Pantikapey, Kerch: history and modernity

2024 Author: Harold Hamphrey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:06

See what is left of the ancient cities, someone goes to Greece or Italy. We will go to the Crimea and look at Panticapaeum in Kerch. The ancient city, which has recently been fighting for the status of the most ancient city in the territory of the Russian Federation, attracts tourists.

Capital of the Cimmerian Bosphorus

On Mount Mithridates, near the river Panticapaeum, in the 7th century BC, immigrants from the ancient Greek city of Miletus settled. It is they who are considered the founders of the settlement of Panticapaeum, which means "fish way". In the 480s BC. there is a unification of the cities of the two peninsulas - Taman and Kerch - with the formation of the Bosporan kingdom with the ruler Archeanakt. The settlement becomes a policy and the capital of this kingdom. The dynasty of Spartakid rulers replaced the previous one in 438 BC, it was under them that Panticapaeum became a great city of the ancient world.

What was he like

It was a large policy, up to a hundred hectares. The city, which, according to the ideas of the ancients, was on the border of Europe and Asia, in the strait betweentwo seas, played the role of an important commercial point. The nobility lived on Mount Mithridates in the acropolis - the central city, and from the sea there was a view of luxurious palaces and terraces. In the 6th century BC e. completed the construction of the temple of Apollo, who was recognized as the patron saint of the city. On the east side was a harbor and docks that could accommodate up to 30 ships. The city was surrounded by a defensive wall up to 10 meters high. And behind these walls were residential houses of the Panticapaeans and trading areas. Here they traded grain, fish and wine. Gold, silver and copper coins were minted in the city, which became the only monetary unit of the Bosporus kingdom. They depicted a griffin (a mystical creature with the body of a cat and the head of a bird), the god of wine Pan or ears of wheat. These coins are the pride of domestic museums and private collections, and some are sold at international auctions for fabulous money.

Mithridates VI in the history of Panticapaeum

Mount Mithridates, where the Greeks founded the policy, is named after the greatest commander and one of the rulers of the Bosporus kingdom (107-63 BC). Mithridates VI Eupator was fluent in all the languages that then existed. He was so fabulously we althy that he executed his subjects by pouring molten gold into their mouths. Growing up in a dynasty that was once close to Alexander the Great, fighting for life with his brothers and sisters from childhood, he was a man of steel will, who made even Great Rome fear him. During his life he survived three wars, and died on this mountain, betrayed by his son Farnak (63BC). The marble chair, recently discovered by archaeologists, according to legend, was the favorite place of this victor.

Borders, rise and fall of the Bosporus

To the east, the kingdom occupied territories up to the Caucasus Mountains. The western border was the territory of modern Feodosia. The northernmost outpost of Tanais was located at the mouth of the Don River. The boundaries of the Bosporan kingdom were constantly changing either upward or becoming the boundaries of the policy itself. In addition to the Greeks, the Scythians, Sinds, Sarmatians and Dandaria settled here. The Bosporus kingdom existed in history for 900 years, and Panticapaeum experienced periods of prosperity and oblivion with it. The rulers of these territories waged constant wars with Rome and the barbarians. The Huns destroyed Panticapaeum-Kerch in 375. The city was burned and destroyed, the inhabitants were killed or became slaves. Thus ended the first era of the existence of this policy.

Different names - one city

Over the next millennia, Panticapaeum developed in Kerch, its history changed the names of the city:

• In the 6th century the city was part of the state of Byzantium under the name Bosporus.
• In the 7th century, the Khazars entered it and called the city of Karsha.
• In the 9th-10th centuries it became the capital of the Slavic Tmutarakan principality and was called Korchevo.
• In the 12th century, Panticapaeum was again part of Byzantium.
• In 1318, the Genoese conquered it, and the city of Cherkio became part of their provinces.
• And in 1475 the Turks built the Yeni fortress here-Kale, which became an outpost of the Ottoman state.
• In 1774, the Russians conquered Panticapaeum in Kerch, where they built a fortress of the same name.

