Attractions of Krym AR region

The ruins of the ancient city of Panticapaeum are located on the top and slopes of Mount Mithridates in the center of modern Kerch.

Panticapaeum was founded by the Greeks from Miletus, until the 6th century it remained the capital of the Bosporus kingdom. The Pontic emperor Mithridates VI Eupator, who fought against the expansion of Rome, spent the last years of his life here. In 63, he committed suicide in the Panticapaean citadel, having learned that his son Pharnak II was in command of the forces besieging it.

The city occupied an area of about 100 hectares, the ruins of the magnificent building of the temple of Apollo Ietra and other buildings have been preserved (they are being excavated). Access is free.

The Great Mithridates Stairs (1833-1840), consisting of 428 steps, lead to the top of the mountain from the city center.

The Perekop Shaft is a powerful earthen fortification that crosses the Perekop Isthmus in its narrowest part.

The height of the embankment reached 10 meters, along it ran a canal connecting Perekop Bay with Lake Sivash.

The exact date of construction of the Perekop Shaft is unknown, but already in the 1st century Greek sources mention the Tafros fortress with a defensive rampart and a canal laid along it.

During the Crimean Khanate, Perekop defended Crimea from the continent. The earthen embankment was fortified with stone towers, the ruins of one of which still rise 15 meters above the waters of the Karkinit Bay of the Black Sea on the western side of the embankment. In the center was the Turkish fortress of Or-Kapu, of which only the ramparts now remain. Since then, Perekop is often called the Turkish rampart.

In 1736, it was stormed by Russian troops, and in 1920, Wrangel's army stubbornly defended itself here during the Red Army attack (the city of Perekop was completely destroyed), battles were fought during the Second World War. Monuments and obelisks remind us of this.

The Yevpatoriian pyramid is a small glass structure that has become a modern business card of the city.

The archeological complex "Northwestern Suburb of the Ancient City of Kerkinitida of the 5th - 2nd centuries BC" is covered with a transparent dome. Most of ancient Kerkinitida was located on the current territory of the sanatorium of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, so only a small fragment of the ruins has survived. The excavation is the remains of the western defensive wall of Kerkinitida, residential premises, a round tower with a slab battlement and an altar, which were located outside the city.

Every year, in the summer, various exhibitions of archeology items from the museum's collections are arranged inside the pyramid, which complement the archaeological complex.

The park of the Saky resort was artificially created almost a century and a half ago in the middle of the bare steppe.

The resort park is located on the shores of the famous Saky Lake, at the bottom of which there is healing mud. It occupies an area of 50 hectares, has 80 species of trees and shrubs.

On the territory there is an old pumping station with "Krymska" mineral water. In the 1960s, a sculptural group of dinosaurs was installed over the pond next to the pump station.

Saint Constantine's Tower in Feodosiia is a business card of the city, the best-preserved tower that was part of the system of city fortifications.

The city was girded by two lines of fortress walls up to 2.5 meters thick and 12 meters high, fortified with 26 watchtowers and defensive towers (the ruins of the Thomas Tower, Giovanni di Scaffa Tower, and the Dock Tower are also preserved).

The Constantine Tower is popular among tourists due to its convenient location in the park area on the embankment. The adjacent Turkish bastion is equipped as a bar.

The water aqueduct over the Chorna River in the village of Khmelnitskoe on the outskirts of Sevastopol was created in the 19th century as part of the city water supply.

Sevastopol has always experienced a lack of fresh water, and to solve this problem, in 1784 it was decided to lay a water main and bring water from a source located 8 kilometers from the city. However, there were not enough funds for such a large-scale construction, and it was completed only in 1837, when it was necessary to provide water to the dry docks in Sevastopol. The final project was developed by Admiral Mykhaylo Lazarev. Water tunnels were dug in the rocks by hand by soldiers, sailors and prisoners. Ceramic water pipes were made by local potters.

During the defense of Sevastopol in 1854-1855, the Lazarev waterworks was destroyed, and they did not begin to restore it. Only fragments have survived. The most interesting of them is the Roman-type arched aqueduct in Khmelnitskoe. Its project was developed by engineer-colonel John Upton. The aqueduct in the form of a bridge over the Chorna River is 104 meters long.

The Tatar name Shaytan-Koba ("Devil's cave") is given to the grotto, in which the site of an ancient man of the Paleolithic era (100-40 thousand years BC) was discovered.

It is located at the foot of a cliff on the Bodrak River, on the south-eastern edge of the village of Skalyste.

Flint products, animal bones were found.

The Skelska stalactite cave in Crimea is located in the tract "Karadah forest" at the foot of Mount Kara-Dah on the slope of Baydary Valley near the village of Rodnykivske.

