Sights of Mezmay

For most tourists, Mezmay is strongly associated with the most famous attraction – The Eagle shelf, and many tourists do not know anything else. However, in addition to the Eagle shelf in the vicinity of the village there are many beautiful and interesting attractions, which lead to pedestrian or automobile-pedestrian tourist routes of varying degrees of complexity. These are beautiful waterfalls, mountain rivers, caves, observation decks, there is even a mining museum. From here you can also visit the famous Guam Gorge and other attractions of Guamka.

To pass the most popular and more or less equipped tourist routes, two full days are enough. But if you are a lover of nature, mountains and beautiful landscapes, and you have experience of trekking and hiking, you will find here many more interesting trails and beautiful places. For example, you can go on a multi-day hike to the Lago Naki plateau or wander through the surrounding forests and mountains in search of ancient structures – dolmens.

Official group excursions to the routes and attractions in the village are not offered, but this service is offered by local residents and accommodation facilities (campsites and guest houses). There is a walking tour of the guides, or you can choose a mixed car-walking tour on an SUV or ATV. Unfortunately, all these excursions are individual and relatively expensive.

But if you love and are ready to walk, and ideally there is also your own transport, then you can visit almost all the route and attractions yourself. Most of the starting points can be reached by any car, and where it will not pass, continue on foot. This is a common practice here, and so do most of Mezmay's guests.

And now a detailed description of the most popular attractions and tourist routes available independently in the form of one-day hiking trips, indicating their opening hours, cost, ways to get to them and position on the map:

Eagle Regiment

This is the most famous and visited attraction of Mezmay, and just for the sake of getting to it, they even go here specifically for excursions from resorts of the Krasnodar Territory and from neighboring regions. This is a ledge in the rock above a high steep cliff, which offers a stunning view of Mezmay and the surrounding area, which simply takes your breath away. And the Spirit captures not so much from the views as from the height and steepness of the cliff. Unfortunately, apart from the Eagle shelf itself and a small spring with drinking water about half the way, most tourists on this tourist route will not see anything else. Learn more about the Eagle Regiment here.

Cave and waterfall Isichenko

This is one of the most famous and popular tourist routes in Mezmay. It is really very interesting, because on it you will see the six-meter waterfall, the cave and the isichenko waterfall, the nameless grotto and the crack in the rock, the "refrigerator" gap, The Palm waterfall, several nameless waterfalls and water slides on the river, the observation deck. But technically this is not the easiest route from Mezmay. The trail will lead you along the gorge along the Kurdzhips river, sometimes very steeply rising and falling, so you have to climb grabbing stones, roots and tied ropes. The length of the route depends on how far you are ready to go, but at least to the waterfall you need to go in one direction 700 meters and about 80 meters height difference. On average, it takes 3 hours to complete it, and more if you decide to go further. Learn more about the route to the cave and waterfall Isichenko and how to pass it here.

Guam Gorge or Guamka gorge

The Guam Gorge or guamka Gorge is the main attraction of the Guamka resort, but it can be successfully visited from Mezmay. This is a very picturesque gorge formed by the Kurdzhips River, which for millions of years has washed a deep trench in the rocks. In places, its depth reaches 400 meters, and the walls narrow to 5 meters. It starts from Guamka and stretches for 8 kilometers to Mezmay. At the beginning of the last century, a double-gauge railway was laid here to export timber, and today a tourist train runs along it at a distance of 1707 meters from Mezmay to the station and cafe "1707". Learn more about the guamka Gorge and how to visit it here.

Moon and Alabaster falls

These are the two most beautiful waterfalls near Mezmay, are on the same hiking route not far from each other. The lunar waterfall is high and consists of several levels, the Alabaster is slightly smaller and "low-water". Part of the route passes through the forest along the river, where you can see many small beautiful waterfalls and water slides. Unfortunately, you can not swim in the pools of waterfalls, they are simply not here. Learn more Read more about Lunny and Alabaster waterfalls here.

Chinar and University waterfalls

They are not located near Mezmay, but in the village of Temnoleskaya, but are easily visited from Mezmay in the form of an independent walk or with an excursion on ATVs or off-road vehicles. Chinar waterfall is interesting because the water flows down from the rock, which will hang over you. In this place, tourists like to have picnics, and you can swim in a small natural pool. Further along the trail you will discover a high and beautiful university waterfall. At its foot is a spacious swimming pool of shallow depth and with very refreshing water. Learn more about Chinarskiy and Universitetskiy waterfalls here.

Museum of blacksmithing

The Museum of blacksmithing or the Ethnographic Museum of folk crafts (aka The Museum of traditional folk crafts of Kuban) is a farmstead on which the blacksmith workshop of the XIX century is recreated. Here you can not only see how blacksmiths worked in the century before last, but also try yourself in business during master classes. Also presented is the ethnographic collection, which the authors of the museum collected in the farms of the surrounding villages.

Observation deck on Mezmay and Temnoleskaya

Four kilometers before the entrance to Mezmay there is an equipped observation deck with views of the Valley( Mezmay Basin), the village and the village of Temnoleskaya. You should not go here specifically, but you can make a stop along the way.

Lago Naki Plateau

This is a high plateau at altitudes from 1800 to 2200 meters surrounded by the mountains of the Western Caucasus between the Stone Sea ridge and Mount messo. This is a popular place for hiking enthusiasts, but more often it is considered not as an independent attraction, but as part of tourist routes through the Caucasus Nature Reserve, on the territory of which it is located. Most of the plateau is located in the Republic of Adygea and is traditionally visited from the resorts of Kamennomostsky, Guzeripl and others. But you can also get to it from Mezmay, although if you go deep into the reserve, you will formally be considered an offender, since the entrance to it is allowed only through the checkpoint with payment. Learn more about the Caucasus Nature Reserves and plateaus, and how to visit them here.

Hot springs in Nizhegorodskaya

At the entrance to the village of Nizhegorodskaya there are three thermal springs located on the territory of campsites and recreation centers: Aquarius, H2O and another unnamed place. Not only guests can swim in them, but also tourists from the outside for a fee. All three springs are equipped with different levels of comfort: gazebos, changing rooms, toilets, deck chairs, cafes. The sizes of the pools are different everywhere, but the water is the same everywhere - from mountain land Springs with a temperature of about +40 ℃ all year round.

On advertising signs you can find information that these are radon medical sources, however, we could not find confirmation that it is really radon, i.e. it has a weak radioactivity. The official website of the Aquarius complex says that this is "mineral water ionized with silver". Even if this is the case, taking such baths for medicinal purposes should be after consulting doctors for several sessions, and from one visit to the therapeutic effect is unlikely to count. A single reception is rather just a pleasant procedure, and you can take them in winter.