Treasures found by black diggers in the Crimea. Treasures found in the Crimea. legends about the treasures of Crimea

Since ancient times, the territory of Crimea and Sevastopol was inhabited by different nationalities. At different times, Taurians, Tatars, Genoese, Italians, Greeks, Russians, and Ukrainians lived here. In parallel, the life of completely different, dissimilar people flowed. The peninsula was seized and given away, people were invited, taken into slavery, brought in, taken away, deported. And nowadays, almost every year, archaeologists and historians find national treasures hidden from prying eyes in the Crimean land, houses and even in trees. We learned the history of the ancient treasures that we were looking for, found, looking for and dream to find on the peninsula.
- Now in the Crimea and Sevastopol ordinary black diggers are looking for treasures. They buy old maps and thanks to them they find out the places of hiding places, - says Anatoly Tavrichesky, a Sevastopol oceanologist, writer, traveler, member of the Russian Geographical Society. - They are mainly looking for treasures in old and abandoned villages and villages. Once even I managed to find a treasure. It was one link from a 30 gram gold chain. My father, however, found two treasures in the Belogorsk region in the estate of Count Kakhovsky, the governor of the Tauride province. In Soviet times, it housed a hospital where my parents worked. One treasure was paper, and the other was gold. Part of the treasure, of course, had to be given to the state.

According to Tavrichesky, in the 19th century, the legendary robber Alim ruled on the peninsula, who hid the stolen wealth in various parts of the Crimea.

- At one time, the German and Russian scientist-encyclopedist, naturalist and traveler Peter Pallas wrote about the robber Alim, - says the oceanologist. - Alim Azamat-oglu Aydamak robbed merchants, but did not kill anyone. Was a kind of Crimean Robin Hood. In his youth, he got a job for a wealthy Karaite and fell in love with his daughter. The girl, whose name was Sonya, answered him in return. But young people could not get married, because they understood that the father would never marry his daughter to a poor man. In the hope of getting rich, the young man went out on the "high road". Alim knew Aivazovsky. For the wedding of his wife, he even gave a shawl.

Alim was a real character, confirmed also Marina Malgina, head of the scientific exposition of the department of the central museum of Tavrida.

- He himself was from the Belogorsk region. He worked mainly in the mountainous Crimea, in Bakhchisarai. He was not in Sevastopol. He really knew Aivazovsky. In general, there are a lot of different legends about hoards in Crimea. Since ancient times, there have been legends about the golden mounds located in the vicinity of Kerch. The origin of the Scythian burial mounds themselves dates back to the 4th century BC, but the main legends and treasure hunters appeared there only in the 19th century. A lot of the most incredible stories are connected with them. According to some legends, spirits walk around the mounds and lure people. At the same time, whoever gets there will not come back.

Photo by: Anna Chudakova

According to one of the legends, there was once a huge principality in the area of ​​Mount Basman, whose name translates as "land where you cannot walk". It was located at a thousand meters height. The people who lived there had their own talisman - a golden cradle, which people are still trying to find.

“The whole nation was fed with this cradle,” Anatoly Tavrichesky says. - It weighed about 30 kg of pure gold and looked like a baptismal. In an attempt to take possession of this cup, people who lived at the bottom of the mountain began to encroach on the principality. And then one day the elders of the principality took this cup, hid it in a cave on Basman and put a curse on it: those who seek the cup out of selfish motives will regret it. The treasure itself will be revealed to people only when Crimea becomes free. It will be found by a person with a pure heart. Since then, this cradle has been searched for in the Basman area.

One of the last official finds was made near Feodosia in 2007, in the forest on Mount Tepe-Oba. It consisted of more than 10 thousand silver coins from the times of the Crimean Khanate of the 17th century. It was discovered by locals and is considered the largest treasure found on the peninsula.

“We only know about this treasure from newspapers,” says Marina Malgina. - This is not a completely clean story. The coins were later transferred to the Feodosia Museum of Money. At the same time, the circumstances of the find remain unclear. One gets the feeling that this is a fictional story. There is reason to believe that this treasure was found in the wrong place, which was indicated.

