FROM ALOUCHTA TO SIMPHERÓPOL, KARASOUBAZAR, ESKI KRIM, AND THEODOSIA.
Valley of Alouchta—Obelisk—Valley of the Angar—Tavshan
Bazar—Fortified Gorge—Yenisála, a Greek Colony—Aian and the
source of the Salghír—Ascent of the Tchatyr-Dagh—Yaila—Snow
reservoirs—From Tchafki to Simpherópol—Excursion up valley
of Little Salghír to caves of Kisilkoba—Caverns—Simpherópol
to Karasóubazar—The Shireen family—Eski Krim—Theodosia, or
Kaffa—B.C. 700, Theodosia founded by Milesians—A.D. 250,
totally destroyed by the Huns—Desert for 1000 years—A.D. 1280,
Kaffa founded by Genoese on site of Theodosia—Short history of
it—A.D. 1475, taken by Turks—Its decline—Revival in seventeenth
century—1781, taken by Russians—Description of ruins—Their
destruction by the Russians—Position of Kaffa in commercial
point of view—Arabat—The wall of Asander—The approach to Kertch.
The macadamised road does not extend along the coast further than
Alouchta, and here turns off northwards to Simpherópol, a distance of
about forty miles. It mounts for the first twelve miles through the rich
valley of Alouchta, till an obelisk marks the highest point, whence it
descends through the cheerful little valley of the Angar, which runs into
the Salghír. Here the Tchatyr-Dagh, the highest mountain in the Crimea,
rises immediately on the left, and the valley is an enormous rent in the
red pudding stone of which the mountain itself is composed.
A little further on, a shady spot, called Tavshan Bazar (the Hare
market), serves as a resting-place for carriages coming from Simpherópol,
before they encounter the hilly part of the journey to the coast, and
from Tavshan Bazar to Simpherópol the road is good and even.
Two limestone mountains[202] here rise above the road on the right, and
vast blocks which have rolled down from them nearly fill up the valley of
the Angar, and advantage has been taken of the narrow passage, called
Demirkapou, or the gates of iron, to erect one of the walls so common in
the Crimea, by which the southern coast was protected against invasions
from the north.
A little beyond Tavshan Bazar,[203] to the right, is the village of
Yenisála, occupying the bottom of the valley. This was a Greek village,
abandoned in 1778, of which there only remain now the ruins of a chapel
and some tombs. The inhabitants were induced to remove at the great
emigration which took place five years before the Russian conquest of
the Crimea, and were transferred to the shores of the Sea of Azof, near
Mariopol, where they founded a new Yenisála. They never, however, forgot
their old abodes, and the present possessor of the village, M. Grot,
has seen old men arrive to visit the scenes of their youth, and find
out among the tangled bushes their ancient home, which they came once
to revisit before their strength failed them. A little beyond Yenisála
the Angar falls into the Salghír, and the high road follows the banks
of the latter river all the way to Simpherópol. There are no remains of
antiquity, except an old Tatar palace, called Eski Serai; but the country
around is rich and wooded, with fine poplars and aspens, and Tatar
villages are dotted thickly over it, with tiled houses and white minarets
rising among the trees.
It is worth while, however, to stop on the high road at Tchafki and
make an excursion to the source of the Salghír and the summit of the
Tchatyr-Dagh. From Tchafki the ride is short to the little Tatar village
of Aian,[204] which is close to the sources of the Salghír, to visit
which the traveller must descend from the limestone terrace, on which
the village is situated, into the neighbouring narrow valley, which is
a rent in the red marble rocks, terminating, at a few hundred yards
distance, in a great chasm in the flank of the mountain. There, under an
enormous rock, surmounted by other broken fragments, is a large mouth,
which vomits forth the Salghír in the midst of mossy blocks of stone.
