The ruins of the ancient city of Panticapaeum are located on the top and slopes of Mount Mithridates in the center of modern Kerch.
Instructions
Step 1
Returning after a vacation in Crimea, you can bring not only photographs of the Black Sea, palaces, caves and waterfalls, but also images of real antique ruins, which are not inferior in color to the Greek ones. We are talking about the ruins of the ancient city of Panticapaeum, located on the territory of the modern city of Kerch, in the eastern part of the peninsula. For many centuries Panticapaeum was the capital of the Bosporus kingdom.
Step 2
Panticapaeum was founded by immigrants from Miletus at the end of the 7th century BC and existed in ancient times on the shores of the present Kerch and Taman peninsulas. The name Panticapaeum may have Iranian or Thracian roots and means "fish way" in translation. There is another version regarding the name. It is believed that the city was named after the Panticapa river, now Melek-Chesme. According to the ancient scale, Panticapaeum was a large city and during its heyday it occupied up to 100 hectares. Sailing by sea, admired the acropolis hill with white-stone temples on top. On the slopes of the mountain, on wide terraces, rich palaces adorned. Excavations of the ancient Panticapaeum in the area of Mount Mithridates show that in Hellenic times the city was surrounded by powerful walls. The harbor with docks could simultaneously receive up to thirty ships. In the center of the polis in the 2nd century BC, a theater and a building for the city authorities - "pritanei" with an area of about 450 square meters were built. m. There was a courtyard surrounded by a colonnade and statues with an altar for sacrifices. Of the many temples, the temple of Apollo with a six-column portico and the temple of Aspurga were distinguished by special luxury. The lower part of the city housed a port, agora, residential areas. The remains of semi-dugouts from the end of the 6th century BC, ground dwellings and a rich residential building with a courtyard of the Hellenic era have been preserved on the slopes.
Step 3
During the period of archaeological excavations on the site where Panticapaeum once stood, many historically valuable things were found: amphorae, painted ceramics, coins, epigraphic documents, ancient dishes, gold products and jewelry. To our great regret, unlike many ancient cities, the majestic remains of which still amaze the imagination, Panticapaeum and its structures were almost completely destroyed, a few ruins and burials of the ancient capital of the Bosporus kingdom have survived. Now the Obelisk of Glory, erected in 1944, rises above Mount Mithridates. Next to him, on the so-called "first chair of Mithridates," from where, according to legend, the Pontic king admired the sea, the Eternal Flame burns in honor of the soldiers who defended the city and liberated Kerch from the enemy. This is how events from the history of Kerch, the heiress of the ancient Panticapaeum, echo in time.
