Ahintam

The aul is located on the right bank of the Shah River, above the village of Golovinka . It is located 23 km southeast of the district center - Lazarevskoye , 32 km north of Central Sochi and 157 km south of the city of Krasnodar . The distance from the village to the sea coast is 7 km.

It borders the lands of settlements: Bolshoi Kichmay in the northeast, Maly Kichmay in the southeast, Shah and Golovinka in the northwest. The highway "03K-446" passes through the aul.

The aul is located in a mountain zone on the southern slope of the Main Caucasian Range . The average altitude in the aul is 125 meters above sea level. Absolute heights reach 700 meters above sea level. To the west of the village is a large tract Akhintam. In the vicinity of the aul, tea plantations are considered, which are considered the most northern in the world.

The hydrographic network is represented mainly by the Shah River. Within the aul in the Shah several small rivers flow. The area is also rich in springs. A tourist path leads through Akhintam leading to the tract “ 33 waterfalls ” in the upper reaches of the Shah River.

The climate in the aul is humid subtropical. The average annual air temperature is about + 13.7 ° С, with average July temperatures about + 24.3 ° С, and average January temperatures about + 6.2 ° С. The average annual rainfall is about 1450 mm. Most precipitation falls in winter.

The name “Akhintam” combines the name of the ancient Adyghe deity Akhin and the words “ there ”, which means “grove” or “parking”. In other words, Akhintam in translation from the Adyghe language means "Akhin's parking lot" ^[1] .

Akhin ( Adyghe. Akhyn ) - an ancient deity among the Adygs . Most of all he was honored by the Black Sea Adygs - Natukhais , Shapsugs , Khegayks , Ubykhs and Dzhigets. The name of the ancient deity also lies in the Adyghe name of the Black Sea - “ Akhyn ”, as well as in the name of Mount Akhun (or Akhyn).

There is very little information about the village of Akhintam during the Caucasian War . On one of the maps of 1838, on the site of the modern village, Akhintam marked the village of Adgebze (translated from the Ubykh language - “Adyghe River”). However, on the map of the English agent James Bell drawn up in 1840 and on French maps of the Caucasus published in the second half of the 19th century, this settlement was not indicated anywhere else.

In 1864, at the end of the Caucasian War , almost the entire local population was evicted to the Ottoman Empire during Muhajirism .

At the end of the 19th century, Russian troops stopped pursuing the Circassians , who continued to hide in the mountains and allowed them to settle in the foothill zone. So the abandoned village was again populated by the highlanders.

Until 1924, the village of Akhintam was part of the Tuapse district of the Black Sea District of the Kuban-Black Sea Region . Then the aul was transferred to the Shapsug national region , where the auls of the Black Sea coast with the predominant Adyghe population were included.

In 1945, the Shapsugsky district lost the status of a national municipality and was renamed the Lazarevsky district .

On February 10, 1961, the Lazarevsky District was abolished and incorporated into Greater Sochi . In the same year, the Akhintu aul was given the status of a microdistrict and separated from the Kichmay rural district .

In 1991, 256 people lived in the aul. Today, Akhintam is inhabited mainly by ethnic Shapsugs and is sometimes considered part of the village of Big Kichmai .

The basis of the aul economy is tourism and agriculture. In the vicinity of the village, several hectares of tea plantations are divided. The local tea plantations are considered the northernmost in the world. Two tea enterprises are engaged in the collection and production of tea - Shapsugsky tea and Krasnodar tea. In addition to tea, various varieties of mountain honey are important sales products for the aul.

There are only two streets in the aul - Akhintam and Achmizova.

• Shapsug aul Akhintam