Rock of Iphigenia
Mount Iphigenia
Crimea, Berehove-Castropol
The symbol of the village of Beregovoe is the rock of Iphigenia, one of the witnesses of the Upper Jurassic volcanism in the Crimea. The name of the rock is associated with the ancient Greek myth about Iphigenia, the daughter of the Hellenic king Agamemnon, a participant in the Trojan War. From the sea side, the rock rising almost 120 meters above the sea forms a cape.
According to legend, the legendary temple in which Iphigenia was a priestess was located somewhere in the south of Taurida, maybe in the vicinity of Castropol. The rock makes a particularly great impression from the side of the sea - rising almost 120 meters above the sea, it forms a cape. It is composed of a layer of interbedded tuffs, spilite and keratospilitic porphyrites, with inclusions from fragments of igneous rocks. The rock of Iphigenia has been declared a natural monument.
An episode of the heroic defense of Sevastopol in 1941-1942 is connected with the rocky Cape Iphigenia. In December 1941, a reconnaissance group of the Black Sea Fleet under the command of midshipman F.F. Volonchuk landed and operated here. In memory of this raid of patriots, a memorial plaque was erected on the new Yalta-Sevastopol road at the Beregovoe stop in May 1978.
To the west of Beregovoe, the wall of gray mountains hanging over the coast drops sharply. Here, at an altitude of 578 m, you can see the pass called the Devil's Stairs. Its beginning is marked by a stone pillar with a sign on the 35th kilometer of the old Yalta-Sevastopol highway. From a distance, the outcrops of limestone layers really resemble the huge steps of a staircase that rises steeply to the pass. It was used at all times of the Crimean history for the transition from the South Coast to the foothills of the Crimea and back. The "ladder" has 40 sharp turns enclosed in a stone gorge. Its length is about a kilometer.