In the museum of Taurida itself, other monetary treasures are kept, even more ancient.

“We have a part of a hoard consisting of Roman coins of the 1st century AD,” says the manager. - Another part of it is in the museum in Evpatoria. It was found in the region of the Saki lakes. This is an amazing find. Before that, no one had found Roman treasures. Perhaps it was hidden by a robber who robbed a Roman legionnaire, or the Roman legionary himself.

According to Malgina, most of the treasures are found in the Belogorsk region of the peninsula.

- Once Belogorsk was a big and noisy city. In the 17th century, he was richer than Bakhchisarai. That is why in this area not only many have been found, but are still finding various unique treasures. In the 60s in the village of Barabanovo, during the demolition of a house, a treasure wrapped in a rag fell out of its wall. It contained gold and silver coins from the times of the Russian Empire in 1812-1897.

And in 2003, in the Chufut-Kale region, a merchant treasure of gold and silver coins dating from the 15th century was discovered.

- Even at Mangup, archaeologists discovered jewelry of the 5th – 8th centuries. Most likely, this cache was made by a grave digger who traded in plundering other people's graves. In Crimea, there are treasures that do not concern jewelry. For example, an iron warehouse of various items and tools was discovered at Mangup. This is not surprising, since at one time iron was very much appreciated.

Wherever the Crimeans did not hide their values. For example, at the end of the 19th century, a German colonist discovered an earthen jug with silver coins and gold ornaments deep in the dam. Another treasure was hidden under an old oak tree near the village of Taraktash in 1908. Then ordinary peasants found a pot of gold coins dating from the 5th century.

What is the largest Crimean treasure?
The largest Crimean treasure is considered to be the treasure found in the cave town of Chufut-Kale in 2002 (the total weight of the coins is almost 5 kg), and the treasure found in 2007 on Mount Tepe-Oba (near Feodosia) - 6 kg. coins (17th century).

Anyone can find the treasure, often quite by accident. A pot full of money is found in the garden, a handful of coins behind a piece of plaster that has fallen off in an old house. Despite the many legends about hidden treasures, none of them brought up large treasures. They were always found by accident.

Here are some of the famous Crimean treasures found.

1886 year."Nyazatsky treasure". Discovered by a German colonist from the Neizats settlement (present-day Krasnogorskoye village, Belogorsky district) during the repair of a mill dam. The earthen vessel contained 466 silver coins of the 14th century and more than fifty women's jewelry.

Neyzats
The burial ground is located in the foothill Crimea on the banks of the Zuya River. The monument was left by nomadic Iranian-speaking tribes - Sarmatians and Alans. Its study has been conducted since 1996 by the expedition of the Tavrichesky National University named after IN AND. Vernadsky under the guidance of Doctor of Historical Sciences
I. N. Khrapunova. During this time, more than two hundred burial structures of the end of the 2nd-4th centuries have been investigated. AD - crypts, undercut and ground graves, more than 1,500 items were found, including those made of precious metals. These are pottery and stucco ceramics, weapons, details and ornaments of clothing, objects of worship. Many of them were shown at exhibitions in Italy, Germany, France. Some finds from Neizats have no analogies either in the Crimea or outside the peninsula.

1908 year. Peasants from the village of Taraktash (present-day Vesyoloe near Sudak) during excavation work found a treasure under an old oak tree, presumably of 2,000 coins. Part of the treasure went from hand to hand. Local historian Alexander Stephen found and bought several hundred coins. The hoard was buried in the middle of the 5th century A.D., and consisted of coins from Ancient Rome and the Bosporus kingdom. Now scientists have about 200 bronze and silver coins of the first half of the 4th century - and there were more than 2,000 of them.

1908 year. The Eltigen treasure was found - near the ancient city (modern, near Kerch). This treasure, which consisted of coins of the 5th century AD, helped scientists to shed light on the history of the Kerch Peninsula at that time.

1959 year. Near Mount Alchak (region of the Sudak Valley), archaeologists have found golden Bosporan coins of the third century AD.

