The village of Old Kodaky is only a 20-minute drive from the Dnieper. There are not only several historical and geological monuments of national and local importance, but also a favorite recreation place of the townspeople – the flooded Kodaki quarry.
Let’s find out what is interesting in the village itself and why a lot of Dnipro citizens go to the quarry in Old Kodaky.
Going to Old Kodaky
The village of Old Kodaki dates back to the time when the defensive fortress Kodak was built here. In translation from Tatar, the place is called “settlement on the mountain”. The whole point is that there is a good natural elevation here, which dominates over the Dnipro River.
Time passed, the fortress was torn down and the present settlement was formed in its place. In 1940, on the site of the abandoned fortress, they began to build a quarry for granite mining. The authorities of that time were not much inclined to preserve historical monuments, so most of Kodak was destroyed.
Kodaky quarry
The quarry was working, bringing stone, gradually being flooded by groundwater. In 1994, pumping was stopped due to the unprofitability of this activity. Since then, the quarry in Old Kodaky has a new history – as a place for bathing and recreation for local residents and townspeople.
Now many people come here every weekend and weekdays. It stretches from north to south along the flow of the Dnipro. Its western side is a high cliff of hewn stones. The cliff is vertical and has a height of several tens of meters – there is no way to get into the water here. But the eastern side is a narrow strip of land on one side of which flows a wide and stormy Dnipro river, and on the other side is splashing calm water of the Kodaky quarry. They even have different colors – the Dnipro is dark blue, while the quarry is turquoise and pleasant.
Kodaki Quarry beach
It is on this narrow strip of land that visitors rest. Loud music, the smell of fire and meat, garbage, and sometimes the stench of the blooming Dnipro – all these are attributes of those who rest at the quarry. There is no gentle entrance to the water of the quarry, and therefore you have to go in from a stone and immediately dive in with your head. And you will have to go out on slippery stones – looking for a “ladder” under water and clinging to the stones.
Sometimes it seems that getting into the water is much more difficult than getting out of it.
The depth of the quarry is said to be 40 meters, maybe deeper. The water in the lake is warm and not flowing, but the lake is fed by underground springs. The color of the Kodaky quarry contrasts significantly with the color of the Dnipro river – pleasant green, transparency – sometimes murky, and sometimes quite transparent. Apparently this one depends on the weather and temperature.
On the passage between the water of the quarry and the river – on the “beach” there is little shade and a lot of stones, a road for cars to enter from one side (from the south) and a path for pedestrians from the north. Some people swim in the quarry itself, and some come to fish in the Dnipro – I have not seen anyone swimming in it. There are also some buildings preserved here, when there was production here.
On the opposite bank, where there is a steep high wall, there is even graffiti on the stone and tents. It seems that this kind of vacationers come there for a couple of days.
Legends of the quarry in Old Kodaki
The quarry itself may not be that old, but it has become a legend. The locals say that at the bottom of the lake there lives an unknown animal, like a man with scales. And that in 2000 an expedition came to catch it.
They also say that at the bottom of the quarry there is a lot of equipment – huge trucks, excavators. They allegedly did not have time to remove them when the serious flooding started.
However, no one can confirm all these rumors, especially about the flooded equipment – it is already very expensive to abandon it.
How to get to Kodaki Quarry
There is a route №109 from Dnipro to the village of Old Kodaky. The interval of movement is from 20 minutes to one hour. We get to the final stop in Old Kodaky, from the stop we walk down towards the Dnieper River through the necropolis. Then we need to turn right, then left and then right again.
We will be at the entrance to the fortress from the fortress you need to walk towards the city of Dnipro to the sites with cars and from them on the path down to the beach of the quarry. You can go to the left from the entrance to the fortress – through the gate of the quarry, but this way on foot is much longer. You can go through the fortress – but there will be steep paths and not everyone will dare to go on them.