The wave, scarcely escaped from its cavern, falls in a cascade over
a mass of marble, and the noise of the waterfall is mingled with the
roaring of the waters in the gulf from which it issues in the very bowels
of the mountain. From a grotto above it the water may be seen boiling
and foaming in the dark abyss. These subterranean gulfs penetrate into
the heart of the mountain, where they communicate with other gulfs and
abysses, which reach the whole way through the mountain from near its
summit, and, preserving the snow during the whole year like glaciers,
continually feed the river.
To mount the Tchatyr-Dagh,[205] on its eastern side, the first part of
the ascent is in the direction of Tchafki, over the schists, which to a
considerable height compose the western side of the valley of the Angar.
Then follows the red marble, and a very steep ascent, which leads to the
table-land or Yaila of the mountain, four or five miles in length and two
miles broad, and upwards of 4000 feet above the level of the sea. It is
very even and covered with fine pasture, on which feed numerous flocks of
sheep; but strange to say the strata of black limestone which compose it
are not horizontal, as might have been expected from its even surface,
but vertical, at right angles to the surface of the earth, and planed
off by some agency which nobody has been able to determine. The heads of
the beds may be seen running east and west, and the harder strata rise
slightly above the others, and have scarcely any vegetation upon them.
There are frequent slight depressions in the soil, from 40 to 100 feet
in diameter, and about 10 feet deep; but sometimes they sink into the
unfathomable abysses which have been mentioned as forming reservoirs of
snow to supply the rivers which issue from the Tauric chain. From this
lower table rises another, 700 or 800 feet high, which forms the summit
of the mountain, offering the magnificent view I have already described
in a former chapter.
Nothing of interest occurs on the road from Tchafki to Simpherópol;
from which latter place there is an agreeable excursion up the valley
of the Little Salghír, which runs on the east, parallel to the great
river of the same name.[206] After passing the village of Mamak, at
a short distance from Simpherópol, a vast wall of porphyry, fifteen
miles long, closes the valley to the east, and extends from Djamatai to
Yenisála, which has been mentioned as being close to the high road to
Alouchta. This wall is the eastern side of the great circular crater,
in the midst of which Mount Tchatyr-Dagh has been raised up, and along
it there are rents, which form narrow valleys to the east, in many of
which villages are situated. At Terenair is some black schistous earth,
somewhat resembling coal in appearance; but although it would no more
burn than so much granite, the possessor of it, Mr. Kortchan, always
uses his utmost endeavours to obtain a certificate of its carbonaceous
virtues from geological travellers, that he may enter into contracts to
supply it as coal to the fleet at Sevastopol. Higher up is the valley
of the Kisilkoba, with a village of the same name at its entrance, and
a rivulet running through it, shaded by high trees. After passing the
village, and following, for a short distance, a narrow path by the
side of the stream, we come to a very steep ascent among the rocks,
where numberless fragments of pottery mark the spot as once having been
inhabited. Ascending the sombre and narrow glen, we then arrive at an
even terrace, some acres square, covered with fine trees, and surrounded
by high rocks, in which grottoes have been excavated. It is impossible to
conceive a spot more fitted for a hermitage, where the world is only seen
at a distance through the entrance of the little valley. At the back of
the terrace the stream bursts forth from subterranean canals, like those
under the Tchatyr-Dagh, and at the time of the melting of the snows a
great body of water issues forth.
The course of the stream appears to have been several times changed, for
above its present place of exit, there are two other stages of the empty
canals, which form a series of majestic grottoes. The least elevated, but
the most beautiful, rise above the cascade, with a fine entrance about
twenty feet high, and within them the ground is found to be sandy, and
the cavern descends into the interior of the mountain. At half its depth
there is a passage of rising ground, which leads into other canals, of
such extent, that a French gentleman, having taken provisions and lights,
walked for a whole day with the guide, Mambet, without reaching the
extremity.[207] In the lower grotto, at sixty paces from the entrance,
there is a basin of limpid water, and between the strata of the limestone
the Tatars of Karasóubazar collect a red and yellow clay for the
manufacture of pipe bowls. The upper grottoes are two hundred feet above
the terrace, and the access to them is difficult. Their entrance is low,
but the passage rapidly increases in height and breadth in a north-east
direction. It then turns towards the north-west, and three more caverns
are passed, covered with white stalactites, which, by the light of the
flambeaux, make a beautiful contrast with the red rocks around. The
length of these caverns, as far as they are generally followed, is seven
hundred feet, and supposing that the dislocation of the strata, which
formed them, dates from the raising up of the Jurassic island of the
Crimea, fossil bones might perhaps be found here of great importance.