1979 year. During excavations at Mangup in 1978-1979, the Teshkliburun treasure was found - a golden cross with a garnet insert, golden triangular tubular pendants, earrings decorated with granulation, cast bronze clasps. All this was found during the study of the medieval fortress Mangup by the expedition of the Crimean archaeologist Alexander Herzen. The owner of the jewelry hid his wealth in the wall of the house, but could not return for it. The treasure is kept in the Republican Museum of Local Lore.

1967 year. Builders, clearing a place for a foundation pit on the outskirts of Simferopol. Found a treasure, which is still considered the richest found in the Crimea. It consisted of 328 items, weighing almost 2.6 kg - silver and gold jewelry with inserts of pearls and precious stones, gold coins, silver vessels, jewelry made of semi-precious stones.

1981 year. During the laying of the gas pipeline, the remains of ancient cultural monuments were found here: a pagan sanctuary and a medieval temple. This sanctuary has existed since the time of Troy. On a small patch of 50 by 50 meters, Scythian akinaki and Sarmatian daggers, shields, and banners of the Romans were found. 200 coins: Roman coins with portraits of emperors, gold staters with the image of Alexander the Great, silver tetradrachms with the profiles of Mithridates Eupator, and even (first found) coins of the Bosporan kings. Among the twenty figurines of pagan gods, many turned out to be reduced copies of sculpture trees - true masterpieces of the ancient era! Neither Chersonesos nor Panticapaeum has such a number of ancient finds as at the Gurzuf saddle. Now the finds are kept in the storerooms of the Yalta Historical and Literary Museum.

1990 year. Not far from Alushta, in the ruins of a medieval dwelling that died in a fire, archaeologists have found a treasure consisting of 3.5 kilograms of silver bullion. Merchants kept such ingots, cutting the required amount during the calculations.

2002 year. Cavers of the cave city of Chufut-Kale dug up a ceramic pot filled with gold and silver coins - Venetian ducats, Egyptian dinars, dirhams of the Crimean Khanate period. The treasure was hidden exactly at the time when the first reliably known Khan of the Crimean Horde, Khadzhi-Girey, in a desperate struggle with relatives, was laying the foundations for the future power of his dynasty. This wonderful treasure has become one of the largest in the Crimean archeology. It numbered over 4,000 coins and weighed about 5 kilograms. Now the value of the found coins is approximately $ 30,000.

2007, January. In the Old Crimea, a local resident, while repairing a stove, found a gold pendant wrapped in a rag. In the Middle Ages, sheepskin soaked in incense was placed in such pendants and hung around the neck. They also used pendants during epidemics to ward off the disease.

2007, May. In Kerch, near the wall of the Yeni-Kale fortress, the boys found several coins. Treasure hunters dug into the wall and found a treasure of 77 silver coins-akche (Middle Ages).

2007, July. On Mount Tepe-Oba (near Feodosia) in the forest, summer residents found an old vessel full of silver coins. The weight of the treasure is 6 kg, this treasure turned out to be the largest in terms of the number of coins found in Ukraine. It consisted of more than 10 thousand mints of the 16th century. At that time, it was a lot of money: a male slave in the market of medieval Kafa cost 800-900 aspros, a woman - 600 aspros.

Did you know that according to the law, any treasure in Ukraine that has lain in the ground or water for more than 300 years is 100% owned by the state. If the treasure is younger, then the finder is entitled to 25% of its estimated value.
Ukrainian laws prohibit the deliberate search for treasures. If the treasure hunter is caught by the hand, he will be punished under a criminal article.

The history of the search for treasures kept by the Crimean land continues ...

P.S. Interesting fact: The Vikings firmly believed that everything that they bury in the ground during their lifetime will remain in peace with them after death. The topic of treasures is interesting to many. And many devote their leisure time to treasure hunting. Holidays and weekends are spent on obtaining equipment and ammunition, cards and everything else that can be useful in the hunt for luck. There are treasures everywhere, even in Karelia. This is a very interesting place with wildlife and the possibility of recreation, hunting and fishing. Inexpensive hotels in Karelia will be glad to welcome everyone who wants to have a rest in this region.

