Tepe-Kermen (; Ukrainian and

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

: ) is a

butte In geomorphology, a butte ( ) is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and table (landform), tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from the French l ...

and an early medieval settlement in the

Bakhchysarai Raion Bakhchysarai Raion (; ; ) is one of the 25 regions of Crimea, an internationally recognized territory of Ukraine occupied and annexed by Russia in 2014. Population: The Bakhchysarai Raion is situated in the southwestern part of the peninsula. Tw ...

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

. It is located 7 km southeast of

Bakhchysarai Bakhchysarai is a city in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Bakhchysarai Raion (district), as well as the former capital of the Crimean Khanate. Its main landmark is Hansaray, the only extant ...

, and 2 km northeast of the settlement Kyz-Kermen. Its height is 544 meters. The easiest way to climb the mountain is from the northern slope. There are 2 paths leading to the top.

Settlement

The name Tepe-Kermen is of Turkic origin: in Crimean Tatar it means "hill-fortress" or "fortress on the top" ( - hill, peak, - fortress). The same name is given to the remains of the medieval city-fortress (according to other sources - a monastery) Tepe-Kermen, which covers the upper part of the mountain in several levels. Its area is about 1 hectare. In fact, it was not a settlement but a fortified castle, where the local population used to hide from enemy forces. This explains the lack of water sources. According to some available sources, the unfortified settlement appeared in the 5th-6th century, and the construction of the fortress, based on some indirect signs, probably occurred in the second half of the 5th - early 6th century, or late 6th - early 7th century, under the guidance of the Byzantine administration of

Chersonesus Chersonesus, contracted in medieval Greek to Cherson (), was an Greeks in pre-Roman Crimea, ancient Greek Greek colonization, colony founded approximately 2,500 years ago in the southwestern part of the Crimean Peninsula. Settlers from He ...

. It is believed that from the second half of the 7th century there was the residence of the Archon, who was part of the governing authorities of the Dori region (the administrative center of the Military-Administrative District), and in the 8th-9th century Tepe-Kermen, with its main temple-basilica, was a kind of ecclesiastical center of the district.''Сорочан С. Б.'' Византийский Херсон (вторая половина VI – первая половина X вв.). — Kharkiv: Maidan, 2005. — Vol. I. — P.200. — 721 с. — 300 экз. — ISBN 966-8478-94-0. In 12th-13th centuries, it reached its greatest prosperity. More than 230 man-made caves were concentrated there. There were traces of foundations among the bushes and grass. The walls have not survived. Some versions attribute the demise of the city to the raid of the

Golden Horde The Golden Horde, self-designated as ''Ulug Ulus'' ( in Turkic) was originally a Mongols, Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century and originating as the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. With the division of ...

Beylerbey ''Beylerbey'' (, meaning the 'commander of commanders' or 'lord of lords’, sometimes rendered governor-general) was a high rank in the western Islamic world in the late Middle Ages and early modern period, from the Anatolian Seljuks and the I ...

Nogai in

1299 Year 1299 ( MCCXCIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * July 4 – Battle of Cape Orlando: An Aragonese-Angevin fleet (some 60 galleys) led by Admiral Roger of Lauria defeats ...

A baptistery church

In the western part of Tepe-Kermen there is a baptistery church inside the cave. In his fundamental work "Byzantine Kherson (second half of 6th - first half of 10th century)" from 2005, S.B. Sorochan, based on the researches of N.E. Gaidukov,''Н. Е. Гайдуков.'' К вопросу о датировке пещерного храма с баптистерием пещерного города Тепе-Кермен // Культовые памятники в мировой культуре: археологический, исторический и философский аспекты : Тезисы докладов. — Sevastopol, 2003. — P. 17—18. believes that "according to the expressive features of the liturgical structure" the church could have been built in 6th-7th century. The local Christians in the 18th century called the described building "the Temple of Saints Constantine and Helen" according to A.L. Berthier-Delagard in the "Collection of Manuscripts of Archbishop Gabriel".''Айбабин А. И.'
Основные этапы истории городища Эски-Кермен
// Материалы по археологии, истории и этнографии Таврии : журнал. — 1991. — Вып. 2. — С. 45. — ISSN 2413-189X. The church is an object of cultural heritage of Russia of federal significance and also an object of cultural heritage of Ukraine. Its dimensions are relatively large, as for Crimean cave temples of this type. The length is a little more than ten meters, the width is five meters, but it varies slightly due to the curvature of the inner walls. In this trapezoidal temple there was a cross-shaped baptismal font with two steps leading down. There are two tombs in the floor next to it and a bench along the southern wall. In the main part of the temple in the western wall there was also a tomb with an inscription above it: "This tomb was dug at my request by Polit...om. The extension (was made) by the servant of God, the pious Manuel...".Another tomb is located south of the altar. The altar itself was separated by an altar wall carved into the rock and decorated with relief crosses. There are also three columns with capitals (in ancient times there were six) resting on the altar wall. In the floor of the altar you can see the niche for the throne. In the northern wall there is an altar with a niche in it. The purpose of the columns is to divide the

cella In Classical architecture, a or naos () is the inner chamber of an ancient Greek or Roman temple. Its enclosure within walls has given rise to extended meanings: of a hermit's or monk's cell, and (since the 17th century) of a biological cell ...

into three

naves The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type b ...

: right (male), middle (clergy) and left (female), which is typical of Byzantine basilica temple art. The columns had only decorative value - there was no need to support the ceiling because it was a cave temple. The graceful ornamentation on the capitals has been preserved. Next to the church on the plateau's edge, 9 tombs and 5 sepulchres were excavated.

Gallery

File:Тепе Кермен. 2001г. бум., акв. 23,8х36,2.jpg, Maximilian Presnyakov.

Mesa A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge, or hill, bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and standing distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks, such as shales, capped by a ...

with the cave settlement of Tepe-Kermen in the upper part (2006) File:Tepe pes4.jpg, Dwelling remains File:Tepe stone.jpg, The stone at the south end File:Тепе-Кермен4.JPG, A baptistery church inside the cave File:Tepe-Kermen 1.jpg, A large corner cave File:Tepe-Karmen 2.jpg, Cave dwellings with several levels File:Tepe-Karmen 3.jpg, Niches for various household items seen in caves File:Tepe -Karmen 4.jpg, Spacious cave dwellings

References

External links

About Tepe-Kermen; photo gallery
{{Crimean Cave Towns Crimea Crimean Mountains Mountains under 1000 metres Mesas Bakhchysarai Raion Tourist attractions in Crimea