At a mile and a half[208] from Kisilkoba is another gorge, Koutchouk
Yankoi, which much resembles the one I have described, and here ends
the valley of the Salghír, between the foot of the Tchatyr-Dagh and the
heights of the Samarkaia.[209]
We will now return to Simpherópol, and follow the post-road thence
to Theodosia. From Simpherópol to Karasóubazar the road is very
uninteresting, and runs over a chalky undulating ground with little
cultivation and few trees. Half way is the post station of Konia, near
which are two large tumuli.
Karasóubazar,[210] or the market of the black water, is one of the two
towns reserved by Catherine II. at the conquest of the Crimea, for the
exclusive occupation of the Tatars, and it therefore retains a strictly
Oriental character, which has quite disappeared from the towns inhabited
by the Russians.
The only public edifices of any importance here are the khans or
caravanserais, where merchants rest on their journeys, and of these
there are between twenty and thirty, not equalling in architectural
beauty those of Georgia and Persia. The largest, called the Tachekhan,
was built in 1656 by Sefir Ghazi Atcheiou, minister of Mehmet Geray,
and is an immense square edifice, presenting outside only four blank
walls, but in the inside there is a large court occupied with rooms for
travellers and a number of shops. One of the last constructed khans
is that of the Armenians, which contrasts favourably with the others
in point of luxury and comfort. It is built like one of the covered
arcades or the “_passages_” of Paris, on a much greater scale, with
wider arcades, lighted by large apertures in its lofty roof. The shops
are ranged on each side, and there is a large passage or street between
them always filled with busy groups. There are also twenty-two mosques in
Karasóubazar, but none of them remarkable for beauty.
The Greek church deserves a visit for its originality; it is built in
the shape of a cross with a dome which lights the centre. Karasóubazar
was in former times celebrated for its cutlery, and about 1755 it
exported to the Caucasus and Mingrelia as many as 400,000 small knives or
daggers, such as are commonly worn in the girdle in eastern countries.
The cemeteries round the town are of enormous extent, and from that of
the Greeks there is an admirable view of the town, with its red-tiled
houses, winding streets, and shady gardens.
Between Karasóubazar and Kertch are situated the vast domains of the
Shireen family, which was the second in rank in the Crimea after that of
the Gerays, and so powerful that they were almost their rivals. Their
importance dated from the time when a certain Dangey Bey of this family,
in a general revolt, saved the last scion of the Geray family, who was
afterwards raised to the dignity of khan, and showed his gratitude to the
Shireens by conferring upon them many privileges. They alone could marry
the princesses of the Geray family, and near Karasóubazar is a mountain,
called by the Russians Shireenskaia Gora, or the Hill of the Shireens,
where they used to hold meetings of their dependents, when, as was often
the case, they disapproved of the conduct of the khans, and wished to
influence their government. According to one tradition, the ancestor of
this family was the companion in arms of Zingis Khan, and conquered the
Crimea for him, so that they might be even said to have some claims to
the throne itself.[211]
The only point of interest between Karasóubazar and Theodosia are the
ruins of Eski Krim, which was the most ancient capital of the Tatars
after their conquest of the Crimea. The date of its foundation is
unknown, but already in 1266 it was the appanage of Oran Timour. Under
the Mongols it was one of the greatest towns in Asia, and a well-mounted
horseman required half a day to ride round it. It is now almost deserted,
and scarce any traces remain of the great city where the rich caravans
of olden times used to come laden with all the precious products of
Asia. The traces of the pavements of the streets may be observed in the
fields that now occupy its site. The ruins of five mosques and large
vaulted baths remain; and one Greek church and one mosque are still
used for religious purposes. The Armenians are the only inhabitants who
have remained here, and they still retain their church and a convent,
dedicated to St. George, on the neighbouring hill of Karasou, which is
the object of numerous pilgrimages. The best view of the town is from the
hill of Aghermiche, which embraces the whole valley, once occupied by
buildings, and on one side may be traced the remains of the ancient wall,
flanked with towers, which surrounded the city, and included an enormous
cemetery, in which tombs may still be seen of every variety of form.
