During the excavation of one of the towers of the medieval fortress of Sudak archaeologists discovered a stone dam strong overlap of the Crimean very strong wood. Age trunks before they log in and use of the tower, scientists have identified 700-800 years. This is an amazing representative of the family Cupressaceae – juniper. In Crimea, known for its 5 species (in the CIS countries – 21 in the world – 70). Russian botanist, S.
Stankov defined the originality of this relic plant: "… juniper tree, beautiful tall, strong trees which, with a characteristic ribbon-like-cracked brown-red bark and branches covered with a soft kiparisovidnoy needles, for the first time hit northerner, which welcomed hitherto junipers in the form of squat prickly bushes in the northern forests. " In Russia it was called Veres, red cedar, mozzhuhoy. The fruit and juniper needles have healing qualities, they are widely used in household and traditional medicine. His wood was equally successful in the construction and the manufacture of various household items and souvenirs.
Alas, all this must be referred to as irretrievably the departed time. Predatory cutting junipers, practiced earlier, caused irreparable damage to this noble plant. Today, only ten places in the Southern coast of Crimea, Balaclava from the west to the New World on east, there are individual, tiny grove of juniper trees. Now the juniper tree, or high – Mediterranean relic species living on the earth for more than 50 million years old – is in the Red Book. In Evpatoria average for the year 2413 hours of sunshine, and at Yalta, located 100 km south-east, – 2223, ie at least 190 hours. The reasons for this are different. One of them – the amount of direct solar radiation received in some parts of the Earth surface. Beaches Evpatoria open. Crimean plain as it rushes to bezbrezhe sea. Yalta is protected from the east, north and west of the main ridge, so the sun rises later and here comes earlier than in Evpatoria. In addition, a significant effect on the total number of hours of sunlight provides humidity, rainfall and long dry periods. In this regard, Evpatoria – the driest of seaside resorts of Crimea. Precipitation falls here at an average annual 380 mm, and the dry season lasts 255 days. At Yalta, the figures are respectively 560 mm and 225 days a year.