It was opened and first examined in 1904 by a local teacher, Fedir Kyrylov. The total length of the investigated part is 670 meters.

Skelska Cave was formed in Upper Jurassic marbled limestones by tectonic faulting - as a result of underground water processes in cracked limestone rocks.

The cave has several halls connected by passages. The height of the vault of the largest and most beautiful hall reaches 25 meters. The walls are decorated with numerous hanging curtains and ribs, original niches-baths.

The main attraction of the Skelska cave is a seven-meter stalagmite.

Underground rivers and lakes with a depth of up to 70 meters have formed in the lower narrow galleries, which feed the Baydary Reservoir.

The cave is listed in the Crimean Book of Records as the most inhabited by speleofauna: spiders, crustaceans, arthropods, grasshoppers, millipedes, bats, etc. Basically, these are endemics - creatures that live only in this area. The temperature in the upper halls is +12 degrees, and in the lower one, where the labyrinths of water wells pass, +9 degrees.

The Skelska cave is open for visitors.

Skelsky Menhirs of the Baydary Valley are ancient (III-II millennium BC) megalithic structures of cult (astronomical) purpose.

They are stone blocks of marble limestone placed vertically in the form of obelisks. The height of the largest of them is 2.8 meters, the other is 1.2 meters. The third was excavated in the 1950s during the construction of an aqueduct. In 1989, another fallen menhir with a height of about 2.4 meters was discovered.

The Tatars called this place Tekli-Tash ("placed stone"). The mass of Menhir reaches 6 tons. It is interesting that there are no quarries nearby, and the nearest rocks are located several kilometers from here.

Menhirs are attributed magical healing properties, calling them "the place of Power".

The natural sphinxes of the Karalez Valley are unusual stone figures, the result of weathering of limestone on the ridge of the wooded Uzun-Tarla hill.

Some of the stone figures rise above the ridge by 8-15 meters and bear their own names: the southernmost figure of Yukle-Kai (Pregnant), further Suyuryu-Kaya (Pointed), Chuyun-Kaya, two similar flat-topped Sandik-Kaya (Chest ) and Shapka-Kaya (Hat).

The valley of the Sotera River is a protected tract on the eastern South Bank.

Here, in the process of weathering and water erosion, amazing stone mushrooms up to 7 meters high were formed. The caps of the "mushrooms" are formed by dense slabs of conglomerate, and the "legs" are looser sediments, which were destroyed faster than the "caps", mainly by water flowing from the slopes. There are large mushrooms with a diameter of "caps" up to 2 meters, and smaller mushrooms - about 1 meter high. Over time, mushrooms are destroyed under the influence of erosion, but new ones appear.

At the end of 1893, Professor Mykola Holovkinsky found a complete skeleton of a mammoth here.

Not far from the pond, the remains of the "Shostak" estate of the Borozdiny noble family have been preserved.

The Swan Islands in Portove are a group of 6 islands stretching 8 kilometers along the coast of the Karkinit Bay, where a huge number of migratory birds gather in spring and summer.

The name of the islands was given by the German scientist Brauler, who visited here at the end of the 19th century, saw a huge number of white whooper swans and came to the conclusion that they nest here. In fact, this is the most important part of the migratory path of birds to Africa, Europe, and Asia. At the same time, there are up to 75-100 thousand of them in clusters, and during the day at the height of the flight - up to a million!

An ornithological reserve of international importance "Swan Islands" - a branch of the Crimean state reserve - was created here. Visitation is strictly limited.

The Syuren Caves-Grottoes are located near the road near the village of Tankove.

A Late Paleolithic settlement was found in one of them, and a Mesolithic site in the other.

Grottoes are classic forms of weathering and water erosion of the steep limestone slopes of the transverse Cuesta Valley.

The Syuren tower is part of the medieval fortification of Syuren in the southeastern part of the Kule-Burun mountain on the left bank of the Belbek river near the village of Male Sadove.

From the 8th century there was a Byzantine fortress here, which from the 13th century began to take on the features of a small town. The Syuren fortress was one of the outposts of the ancient principality of Feodoro with its capital in Mangup.

The Syuren Tower has preserved its domed ceiling with traces of fresco painting.

From the top of the plateau there are breathtaking views of the surrounding area.

The Tarkhankut (Karadzhyn) Hillfort in Olenivka is located on the northern shore of the Tarkhankut estuary and is washed by water.

Presumably, in this place, in the 3rd century BC - 2nd century AD, there was a rich ancient settlement of Tamiraka, which in later times lost its polis self-government and later turned into an ordinary coastal fortification.

The area of the Tarkhankut Hillfort is 5 hectares.