Our Day at Bakhckysarai

We had an afternoon of sightseeing with another family from Louisville KY who is in the process of adopting a 15 year old girl.  They were permitted to bring her along for the day.  We drove from Simferopol to the old city of Bakhckysarai (Gardens Palace  in Crimean Tartar).  The city is between Simferopol and Sevastopol on the Black Sea coast. 

 The Tartar's are one of 3 people groups in the Crimean.  Ethnic Russians are the largest, Ethnic Ukrainians are second, and  the Tartar's are the smallest in number but large enough to be seen.  Many small mosques are there. We walked around the palace built by the Khan's (Girey's not Ghengas),  from the 14th to 16th Centuries.  There is a fountain inside the palace which was made famous by an Alexander Pushkin poem called the Fountain of Bakhckysarai, this fountain was named the Fountain of Tears by the ruling Khan at the time after the death of one in his harem.  The pictures above are of the palace.  We did not go inside. 

We saw a Russian Orthodox monastery and church building, very ornately designed. Being it was a national holiday, many people walked through the building. Normally they enforce a stringent dress code. On this day the women still were required to wear scarves and the men to remove their hats (see 1 Corinthians 11 for the reasons).  Below the church was a large compound in the valley where the monks lived and make their livelihood, roosters could be heard in the background. 

We hiked up about a mile into the mountain and went into the Chufut-Kale (Jewish Fortress in Crimean Tartar).  During the time that the Khan's were in power the Jewish settlers lived in the cliffs in dug out caves. They were tolerated and allowed to remain.  Archaeologists disagree whether the settlement began in the 6th or 10th Century.

The hill maybe 800 feet up. 

Here we are, this is about half way up the climb. I went ahead and took the pictures of the caves and sumit. 

Entrance to the Chufut-Kale, Jewish Fortress

Some of the caves dug out by the Jews as they hid here from persecution by the Khan's. 

Roger from Kentucky trying out a bed

The table is one of the few non stone artifacts up there. 

Small School used in the 1800's, plaques dedicated to the Tsars are on one wall. 

A tomb

A cellar used by the Karaite people, now nearly gone from the earth. 

Inside the Karaite cellar. Even without windows it was 10 degrees cooler inside. 

View from half way up. 

A few scenes from the top.