Treasure hunt in Crimea

Treasure hunt in Crimea as a type of tourism.

The legal regulation of the search for treasures and historical artifacts in general in different countries of the world differs significantly. Let's just say briefly that archeology is both legal (as part of archaeological expeditions) and "black" illegal dealing with protected registered objects. In real life, only archaeological reserves have protection, and, for example, the mounds are only marked with protective signs and, as a rule, broken. In any case, monuments of history and culture, archaeological sites, including all mounds, cemeteries, graves, places of mass executions and battles, are excluded from the sphere of amateur treasure hunting.

In addition to archaeological tourism objects and military search expeditions requiring special permission and qualified participants, the Crimea has the widest opportunities for amateur treasure hunting. First of all, in this review, we will focus on such finds as coins, rings, metal buttons, bullets, distinguishing military signs, but the history of Crimea knows many examples of the discovery of real treasures.

Due to its special position at the intersection of many world empires, the population of Crimea has been accustomed from ancient times to sudden invasions of enemies. Traditions of arranging treasures have been developing for thousands of years in sanctuaries and dwellings, in hard-to-reach mountain caches and walls of fortresses. A significant part of the ancient and even before the revolutionary settlements (especially small farms and estates in the mountain valleys) were abandoned by the inhabitants, and little remained of the houses, more precisely, they are almost invisible, as well as inns (caravanserais, khans) of the Khan Crimea. Abandoned villages can only be calculated from a number of signs on the ground and from maps of the 19th century.

The treasure found at random, for example, during the demolition of an old building (and the “old city” of Simferopol still retains buildings of the 15th - 17th centuries) is supposed to be handed over to the state. The value of the treasure is determined by experts, and the finder is paid a monetary reward in the amount of 25 percent of the estimated value, naturally in national monetary units, and not coins from the treasure.

However, the purpose of this review is amateur treasure hunting on tourist routes, to be honest: here we will give more advice not about how to make money, but how to spend money in order to find some little thing that has only the value of souvenirs.

Currently, for travel treasure hunters in the Crimea, a variety of modes of movement are available. We recommend that before buying a jeep or a riding horse, experience the real features of the different riding style in the rental and training mode. Most tourist centers in the mountainous Crimea provide their clients with educational routes for mountain hiking (with climbing skills and visiting unequipped caves), horseback riding and donkeys (by the way, the donkey is in many ways more convenient and in order to better see the treasures and to load them more), mountain bikes (MTV), on off-road vehicles, buggies and ATVs.

The main equipment of a treasure hunter is a metal detector and a universal entrenching tool for setting up a camp in the mountains and traveling on off-road equipment. For non-motorized movement, the tool must be selected lighter and more compact, and for a jeep you can afford large, heavy and strong shovels, picks, hoes, dough, saws.

Metal detectors are probably best ordered via the Internet, models of metal detectors and manufacturers are discussed on the Internet forums of treasure hunters and archaeologists (by the way, we invite experts to cooperate!). The same fully applies to GPS satellite navigation devices.

Features of planning routes for finding treasures in Crimea

Mountain bike (MTB), in our opinion, is the most natural way of movement, both for searching for ancient villages and abandoned inns, and for monitoring mudflow deposits, fan debris in gullies. Even along the concrete embankments of the South Coast or the sandy beaches of the West Coast, the bike allows you to move with the necessary equipment at a convenient speed for inspection.

Let us remind you once again that in an amateur treasure hunt, the process is more important than the result. Daily mileage can be planned at 30 - 80 km. The routes are only radical, but in the summer it makes sense to spend the night on the beaches of the West Coast in order to walk along the fresh deposits of sand with earrings-chains at sunrise. Summer storms in the west of Crimea are usually in the afternoon and easily remove jewelry from relaxed vacationers.

