Crowds of tourists come to Cape Meganom during the season: some for myths, some for romance, some for wonderful views that clear karma. On this mountain, many see ghosts, UFOs and mysterious circles on the grass. Here, at the very edge - between sea and land, reality and mystery - there is a lighthouse, and its keepers told RIA Novosti Crimea who it really shines for.
The end of the world
"This paving stone on Meganom is still ancient Roman, probably …" - tells us, casual fellow travelers, the paragliding instructor Alexey. He looks out of the window of an old van, bouncing over bumps.
The road leading to the lighthouse at Cape Meganom / RIA Novosti Crimea. Alexander Polegenko.
The car on narrow strips of loose streamer habitually hovers over a cliff with a bumper and turns again, climbing up the mountain. “And in general, right there is the entrance to Hades, did you know? So they say. The caves are strange here. And on the shore one comrade has been living in a tent for two years already,”a young paraglider with a sunburnt, weather-beaten face speaks so thoughtfully that it is somehow embarrassing to smile ironically in response. It is only clear that the lighthouse on the other side of the pass with the remains of paving stones on the road is not the only attraction of this place.
Cape Meganom is the southeastern coast of Crimea. The crowded resorts of Sudak are only 18 kilometers in a straight line, but here there are only rocks, wind and sea. In Soviet times, the territory was closed - then, and even today, only military personnel were located on the cape.
We were warned in advance that we simply would not get there in our own car. A shepherd with a flock of sheep at the foot of the mountain showed the driver how to drive into it: “There is a road like this: like this and like this,” and turned his palm up and turned down, - very clearly, without words. It was lucky that seasoned paragliders went to the top to catch the wind.
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Only one family in Crimea can say that its representatives are hereditary inhabitants of the magic mountain: the lighthouse lights have been lit for decades by the caretakers, whom this wild place also does not let go.
The blue eye is spinning
The lighthouse on Meganom was built in 1895 by order of Emperor Alexander II, who signed in 1875 the "Plan for the construction and re-equipment of coastal and floating lighthouses and port lights on the seas of Russia." As a result, a low - only 12 meters tall - white stone tower of the lighthouse appeared on the edge of the Choban-Basta cliff. Due to its height, the blue-white light of the lighthouse rises 99 meters above the sea, and in days of exceptional visibility, ships could notice it 75 kilometers from the coast - at one time it was the most powerful lighthouse in Crimea.
View of the lighthouse at Cape Meganom / RIA Novosti Crimea. Alexander Polegenko.
“Initially, the military was in charge of everything, the captain of the second rank was in charge, and barracks were built here for 25 sailors to serve the lighthouse,” says Yuri Ivannikov, the fire keeper, who has lived and worked at the lighthouse for 44 years and handed the post of chief to the next generation of his family. - There was no such road over the mountain. Therefore, 120 years ago, a ship came here and it was necessary to carry from there: both coal and provisions."
The optical equipment for the lighthouse was ordered from the then leading manufacturer of searchlights and lenses in the world - the French company Barbier & Benard. A plaque with the names of the designers, the year of manufacture and the geographical mark "Paris, 1895" is still attached to the support column inside the lighthouse tower.
Plaque with the names of the designers, the year of manufacture and the geographical mark “ Paris, 1895 ” at the lighthouse at Cape Meganom / RIA Novosti Crimea. Alexander Polegenko.
“Before, the lamp shone constantly, and the lens itself was spinning. The light passed through three windows on it. It was very beautiful, especially when it was foggy - you see how the beam went. And now it just shines like a flashlight: the lens is motionless, the lamps are exposed in three directions,”says the head of the lighthouse Oleg Sapiga, opening a sash on a huge crystal plafond - there, in the heart of the lighthouse, in recent years there have been prosaic LEDs.
The rotating lens, according to the owner, was once set in motion by a system of weights and cables, working on the principle of a cuckoo clock. At the same time, the smoothness of the optical apparatus was provided by a platform immersed in a huge bowl of mercury, which was re-poured once a year. The kerosene burner that had served as the light source for the lighthouse since its founding was replaced in the late 1950s with a 500 watt incandescent lamp.
Oleg Sapiga, head of the lighthouse at Cape Meganom / RIA Novosti Crimea. Alexander Polegenko.
Freedom Cape
The lighthouse at Cape Meganoma was practically not damaged during the Great Patriotic War. The equipment was prudently removed from it for the duration of the fighting. There are a dozen round holes on the central spire inside the tower - bullet holes. Nearby are the skeletons of the observation post.
“Now tourists are brought here by UAZs. Once we were working at the lighthouse - I see: they drive up, park the car, tell. “What is this house?” - they point to the old barracks. “And this is Aivazovsky’s house,” they say. “He wrote“The Ninth Wave”here!” - and all this in all seriousness,”Yuri Ivannikov retells, laughing into his mustache.
Bullet marks on the cape on Meganom / RIA Novosti Crimea. Alexander Polegenko.
He has a long experience as an observer - he grew up at the lighthouse, being the son of a local lighthouse. Therefore, he remembers well that Meganom, which has not yet been stepped by a tourist.
“When my father called here to work, in his youth: oh-oh-oh! sea, fishing, spearfishing - interesting! I am still interested. I have an apartment in Sudak. I go there - there is nothing to do there. And here - freedom …”, - says the caretaker.
View from the lighthouse at Cape Meganom / RIA Novosti Crimea. Alexander Polegenko.
