Ak-Monay Quarries

The Ak-Monay quarries (Ак-Монайские каменоломни) are abandoned underground workings in the northeast of the Kerch Peninsula, Republic of Crimea. They stretch for about 7.5 km along the Sea of Azov coast east of the village of Kamenskoye (formerly Ak-Monay), not far from the Arabat Spit. The name means "white stone" in Tatar.

History

Stone was quarried here as early as the 17th century; it was used to build the Arabat Fortress. In the 18th century, on the order of Catherine the Great, convicts and army deserters were sent here for the hard labor of cutting stone. In the late 19th and early 20th century a dedicated railway branch served the quarries, carrying the stone out. Mining stopped after the Revolution but resumed in the 1930s.

During the Great Patriotic War the workings ended up behind the lines of the defending Soviet forces: partisans and wounded soldiers hid here, and the galleries served as stores for food and weapons. Traces remain of camps used by units of the 47th Army of the Crimean Front, stationed here in the winter and spring of 1942. In 1994 the abandoned quarries were used as a base by the gang of repeat offender Pyotr Babak.

Legends

According to one version, the underground passages of the Ak-Monay quarries extend far beyond the sections visible today and supposedly connect to the Adzhimushkay quarries, or even reach as far as Cape Opuk. There is no documentary confirmation of this; it survives only as stories passed around among cavers.

What is there now

Today the quarries are abandoned, with collapses in many places, so moving through them is safe only for prepared groups with equipment. The underground spaces have become popular with extreme cave tourists, who hold underground orienteering competitions here. A colony of bats lives in the galleries.

Getting there

The easiest way to find an entrance to the system is from the village of Kamenskoye: locals navigate by a monument to a policeman who died near one of the entrances. The quarries can be reached on foot or by car; the nearest bus stop is in the village of Kholmovka.