Quad bikes are an expensive, stylish and amazing way to get around. Features soft tires and "smart" suspension, allow you to drive through a mountain forest, yaila, steppe or beach faster than in a jeep. At the same time, the passenger can look around in all directions, and the driver can drive up to the dense one anywhere. You can very quickly deliver the team to the search sites that are 20-50 km away from the base. and very slowly and carefully comb the places where the treasures are searched. Although ATVs allow you to take a lot of equipment with you, the routes are only radial. ATVs need daily maintenance, and their lovers need a comfortable rest. It is important when planning routes. That the movement of ATVs on the asphalt is not permissible.

Off-road vehicles, jeeps, can be recommended for amateur expeditions with linear routes. In an off-road auto caravan, all cars should have approximately equal driving capabilities, it is better, of course, cars of the same or similar brands, in order to have a common stock of spare parts and accessories. We recommend combining in the expedition a spacious multi-seat jeep with three doors (a winch is required). It is very useful, for example, to travel outside the camp for groceries, carry 2-3 mountain bikes with you.

A jeeps caravan, even if it is planned to spend the night only at camp sites, or in the private sector, needs to be equipped for comfortable autonomous tent camps. In Crimea, at least three vast areas can be recommended for amateur treasure hunting routes in jeeps:

B) the Kerch Peninsula, especially the Kalaral steppe (Bagirovsky air range), the vicinity of the Kyz - Aum lighthouse and Cape Takyl are also interesting. Once again, we are talking about tourism and recreation, guaranteed adventures, beautiful places, for example, "pocket beaches" on the coast of the Azov and Black Sea. And the treasures themselves are not at all necessary.

There is a huge number of abandoned villages on the Kerch Peninsula: 13 settlements of colonists from Italian Genoa (1475-1918), settlements of the Kerch Nogai.

C) Sivash region (Dzhankoy, Soviet, Nizhnegorsk regions). In addition to the frequent raids of the Don Cossacks and Kalmyks, destroying villages in the 18th century, during the collectivization period in the 1930s, the consolidation of Ukrainian collective farms took place here, many villages and farms were plowed up.

In the Steppe Crimea, the main building material for houses and sheds is kalyb, adobe, mud brick made of clay, manure and straw. So tractors could turn villages into fields. We will write separately about the visual signs of the disappeared villages.

The routes on horseback and donkeys are good for romance and cinematography. Horse monitoring may well be recommended for inspecting the fan in the gullies and valleys of the Crimean foothills (Sevastopol, Bakhchisarai, Simferopol, Belogorsk, Kirovsky districts) and Koktebel lands, as well as the hills and beams of the capsule, Meganoma, Solnechnaya valley, Sudak, Alushta.

The way to travel on foot in search of treasures is the main one and especially makes sense on mountain and coastal pack trails. Areas requiring special attention on such routes are springs, and especially chasme (fountains), as well as wells, primarily ancient ones, indicated on old maps.

Actually, the main search work with all vehicles takes place on foot. Survey of beaches in most cases is possible with ordinary cars on an asphalt highway and even with the help of inexpensive regular buses. The entire western coast is well provided with public transport from the Severnaya station to the village of Chernomorskoye, and in the summer it is very good.

The Crimean peninsula is interesting not only for those who want to spend a vacation by the warm sea. Tavrida constantly excites the minds of treasure hunters, because real treasures are stored here. The fertile land has been inhabited since ancient times, and each nation left precious treasures in memory of itself.

Bloody wars were often fought over the Crimean land, and the population, hoping to return to their homes in a quieter time, hid their acquired property in the ground and houses. Not everyone managed to return, and it is still unknown how many treasures await their owners. Crimea generously endows seekers, many find truly magical treasures and they often open up completely by accident.

In Crimea, people live in cities with a long history, many of them have preserved old houses, albeit not with a long history, for sure. It is these houses that are of particular interest to treasure hunters. The main problem is that these houses are mostly in private or state ownership.

What should be remembered for novice treasure hunters? Well, first of all, treasure hunting in Ukraine is a matter of jurisdiction. If you want to look for things of your ancestors in your "estate", then the very first things you need are probably not worth mentioning. It is desirable that there was a computer, without modern technologies anywhere. The Internet will be a good substitute for a library where you can find information about the history of a city, house, or neighborhood. You can buy a printer for printing interesting literature and maps.