Stop, shot
Maybe the beauty of the steep rocky shores of the cape, maybe the status of a closed territory and the work of military units - they launched rockets from the mountain - made Meganom a textbook romantic-mystical place. Therefore, this lighthouse has become the most "cinematic" of all Crimean ones. Vika Tsyganova (Soviet and Russian singer - ed.) Recently filmed a video here for her song "Clouds" with panoramic views of the sea, the peaks of the Crimean mountains and narrow paths leading from the caretaker's house to the white tower. Meganom beacons regularly have the opportunity to see themselves from the side.
“Then I watch a movie: oh! our oars, our lamp. Stool? Our stool! Props, up to the hanger, too. When “Tanker“Tango”was filmed (the film premiered in 2006 - ed.), I gave them my things - 45 items! We managed to get something back, recalls Yuri Ivannikov.
Lighthouse at Cape Meganom / Alexander Polegenko.
Of the latter, Meganom last year filmed a touching commercial for Ferrero Rocher with the story of a lighthouse keeper who goes on duty every day to ensure the passage of ships through difficult areas. The lighthouses say that the video is, of course, nonsense: no one arrives to them by helicopter with sweets in a transparent pyramid. But overall, it seems to be true.
“They showed me equipment, radios, on which I was still working. Previously, we had communication with the ships, now we do not. And the lighthouse has been switched on automatically for a long time … Not much was included in the video. They brought a dog for filming from Sevastopol - it burned its paws on the heated concrete in the heat - we poured water on it from a hose,”says the caretaker, trying to omit the fact that he himself was not included in the video either. Although he was offered to play the caretaker, that is, himself: the filmmakers were ready to pay 100 thousand rubles for 27 seconds of screen presence. But Yuri Ivannikov refused, and that's it.
Yuri Ivannikov, keeper of the lighthouse at Cape Meganom, RIA Novosti Crimea. Alexander Polegenko.
“Two episodes for the film“On the Other Side of Death”were filmed here (the premiere of the series - the end of 2018 - ed.). Also a story about a lighthouse, and according to the plot - the Far East. And there the lighthouse was blown up at the end. Later, after the film was released, an acquaintance called me: “Hey, the lighthouse was blown up ?!” - I said: “Yes. They offered me good money - and blew it up! “. In general, many people believed that it actually happened - the special effects are good there,”the beacon chuckles.
On chains and ropes
The cameras that shoot a romantic lighthouse on a deserted cape and, as it were, the traditional life of the caretakers, of course, do not notice their ordinary everyday life. In winter, at the lighthouse, employees say, and snow is swept over the roof of the house. Even for them it becomes extremely difficult to get through the mountains by car - they only ride on chains. Storms and winds are such that people cannot open the door of the lighthouse tower.
Equipment for the lighthouse at Cape Meganom, which is no longer in use / RIA Novosti Crimea. Alexander Polegenko.
“Previously, the equipment was such that I almost had to spend the night near it. You go to the tower - the wind is blowing, you had to tie a rope to the doors and drive a peg into the ground, and follow this rope - otherwise it will blow off,”recalls Yuri Ivannikov.
There is no water on Meganom - her car brings it to the lighthouses twice a year, filling the multi-cube well pools. There are no safe roads on Meganom: every year, rescuers remove dozens of arrogant tourists from the local mountains.
View of the lighthouse at Cape Meganom, the caretaker's house and the old military barracks / RIA Novosti Crimea. Alexander Polegenko.
Circles on the grass
As the only aborigines, the caretakers, not without irony, watch the seasonal troublemakers of these places. The cape was chosen by yogis seeking enlightenment, curious ufologists and other mystically minded citizens who come to look for Styx (in ancient Greek mythology - the personification of primitive horror - ed.), To observe flying saucers and ghost ships.
“In 1986, the magazine Science and Religion had an article about supernatural forces on Meganom,” says Yuri Ivannikov. - I bought this magazine then, read it - well, some nonsense. A week passes - and Megan was closed, people did not go here - and I saw: a man with a stick was walking. "Hello hello! Here, I came to look at this place, about which they wrote - circles on the grass “. Yogis began to come. There a column of stones was folded, here the column is “the temple of Shiva”: they take off their shoes when they enter, they meditate. How the people went! With suitcases, in heels! We took boats - some come, others leave. Now twice a year too."
These yoga beacons have since become familiar. Their cook, they say, came and asked: they say, give borscht to eat with meat! Then he asked for two buckets to bring porridge from the camp - a lot of boiled buckwheat with carrots remains with the yogis. And the lighthouses themselves examined the circles on the grass: there are such, in fact, they still appear every spring - hares run around the bushes, trample paths.
The road leading to the lighthouse at Cape RIA Novosti Crimea. Alexander Polegenko.
Foam days
As with the staff of other lighthouses, the duties of the Meganom keepers used to include monitoring the sea and meteorological research.
“Now the work of the beacon is to make sure that the beacon shines, does not fail. Out - troubleshoot. The overhaul was 16 years ago, but the current one needs to be done every year: the wind from the sea brings foam, salt eats away everything - you need to clean it up and paint. The lighthouse looks good from the sea …”- says Yuri Ivannikov.
Staircase inside the lighthouse at Cape Meganom / RIA Novosti Crimea. Alexander Polegenko.
Lighthouses grow peaches and cherries, figs give two harvests. The caretaker even in winter swims in the sea - he is engaged in spearfishing.
“My wife says to me: 'Drop it already, drop it!” - he continues. - So what are we going to do then? No, I say. - It's definitely better here than in the city. You go - nobody pushes you …"
Author: Maria Orlova