The Crimea has a marvelous quality: there is always something new even for those who are thoroughly familiar with it. The more you know about this land the more unsolved mysteries remain to fascinate you. You return here again and again and if you have been away too long wistfulness and nostalgia overcome you. The explanation is simple - our small peninsula contains such an abundance of natural wonders.

     2/3 of peninsula - steppes with mild climate and further to the South with mixed forests: oaks, hornbeams, beeches.

     The Crimea is also rich in its vegetation and animals. Beautiful mountain woods, yaila (mountain pasture) with its big variety of grass, herbs and flowers, and, of course, subtropical plants of the South coast, make it one of the most unique places in the world.

     Here one can see cedars, mammoth's tree, palm-trees, gliciniya, magnolias and others. And, of course, one hardly can imagine the Crimean landscape without cypresses. In general, there are about 250 kinds of wild-growing plants here, in Crimea. Among them are Steven's maple and Stankevich's pine. Nowadays flora contains more than 10 thousand kinds among which there are quite a lot of endemics, these plants are not met anywhere on the globe. On the territory of the reserve nowadays there are 35 kinds of mammals, 130 kinds of birds, 15 kinds of reptiles, a lot of rare insects.

     The diversities of climate, relief and vegetation, the surprising combinations which can only be met here - this was the reason for declaring 2.5% of peninsula's territory state-protected. Various reserves occupy sixty-seven thousand hectares. Among them you can find Swan Islands, a bird sanctuary of international importance; the Karadag, an ancient volcanic massif on the Eastern Coast of the Crimea, associated with numerous legends; a majestic and awe-inspiring Great Canyon with its 320-meters sheer slopes; the Kizil-Koba, a cave in the western slope of Dolgorukova yaila the total length of its six-storey underground galleries exceeds 13 km. The highest mountain Roman-Kosh is 1545 metres above sea level. Though, in general the mountains are not so high, but they are extremely picturesque. The most popular Crimean ones are: Demerdji, Chatir-dag, Karabi-yayla, Ai-Petri, Eski-Kermen, Mangup, etc. Also Crimea is famous for its mountain cave-towns, that are located in Chufut-Kale, Tepe-Kermen, Eski-Kermen and others.

     Djur-Djur waterfall is the most powerful and unique picturesque waterfall of the Crimea. It isn't dry up even in the droughtiest years. Ulu-Uzen river runs along the three cascade rapids in gloomy gorge, falling from the height of one hundred meters.

     Even this brief mention of some of the reserves shows that there are all manner of natural wonders here caves, canyons, islands and mountains.

     The Crimean coast is shielded from the north winds by the mountains, and as a result usually has mild winters. The Crimea lies in the same latitude as Venice, and its summer temperatures are similar to those on the French and Portuguese Algarve Mediterranean coasts. Fresh sea breezes ensure that the high summer temperatures don't become unbearable. Crimea has two seasons - the warm or hot season, which lasts from May through to October, and the cool season running from November to April. Rainfall is light, averaging around 1 inch (38 mm) per month in summer and 3 inches (83 mm) in the cool season.

     In the warm or hot season temperatures rival those of the Mediterranean resorts and the average sea temperature in summer is 23?C. Swimming begins in earnest in May and continues through to the end of October.

     There are more than 60 health resorts in the Crimea. Yalta is the resorts center; it offers you thalassotherapy, climototherapy, winetherapy. It's our specific climate and thermal and mineral well qualities, life-giving power of healing air that help to cure different heart, kidney and nervous diseases. Not only climate and rich history but also it is vineyards, essential oil culture plantations, fruit gardens make Crimea a well known resort.

     Wine production is the main industry. Our wine brands are famous far beyond our country: Massandra, Inkerman.

     Crimea Autonomy republic is the part of Ukraine. Our populations is about 2,6 million people, with more than 100 nationalities, the bigger part of them is Russian. The official language is Ukrainian; colloquial Russian.

     After the 'Orange revolution' we can trace a boom in political life. Nowadays it's a candidate to NATO and WTO.