In houses with ancient history, there are many places where theoretically there could be a secret. Often, in times of trouble, property was hidden in basements, in ovens, in attics. With a more thorough approach, the treasure can be looked for in the foundation, walls.

In addition to old houses, there are other places where treasure is more likely to be found. First, abandoned villages. The villages abandoned by the inhabitants during the wars attract a lot of treasure hunters' attention. The difficulty lies in finding such a tract.

Crimea is a small territory and almost all the places where villages were once explored for a long time. Secondly, canals, rivers, lakes. Things were often hidden in the water, for which they were not going to return. For example, in the rivers they found objects of church worship - icons, censes, candlesticks, which they threw into the water in an attempt to protect them from enemies, or during periods of persecution of the church. By the way, the sign of throwing coins into the water is very ancient, so you can dream of stumbling upon old coins.

Finally, wells are also the object of attention. They often dumped goods in them, if they did not have time to hide it. And if you remember that many lands in Crimea do not have enough fresh water, wells were its main source. Clay is an excellent material in which metal, fabric, and leather are well preserved. The bottom of many wells on the peninsula was clay. It remains only to find these very wells and look for treasures, not forgetting about their own safety.

Find a treasure and live comfortably even on the 20% relying on the delivery of the find to the state. At least once this thought visits everyone, especially the Crimeans, who live on the treasure peninsula. We tried to find out which treasures excite the fantasies of seekers.

Big bummer

- In the summer I dived in Balaklava, - says Denis from Simferopol. - And I will be next year - suddenly I’ll be lucky, at least I’ll find a couple of coins.

For a successful entrepreneur, Balaklava diving is a matter of principle. His father also went to these places at one time: suddenly he was lucky and the gold of the "Prince" could be found. According to rumors, there were about 30 barrels of gold coins - a salary for the British troops besieging Sevastopol in the Crimean War.

The British frigate Prince (better known as the Black Prince) was killed in November 1854 during a storm off Balaklava. According to official data, he brought warm clothes and medicines to the British. But already a few years after the war, rumors of wealth appeared. The first divers appeared in the Balaklava Bay. They were looking not only for amateurs from the Russian Empire, but also for the French, Germans, Americans, Norwegians, Italians, and Japanese. They found some debris, a small amount of coins, the remains of shoes, iron boxes, but there was no mass of gold. I was looking for gold and the Soviet Union. The reason was the discovery in 1922 by one of the divers of several coins. Thanks to them, by the way, a Special Purpose Underwater Expedition (EPRON) appeared in the country. Engineers Vladimir Yazykov and Evgeny Danilenko, who designed a unique diving bell for this, in 1923 enlisted the support of the country's chief security officer, Felix Dzerzhinsky, in creating a group to search for gold on the Prince. Gold, of course, was not found, although they raised a fragment of the mast of the "Prince", from which they made a chess table and presented it to the new chief security officer, Vyacheslav Menzhinsky. But they gained considerable experience in underwater work. EPRON became a famous service that saved many people and raised many ships from the bottom of the sea. Representatives of different countries spent more than 150 years and huge sums in search of the Prince's treasure, but the owners of the cargo - the British - did not show any activity at all. They knew that there was no Prince's gold in Balaklava Bay.

“The Prince's gold is a beautiful legend,” says Sergey Voronov, head of the Black Sea Underwater Research Center. - Three years ago, in the Balaklava Bay, our underwater archaeologists managed to find cannonballs, a ship's propeller, guns (one is kept in the museum in Artek. - Ed.), A plate from the captain's service, according to the emblem of the ship's owner company on it, it was possible to identify that this is the same "Prince".

The place of the ship's wreck has been found, but what about the gold? He was then told to an underwater archaeologist invited to the British Embassy, ​​was unloaded on the way to the Crimea. In Constantinople (Istanbul), where there was a quartermaster of the British troops. All these years in England they knew about it, and in the National Bank of the country there is a confirmation receipt of the assistant to the chief intendant John Smith. And yet, many treasure hunters with scuba diving every year strive to Balaklava Bay: what if they are lucky!