Near Eski Krim is the post-station of Krinitski, and beyond it begins the
flat uncultivated peninsula of Kertch.[212] There is now no sign of a
tree or a shrub, although traces exist in some parts of ancient forests,
and there is so great a want of water that the Tatars are obliged to dig
ponds in the soil to water their flocks.
At fifteen miles from Krinitski is the once famous town of Theodosia or
Kaffa, situated on the shores of the finest bay on the northern coasts of
the Black Sea after those of Sevastopol.
Twice have the commercial advantages of this situation been recognised,
and twice has a proud city arisen on the gentle slopes of this bay.
The Milesians, at the time of their first expedition into the Black
Sea, founded here a flourishing colony, which prospered long in an
independent state, and was then incorporated into the kingdom of the
Bosphorus. After an existence of 900 years, from the seventh century
before Christ to the third of our æra, there then intervened a period of
ten centuries, during which the plough passed over the site of Theodosia,
and it is barely mentioned by contemporary historians. Thus it remained
a ruin during the millennium, from the third to the thirteenth century,
when so many nations in succession made the Crimea their temporary
dwelling-place. Then, in the thirteenth century, soon after the Tatars
had made their first inroad, there landed on the shores of the Crimea
navigators, not less intelligent and enterprising than the Milesians, and
soon, on the site of the ancient Greek city of Theodosia, arose Kaffa,
the annals of which form undoubtedly one of the brightest pages in the
political and commercial history of the Black Sea.[213]
In the middle of the thirteenth century, after the conquest of the
Crimea by the Mongols, at the moment when three powerful republics were
disputing the empire of the seas, the Genoese, landing in the bay of
Theodosia, on the deserted spot, which was then called Kaffa, obtained
from Prince Oran Timour a small territory on the shore. In 1280 the
colony was founded, and its rise was so rapid, that nine years afterwards
it was enabled, without neglecting its own defence, to send three
galleys to the relief of Tripoli besieged by the Saracens. The Genoese
obtained from the Tatars the monopoly of wheat and salt, and established
themselves at Kertch (Cerco), Taman (Materca), and Tana at the mouths
of the Don. The foundation of Kaffa increased the hatred between the
Genoese and the Venetians, and in 1295 the former massacred the latter
at Constantinople, and the next year, in 1296, the Venetians took their
revenge, defeated the Genoese in a great battle on the Bosphorus, near
Constantinople, and, having surprised Kaffa with a fleet of twenty
galleys, utterly destroyed the town. Such was the energy and vitality
of the Italian republics at that time, however, that the next year the
Genoese again took possession of their territory,—Kaffa arose quickly
from its ruins, and in 1318 Pope John XXII. erected it into a bishopric.
It was then governed by a consul, and the Podesta, the supreme ruler of
all the Genoese establishments in the Black Sea, resided at Galata.
