Sevastopol

Like Simferopol, Sevastopol existed long before its founding and was called Aqyar — “white shore” in Crimean Tatar language. Later, when Crimea became part of the Russian Empire, the modern city was founded and named in the Greek style, with the ending “polis”.

Sevastopol as a phenomenon is one of the oldest cities in the world. The city has a whole range of sights to suit any taste, from the beautiful Chersonese to the nauseating Sapun Mountain.

Chersonesus Tauricus

At the shore of Sevastopol lie the ruins of Chersonese — an ancient city-state founded by the ancient Greeks in the 5th century BC.

Chersonese is actually the remains of a real city. It may not be as impressive as Persepolis, but in fact, it is even more interesting: the Persians built a palace complex, but here you can see how people lived. This is the main street. It is 900 meters long and 6.5 meters wide. On the left and right are the remains of houses.

Remains of walls:

Passage between houses:

The structure of the walls can be seen in section. It is evident that fired bricks were used.

The masonry was very neat.

Of course, you need to write “Kolya was here”. What’s the point of visiting without leaving such a mark? Even in Persepolis, there are such inscriptions.

Chersonese approached the very shoreline.

There are also larger remains of simple houses. These are the former walls and tower of the citadel, where Roman legionnaires were stationed.

The ruins of an ancient theater.

The plan of Chersonese from 1914.

Reconstruction:

Mount Sapun

The complete opposite of Chersonese is the disgusting memorial complex “Sapun Mountain”. Another pseudo-monument to the Great Patriotic War, which by its existence humiliates the feat of the Soviet people.

I have never seen anything more primitive and tasteless in my life, even Poklonnaya Hill pales in comparison.

Here, there is just an alley half a kilometer long, along which pieces of various military junk are stupidly standing.

Around there is neither a tree nor shade, only tiles and burnt grass. Meanwhile, it’s 35 degrees Celsius outside, but there’s no desire to stop and understand what this is for.

The alley ends with a pyramid of stones and a dismal diorama, where they show some kind of chronicle. Remembering the great victory in this way is better not to remember at all.

The bright spot in this darkness is the reconstruction of trenches. At least you can climb around here. By the way, the vineyards in the distance are called “Valley of Death” by the British because the Russian Empire completely routed Lord Cardigan’s light brigade here in 1854.

Inkerman

Let’s get back to the ruins.

At the other end of Sevastopol, there is another old city called Inkerman. It is much older than Chersonese, dating back to the 6th century. The Byzantines built Inkerman to protect Chersonese from the rear.

There are two towers of the fortress of Kalamita left from Inkerman. There were originally six towers in total.

Inkerman was situated among caves on a small rock. There was originally a monastery here. It’s a beautiful place.

The monastery was called the Inkerman Cave Monastery. The first version of the monastery was built in the 8th—9th century, and it was destroyed and restored many times thereafter. In the end, the monastery stood until 1924 when the Bolsheviks came and closed it down. Then in 1927, there was an earthquake that damaged the two main churches of the monastery. They were not restored but instead dismantled completely. Shortly after, the remaining church was closed, and the last church was blown up, and the relics were sent to museums and the pockets of Stalin’s henchmen.

And the monastery is no more. It used to be like this:

And now it looks like this:

The buildings and a small church under the mountain were left out and didn’t make it into the frame.

Sometimes Inkerman looks like the Wild West. Rocks, a railway, and people riding horses at the bottom. Awesome.

The iron concrete plant shines through the caves. Truly, the conquering of America.

Ruins of a monastery:

Stone quarries. It was here where they extracted Inkerman stone, which was used to build not only the monastery itself but also exported to Alexandria and Marseille.

Inkerman Lake, also known as Inkerman quarry or Saint Clement’s Lake. It gives a deceptive feeling of being a technical water reservoir for the quarry and plant. In reality, it is a natural lake that has existed for several thousand years, but the water used to come from a spring, and after explosions in the quarry, it became groundwater.

Divine beauty.

In the autumn of 2020, the water situation in Crimea became so bad that they began to extract water from the Inkerman Lake. After a month, the water extraction was stopped because the water supply started to run out.

The city of Sevastopol

Sevastopol is a very pleasant, clean city located in the center.

Of course, the city is largely military. I would say it’s a naval city. Monuments with military themes are everywhere in Sevastopol, but they are not annoying at all — it’s just the way it should be here.

There are still many Soviet artifacts left in Sevastopol. Here is a beautiful tray with the inscription “Union Unprovided Printing”. Even the shade of blue is the same:

Board of honor:

An absolutely incredible, giant coat of arms of the USSR. By some miracle, it has survived to this day. If Crimea returns to Ukraine, they will take it down on the first day. On the one hand, there are reasons for that. On the other hand, it’s beautiful as hell.

Of course, the monument to Lenin has been preserved. As for it, they should definitely take it down without regret.

You know, there is a monument to Admiral Nakhimov in Sevastopol — a person whose honor few would question. But here it stands now: they’ve restored it. And after the revolution, the Bolsheviks took down the statue of Nakhimov and put Lenin on its pedestal. There are dozens of such monuments in Russia that stand on someone else’s pedestals. The Communists deserve to be paid back with the same coin. They should take it down and put up Gorbachev’s statue instead. Remove the stain in the shape of Crimea. We will immediately start living like Europeans.

Another completely Soviet view. White columns with a staircase leading to the sea.

And yet, there is something European in Sevastopol:

Here is Barcelona for you:

Here is St. Petersburg for you:

Here are some insanely cool balconies for you:

Here is some unreal ivy for you:

Sevastopol is built on height differences, and it makes the city even cooler.

What could be better than staircases? Old, wide two-story staircases.

Look at how many elements are in the photo! Sevastopol is a very beautiful city.

And what colors, such colors!

Italy with Zhigulis (a popular type of Russian car):

The wealthiest part of Sevastopol is Suvorova Street. Here, Switzerland begins quite openly — at least in appearance. Inside, things are not so rich, but these cypresses, paving stones, and expensive cars look very luxurious.

This street is home to a military unit, city court, and a bunch of government offices.

There are also problems in Sevastopol.

First of all, the city is suffocating from traffic jams. It’s about 20 kilometers from one end to the other, and it takes two hours to get there in the evening. The traffic jams in Sevastopol are so bad that taxi drivers refuse to work during peak hours. Traffic jams have become such a headache for them that they would rather go without money than stand in traffic and curse all the way.

Secondly, new buildings are gradually taking over Sevastopol. The residential buildings are all very old and run-down. It’s easier to build new ones than to restore the old ones.

There is also the Museum of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol.

But what’s the point of having it when the Black Sea Fleet itself is here?

The Black Sea Fleet

A typical Sevastopol landscape.

For 500 rubles, you can take an hour-long boat tour and sail next to all these ships. The tours start from the monument depicted on the 200-ruble banknote.

It’s impossible to memorize something if you weren’t interested in ships as a child. I was interested in grasshoppers and physics, so I didn’t understand or remember anything. I’ll just show you some photos.

So, how is it, cool? Sevastopol, yeah.