A. D., presents a good example of the purely Byzantine style of architecture. The church of Alexander Nevski was formerly the famous Kertch museum of local antiquities, founded in 1825. The more valuable objects were afterwards removed to the Hermitage at St Petersburg, and those which remained were wantonly scattered during the English occupation of the town. The present “museum” is a small collection in a private house. Among the products of local industry are leather, tobacco, cement, beer, aerated waters, lime, candles, and soap. Fish-curing is carried on, and there are steam saw-mills and flour-mills. Previous to the deepening of the Strait of Yenikale so as to admit vessels drawing 17 feet of water (1876), the harbour was visited by a large number of vessels which now pass on to the Azoff ports. The imports comprise coal, wines, olive oil, &c.; and grain, fish, linseed, rapeseed, wool, and hides are exported. The harbour was improved by dredging at the same time as the strait. A promenade extends along the sea-wall, and beyond the town lie public gardens. About 6 miles to the north-east is the town and old Turkish fortress of Yenikale, which is united with Kertch to form a separate administrative circle or mayoralty, including, according to the surveys of 1843-44, an area of 42,103 acres. In 1876 the population of Kertch, exclusive of the temporary garrison of 13,745, amounted to 21,211.

The Greek colony of Panticapaeon was founded about the middle of the 6th century B.C., by the people of Miletus. From about 438

B. c. till the conquest of this region by Mithradates the Great about 100 B.c., the town and territory formed the so-called kingdom of the Bosphorus, ruled over by an independent dynasty. Phanacer, the son of Mithradates, became the founder of a new line under the protection of the Romans, which continued to exist till the middle of the 4th century A. D., and extended their power over the maritime parts of the Tauris. After this time the town—which had already begun to be known as Bosphora or Bospora—passed into the hands of the Eastern empire, of the Khazars, and of various barbarian tribes. In 1318 the Tartars, who had come into possession in the previous century, ceded the town to the Genoese, who soon raised it into new importance as a commercial centre. They usually called the place Cerchio, by a corruption of the Russian name K’rtcheff (whence Kertch), which appears in the 11th century inscription of Tmutorokansk. Under the Turks, whose rule dates from the end of the 15th century, Kertch was a military port: and as such it plays a part in the Russo-Turkish wars. Captured by the Russians under Dolgorakoff in 1771, it was ceded to them along with Yenikale by the peace of Kertchuk-Kainardji, and it became a great centre of Russian naval activity. Its importance was greatly impaired by the rise of Odessa and Taganrog; and in 1820 the fortress was dismantled. Opened to foreign commerce and made a quarantine station, it attained a certain degree of prosperity, but again suffered severely during the Crimean War.

Archaeologically Kertch is of particular interest, the kurgans or sepulchral mounds of the town and vicinity having yielded a rich variety of the most beautiful works of art. Since 1825 (the date of Blaramberg’s discoveries) a large number of tombs have been opened. In the so-called Zolotai (z.e., Golden) kurgan, or Abtrim-oba, was found a great stone vault similar in style to an Egyptian pyramid; and within, among many objects of minor note, were golden dishes adorned with griffins and beautiful arabesques. In the Kul-oba, or Mound of Cinders (opened in 1830-31 by Dubrux), was a similar tomb, in which were found what would appear to be remains of one of the kings of the Bosphorus, of his queen, his horse, and his groom. The ornaments and furniture were of the most costly kind; the king’s bow and buckler were of gold; his very whip intertwined with gold; the queen had golden diadems, necklace, and breast-jewels, and at her feet lay a golden vase. In the Pavlovskoi kurgan (opened in 1858) was the tomb of a Greek lady, containing among other articles of dress and decoration a pair of fine leather boots (a unique discovery) and a beautiful vase on which is painted the return of Persephone from Hades and the setting out of Triptolemus for Attica. In a neighbouring tomb was what is believed to be “the oldest Greek mural painting which has come down to us,” dating probably from the 4th century b.c. Among the minor objects discovered in the kurgans perhaps the most noteworthy are the fragments of engraved boxwood, the only examples known of the art taught by the Sicyonian painter Pamphilus.

See Seymour’s Russia on the Black Sea and Sea of Azoff, 1855; Telfe∣∙, The Crimea, 1876; Bruhn, Tchernomore, 1852-77, Odessa, 1878; Sosnogoιoff, Putero∙ ditel po Kruimu (“Guide to the Crimea”), Odessa, 1880; Gilles, Antiquités du Bosphore Cimmerien, 1854; Macpherson, Antiquities of Kertch, 1857; Compte rendu de la Commission Imp. Archéologique, St Petersburg; L. Stephani, Die Alterlhiimer com Kertsch, 1880; C. T. Newton, Essays on Art and Archxology, 1880.