Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
tion of the festival marshrutkymeet major services arriving in Simferopol and also
leave from outside Yevpatoriya's bus station, on vul Internatsionalnaya.
TOP OF CHAPTER
Yevpatoriya
06569 / POP 103,000
Of all Crimean towns, the underrated Yevpatoriya is the only one that has preserved an
Ottoman-era medina in the town centre, filled with traces of ethnic and religious groups
that once inhabited it. At the time when the peninsula was controlled by the Crimean
Tatars and the Turks, it was the largest trade centre where slave traders exchanged Slavs
captured in the north for goods from Europe and the Orient. In its turn, it was repeatedly
raided by Zaporizhzhya Cossacks, who robbed it of all goods with the noble excuse of
freeing Christian slaves. Legend says that in one of those raids they invented what be-
came known as Cossack submarines by upturning their small boats and using reeds to
breathe under water. This way they approached the harbour unnoticed and then wreaked
havoc all over the town. Left intact, despite decades of Communism, the medina contains
Muslim, Christian and - most intriguingly - Karaite places of worship. The rest of the
town is a dense grid of sanatoriums, built in the Soviet period when the town was pro-
claimed USSR's main resort for children.
For history buffs, it is also worth knowing that the Anglo-French-Turkish Allied forces
landed here at the start of the Crimean War before moving on to besiege Sevastopol.
Sights
All major sites are located near or inside the medina.
Karaite Kenassas
TEMPLE
(vul Karaimskaya 68; adult/child & student 15/7uah; 10am-8pm Sun-Mon, 12-8pm Sat)
This
beautiful whitewashed colonnaded complex became the main place of worship for
Karaites in the aftermath of the Russian takeover of Crimea, when they were allowed to
abandon cave cities and live where they pleased. Tsar Alexander I inaugurated the main
kenassa
in 1807. Staunch monarchists, the Karaites later erected his statue on the
premises. During the Crimean War (1854-56), the allies converted the
kenassas
into
stables, which were targeted by Russian artillery - look out for a cannon ball left in the
kenassa
wall.