In 1343 a war having broken out with the Tatars, Djanibek Khan, the King
of Kiptchak, besieged Kaffa, and a crusade was preached in its favour by
Clement VI. The Genoese were victorious, but the dangers to which they
had been exposed made them feel the necessity of a formidable system
of fortification. The southern ramparts and palisades of the town were
replaced by high and thick walls, flanked with towers, and surrounded
by a deep ditch, lined with masonry. These magnificent works, of which
even the traveller at the present day may admire the admirable execution,
were commenced in 1353, by Godefrey de Zoaglio, and finished in 1386
by Benedict Grimaldi. The most remarkable tower of the enceinte, the
southern one, which commands the whole town, was consecrated to the
memory of Pope Clement VI., with an inscription relating to the crusade
preached by him at the moment the Tatars were besieging the colony. The
Genoese probably drew the materials for their fortifications from the
ancient Greek city of Kimmericum, now Opouk. In 1365 they conquered
the Greek colonies of Cembalo (Balaclava), and Soldaya (Soudak), which
were tributary to the khan of the Tatars, and in 1380 obtained from him
a grant of Gothia, or all the sea-coast between Balaclava and Soudak,
which was inhabited by the Christians.[214] After that time Kaffa went
on increasing in prosperity, and had commercial relations with the most
distant countries of Asia, and soon, according to its historians, it
equalled in size and population the capital of the Greek empire, and
surpassed it in trade and wealth.
The Genoese colony thus arrived, in the middle of the fifteenth century,
at the zenith of its glory and power, when the capture of Constantinople
by Mahomet II. isolated it from the mother city, and prepared the way
for its entire destruction. On the 1st of June, 1475, four hundred and
eighty-two sail of galleys, commanded by the grand Admiral Achmet Pasha,
appeared before Kaffa, and some hours afterwards the Genoese town saw its
walls bombarded by the formidable artillery of the Ottomans. The siege
lasted only a short time, and a large portion of the enceinte, raised at
a time when artillery was unknown, gave way; breaches were multiplied,
and on the 6th of June, 1475, the besieged surrendered at discretion,
after having in vain attempted to obtain a capitulation. Achmet Pasha
entered Kaffa irritated by resistance and hostile to the Christian
name. After taking possession of the consular palace, he disarmed the
population, levied a large sum of money on the town, and seized half
the property of the inhabitants, as well as all slaves of both sexes.
The Latin Catholics were then embarked on board the Turkish fleet and
carried to Constantinople, where the Sultan established them by force in
the faubourgs of his new capital, after taking fifteen hundred of their
male children, to incorporate in his guards. Thus in the space of a few
days, after a glorious existence of two hundred years, was ruined this
celebrated city, which European genius had raised in this remote country,
and which had developed a most important traffic with Eastern Europe and
Asia.
Kaffa, the ruin of which was followed immediately by that of Soldaya
and Cembalo, was directly united to the Ottoman Empire, and was not,
like the rest of the Crimea, left as a fief in the hands of the Tatars.
During one hundred and fifty years it had no other importance than that
which it derived from being the seat of a Turkish garrison, and a strong
military position on the borders of a Mussulman state, which the Sultans
were always anxious to conquer. In the middle of the seventeenth century
the ancient Genoese city again became considerable on account of the
great commercial and manufacturing movement which took place at that time
among the Tatars, and which caused it to become once more an important
commercial port of the Black Sea.
In 1663 Chardin found in the bay of Kaffa more than 400 ships. The town
was then called by the Turks Kutchuk Stamboul (little Constantinople)
and had 4000 houses, and more than 80,000 inhabitants. The prosperity
of Kaffa, however, did not last long. Since the time of Peter the
Great, Russia has been continually advancing towards the Black Sea,
and already in the time of that monarch, she had pushed her victorious
armies to the Danube. In this progressive march towards the south, the
Crimea especially excited the ambition of the Tzars, and in the reign of
Catherine II., was incorporated into the Russian Empire.
