The narrow Matlas Stone Path is cut through the mountainside so that it can be used to descend from the top of the plateau to the stone terraces at its foot. This trail looks like a natural landmark, but it was cut down by hand. In some places, the walls seem to close over your head.
The stone path was cut in the Middle Ages by order of the Avar Khan, as there are convenient places in the shade in the mountain terraces for the Khan`s family to have a rest. From the 12th to the 19th centuries, the powerful Avar Khanate was located on the Khunzakh plateau. Its capital was located on the edge of the Tsolotlinsky Canyon in the village of Khunzakh, which in those years was called Khumraj.
Khan and his family often came to Matlas for rest. There are natural fonts in the local streams where they could swim on hot summer days. These fonts are called Khan Baths, as the wives and daughters of the khans bathed in them. Now everyone can swim in them. On the edge of the plateau there are three streams that fall from the plateau, forming waterfalls. One of them is named Khan’s Waterfall, and the other is named Matlas Waterfall. To go down to the terraces where these waterfalls fall and relax in the pleasant coolness, the khan ordered to cut a Stone Path with a ladder.
The length of the Matlas Stone Path reaches 200 meters. The width between the walls is, on average, 2-3 meters. The height of the stone walls reaches several tens of meters as they descend. For an elderly person, descending this staircase is somewhat difficult.
Usually, people go down the Stone Path to the terraces and pass under the Matlas Waterfall. A vertical steel structure with a staircase has been built next to it. You can use it to climb back to the Matlas plateau. You can also walk along the paths along the terraces to the zip line.