Another allegedly "ship with gold" that perished off the coast of Crimea is the motor ship "Lenin", on which more than 4 thousand people were evacuated from Odessa in 1941. It is believed that they carried a lot of valuables with them. An underwater mass grave - a naval memorial - reliably keeps secrets: several divers who decided to cash in on the past died.

Randomness is the key to good luck

- It is impossible to excavate burial places in search of treasures, - the historian Igor Pavlenko is sure. - This is blasphemy. And no matter how mystical it sounds, the souls of the dead will not forgive desecration. The treasures obtained in this way do not bring good: there are many examples of how the "diggers" and their families perished and suffered. And then, in most cases, the treasure is not found by those who deliberately wander with a map and a shovel, but by those who do not even think about it. Accident is the main companion of finding treasures. This is how lucky real scientists, archaeologists are, who, without thinking about profit, return settlements and eras from the past. Or those who, working at construction sites, in vegetable gardens, traveling, suddenly find an old "stash". So, in 1886, in the village of Neizats (Belogorsk district), a mill dam was repaired and a vessel with silver coins of the 14th century was accidentally discovered. And in 1959, in the area of ​​the Sudak Valley, archaeologists working on the excavations found gold coins of the 3rd century. In 2004, during the demolition of an old house in Feodosia, a large sum of money from 1917 was found, and in 2007 a resident of the Old Crimea was repairing a stove and found a gold pendant.

And yet those obsessed with the idea of ​​the treasure have their "search points". Kerchanin Alexey hopes to find two at once. In the quarries in the Leninsky district, where, before the occupation of Crimea by the Nazis, the Chekists allegedly set up a cache.

“One local resident has been dealing with this topic for many years,” the man says. - And he seemed to find a place, but soon he died without revealing the secret. What is there - it is not known, maybe values, or maybe documents. But interesting. Although dangerous - landslides do occur frequently. By the way, they say that the storehouses of valuables were also arranged in the Great Patriotic War by the Nazis - allegedly in a bunker near Sevastopol they hid the gold of the Crimean Scythians. Even the SS Reichsfuehrer Himmler himself came.

Another place where Alexei was already wandering around with a metal detector in search of the treasure is Bear Mountain. Here I wanted to find the horse of the Pontic king Mithridates VI Eupator. According to legend, the king ordered to cast the figure of his beloved horse from gold, and before his death he hid it in the mountain. True, that mountain is the current Mithridates in Kerch. But it has been studied since pre-revolutionary times, there were interesting finds, but the horse was not found.

- Maybe they were looking in the wrong place, - suggests the treasure hunter. - There are many mountains in Crimea. Although there is an opinion that even before the revolution, a Kerch water carrier found the golden horse, which then opened a profitable enterprise and did a lot of charity work. But there is no confirmation, which means that there is still a chance.

Khans gold and ready

They hope to find the treasures of the last Crimean khan Shagin Girey on the peninsula. Allegedly in February 1783, before abdicating power and moving to Taman (from there to Voronezh), he ordered to hide the property in Bakhchisarai, according to other sources - in Cafe (Feodosia). Although this is doubtful, because the khan was going to leave the peninsula forever, until 1787 he lived in the Russian Empire, then moved to the Ottoman Empire. Why leave the treasure if you understand that you will not be able to return?

“I know that even during the Soviet Union they tried to find the Crimean Khan's treasure in the Krasnodar Territory,” says Sergey Makarov, a Crimean resident. - On Taman and even in Krymsk, arguing that this town was named after the Crimean Khan. But this is absolutely nonsense. Krymsk, the former village of Krymskaya, appeared almost a century after the death of Shagin Girey and is named after the soldiers of the Crimean 73rd Infantry Regiment who fought during the Russian-Turkish wars. I met the treasure hunters of the khan's treasures when I was searching with friends in the Krasnodar Territory. We were looking for a "golden suitcase" with gold and silver items from the Kerch Museum that disappeared in 1942.