far away. In the west you can see the Bear Mountain, further in the bluish haze - the jagged crown of Ai-Petri. In the east, there is a flat and long Cape Meganom, in front of it, the conical rock Sokol, which looks like a sugar loaf, near the New World, under Sudak.
From time to time, as a result of earthquakes, grandiose landslides occur on the weathered slopes of the mountains, forming huge stone chaos.
Such is the chaos that arose in the neighborhood of the Valley of Ghosts as a result of the collapses of 1894, 1968 and 1982. A vast territory along the steep slope of Demerdzhi turned out to be cluttered with a chaotic heap of pointed conglomerate blocks; some of them are the size of a three-story house. The total volume of blocky chaos exceeds 4 million cubic meters. This is a whole stone "sea".
The pebbles and boulders of the local conglomerates are of great scientific interest. These are the oldest rocks, whose age is determined at 800 million - 1.1 billion years. They are found only here - the mysteries of the geological history and prehistory of the Crimea.
The Demerdzhi tract invariably attracts scientists, tourists, and film crews with its pristine beauty.
