Otkliknoy Ridge

Otkliknoy Ridge is one of the peaks of the Bolshoy Taganay range, 1,155 metres high. It lies in Taganay National Park, 12 kilometres northwest of Zlatoust, in the Southern Urals, Chelyabinsk Oblast.

The ridge is made up of several sheer cliffs up to 100 metres high with a distinctive jagged outline. Its name comes from the loud, repeated echo that bounces off the rock wall ("otklik" means "echo" or "response" in Russian). From the summit, a panorama of the Zlatoust Urals unfolds for dozens of kilometres.

Geologically, Otkliknoy Ridge is a fragment of the western limb of the Taganay anticline, with steeply dipping rock layers broken by fractures into vertical blocks. The slopes are built of quartzites and crystalline schists, and large quartzite blocks that have split off the mountain through weathering have accumulated at its foot. A tectonic fault with three rising springs runs along the northeastern foot of the ridge.

A folk legend explains the echo: a fierce beast is said to have once lived in a cave at the foot of the ridge, devouring travellers on foot and on horseback. A holy hermit prayed for deliverance from the monster, and, according to the legend, God destroyed the beast with a block of stone, leaving only its voice behind — the very echo heard today.