Ammonite Valley in Adygea

What to Expect and Is It Worth Visiting

Ammonites are ancient mollusks that have long been extinct and lived in the oceans about 100-400 million years ago. Surprisingly, fossilized ammonites ranging in size from a few centimeters to two meters can be found in mountainous Adygea, and there are especially many of them in the Ammonite Valley in the Belaya riverbed. They turned out to be here not by chance, because many millions of years ago these mountainous lands, which today rise hundreds and even thousands of meters above the ground, were below the water level and were the bottom of the ancient ocean Tatis.

The Ammonite Valley stretches along the Belaya River from the village of Kamennomostskiy for 15 kilometers to the village of Abadzekhovskaya. All this is a natural monument protected by the state. But unfortunately, this does not mean that going down anywhere along the valley to the Belaya river you will immediately see placers of fossils. In fact, it is very difficult to find them, since they are hidden under water and unusual spherical stones, and it is impossible to violate the integrity of the stones.

Especially a lot of spherical stones with their traces can be seen in the area of the bridge between Kamennomostsky and the village of Abadzekhovskaya. If you're persistent enough and your luck holds, you might be able to find some more obvious traces of ammonites after spending a few hours here. But it is much easier to see them in the Museum of dolmens in Kamennomostsky and in other museums of the Republic.