Kyz-Kermen

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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Kyz-Kermen **
     Koza-Kermen, Kir-Kermen, Kiz-Kermen. Watchtower, a Fortress on a mountain. The Maiden Fortress. City in the field.
     Some researchers try to identify this cave-type town with the ancient Fulls, which is associated with one of the moments of the missionary activity of Constantine and Methodius. The place was deserted, and Constantine might well have been kept here, since he had supported the khazars revolt. There was no way to leave. Here he taught fulls, residents of Kerman, christianity and cut down their idols Oak.
     Archaeologists today associate this city, which appeared in the 1st century after the birth of Christ, with a settlement near the village of Mashino in the Bakhchisaray district of Crimea. Here was a city a quarter of a kilometer wide that stretched out for almost a kilometer in length. The fortress was built at the very end of cape Kyz-Kule. The townships of the fortress were protected on one side by a promontory, on the sides by a gorge and a beam.
     The defensive wall of the fortress ran from the gorge to the ravine, from east to west.
     The first settlements that can be identified as proto-urban appear here in the 1st century BC. Previously, there were temporary dislocations of the cimmerian type. Starting from the 3rd century after the birth of Christ, the scythians, the founders of the Fortress, began to visit the goths, and then the sarmatians with the alans.
     Apparently, the name Kermen has been gradually adapted since the time of the cimmerians, who used a single root word for this place. Then it was adopted by the scythians, who spoke a similar dialect, after them this name was fixed by the sarmatians with the alans.
     In turkic times, the aryan-cimmerian word «kermen», which also meant a fortress in the turkic vocabulary, was added to the turkic word «giz», which meant a maiden, a girl. Thus, in Russian, the name of the fortress means Maiden Fortress. It seems that the harem of the khazar governor of the Great Khagan of Itil was kept here.
     There are still legends in the area that the remains of the fortress are haunted by the ghost of a girl who threw herself from a cliff into the abyss. This story is found in most of the khazar-type fortresses that stood on cliffs in the Crimea.
     In the 8th century, the khazars, who settled here, put on the old foundation a serious wall with a width of 8 to 4 meters. There was also a gate through which three horses rumps could pass in a row.
     The edges of the stone wall were two guard towers. In the very center of the wall was found the burial of a child. It was made during the construction of the wall. This is an ancient ritual of construction sacrifice, going back to ancient times. Such a rite could have come to the Crimea in the middle ages from European tribes who came from the east, perhaps goths, but already received construction skills.
     There were not many dwellings made of wood in the city, everything was made of rubble stone, limestone, bonded with clay. Only the fortress was made of wood. There are 7 large manor complexes consisting of several buildings. Residential buildings were not high, the binding material was not used everywhere. Clay appears a little later during the construction of dwellings. But there is also the dwellings, the construction of which clay was used immediately.
     On the eastern edge of the plateau, a group of 4 tarapans has been preserved, such grape presses are found along the western edge of the plateau. In the south-eastern part of the settlement there is a large multi-chamber building, probably the ruler's house. In the southern part of the settlement there was a wasteland.
     The fortress was designed for a dozen sentinels. The settlement at the fortress consisted of several dozen residential buildings on the surface. There were also rooms that were located in caves inside the cape. That is why historians referred to Kyz-Kermen as a cave-type city. There were a couple of hundred townspeople in total, not counting the monks in the cave.
     In the caves were hermit dwellings, caves that were used for farming, caves for patrolling the sea expanses, an artificial pool with a spring, a water tank cut in stone.
     People were engaged in agriculture, growing fruit, cattle breeding, leather making, fishing. It was a well-developed viticulture and winemaking, the townspeople did the grape juice and wine, there remained a few tarapanov, wine press for grapes.
     The city reached its peak during the presence of the Khazarus state and Byzantium. However, after the fall of Itil, the capital of the khazars on the Volga, Khzaria, as a political force, is no longer present in the Crimea, the city fell under the rule of Byzantium.
     In the city since the 9th century, when the influence of judaism in the Khazar Khaganate increased, a jewish community appeared, which consisted not only of jews. After the collapse of the khazars, part of the jews from Itil moved to the Crimea, to places where there was more or less active trade, trade caravan routes that the jews used to transmit information about trade opportunities, using their then advantage, writing.
     In the 9th century, the region of Kyz-Kermen belongs to the Byzantine fema of Kherson, which reigns its power in these places.
     In the 10th century, there is a castle, which is built here by the nobility, who left Eski-Kermen.
     In the 11th century, there were slavs and Rus, but the cape with the fortress did not interest them.
     In the 14th century, the Watchtower burned down. It may have been empty for at least a century.
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