PEREKOP, a town of European Russia, in the Crimea, 60 miles south-east of Kherson on the isthmus which connects the peninsula with the continent, and, as its name (perekop, a cutting) indicates, commanding the once defensive ditch and dyke which cross from the Black Sea to the Sivash lagoon. It was formerly an important place, with a great transit trade in salt (obtained from the great salt lakes of the immediate neighbourhood), which occupied so large a place in popular estimation that the Tatars of the Crimea were usually styled the “Perekop horde” and their khans the “Perekop khans.” Since the opening of the railway route to the Crimea it has greatly declined. In 1865 the population of Perekop and its mercantile suburb (Armyanskii Bazar, 3 miles to the south) was only 4927, and the number has slightly decreased since.

In ancient times the isthmus was crossed (about 1⅜ miles south of the present town) by a ditch which gave the name of Taphros to a Greek settlement. This line of defence having fallen into decay, a fort was erected and a new ditch and dyke constructed in the 15tl’i century by Mengli Girai and his son and successor Sahib Girai. 1he fort, known as Kapu or Or-Kapi, became the nucleus of the town. In 1736 Perekop was captured by Field-Marshal Münnich, and in 1738 by Field-Marshal Lascy, who blew up the fort and destroyed a great part of the dyke. In 1754 the fort was rebuilt by Krim Girai; but the Greek and Armenian inhabitants of Perekop preferred to form a new settlement at Armyanskii Bazar (Armenian Market). Captured by the Russians in 1771, the town passed into Russian possession with the rest of the Crimea in 1783.