Turtles don't care, they have nothing to do with it

The official history of the excursion development of the Crimea began on May 6, 1890 in Odessa, when the Crimean Mountain Club was created at the meeting of the founders (since 1905, the Crimean-Caucasian Mountain Club). The birth did not happen from scratch. In European countries, such a social movement a little earlier gave rise to "alpine clubs", which were engaged in the organization of excursions and the release of specialized guides to attractive, from a tourist point of view, areas.

For more than a hundred years, generations of local historians, guides, guides and guides of the Crimea have described and presented to the tourist community more and more new points of attraction for guests of the peninsula. It would seem that all the available parts of the Crimea have already been isolated and mastered, and nothing new can be invented. Turns out you can!

The Yalta-Bakhchisarai Highway, built in 1865-1895, is itself laid in attractive places for the eyes. The road winds serpentine from turn to turn along a steep mountain slope surrounded by a pine forest. For many years on the stretch of this road from Yalta to the plateau of Ai-Petri travelers made three stops: at the waterfall Uchan-Su, Silver gazebo and Shishko rock.

Not so long ago, on this way appeared and gained popularity, a stop at a technical fire pond, which received, with the light hand of a now unknown author, the romantic name "Turtle Lake". A little more time will pass and only urban legends will remain on the pages of Yalta guidebooks about the appearance of a landmark place under this name. In fact, the water is already actively growing them. Let’s try to fix at least those fragments of the real history of the place, which can still be collected from various sources.

Ever since the construction of the road in this place at the curb came out a spring. Its water murmured along a shallow road ditch and flowed down the ravine down to the sea, as it had done for thousands of years before. On February 20, 1973, the Yalta Mountain Forest Reserve was created in these territories to preserve the ecosystems of the southern coast of Crimea.

Responsible services have appeared with their duties and instructions, including the need to have fire reservoirs in the forest protected zone. A place with a constant influx of water from the spring was ideal for this purpose. Foresters brought the excavator, expanded and deepened the upper ravine, turning it into a technical fire reservoir with a useful volume of 1500 m3. This happened in 2009.

Some people have a craving for beauty and, as the Yalta "urban legend" explains to us, the head of the Livadia forestry bought and released pond fish and American red-eared turtles into the created reservoir. Around the same time, on the far from the road shore of the pond, a decorative wooden gazebo appears, and the shores are gradually overgrown with reeds familiar to the Crimea, enhancing the romantic emotionality of this place.

The appearance of American red-eared turtles, unusual for the fauna of the peninsula, created an “irremovable” problem. In accordance with the regimes of specially protected areas in the Russian Federation, the introduction of animals and plants within their borders is prohibited.

However, at the time of the inclusion of Crimea into the Russian Federation, turtles have already taken root in the reservoir; and recently, a pair of European marsh turtles were spotted immediately. It should be said that both the European marsh (aboriginal species) and the American red-eared (the result of getting rid of annoying pets) turtles are widely represented in the freshwater reservoirs of the Crimea and are not exotic on the peninsula.

The number of sightseeing buses and auto-tourists stopping in this place has constantly increased. Therefore, in 2022-2023, efforts were made to update the gazebo and additional equipment of pedestrian paths with wooden flooring-bridges that allow strolling around the reservoir and low-mobility travelers. At the same time, they overlooked the need to equip at least some space for parking cars. The cars have to be stopped on the side of a narrow mountain road, which creates a permanent emergency situation in this place.

The Golden Key myth. Guides, guides, and, after them, and bloggers assure: it was here that the episode of the famous Soviet film “The Adventures of Buratino” was filmed and it was in this “lake” that the wise turtle Tortilla swam on the raft. Of course, if you visit the Nikitsky Botanical Garden before that, the new information contradicts the words of the guides of the Nikitsky Botanical Garden.

On a tour of its paths, guides claim that Tortilla gave Buratino the Golden Key on the banks of the Round Pool at the Lower Entrance to the Botanical Garden. Inspection of the Round pool causes surprise and misunderstanding among tourists. How did a raft fit and even swim back and forth with actress Rina Zelena?

Which version is true? Nothing! The film fairy tale “The Adventures of Buratino” directed by Leonid Nechaev was filmed by the film studio “Belarus Film” in 1975, and a fire reservoir called “Turtle Lake” appeared in the Yalta Mountain and Forest Reserve only in 2009, and Rina Zelena never swam on a raft in the Round Pool of the Nikitsky Botanical Garden; but this is another story.