Averkin (Averkiev) cave pit

Perhaps this is the most mysterious cave on the Ay river, in the Chelyabinsk region. Numerous legends are associated with it.

The entrance to the cave yawns in black on the side of the mountain, not far from the Ay River. To get to it, you have to climb a steep slope. The entrance to the Averkin pit impresses! The walls of the karst funnel break vertically down a deep well. The depth of the steep well is 21 meters, the hole dimensions are 2x3 meters. Be careful not to accidentally slip and fall down.

A log is thrown over the entrance well, for which a rope can be fastened for lowering. You can go down to the cave only by ropes, having the appropriate experience. Due to this, the cave is relatively protected from accidental onlookers. Therefore, the cave arches are almost not smoked with torches.

The entrance to the cave from the inside looks most impressive. Around it is dark and cold, and above there is a blue sky, crowns of trees.

The cave is 130 meters long and 28 meters deep. The cave has two large grottoes and several narrow passages. The grottoes are connected by a 12-meter manhole.

There are beautiful natyki in the cave. There are also small lakes in the cave. In the cave there is always a positive temperature (+ 4 + 5 ° C) and high humidity. It is the site of wintering bats.

It is interesting that from the bottom of the well into the horizontal part of the cave (to the lake) there is a staircase made of stones.

The origin of the name of the cave is curious. She is associated with the hermit-Old Believer Averkiy, who was hiding in a cave in the 19th century. According to another version of the legend, Averky was a fugitive convict who was hiding from the authorities. It was said that he had ragged nostrils, and one eye was gouged out. One way or another, according to local traditions, he was helped by local residents who brought food. Someone even considered him a saint. Some called him the Ural Rasputin.

Subsequently, Averky disappeared, his fate is unknown.

A legend was born that Averky hid gold in a cave, and stoned the passage with stones. And there are also legends about the Pugachev gold hidden here (as without it!) And about the counterfeiters hiding there. Many, under the influence of legends, were looking for a treasure, but, of course, to no avail.

At the bottom of the well there are many logs and branches that fell down. Interestingly, when clearing the entrance well in the 1990s, enthusiasts found ancient forged nails. They also found a log with a hollowed core, which apparently served for a drain.

Debts in the article "Journey to the" Holy Fathers "(Zlatoust county newspaper" Proletarian Thought "for July 3, 1924) wrote:

“Ailin youth decided on June 15, and 29 made an excursion to the Ay river and Averkina cave ... The guys created a company that stocked with kerosene, candles, ropes, bread and everything necessary for traveling underground.

Having come to the cave, the youth tied a block to a log above the hole and began to go down it on a rope. At first it was creepy: they feared snakes, different monsters. Cave entrance

It is a round hole of an arshin one and a half in diameter, further wider and wider. At the very depths of this natural well, a mass of different debris is piled up: sticks, logs, stones. Without a flashlight, without a candle, it is impossible to get further. And at a depth of 10 fathoms such a picture appears: from a narrow stone entrance there is a stone staircase, then an extensive stone room ... There are boards from the door, a working wooden machine, a bed. Still preserved iron brackets from the door and the tin pipe. Many bones, among them human ones ...

Time takes its toll - everything collapsed, was covered with underground stone, sand and clay, but old-timers say that not so long ago (about 50 years) there lived a hermit schismatic in this cave. Bread was lowered into the upper hole. Sometimes he himself went out, but so as not to be seen. I had women friends who sometimes stayed with him “in fasting and prayer” or took a “holy” walk through the forest. ”

And here is what the discoverer of the Zyuratkul geoglyph Alexander Shestakov writes:

“In the cave, man-made stairs hollowed out in the rock. Legend has it that a fugitive convict Averkiev lived there. This cannot be, since the entrance to the cave is a 20-meter vertical well. In those years, Averkiev could not penetrate the cave.

My guess is that at the beginning of the XVIII century, merchants forced the monks into the cave to force them to reveal the secret of the science of stone. In order not to get hypothermia, the monks put down step by step. Soon the monks broke.

The first quarry of those years right on the mountain, above the cave. She has long overgrown with trees. Since then, the masonry business of the Satka region has been put on stream ... "

In 2012, according to the rating of the Association of Russian Tour Operators Averkin, the cave was among the five most mysterious places in Russia.

The Averkin Pit Cave is a geological and geomorphological natural monument of the Chelyabinsk region (since 1987). Near the cave flows a stream with clear spring water - Vinokurny (or Vinokurenny) key.

How to get to the cave of Averkin Pit

The Averkina pit is located on the left bank of the Ay river, in the Satka district of the Chelyabinsk region, three kilometers south of the village of Staraya Pristan.

You can visit the cave during the rafting on the Ay River or by car to Old Quay.

GPS coordinates of the Averkina pit: N 55º 12.113´; E 58º 53.523´.

A well-trodden path goes to the cave, which begins a little downstream from the Vokonyurny Klyuch. The entrance to the cave unexpectedly opens on a small platform in the middle of the forest.