The Malevskyi Complex. For Those Who Love the Picturesque and Little-Known

Despite all its achievements, humankind is inextricably linked to nature, which has given the people of Earth water, air, light, and warmth. People make everything they need for life from natural materials and forget to value and protect these priceless gifts. Nature offers visual aids for understanding the material world and inspires admiration for the astonishing beauty of the surrounding environment. One of the geological clues to the planetary order can be considered the rocky Malevskyi Complex, located in the south-eastern part of the sub-Carpathian village of Deliatyn.

 

Deliatyn, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. The Malevskyi Complex

Only the most advanced travellers, who move with ease through little-known places, know about this natural monument. While legions of holidaymakers head to Yaremche and Bukovel for impressions, tourists with a heightened interest in discovering something new find unique corners of nature on the well-trodden surface of the earth, and it reveals its secrets to them.

 

The toponym 'Malevo' echoes the word 'maliunok' (drawing), and the picturesqueness of the natural scene will not leave dreamy souls indifferent. For lovers of hiking, the start is marked on the central road H-09. Near the chapel there are information stands marking the tourist route to the geological natural monument of the Malevskyi Complex and a 5-kilometre route to Mount Maliava.

 

Deliatyn. Information stand at the start of the route

Arrow signs will help you find the path through the dense residential development to the suspension bridge connecting Deliatyn and Zarichchia. A 100-metre walk across this swinging crossing over the unruly Prut stirs up keen sensations, and the roar of the turbulent streams of the Carpathians' blue ribbon foretells incredible impressions from what you will see.

 

Deliatyn. Suspension footbridge over the Prut River

On the right bank of the rebel river you should keep heading north. Over a stretch of about 300 metres the unpredictable Prut, with its whirlpools and rapids, exposes folds on the shallows, revealing the crumpled state of its stony bed. On the rock outcrops of the shoreline you can observe an alternation of active and calm layers of sedimentary rock. Older strata of sandstone and gypsum-bearing clay have thrust over the younger ones, forming a multi-layered stone cake. In the shallows, sandstone and shale have formed geological structures resembling colonial reefs. A slight frost has turned the water surface near the bank into glittering crystals. From the patterns of these crumpled plates you can study the structure of the Eastern Carpathians and the periods of the mountain system's formation. The process of rock deformation has created peculiar drawings that bear traces of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and mineral deposits.

 

The Prut. View to the south

The Prut. View to the north

The Prut. Section of the Malevskyi Complex

Thanks to these natural arabesques, scientists study the formation of the relief and the structure of the earth's crust. The complex covers an area of about 3 hectares. In order to preserve the picturesque rocky outline, the area has held the status of a geological natural monument of local significance since 1996. But do the local residents, who dump mounds of rubbish and other waste from their homesteads along the entire shore of the Carpathians' blue artery, know about this? One would rather not add dark colours to all this beauty, but, unfortunately, unauthorised dumps are not becoming fewer, and ever more often they spread into the sites of natural monuments.

 

Deliatyn. The Malevskyi Complex

The closing inscription on the information stand: 'We cannot avoid interfering with nature, but we can change our attitude towards it.'

Connoisseurs of little-known natural monuments should also visit Lake Morske Oko in Deliatyn, with its wandering island.