Under the Muscovite dominion Kaffa sunk again. It lost even officially
the name under which it had pursued so glorious a career in modern times,
to resume at the caprice of the Emperor Alexander its ancient Greek
name, and it now does not possess more than 4500 inhabitants. At Kaffa,
as at Soldaya, the erection of useless barracks was the signal for the
destruction of the ancient Genoese monuments. The revêtements of the
ditches were first carried away, and then, owing to the indifference of
the government, the walls themselves disappeared. The magnificent towers
which defended them were successively thrown down, and at this day there
only exist three remnants of the remarkable bastion, christened in honour
of Pope Clement VI.
The Genoese fortifications once destroyed, the vandalism of the
administrative authorities next attacked the civil monuments. When the
Russians took possession of the place, two imposing buildings ornamented
the principal square of Kaffa; the great Turkish baths, an admirable
monument of Oriental architecture, and the ancient episcopal church
of the Genoese, an edifice built in the fourteenth century, and then
converted into a mosque after the Turkish conquest. Under the reign of
Catherine II., it was decided to restore the mosque to the Christian
faith, and it was given to the established Greek church of Russia.
Unfortunately, instead of preserving it intact, they entertained the
fatal idea of decorating it with a miserable portico in the quasi Doric
style, such as is seen from one end of Russia to the other. The elegant
domes, which surrounded in a graceful manner the principal part of the
building, were then demolished, and the bases of the new columns were
hardly laid, when money failed, and the government refused to make
further advances. The beautiful mosque, from which the lead had been
torn off, doubtless to be sold for the profit of the employés, was thus
abandoned to the injuries of the weather and the public, and soon became
a perfect ruin.
In 1833 the civil governor, M. Kasnatcháief, in a most barbarous and
ignorant manner, completed the work of destruction, by attacking the
great baths which had hitherto remained intact. He asked permission from
Prince Woronzof to enlarge the great square, because it was too small for
a parade ground, and the instant he obtained it (knowing that he would
be stopped when his intentions were found out), he set about destroying
the mosque and the baths.[215] In the space of a fortnight, by the aid
of the pick-axe and powder, both these admirable monuments, with which
the Genoese and Turkish occupations had enriched the town, completely
disappeared. In 1840 the great square was filled with their precious
materials, which the local administration were selling at the price of
common stone.
Of all the splendid edifices of the Genoese colony, only two churches
have escaped the Russian vandalism; having been granted to the Catholics
and the Armenians, and preserved by them. For a long time, these two
foreign communities struggled against the indifference of the government,
and endeavoured to obtain assistance to repair their churches; and having
been unsuccessful, they in a spirited manner restored them at their own
expense.
If from the interior of the town we cast our eyes to the environs,
the same spectacle of destruction saddens the view. All the beautiful
gardens, and the rich orchards, which surrounded the town in the time of
the Tatars, have disappeared. One single winter was sufficient for two
Russian regiments to annihilate every trace of the brilliant cultivation
which formerly covered the hills.
From[216] the fort of the tower of Clement VI. there is a fine view of
the town and the bay. In the midst of the panorama rises the ancient
Genoese citadel, now dismantled, with its walls threatening to fall down.
Before the citadel, a building, remarkable by its two massive groups of
building, but without any exterior ornament, is the principal Armenian
church, which the emigrants of that nation constructed when they arrived
here under the protection of the Genoese, after the terrible earthquake
of 1319, which destroyed Anni,[217] and so terrified one portion of the
Armenian nation, that they took refuge with the Tatars of Kiptchak, in
the environs of Astrakhan. Hence they sent colonies into the Crimea and
established themselves, with the consent of the Genoese, at Kaffa, Eski
Krim, and in the environs of Soudak.
Before the Russian conquest, in 1713, Peyssonel relates that the
Armenians had twenty-four churches at Kaffa, and Levasseur de Beauplan, a
century earlier, counted thirty-two.
