Chegem Canyon in Caucasus mountain

Chegem Canyon begins almost immediately after the village of Khushto-Syrt, 35 kilometers from the turn of the Nalchik-Pyatigorsk highway. Throughout the route goes through a wide mountain gorge, but at the entrance to the canyon, the rocks close, leaving a passage of 25 meters.

The height of the rocks of the Chegem Canyon exceeds 300 meters, and its length is 3 kilometers. In different places, the width of The Chegem Canyon is several tens of meters, and in the narrowest place, the width of the passage is only 25 meters. The Chegem river flows along the bottom of this canyon, and a road passes through it. In some places, the rocks hang directly over the road.

According to legend, the Chegem Canyon was formed when the hero Karashauay decided to test his horse. He rode through the Caucasus mountains, and in one place, the horse`s hoof hit the rock so hard that it split and a river flowed out. The hero exclaimed: "Chegem", which means "Earth is broken" in the Balkar language. Therefore, these places began to be called Chegem.

In some places of The Chegem Canyon, rock crevices look like people`s faces. In one place you can see the so-called Face of the Nart Soslan, and in another - the imprint of his foot. There is a cliffs called "bear`s eye". The rock on one side of the gorge looks like a face, and on the other like an ear, and it seems that the giants are whispering something in each other`s ears.

The famous Chegem waterfalls are located in the Chegem Canyon. If you go further than two hundred meters, the mountains again part and the most picturesque part of the Chegem gorge begins, which goes 20 km to the village of Eltybiy. The asphalt road at Chegem waterfalls ends, then there is a dirt road.