Akhzu Gorge, Gorge in Adlersky district, Sochi, Russia

Akhzu Gorge is a 3 km cut through the Akhzu ridge in the Mzymta valley, between the villages of Kepsha and Monastyr in Adler district, Sochi. Its limestone walls, over 1,000 m thick and folded into a vault, rise almost a kilometre above a floor only 20–30 m wide; the road runs along a ledge cut into the vertical rock.

The limestone layers of the Akhzu ridge began rising about 20 million years ago and are still rising. As the ridge blocked the Mzymta River, the river cut a 3 km gorge through it. On 13 January 1968 a collapse dammed the river, creating a lake up to 18 m deep; the river eroded the dam within 5–7 years and the lake disappeared.

The name Akhzu has several proposed origins: from the Abkhaz "Aakhyts" (southern slope) or "Akhuatsa" (mountainous place), from a word for "tooth" or "fang" describing the sharp rock, or from Abaza meaning "the place where lightning struck." The Mzymta's stretch through the gorge was a spawning ground for Black Sea salmon, which enter the river from March to May and spawn from mid-October.

The road through the gorge runs along a rock ledge cut into the vertical wall, with the limestone face on one side and the Mzymta below on the other. The entrance, coming from Adler toward Krasnaya Polyana, lies near the village of Monastyr. The narrowest point is at the 34th kilometre, where a grey rock separated by a crack overhangs the river.

On 13 January 1968 a rockfall at the narrowest point, 34 km along the road, dammed the Mzymta and formed a lake up to 18 m deep. Within five to seven years the river had eroded the barrier and the lake disappeared. The overhanging grey rock separated by a crack from the main massif still hangs above the water.