Eski-Kermen

A medieval fortress city on a plateau in the Crimea, founded by the Byzantines at the end of the 6th century. One of the most famous cave cities of the peninsula after Chufut Kale.

Bakhchisaray district, about 14 km south of Bakhchisaray and 5 km northwest of Mangup. The road leads to a plateau more than a kilometer long with cliffs up to 30 meters high.

About 350 caves in the city itself, plus half a hundred more around, a basilica of the 6th century, cave temples of the 12th-13th centuries with the remains of frescoes, and defensive fortifications.

This is the engineering pride of Eski-Kermen: a well cut into the rock back in the 6th century with 80 steps and a 20-meter corridor, which the inhabitants used to get to the water without going outside the walls during the siege.

In the 12th-13th centuries, about two thousand people lived here, but in 1299 the city was destroyed by the troops of Khan Nogai, and in 1399 it was finally finished by Edygei. Since then, the plateau has been empty.