The Road to Chufut-Kale

In preparation to our late October journey to the Crimea, Lloyd treads on one path and illustrates it with photos from his July, 2007 visit the most important sights of Bakhchisaray. On each of these monuments we will soon also write in detail.

If you take the elektrichka from Sevastopol going northwest, after about 50km you will come to the town of Bakhchisaray.


From the train station there, take a marshrutka past the Palace of the Tatar Khan …


… and past the town mosque …


… all the way up to the Uspenskiy Monastery of the Caves.


From this point, proceed on foot, into the dusty countryside, with rarely so much as a shade tree to protect you from the blistering sunshine. After a 2km hike (which feels like at least 10) you will at last arrive at the ancient cave city of Chufut-Kale.


Although the name means “Jewish Fortress” in the Turkic language of the Tatars, it was founded possibly as early as the 6th century by Byzantines, and later settled by Christian Alans, relatives of the Persians and ancestors of the present-day Ossetes. According to Wikipedia:

In 1299 the Tatar horde of Emir Nogai raided the Crimean peninsula. … [Chufut-Kale] was among the sacked towns. Having seized the town, the Tatars quartered their garrison in it. At the turn of the 15th century, Tatars settled Karaite craftsmen in front of the eastern line of fortifications and built a second defensive wall to protect their settlement, and thus a new part of the town appeared.

There remains in Chufut-Kale a Karaite kenassa …


… as well as a mausoleum for a Tatar princess.

The main stations of the road through Bakhchisaray. In larger size.
For another map of Bakhchisaray see the atlas of Crimea