400,000 years ago Neandertals peopled Sochi and later Cro-Magnon man made it as far as Akhshtyrskaya Cave at Sochi's shore. A bit later Odysseus would confront Cyclops at this cave and Jason and the Argonauts would search for the Golden Fleece. One half million years of development have seen some changes in Sochi, it's people and architecture.

Many peoples have left their mark and mystery on this subtropical land on the north boarder of what the ancient Greeks called the Pontus Sea, now called the Black Sea. None of these seem stranger than the dolmen culture who left the strange houses (graves) shown here. Compare that with the grand architecture of a more recent Sochi!