The church in question is now converted into a warehouse, but its
interior has preserved the distribution of the religious edifices of
Armenia—a grand oratory as an entrance, then a nave, a dome, and a choir
with lateral sacristies. The other Armenian church, which has been
already mentioned, deserves a careful study as a good and well preserved
specimen of Armenian architecture, and is an exact copy of those still
to be seen in Armenia. The portico is the most ornamental part of the
edifice, and the mouldings and roses are as varied as in Gothic and
Byzantine styles. There are two images of St. George, the saint in which
the Georgians and the Armenians have so much confidence, and the walls
of the church are covered both inside and outside with funeral crosses,
as in Armenia.[218] In every detail it is interesting to observe how
faithfully the Armenians, in their distant colonizations, preserved the
artistic traditions of their country.[219]
Hommaire de Hell is not the only traveller who deplores the vandalism
of the Russians. Dubois says, “that he dare not express his feelings at
seeing the noble works of the Genoese so uselessly ruined.”
The “mild and amiable” Pallas was a Russian subject, and dared not
express his indignation at the atrocities he saw perpetrated. When he
first visited Theodosia, the great mosque was complete, with its noble
cupola 54 feet in diameter, surrounded on three sides by eleven smaller
domes. “There were also,” as Pallas says, “two minarets 96 feet high,
furnished with serpentine staircases leading to the top; _though both
structures have been since destroyed_.”[220]
Clarke, it appears, was an eye-witness of this last barbarous proceeding,
and describes the painful feelings it occasioned to all the civilized
persons who beheld it. “The melancholy devastation,” he says,[221] “while
it draws tears down the cheeks of the Tatars, and extorts many a sigh
from the Anatolian Turks who resort to Kaffa for commercial purposes,
cannot fail to excite the indignation of every enlightened people.
At Kaffa, during the time we remained, the soldiers were allowed to
overthrow the beautiful mosques, or to convert them into magazines, to
pull down the minarets, to tear up the public fountains, and to destroy
all the public aqueducts, for the sake of a small quantity of lead, which
they were thereby enabled to obtain.
“Such is the true nature of Russian protection; such the sort of alliance
which Russians endeavour to form with every nation weak enough to submit
to their power, or to become their dupe. While these works of destruction
were going on, the officers were amusing themselves in beholding the
mischief. Tall and stately minarets, whose lofty spires added such grace
and dignity to the town, were daily levelled with the ground, which,
besides their connection with the religious establishments for whose
maintenance the Russian empire had been pledged, were of no other value
to their destroyers than to supply a few soldiers with bullets, or their
officers with a dram. I was in a Turkish coffeehouse, at Kaffa, when
the principal minaret, one of the ancient and characteristic monuments
of the country, to which the Russians had been some days employed in
fixing ropes and blocks, came down with such violence that its fall
shook every house in the place. The Turks, seated on divans, were all
smoking, and when such is the case, an earthquake will scarcely rouse
them; nevertheless, at this flagrant act of impiety and dishonour,
they rose, breathing out deep and bitter curses against the enemies
of their Prophet. Even the Greeks who were present testified their
anger by similar imprecations. One of them, turning to me, said, with
a countenance of contempt and indignation, Εκυθαι! Scythians! which I
afterwards found to be a common term of reproach; for though the Greeks
profess the same religion as the Russians, they detest the latter as
cordially as the Turks or Tatars. The most lamentable part of the injury
thus sustained has been in the destruction of the conduits and public
fountains which conveyed, together with the purest water from distant
mountains, a source of health and comfort to the people. They first carry
off the leaden pipes to make bullets; they then take down all the marble
slabs and large stones for building materials, which they employ in the
construction of barracks; lastly, they blow up the channels which convey
water, because they say the water-porters cannot earn a livelihood where
there are public fountains.”
