Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Many people feel grateful when the holiday tsunami, which engulfs the rest of Crimea in
summer, throws them on this quiet shore. A decidedly untouristy town of ramshackle
low-rise buildings, Kerch is the place to chill out and dream of new frontiers. Looming
across a narrow strait, the Russian coast invites a Eurasian adventure. Unfortunately,
only visa holders can embark on it straight away.
Stuck out on a 100km limb from Feodosiya, Kerch is one of Ukraine's oldest cities. As
the ancient Greek colony of Panticapaeum, it was the capital of the Bosporan Kingdom
from the 5th to the 2nd centuries BC. Today Kerch is a mecca for archaeologists, who ar-
rive in droves each year, hoping to unearth Greek and Scythian treasures.
Sights
Mithridates Hill
HISTORIC SITE
The first thing to do in Kerch is to take the 432 stairs up the central Mithridates Hill. The
view from the summit is brilliant, and on the lee side the ruins of the ancient city of
Panticapaeum
have been revealed in an ongoing archaeological dig.
Back on the central pl Lenina, check out the candy-striped
Church of St John the
Baptist
. Dating back to 717, this Byzantine building is officially Ukraine's oldest surviv-
ing church.
Adzhimushkay
Defence Museum
CATACOMB
(tour adult/child 50/25uah; 9am-5pm Tue-Sun)
Catacombs in the Kerch suburb of
Adzhimushkay have been a source of construction material for the city from time imme-
morial. Early Christians held their clandestine services here in the 2nd century AD.
When the Germans sacked Kerch in May 1942, 10,000 Soviet troops and civilians (many
of them Jewish) descended into the catacombs and held them for 170 days until all of
them were gassed or captured. You can relive their experience on a tour of this museum,
which takes you through the unlit caverns turned by the defenders into barracks, hospit-
als, classrooms and cemeteries. The tour is in Russian, but the scenery speaks for itself.
Take something warm to wear - it gets chilly underground. To get here, catch bus 4 for
the 'Muzey' stop from the bus station.
Tsarsky Kurgan
BURIAL MOUND
( 547 13; admission 15uah; 9.30am-6pm Tue-Sun)
Eight hundred metres from the
Adzhimushkay Defence Museum, there is a monument from a completely different
epoch. This empty, 4th-century-BC burial mound is thought to be the grave of a Bospor-
