Legends of Kislovodsk. The castle of Guile and Love.

Near Kislovodsk there is the Alikonovsky gorge, next to it there is a castle. There is a hotel and a restaurant in the castle, now they are closed for reconstruction. This castle is an exact copy of the one that was built in the 17th-18th century.

At that time there lived a rich prince who had a daughter Dauta, he raised her alone. There lived a poor man nearby who had a son named Ali. One day Ali and Dauta met and fell in love with each other. Dauta's father was against Dauta's marriage to Ali, and found another prince for her. Dauta and Ali decided to run away. While fleeing at the cliff, they were overtaken by a chase. There was a cliff in front, behind the prince's men.

The young people decided to jump off the cliff, but Dauta asked Ali to jump first. He jumped, but she didn't. After that, she married the prince, whom her father found for her. Ali's father cursed them and within a year Dauta and her father died.

Since then, ladies have been entering this castle only first, as they say, so as not to change their minds).

Such a sad and romantic story was told to us by our wonderful guide Mohammed.

We looked at the rocks on which we could see the faces of the participants of the tragedy, the rock from which Ali jumped, and did not know that soon we would have to climb up to it)).

Mohammed is a local resident who is in love with his mountains and probably knows every stone of them. He commented on every place during our ascent, recorded on our phone and took photos for us.

It turns out that there is a so-called Chaliapin grotto in the Alikonovsky Gorge. The great bass came here, and after visiting a local restaurant, he sang in the grotto so that he could be heard in Kislovodsk city.

Not to say that the climb was easy for me, especially 3 places where the cliff was quite close. But when I reached the finish line, there was no limit to my happiness). In general, for those who are tired of office fuss or home routine, and are not afraid of heights, you are here. Reboot is guaranteed 😅 . Our whole company was delighted.

This is the rock from which Ali fell. We went straight up to its foot.

This is a view of the castle from the foot of the cliff (the final point of our ascent).

We didn't plan the tour. Our guide Mohammed, a local resident, found us himself when we approached the castle. It is unlikely that this place made such a strong impression on us without a tour. It was as if we looked at this place from the inside, through his eyes.

If you are in the castle, write whether it has opened. Have you been on a guided tour. And what are your impressions of what you saw).