Travel to Crimea!

Yalta, Nikita Botanical Garden, May 2010

TOUR “Multicultural Spirit of Crimea” 6 days/5 nights

This tour includes visiting four different Crimean towns :

1 Day – Your arrival – Pick up from Airport/Rail/Bus Station in Simferopol

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2 Day – Bakhchisarai – former capital of Crimean Khan, famous Khan’s Palace. Walk to cave town Chufut-Kale (Jewish fortress), and visit to Orthodox Assumption Monastery (healing icons).

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3 Day – Yevpatoria – mixture of different nationalities at one spot: Karaites, Turkish, Russian, Ukrainian, Jewish their temples and other architectural monuments are available to see. Karaite’s cafe. Anne Akhmatova cafe. Long sandy beaches.

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5 Day – Yalta –luxurious city, shopping centre and picturesque surroundings – cliffy mountains, cozy embankment on Black sea, winding roads, lots of flowers and subtropical trees. Cable-railway.

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6 Day – Departure – Drop Off service from Airport/Rail/Bus station

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The Programm includes -

1. 5 nights/6 days in hotel Sportivnaya in Simferopol (with Breakfast)

3. Pick up and Drop Off service from Airport/Rail station

4. English speaking guide

6. Every excursion takes about 6-8 hours, usually we start at 10 o’clock.
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Photos made by Traveltocrimea agency

Learn about our city tours in Crimea –  CITY TOURS/TRAVELTOCRIMEA and

TOUR “Multicultural Spirit of Crimea” 6 days/5 nights

order our Simferopol/Simferopol airport taxi

View from Assumption Monastery in Bakhchisarai

Then we came to a small trade square with some orient style cafes and small shop, which is left, I think from Sovjet Union times. By the way here you have last chance to buy drinking water!!  Then we took the upper road, at the beginning of it you will see a big stone with Orthodox rood and sigh in Russian Святоуспенский мужской монастырь (in engl. Assumption Monastery). The road is very nice, along Monastery Cliff,  centuries-long forest, fresh air – 10 minutes slow walking and you are at monastery. There you can observe amazing view on Jehoshaphat’s bottomland and cave town Chufut-Kale on the opposite side. Now on territory of monastery one of the monks provides the guided tour. He told us
about the healing wonders that had happened to simple visitors of Cave Monastery and why an Orthodox person has to wear a cross, and even we heard about the process of production of woman lipstick, why More »

Khan Palace in Bakhchisarai

At first I would like to tell, why we’ve decided to go to one of the most mysterious cave towns of Crimea – Tepe-Kermen, “ mountain – fortress”  is a translation from Turks. This Crimean  mountain  raises on 540 m above the sea level. Usually the tourists who come to Bakhchisarai, first visit Khan’s Palace, learn Orthodox Assumption Monastery, and then gradually enter cave town Chufut-Kale or “Jewish fortress”, whish is considered to be the most convenient for visit. But our tour was aimed to conquer the top of Tepe-Kermen. More »

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The Dormition Monastery, one of the best known and most frequented by tourists, appeared near Bakhchisarai at the turn of the 9^th century. It was an unprotected settlement where cave dwellings and husbandry premises were supplemented with above-ground structures, chapels, burial vaults and other monastery buildings.

Of the monastery buildings, the prior’s house near the road has survived, as well as the ruins of a small chapel, caves used for husbandry and cults purposes cave cells, and a hospice. A wide stair leads from the road to the monastery cemetery and into a cave church with pillars and remains of mural paintings.

In the late 15^th century the Dormition Monastery became the centre of Orthodoxy in the Crimea. It was the residence of the Metropolian. Sometimes captive Christians and Russian envoys attended the services held in the monastery.

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In the first half of the 16^th century Bakhchisarai was mentioned as a ruler’s residence, i.e. the capital of the Crimean Khanate.

The former khan’s palace making now the towns’s focal point of interest is supposed to be erected in early 16^th century, but later on it underwent many a rebuilding and alteration and its presenr-day aspect gives no idea of how it looked at those times. Now the Khan-Sarai (khan’s palace) occupies an area of  hectares, in the 16^th century its area was a great deal larger. The fence and western gates were adjoined by gardens, that made an integral part of the palace-complex. In fact, they gave the town its name (Bakhchisarai means palace-garden or palace in the garden, both words “bakhcha” and “sarai” that form this toponym being derived from Persian).

Thus both the town and the palace were being created side by side at approximately the same time, they are of the same or almost the same age and this irretrievable connection between them has been imprinted in the name itself – “palace-garden”.

What you are to learn during your visit to Khan-Sarai More »

Bakhchisarai, one of the oldest Islamic cities that you will find in the Crimean peninsula, owes its name to the Persian language. Bakhchisarai, or باغچه سرای (bâqce sarây) in Persian literally translates as «The Garden Palace».
Turkic tribes established an old village by the name of Eski-Yurt as early as the 13th century, in the period of the Golden Horde. Then between 1427 and 1449, the Crimean Khanate was founded by Hadzi- Ghirai Khan.

The city calls itself home to about 70% of all Tatar population of the Crimean peninsula. Houses, streets, local cafes wear a quaintly, oriental look. Tatar people will greet you with oriental hospitality and they will tell you with great pleasure about their unique history, Islamic culture and national traditions.
The principal building, the palace, which is better known as the Khan-sarai, was originally erected in 1519 by Abdul-Sahal-Ghirai. For about 250 years, till 1783 the Bakhchisaray Palace was the center of the political, spiritual and cultural life of the state of the Crimean Tatars. More »