Ancient City of Tauric Chersonese and its Chora
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How it came to be
Tauric Chersonese was founded by Dorian Greeks in the 5th century BC on the Heraclean Peninsula in south-west Crimea, on the northern shore of the Black Sea. Around the city, about 10,000 hectares of farmland, the chora, was divided into 400 equal allotments, and remains of wine presses and defensive towers survive. According to UNESCO it was the most productive wine centre on the Black Sea.
Around 110 BC the city called in Mithridates VI and then submitted to the Bosporan Kingdom. A Roman garrison was stationed there from the mid-1st century BC until the 370s AD, and afterwards it was a Byzantine possession. In the 980s Vladimir the Great took the city, and he is said to have been baptised here in 988.
The town was sacked in 1299 by the Golden Horde armies of Nogai Khan and appears to have been abandoned by about 1400. Excavation began in 1827, and about 10 of the city's 40 hectares have been dug. The site was inscribed as a World Heritage site of Ukraine in 2013 and placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2026.
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