by Olga BAZANOVA, journalist An oval bowl of the Gelendzhik Bay (Krasnodar Territory) on the Black Sea, surrounded by the Markotkh mountain range on land (of the north-western part of the Main Caucasus Range), looks as if it were enclosed in the embrace of two Capes-Thick and Thin. In addition, the longest in the world (about 12 km) and the unusually elegant embankment stretches along its coast. Gelendzhik area with its almost Mediterranean climate and its fame of one of the best Russian resorts is also rich in natural monuments. First, we should mention the longest of them all--7-km-long flysch* slopes of the Markoth ridge. They can be seen along the coast between the Cape Tolsty Point and Divnomorskoye village, located just south of the Gelendzhik Bay, which shore's appearance is very similar to the Gelendzhik's one, hence its former name--the False Gelendzhik. No one would remain indifferent to the low but remarkably beautiful waterfalls on the river Jana, and the rock "Sail" (upright sandstone 30 m high and about 1 m thick) standing out of water close to the shore and, of course, the local bay itself with its water, which has unique healing properties due to the dissolved in it mineral salts as well as populating it living algae and microorganisms. One of the main attractions of these parts-approximately 200 dolmens or, as they had been called in the old days by Russian residents of the North Caucasus, "the hats of heroes" (structures made of large stones) about 4 thousand years old. Similar structures may be found near the cities of Sochi, Tuapse, Novorossiisk as well as abroad--in France, England, Ireland, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, USA, Canada, etc., mostly on the coast. According to the researchers, from the Bronze Age (35th-11 th centuries B.C.) on, they were used mainly as burial sites. Dolmens are built differently. Gelendzhik ones (first discovered in 1818 by Jacques-Victor-Edouard de Marigny T ... Читать далее