Crimean Legend - Bear-Mountain

Crimean Legend - Bear-Mountain

In far-off days right on the coast there settled a herd of enormous beasts. An old and formidable bear was their leader.Once the bears returned after their raid and found wreckages of a ship on the coast. There was a packet among them. The leader had unwrapped it and saw a little girl. The girl began to live among the bears.

The years went by, she was growing up, and turned into a beautiful young girl...

Once, not far from the bears' lair, a boat with a handsome youth had been washed ashore. The storm had been bearing the boat along over the waves for a long time until it had cast it on the Crimean Shore. The girl carried the youth to a lonely spot. Many times she brought him food and drink. The youth narrated her how people in his own country lived. The girl sang him her favourite songs. And ardent love came into their hearts.

The youth had already recovered his strength, he made a mast and a sail - the loving couple decided to leave the bears' coast. And the wide blue smooth had already set between the boat and coastal rocks.

Then, the bears returned after the distant march and they did not find the girl. The leader looked at the sea and bellowed furiously. He hung his huge maw down into the blue moisture and began breathing the water in with force. The other bears followed his example. The current was carrying the boat back to the shore. Then the girl began singing. The bears tore their heads away from the water and were listening to the singing with delight. Only the old bear did not want to leave the coast, he continued lying peering into the distance, where the boat with the creature, he had become attached to, was vanishing.

And for thousand years the bear has been liying on the coast. His powerful body turned into stone. His strong sides turned into sheer precipices, the head turned into the sharp rock, thick hair - into the dense forest.

The old bear-leader became Bear-Mountain.

Bear-Mountain (Ayu-dag) - is situated on the Southern Coast of Crimea to the east of Gurzuf. The height of the mountain - 565 meters.