Famous in the Urals, the tourist attraction is not for nothing that it is a real natural gallery, the main exhibits of which are rock paintings of ancient people .Once the hand of an ancient man was sweepingly painted with red ocher on the walls of the Ignatievskaya cave intricate images of animals and depicted everyday scenes .This unique cave, which has several names - Yamazy Tash, Ignat's Cave, Ignatova Cave, Dalnaya, Serpievskaya, hid in the thick bush of the right bank of the Sim River in the west of the Chelyabinsk Region in the Katav-Ivanovo District .Another landmark: the village of Serpiyivka, which is seven kilometers below .The easy accessibility of the monument of history and nature has become the main reason for frequent visits to its curious tourists .
How to get here
From Chelyabinsk on a regular train we reach the station Simskaya, which is quite easy to find a bus. To the destination, Serpiyivka, he goes half an hour. You can get to the cave in two ways: on a small canopy bridge, then turning to the right, or through a pioneer camp. From the city of Sim walk 18 kilometers. At the same time, along the way, you should follow the shore of Sim.
What to see
The cave is located in a picturesque place, the hubbub of the forest is complemented by the melodious murmur of the Gamaz stream, which flows along the channel of Sim. There is also a nice parking lot nearby. Skip the gaping darkness of the entrance to the cave, whose mouth fell open at a height of several dozen meters above the water surface, it is impossible.
Internal structure of the cave: two levels, the first of which is the Pillar Hall with a length of 130 meters .In the center of the hall there is a stately limestone pillar, on whose mighty shoulders the caves of the grotto are kept .On the second conditional floor, called the "Starets' Cell of Ignat", you can get through a narrow hole at the end of this room or through an oval hole in the wall at an altitude of 2, 5 meters .It should be noted that the top level is damp and cool .About the old man Ignat, who once lived here, recalls the thin figure of a woman carved on one of the walls of the grotto .Local residents are convinced that this is a modest version of the icon of Our Lady .
The walls of the rocky halls are covered with hieroglyphs, whose age reaches 14 thousand years. When excavating scientists came to the conclusion that once this place was a self-sufficient parking of primitive people. Perhaps a sacred place, a temple. The cave is included in the three of these natural structures along with the Kapova cave in Bashkiria and Kolokolnaya, near the village of Serpiyivka, in the Chelyabinsk region.
Surroundings
On the opposite bank of the Sima is the neighbor of Ignatievskaya, the Essum cave, although the entrance to which can not be seen right away because of limestone caves. Inside the curious are waiting for the Riviera Hall, the floor of which is the smooth surface of an underground lake, a long gallery dotted with stalactites and calcite stagnant bark.
| Ignatievskaya cave |
| Inside Ignatievskaya cave |