Wars of the last centuries

After the Russian-Turkish war in 1774, Panticapaeum in Kerch finally became part of the Russian Empire, which was enshrined in the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kaynardzhy between Catherine II and Sultan Selim Giray. The city is going through an era of rapid construction and economic takeoff, which was interrupted during the Kramskoy war (1853-1856). The wars of the 20th century also left their mark on these lands. Fierce battles during the Second World War destroyed both Kerch and Panticapaeum. But the city survived both wars and the unstable 90s of the last century. Confirming the status of a resort town, Kerch is happy to welcome tourists even today.

History of excavations

In 1859, by decree of Alexander II, the Imperial Archaeological Commission was created. And from that moment begins the official history of the excavations in Panticapaeum. And before that, many researchers, travelers and just adventurers were looking for the untold we alth of Mithridates, hidden in mounds. The life-size legend of Mithridates' golden horse is still alive today. From 1876 to 1880, 55 barrows, two catacombs, more than a hundred burials were unearthed. Today, the ruins of Panticapaeum on Mount Mithridates and the famous Adzhimushkay catacombs are part of the exposition of the Kerch Museum. Preserved fortifications, houses and crypts, public buildings are open to tourists. And that's justpart of the excavation. The ruins of the cities of Tiritaka, Ilurat and Nymphaeum are marked with protective designations. And in the waters of the Kerch Strait, the ruins of the port of Acre were discovered, where, according to legend, the ancient Greek god Achilles was born

Pantikapey in Kerch: how to get there

The address of this cultural heritage site is st. Chekhov 1A, and it is located in the very center of Kerch. The path to the top of Mount Mithridates can be overcome along the Great Mithridates Stairs (51 Army Street). This in itself is a historical building. It was built by the Italian Alexander Digby (1832-1840) in the middle of the nineteenth century. 432 steps of a spiral structure made of gray stone in the style of classicism look majestic and solemn; griffins, the symbol of Kerch, sit on the railing. At the top, where the Obelisk of Glory stands today and the eternal flame burns (by the way, the first monument to the heroes of that war in the Soviet Union), until 1944 there was the mausoleum of the mayor of the city of Stempovsky - an eight-meter-high chapel. The path from the end of the stairs will lead tourists to the majestic ruins of Panticapaeum, the main attraction of which is an antique arch with a carved stone portico, miraculously preserved during the massive bombings of World War II.

Why else is it worth visiting Kerch

This one of the most ancient Russian cities will surprise tourists not only with the ruins of Panticapaeum. All sights of the city are located in its center. So, the Church of the Forerunner is located in the heart of Kerch. This Byzantine monumentculture with a thousand-year history was completed in the 19th century - a bell tower and side chapels were attached to the cruciform temple. Right in the center of the bus station there is a mound - Melek-Chismensky burial crypt. It dates back to the times of Plato and Aristotle. A stepped descent will lead to a burial chamber measuring 4 by 4 meters. Unfortunately, the crypt is empty - it was plundered a long time ago. The Turkish fortress of Yeni-Kale, built in the narrowest part of the strait, will surprise you with sheer walls and a bastion with defensive towers. And here you can also see the Tsar's Kurgan - the burial place of one of the Spartokids, so far the oldest burial in the entire former Soviet Union, and the war memorial - the Adzhimushkay catacombs with an impressive museum exposition.

For more than 26 centuries, the city of Panticapaeum and the stories of its inhabitants excite the imagination of historians and simply interested citizens. The place covered with legends is waiting for its visitors. And although today these are only the ruins of Panticapaeum, a glorious Hellenic polis with the temples of Apollo and the place of death of the richest Mithridates VI appears in the imagination of a tourist. Excavations on Mount Mithridates continue, archaeologists find objects that belonged to the inhabitants of the Bronze Age. The mountain still has not revealed all the secrets of Mithridates the victor.