In spite of all the depredations of the authorities, and the stupid
ignorance of the governor, Kaffa has never been completely metamorphosed
into a Russian town. Its principal monuments have been demolished, its
walls razed to the ground, its later population expelled, but the general
appearance of the town, the private dwellings, the streets paved with
large flags, all announce a different people. It is to be hoped the town
may long preserve this picturesque aspect, which resembles that of many
little ports on the shores of the Mediterranean.[222]
There is a museum at Theodosia, which is an ancient Turkish mosque, with
two lions at its entrance, which were brought from Phanagoria. Whatever
ancient Greek monuments are here have been brought from Kertch, when
Theodosia was the capital of this part of the Crimea; and among them is
a griffin of fine workmanship. But there are no inscriptions or important
monuments of the ancient Theodosia, which, indeed, Clarke and others
suppose to have been at some distance from the site of Kaffa.[223] There
are, however, many Genoese inscriptions in the museum, and among them an
important one found on the tower of Pope Clement VI.[224]
The peninsula of Kertch was formerly closed by three ramparts, which
were raised for political reasons to defend it from dangerous enemies.
The most ancient is that of Asander. It starts from the extremity of the
Tauric chain, and finishes at the sea of Azof, near the commencement
of the tongue of Arabat. The Scythian slaves of Sindic origin raised
it to defend themselves against their masters when they returned from
Asia. Asander, King of the Bosphorus from 49 B.C. to 14 B.C., renewed it
and fortified it with towers as a defence against the invasions of the
Scythians, and it has ever since borne his name. It may still be traced
with the places for the towers. The rampart of the Golden Mountain, at a
few miles from Kertch, was the primitive frontier of the kingdom of the
Bosphorus and the colony of Panticapæum. The success of the Leuconides
in the 4th century before Christ had carried it beyond the peninsula
of Kertch, by uniting Nymphæum and Theodosia to the kingdom. Asander
fixed it at the rampart of the Scythian Slaves, and this was for several
centuries its limit. In the mean time the Chersonians replaced the
Scythians as the predominant people in the Crimea, and they had taken
Panticapæum during the absence of Sauromates V., who had gone to pillage
Asia Minor in the third century after Christ, notwithstanding the army
which the Emperor Constance opposed to him. In order to re-enter his
capital, Sauromates was obliged to give up his prisoners and booty.
His grandson, Sauromates VI., who reigned A.D. 302 to 310, wished to
avenge himself on the Chersonians; he was however beaten by them near
the rampart of Asander, and obliged to swear never to pass it in arms.
Violating his oath, he again appeared in the field, and consented to
terminate the war by a single combat with Pharnáces, the chief of the
Chersonians. He was killed, and his army, undergoing the yoke of the
conquerors, was obliged to retire half-way from Theodosia to Kertch,
where the Chersonians permitted the limits of the kingdom to be fixed.
Then was erected the rampart of Akkos, or Cybernicus, which commences at
the salt lake of Itar Altchiek and finishes at the Sea of Azof. It is
very well preserved; the ditch turned towards the Crimea is still very
deep, and the mounds along the rampart would lead to the belief that it
had been supported by towers. These three ramparts are almost the only
ancient monuments between Theodosia and Kertch; and the road is most
uninteresting and monotonous, passing through a thinly-peopled steppe,
covered with deserted Tatar villages and vast cemeteries.
The first station from Theodosia is Porpatche, at 22 versts distance.
The second is Arghin, at 27 versts; and between these two is passed the
rampart of Asander. At Arghin travellers turn off who wish to visit
or to pass along the Arabat. The third station is Suftanofka, at 28
versts distance, and in this stage the rampart of Akkos is passed. At
this station there are springs and a well, and here for the first time
the horizon is seen crowned by the tumuli and coral-rag peaks which
characterize the environs of Kertch. Those who go to Simpherópol from
Kertch, and have their own horses with them, may avoid the détour by
Theodosia, and continue their road straight across the Isthmus to
Krinitski. The road then lies through Ormeil and Karagos, celebrated for
its ancient mosque in the primitive style of Tatar architecture. This is
one of the four most ancient mosques in the Crimea, in the architecture
of which are to be observed only straight lines or semicircles.[225]