Crima: Bakhchisaray – Chufut-Kale Cave City
The limestone mountains of the Crimean peninsula hold many cave cities, and Chufut-Kale is one of the most spectacular. The city existed here from about 5-6th centuries during the Byzantine era, later prospered during the Crimean Khanate. In the 18th century, it became the abode of the Karaite people, and then eventually became abandoned after the Russian conquest of the Crimea. It takes about an hour hike to get the Cave City and then you climb up on the mountain plateau where all the sites are located at both edges of it. The underground rooms and halls massive and elaborate with columns and windows – almost the entire mountain sides are riddled with them. Truly spectacular and amazing and I don’t understand why it’s not a UNESCO Site.
