Eski -Kerman

near the village of Strong , on the plateau of Table Mountain , stretching from north to south, enclosed steep cliffs are the ruins of early medieval town Eski -Kerman ( Old Castle ), founded at the beginning of VI century. Top-notch for its time, the fortress could withstand any opponent.Almost inaccessible cliffs , but where there are crevices in the cliffs , towering walls with battle towers. In defense system were well-protected gates and vylaznye wickets, as well as the cave dungeons - carved into the rock areas with battlements and embrasures.Behind the walls could hide a few thousand residents of nearby villages with their livestock and personal property.

Eski -Kerman was a major center of commerce and crafts . In the city archaeologists discovered built up according to plan streets, ruins of buildings , land and cave temples , cave business .The economy of the town was agriculture: viticulture, horticulture and gardening. In the vicinity of Eski -Kerman still traces of terraced plots with grape lozyami , however , have long been brutalized .

A powerful defense system , developed at that time, the economy , an advantageous location near the main trade route from the steppes to Chersonesos - all made Eski-Kerman important political and administrative center of the south-west Taurica . This role is preserved until the end of VIII century. When the event occurred , dramatically changed the fate of the city .

In 787 , according to a written source Life of John the Gothic revolt against the Khazars. The reasons for it as a whole remain unknown , it is assumed that it was caused by the oppression of the population. The uprising spread to most of Taurica . It was headed by Bishop John de Gotha , an ardent ikonopochitatel . Then the rebels gave him the Khazars.However, Bishop managed to flee outside Taurica , he was later canonized by the Christian Church and canonized .

The researchers believe that Eski-Kerman was one of the hotbeds of rebellion. Therefore , suppressing the rebellious city , the Khazars have destroyed the whole system of his defense.

But life on the plateau is not halt.Eski-Kerman existed then as an unsecured , open settlement . Defensive caves were adapted for storerooms, stables for cattle, is partially converted into churches, chapels , tombs .

Materials found at the excavations indicate that the city was finally killed at the end of the XIII century.Eski -Kerman was destroyed and burned down in 1299 by the hordes of Temnik Nogai . It was destroyed almost all of its population . After that, Eski -Kerman has not been revived . Time made ​​him a pile of stones covered with earth , overgrown with bushes and grass.Martin Bronevsky , who visited here in 1578 , found already in ruins , which according to him so ancient that neither the Turks nor Tartars, nor the Greeks themselves do not know the names of them .

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