Even if you're not particularly interested in the archeology of the place, Khersoness is worth a visit just for the fantastic sea views. Best to go on a sunny but breezy day when the wind will bring waves bursting into spray over the low rocky shores of the headland. On a day like this the sea can be a translucent pale green, with waves whipped into white by the wind. The kind of day that might have made Crimean seascape painter Aivasovsky reach for his brushes...

Greece
The Greeks took this part of the coast from the Tauric and Scythian tribes who lived in the area in the 5th Century BC. Gradually the Greeks established settlements all along the shores of the Black Sea, although they never penetrated very far inland. Sometimes described as the last of the Greek city-states, Khersoness had a flourishing economy based on trade with Greece and with countries to the north, and by the 3rd century BC the city was minting its own coins. Slavery formed a substantial part of Khersoness' trade and when, in the 1st century BC, the city was attacked by Roman forces, a revolt by Khersoness' slaves, led by Saumacus, contributed to victory for the Romans.

Rome and the Byzantine Empire
Under Rome the city gradually regained a degree of autonomy in return for assisting the Romans against local tribes, and the archeological remains include inscriptions recording restorations of its walls by Byzantine officials. Gibbon, in his `Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' wrote that at this time it was `governed by a perpetual magistrate, assisted by a council of senators, emphatically styled the Fathers of the City'.

It is likely that Christianity reached Khersoness quite early. St. Clement, author of the epistle to the Corinthians, was exiled here by the emperor Trajan in around 100AD, and is said to have preached the gospel and performed miracles. He eventually annoyed the authorities sufficiently for them to have him attached to a heavy anchor and thrown into the Black Sea.

The 4th century AD saw the founding of Constantinople on the far side of the Black Sea, and the spread of Christianity throughout the Roman empire is evidenced in the remarkable early Christian church at Khersoness, which dates from that period. The Bishop of Khersoness is recorded as having attended the first Ecumenical Council of Nicea in 325 AD.

In 868 AD the brothers Cyril and Methodius (later canonised) stayed in Khersoness. It is St Cyril who devised the cyrillic alphabet on which modern Russian, Ukrainian and other slavonic scripts are based. While there St. Cyril discovered some bones in a mound together with an anchor which were believed to be those of the martyred St Clement. He had them taken to Rome where they were deposited by Pope Adrian II in the high altar of the basilica of San Clemente.

Kiyvan Rus
In the 10th century a new force began to emerge north of the Crimean peninsula. Centred on Kyiv, a number of princes were extending their sphere of influence in the first stirrings of what was to become Kyivan Rus, the forerunner of modern Russia. On the short walk to the site you're likely to pass the statue of Vladimir the First, who in 988 AD adopted Christianity as the official religion of Kiyvan Rus. In order to place his princedom on a firmer footing, Vladimir first made a point of capturing Khersoness from the Byzantine emperor and demanding the emperor's sister Anna's hand in marriage. A deal was then struck whereby Vladimir accepted baptism, married Anna and handed Khersoness back to its Byzantine ruler as the bride price.

Vladimir then returned to Kyiv and began the process of conversion with a mass baptism in the river Dnieper. He was later made Saint Vladimir.

The Golden Horde
Khersoness continued to prosper under Byzantine rule until the 13th century, when competition first from Venetian and then from Genoese traders shifted the main commercial focus down the coast to Sudak and Kaffa (now called Feodosia), and the city went into decline. After Chingiz Khan's Golden Horde pushed west in1223, numerous assaults by the Tatars weakened the city still further, and it was eventually sacked by one of the Khans at the end of the 14th century. After that it became a ghost town, and its ruins gradually sank beneath the soil over the next 500 years. It was not until 1827 that the first excavations began. They are still continuing.