City of Sochi

Sochi is the largest resort of the Russian Federation. It stretches for 147 km along the Black Sea coast of Krasnodar region. Our city is surrounded by the chain of high Caucasian Mountains which coming nearer to the sea and protect Sochi from the cold northern air. Mild subtropical climate, high mountains with the plenty of greenery, warm azure sea, healing mineral and Matsesta water springs - all of these features make Sochi one of the world's best seaside, mountain climate and balneological health resorts.
Geographical situation. Sochi is situated on the same parallel circle as Toronto, Nice and Gobi desert. It borders Georgian Republic in the south.

Population of Sochi is more then 400.000 inhabitants. Annually 3 million of tourists come here to get medical treatment and leisure.

The city is divided into 4 administrative districts: Adler, Khosta, Central and Lazarevsky.

Climate and nature. As soon as our city is situated between the Caucasian Mountains and the Black Sea we enjoy the most northern subtropical climate on Earth. The average winter temperature reaches +8..+10 degrees, in summer it gets warmed thoroughly to +40 degrees. Usually we have 200 sunny days in a year. You may swim in the sea here from April till October, and go in for skiing from October till May.

Coming here you enter the paradise of palms, bananas, citric and other ever-green trees. More then 80 per cent of city's territory belong to Caucasian Biosphere National Park and protected from any pollution.

Healing and tourist complex is the leading branch of economy and the Russian largest one. Nowadays it is represented by 223 big and middle sanatoria. The average cost per night in sanatorium is 892 RUR. Some kinds of illnesses of cardiovascular and nervous systems, locomotor apparatus, dermatic and gyneacologic illnesses are treated here effectively.
The structure of air, railway, automobile and sea transportation, the number of high-class sanatoria, hotels and pensions meet the requirements of national and international festivals, forums, fairs and sport competitions.

The President's residence and some highest-level meetings held here made an image of Sochi as the Summer Capital of Russia.

Industry. There are 44 big and middle enterprises of different ownership in Sochi. The industry mainly consists of building materials and food industries.

Agriculture. Agricultural complex is a combination of 25 farms, 9 food and processing companies, 10 service and research firms. All of them are oriented to satisfy all needs of the city.

Small business. Small business now is one of the most important components of economy. There are 22388 small businesses in Sochi, 4478 of them are small enterprises. The contribution margin of small business in the economy is constantly rising as well as the quality of the personnel. We also must confess the increase of efficiency of small business.
Religion. There are a lot of religious orientations and different nations in Sochi. The city is inhabited by people of 100 nations who profess Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism etc.
Education. Sochi is the Federal experimental testing ground for educational innovations and projects. There are 78 municipal secondary schools, 54 pre-school institutions, 19 initial schools, 33 professional education centres, 2 centres of professional orientation and 25 peripheral schools. 6670 teachers are involved in education activity. 59246 pupils are learning in Sochi simultaneously.

Sport. Annually Sochi hosts several international and national competitions in light athletics, tennis, football, volleyball, sailing.

Myths

According to Greek mythology, Prometheus gave people everything - life, soul, trade and fire. It was because of the theft of fire from Olympus to give to man that he suffered. Zeus ordered to chain him to the Caucasus, a desert cliff at the back of beyond, in Scythia. It is very likely that this " first Golgotha" is Mount Fischt near Sochi. There is Caucasian Mountain bordering on the Phasis, once called Boreas' Couch (Boreas is the Greek god of the north wind). After the fight of the Titans, Cronus who was trying to escape Zeus' threats, hid himself on the top of Boreas' Couch, turning himself into a crocodile. When Zeus came there he tied his father down with a woollen thread and precipitated him into Tartarus, and then he... renamed the mountain to the Caucasus, chained Prometheus to the rock and made him suffer from an eagle which tore his liver to pieces'. (Plutarch, 1st century AD).

Plutarch goes on to tell that the Phasis is a river in Scythia... It was formerly called the Arctur because of the cold surrounding area. Archeaologists believe that at the time when myth about Argonauts was being composed the river Phasis was considered to be in the north and was identified with the Don. The most dominating peak nearest to the Phasis is Fischt. Ancient Greeks thought it was situated in Scythia. And looking at a photo from Sochi the mountain appears to be a crocodile. But the most important trait is a huge red blot that appears on the southern slope after an ancient landslide (the myth says that Prometheus blood soaked into the rocks). And severe snowstorms occur here even at the height of summer. Greeks apparently knew the famous Novorossiysk 'bore'.

