Attractions of Yuzhnoukrainsk

The Hard tract in the granite canyon of the Pivdennyi Buh River is one of the most picturesque places of the Buzkyi Hard National Nature Park (formerly the Regional Landscape Park "Granite-Steppe Pobuzhzhya").

"Hard" was the name of a special structure for catching fish, built by Zaporizhzhia Cossacks back in the 16th century. After the creation of Nova Sich in 1740, the Buho-Hard palanque of the Zaporizhzhia Nizove Army was formed on these lands, the military-administrative center of which was the settlement of Hard (present-day Bohdanivka opposite Yuzhnoukrainsk). There was a ferry crossing across the Pivdennyi Buh on Hard Island, for the protection of which the Buho-Hard armed border post was built.

The remains of the Cossack fortress and the wooden church on Hard Island were preserved until the middle of the 20th century. In the 1970s, the Yuzhnoukrainsk NPP was built at the confluence of the Pivdennyi Buh and its left tributary Velikiy Tashlyk, a Cossack church was destroyed on Hard Island, and granite rocks were blown up. In 2006, during the construction of the Tashlytska HPP, the Hard threshold was flooded.

The remains of the island itself still exist, but are divided into two parts. The hanging rocks of the canyon are a favorite place for climbing competitions. Porig Hard is one of the most difficult sections of rafting on the Pivdennyi Buh.