The village of Uchkulan is located at the place where the Uchkulan River forms the source of the Kuban River. Nearby, in the neighboring gorge of the Ullu-Kam River, is the village of Khurzuk (1,430 people), and 5 km to the north is the village of Kart-Dzhurta. Therefore, sometimes the locals translate the name of the village Uchkulan as “three comrades,” although a more accurate translation from Turkic is “three gorges.” Not far from Uchkulan is the Makharskoe Gorge, the deepest gorge in the Kuban basin, and one and a half kilometers above it is the Mahara-Ayachy glade (1,750 m above sea level) with numerous Narzan springs. In 1878, the very first secular educational institution in the Karachay region, a five-year public school, was opened in the village of Uchkulan.
Uchkulan, which was the center of cultural, social, and political life of the entire Karachay, lost its status overnight from November 2-5, 1943. During these days, the residents of all the surrounding villages were deported by Soviet authorities to Kazakhstan and Central Asia. The territory of Greater Karachay was incorporated into the Georgian SSR, and the ancient villages were renamed. Thus, Uchkulan became Madnishevi. Fourteen years later, in 1957, after the Karachays were fully rehabilitated, all the villages regained their old names. However, by that time, the three villages had already lost and never regained their former significance.