Even the Argonauts came on vacation to our land. During the 13th century, before the Trojan War and long before Odysseus' voyage, the Argonauts started on a dangerous trip across the Ungracious Sea to get the Golden Fleece. The 'northern' route of their sailing seems to the mythologists to be the most logical one because it corresponds to the spreading of Greek settlements on the Black Sea coast. It is known that Greeks witnessed a severe earthquake which took place in the North Caucasus at the time.

That day led Hercules unexpectedly to the place that changed the fate of the Titan. And rocking the brutal fetters in different ways with great efforts... he grabbed them with his hands and tore them out of the foot of the rock. The Great Caucasus thundered and following the peak of the mountains logs fell into the sea and rivers were drawn aside of it... At a closer distance one could hear a moaning sound, a hollow roar from the mountain as the rocks were being torn down. And the great moans of the Titan when his members chained to the cliffs were being detached... The Argonauts sailing on the sea were in awe as the broken shores were covered with snow and rocks were smashed. (Gaius Valery Flakk, 1st Century AD).

For a long time it has been thought that this catastrophe took place on the mountain Elbrus. It is conjectured that when speaking of gods Greeks could place the scene only on the highest mountain of the Caucasus. Also, in a tragedy by Aischylos (the first recording of the Titan, 5th Century BC) Prometheus, already being chained to the rock, tells the daughter of a river god the way to Elbrus: "Now you turn to the east... and go straight on... until you come to the Caucasus, the greatest of the mountains..." This is indeed the way to Elbrus - eastward from Fischt.

Some mythologists believe that Odysseus met the one-eyed Cyclop on the Caucasus' Black Sea coast. And the most appropriate place for this is the Akhshtyrskaya Cave in Sochi because of its closeness to the sea, the landscape and vegetation, and the aborigines customs. According to the Aristotle's "Achaeans and Heniokhs" the first tribes known to live here were in the habit of eating travellers from Greece (It must have been those Greek spices). Hence the Black Sea's ancient name of Ungracious Sea (Pontos Axeinos).

History

Sochi's roots are ancient. Our area was settled about 400,000 years ago. According to the Cambridge "Guide to Prehistoric Man" the local Akhshtyrskaya Cave is the northernmost point in the south-east of Europe which Cro-Magnon Men, the first ancestors of Europeans, inhabited. Even our city's name comes from antiquity: "Sochi" comes from Procopius of Caesurae. In his history of the Byzantine Empire he made note that the natives of the Empire on the Black Sea coast were called Sagueedy, or Sachi in Latin.

Artifacts have been found from periods of Cimmerian, Scythian, Samarian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Georgian, Abkhazian, Genoese and Turkish Influences. Articles of Hellenic origin have been found in Sochi in various places, one of them is the Bolshaya Vorontsovskaya Cave. The Greeks are also known to have founded a colony and the town of Dioscuria near Sukhumi (south of Sochi, in Georgia). It is even thought that some Greek myths took place here. Fischt, a mountain protecting Sochi, according to Greek myth, is a "desert cliff at the back of beyond" on which Prometheus was chained and tortured.

The territory of Sochi became part of Russia at the end of the Caucasian War. Officially founded in 1898, Sochi was set as a resort area. Its fate was decided when sulphur hydrogen springs were discovered throughout the area. Since then it has been developed as a health resort and is now the best in Russia. The first hotel complex, Kavkazskaya Riviera, was opened in 1909. As the area became popular before the revolution many wealthy people from St. Petersburg and Moscow arrived and built splendid summer houses. Several still exist and are considered to be excellent examples of Russian's Art Nouveau.

However, it wasn't until Stalin decided to build the Workers vacations' paradise here in the 40th & 50th of the 20th century that the city got its present status. Hundreds of palatial sanatoria, doarding houses, and summer houses rose from the swamps (most sanatoria were built to treat bronchial, lung, and nervous disorders).

Now there are over 250 stretching along our shores and hidden in the mountains. And several new ones are under construction.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14