Crimea
When she was busy ordering the mass destruction of Bakhchysaray's mosques in the 18th and early 19th centuries, Catherine the Great spared the Khans'…
Must-see attractions in Crimea
Crimea
Rising 200m, this long and bluff plateau houses a honeycomb of caves and structures where people took refuge for centuries. It's wonderful to explore,…
Sevastopol
The city's bay-facing showcase greets seafarers with an array of whitewashed colonnaded buildings. Fresh from a Russian-funded spruce-up, the boulevard is…
Sevastopol
A massive piece of fortification seen across the bay from central Sevastopol, the battery served as a hospital when the Russians withdrew to the northern…
Crimea
Crimea's largest museum consists of three main sections. The first is a collection of golden artefacts, produced by Hellenized Alano-Goths in the…
Crimea
Everyone's favourite pastime in Yalta is walking up and down the seafront nab Lenina and the pedestrian zone along the Uchan-su River, where you'll find a…
Crimea
It's not the most sumptuously furnished Crimean interior, but Livadia Palace reverberates with history. It's the site of the 1945 Yalta Conference, where…
Sevastopol
The southernmost tip of Sevastopol municipality is a spot of a rare, Le Grand Bleu type of beauty. But this aesthetic pleasure comes at a cost – an 800…
Crimea
If you liked Chufut-Kale and want more, head to Mangup-Kale, the peninsula's most spectacular cave city. Located 22km south of Bakhchysaray, this remote…
Crimea
Its vertiginous location is one of the major appeals of Sudak's Fortress. This once-impregnable complex is perched on a massive seaside cliff and in true…
Crimea
With many of Yalta's attractions a short distance away, the Chekhov House-Museum is the only must-see in town. It's sort of The Cherry Orchard incarnate…
Crimea
Crimea's most exotic palace-park complex is wedged between the coast and Mt Ay-Petri, in a stunning setting 16km west of Yalta at Alupka. The palace was…
Crimea
The Valley of the Ghosts under Mt Demerdzhi (1356m) contains some stunning rock formations created by the wind erosion of sandstone. The freaky pillars…
Crimea
Mt Chatyr-Dag (1527m) lies west of the Alushta–Simferopol road and is renowned for the numerous caves that lie beneath it. The most famous are the…
Crimea
Like many movie stars, Swallow's Nest is shorter in real life than it appears in pictures. This toy-town castle is a favourite subject for Crimean…
Sevastopol
The ruins of the ancient Greek city founded in 422 BC are of great significance to local visitors. This is the place where Volodymyr the Great was…
Crimea
Two local recreational dinosaurs, sanatoriums Gurzufsky and Pushkino, occupy what used to be the dacha of the Duc de Richelieu, governor of Odesa (1803–14…
Crimea
Memoirists claim that Tsar Nicholas II would always keep a flask of Massandra port hidden in his high boot during his daily Sunny path walks, while his…
Crimea
These gardens let you sample a wide range of the world's flora, just wandering around the 3 sq km of their hillside (and seaside) grounds. Founded under…
Crimea
Catacombs in the Kerch suburb of Adzhimushkay (Аджимушкай) have been a source of construction material for the city from time immemorial. Early Christians…
Crimea
A cutesy hunting lodge built to resemble a French chateau, the turreted palace was completed by Tsar Alexander III in 1889. It's better known, however,…
Crimea
Ten years ago Crimean Tatar handicrafts were on the verge of extinction, but Ayshe Osmanova resolved to rescue her people's culture from the precipice…
Crimea
Eight hundred metres from the Adzhimushkay Defence Museum, there is a monument from a completely different epoch. This empty, 4th-century-BC burial mound…
Crimea
With the cacophony of tourist agents touting their services through loudspeakers, along with terrible music, junk-food smells and a train line right on…
Crimea
Built in 1552, the landmark mosque is attributed to Mimar Sinan, the architect of Istanbul's famous Blue Mosque. Although not in Backhysaray, it was…
Crimea
The town's quirkiest sight lurks across the bay from the main promenade. The concrete opening in the harbour wall is the mouth of a natural underwater…
Crimea
Small and almost literally down to earth, the town's main Armenian church was built in 1363. Its walls are adorned with numerous khachkar – stone plaques…
Crimea
The forested Iosofatova Valley beneath the Chufut-Kale plateau hides a breathtaking and spooky sight. Thousands of moss-covered gravestones covered in…
Crimea
The beautiful whitewashed colonnaded complex became the main place of worship for Karaites in the aftermath of the Russian takeover of Crimea, when they…
Crimea
Early 20th-century travel guides to Crimea still touted dervishes whirling in a breathtaking shamanic dance as one of the peninsula's main attractions,…
Crimea
On the coastal road in Miskhor, behind a little cluster of market stalls, is the cable car up the cliff of Mt Ay-Petri. It's a truly dizzying ride across…
Crimea
Stop for a moment and say 'aah!' at possibly the cutest little church in a country absolutely jam-packed with them. Part of the small Uspensky Monastery,…
Crimea
Tired of being a local celebrity in Yalta, Chekhov sought refuge in this little Tatar farmhouse tucked in a solitary cove under the Genovese Cliff. The…
Crimea
The site where Crimean Tatar khans originally settled in Bakhchysaray now consists of a modest museum, ruins of a public bath, a mausoleum where 18…
Crimea
The first thing to do in Kerch is to take the 432 stairs up the central Mithridates Hill. The view from the summit is brilliant, and on the lee side the…
Crimea
Born in 1817, the most celebrated son of Feodosiya and of its Armenian community, Ivan Ayvazovsky became the official painter of the Russian Navy,…
Crimea
Poet Maximilian Voloshin came to live on this bay beneath the anthropomorphic shapes of the Kara-Dag mountains (which his friends claimed looked like him)…
Kara-Dag Nature Reserve Bio-station
Crimea
The Kara-Dag Nature Reserve bio-station is on the outskirts of Kurortne hamlet. Anyone is free to visit the aquarium, dolphinarium and botanic gardens,…
Crimea
All that remains of the 15th-century Genovese fortress are three semi-ruined towers on top of a strategic hill, guarding the mouth of the harbour. But the…
Crimea
Not nearly as spectacular as its Sudak counterpart, and neglected by the authorities, this is still a beautifully melancholic place where you can get away…
