I've visited one of the most unique and ancient places in the world.
The history of it began in the 6th cent BC!!✨
One of the most ancient settlements of the Crimea, after my city Kerch, is the settlement of Nymphea.
Today Nymphea is open to tourists all year round. There is no entry fee., but tours are very rare. Most people study the history of this place by themselves and investigate it also by themselves.
The settlement of Nymphea was founded in the 6th century BC by the ancient Greeks, immigrants from the city of Miletus. The first city founded by the Greeks was Panticapaeum (now it's Kerch - my city and my Motherland). It was founded in the 7th century BC.
The choice for founding the city was very obvious - a good bay, very convenient for navigation, several water sources and fertile soils. Very fast
Nymphea turned from a small settlement into a rather large city of that era.
Agriculture, grape production, fishing flourished in Nymphea.
In the 3rd century AD, under the invasion of nomadic tribes, the city was plundered several times and by the beginning of the 4th century came to a complete decline.
The modern history of the settlement began in the 19th century.
In 1866, the territory belonged to a small district landowner, who found the settlement accidently when he had his agriculture works.
The first excavations of the settlement were carried out by the peasants in a rather barbaric way - they were looking for gold and jewelry.
In 1867, at the excavation site, gold earrings with Artemis and gold rosettes decorated with blue enamel were found.
Soon a well-known collector of antiquities of the 19th century, Novikov bought the estate. It was he who carried out the opening of the lower layers of the settlement and sold all the finds to the Hermitage collection.
Excavations on the territory of Nymphaeum are still held, and people has the opportunity to see how the Crimean land reveals its secrets.
I've heard about this place many times, but I never visited it before.
So it was my first magical time to step on this historical place...
The atmosphere was charming because it just can't be different when you see something that was founded in the 6th cent BC!! it's hard to imagine what these stones saw....
We were walking there more than 1 hour, and we all were in love with this place. It was desert and silent, but every piece of this land was screaming its history, we just had to listen to them....
I thought my son would be boring, but no, he was interested even more than my hubby and me, he read all texts about this place and had his own investigations;)
Now enough of words...Let's see it together!
a hoiy place of sea gods
a veeeeery deep well
Cultural heritage
Protected by the state
