Al-ma on the Alma river near Bakhchisaray

Cities of Khazaria. Kromos Estatium
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     The khazar cities here include not only those cities that were built by the khazar architects, but also those that were built before the arrival of the khazars, were used by the khazars for their needs and tasks for a long time.
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Al-ma on the Alma river near Bakhchisaray **
     Also Alma, Alma-Kermen, Alma-Saray. Fortress on the Alma, the Alma fortress.
     According to Artamonov, Tsar Joseph wrote About such a city in his letter to the Spanish jews. Artamonov identified this city with a settlement near Bakhchisaray on the Alma river.
     In the 6th century before the birth of Christ, this plateau was chosen by the taurians, who came here to winter.
     At the end of the 2nd century BC, conflicts broke out between The Bosporus of Pontus and the scythians. The Pontians were led by Diophantus, and the scythians were led into battle by their King Palacus. The scythians tried to subdue urban settlements, which was opposed by Mithridates Eupator.
     As a result of war and peace, the scythians received the right to create their own settlement on the hill of the Alma valley, and a fortress nearby. They named the fortress Al-ma, which meant Above the Valley.
     At the beginning of the 1st century before the birth of Christ, the first settlement appears here, which has a full-fledged socio-cultural polis significance, which belonged to the late scythian architecture.
     In the 4th century Ad, there was a Greek settlement here. The peculiarity of the river where they founded their settlement was that during the tides, a wave with sea water entered its channel, which mixed with fresh river water.
     From them, apparently, went and naming their settlement. The greeks called the mixture of sea water and river water «alum».
     Greek horticultural agronomy was based on this phenomenon. They bred not only grapes, but also apple orchards, for which they used salt fertilization, which they collected along the river bank after the tidal wave retreated.
     So they called the river the apple name Alma, and their settlement, based on the cultivation of apples, received from historians the name Alma, that is, Apple or Apple.
     All these names were associated with the acythian name of the cape on the plateau.
     The name Alma also appealed to the turks with turkyuts, who began to fill the steppes of the Crimea in the 5th century. Among the turks, the word «Alma» means something similar to an apple tree. They often called this city Alma-Saray.
     Since the 8th century, other terms associated with the word «Alma» appear here. These are the fortresses of Alma-Kermen, Alma-Tarkhan, Almachik, Elmajik, the Tract of Alma near Koz, the Palace of Alma-Saray, the residence of kalgi.
     The fortress of Alma-Kala is located on the plateau of the left bank of the Alma. It was protected from enemies by a stonewall. The architecture of Alma-Kala was repeated in a whole network of similar fortresses throughout the northern part of the Crimean foothills, which covered the passes to the Crimean mountains on one side, and on the other side closed the approaches to the coast of Taurida.
     The position of the fortress on the cape made it possible to control all the roads between Chersonesos and the chain of fortresses to Tavria.
     Now the ruins of gorodets-fortress are located near the village of Zavetnoe in the Bakhchisarai district.
     The settlement covered an area of 1.5 hectares. The houses were built on stone foundations, the walls of the houses were built of bricks on an glinobit basis.
     The fortress that stood on the cape itself, the scythian Al-ma, was separated from the settlement by a wall 4 meters high and 2 meters thick.
     With the arrival of the greeks in Al-ma, they put in the Fortress Acropolis, where there were nobles.
     The main economy of the city of Al-ma at all historical stages of its development was agriculture and handicrafts.
     In the 2nd century after the birth of Christ, the Romans came to the city on the cape, who expelled the scythian military garrison, setting up their own. The Romans are already creating a full-fledged small fortress here. Al-ma gets the status of a real provincial city.
     Here, there are a few buildings of Roman architecture.
     The fortress wall was strengthened, instead of stone on clay, the romans put stones on lime mortar, which is unknown to anyone here. The dwellings of the roman men of the garrison were arranged in the same way. There were frescoes everywhere with the marks of the roman legion, even on the tiles. Columns and marble wall and floor finishes appear.
     At the end of the 2nd century after the birth of Christ, a workshop for the production of glass and glass products appeared in the city.
     At the beginning of the 3rd century, the Roman Legion leaves the Overhanging Fortress of Al-ma, yielding it to the sarmatians, in fact, the last people of indo-aryan vocabulary in the Black Sea region.
     In the middle of the 3rd century, the fortress is attacked by the goths. Apparently, the scythian kings managed to warn its inhabitants about the approach of enemies, who hastily left the city, leaving their belongings here, in the hope that the scythian kings and the gothic leaders will be able to agree. But the goths completely burn the posad, destroy the fortress.
     Since the 5th century, huns appear here, since the 6th century, turks from the Turkic Khaganate live here, and in the middle of the 7th century, khazars come here for 300 years. But none of them raised the level of their village to a city of regional significance.
     There were no more townspeople than there were villagers. Although orthodox sources mention the existence of this city during the uprising of John of Gotha against the khazars in 787.
     In the 10th century, the last khazar king Joseph referred to the city of Al-ma in the Crimea as a khazar city in his letters to spanish jews.
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