The unique cave medieval town of Bakla is located 18 kilometres from Simferopol near the village of Skalistoe. It is a fortress in the rocks, with the remains of the citadel, underground passage and a whole system of caves for different purposes, hollowed out in the limestone rock.
Devil's Cave
The southern slopes of the Crimean Mountains consist of soft limestone, which is subject to destruction and weathering, forms natural caves and shelters. Here it is easy to extend a room or expand a cave - that's why people have settled here since ancient times.
Not far from the medieval town is the so-called Devil's Cave - Shaitan-Koba. Here 300 thousand years ago lived Neanderthals. This small four metre high grotto was their dwelling.
A cultural layer consisting of the remains of animal bones and flint implements, and a hearth on which they cooked food were unearthed. Primitive people hunted mainly saigas and wild asses. There were also mammoths at that time - their bones have also been found, but they were not the main part of the diet.
Cave city
The word "Bakla" itself comes from the Turkic "baklak" - a water tank, a vessel. There are indeed a lot of "vessels" hollowed out in the rock, only they were intended not for liquids, but for grain. But what the local population called the city, we do not know, the name "Bakla" of late origin. So called these rocks inhabitants of the surrounding Tatar villages in the XVII-XIX centuries. Another version of the origin of the name is from the Turkic word "bean":
The city emerged on the most protected place - on two sides it was covered by a steep cliff, and on the third - a cliff. The exact dating of the emergence of the settlement here has not yet been established. Part of the buildings and burials belong to the III-IV centuries, and in the 5th century there was already a full-fledged fortified city.
The local population according to archaeological data were Goths and Alans. The Alans were a Sarmatian tribe of nomads who came to Crimea in the I-II centuries. The first tribes of Goths appeared in Crimea later - in the 3rd century AD and mixed with the Alans, forming a separate nation, which is now commonly referred to as the Crimean Goths". They occupied the mountainous areas of the peninsula. In the V century, that is, at the time of the heyday of Bakla, the Crimean Goths were already Christians, subordinated to Byzantium and were mainly engaged in agriculture. They spoke their dialect, close to the Germanic languages - the last traces of this ancient dialect were traced in the Crimea until the 18th century.
This city became the most northern outpost of the vast Byzantine Empire. In the 4th century the Hun invasion swept across the Crimea, but in these places archaeologists have not found any traces of the then battles - apparently, the war did not get here. And in 5-6th centuries Byzantines confidently oust Huns from the Black Sea region. They build their fortresses on the site of former ancient Greek cities - for example, in Chersonese, in Alushta. But they are not only interested in seaside areas, fortifications also appear in the mountains - the so-called "long walls", blocking mountain passes and passages. The town of Bakla became the northernmost part of this fortification system. The fortress was small. It was designed not so much to resist a large army as to shelter the local population from danger and to notify the central regions of Crimea of an attack.
The area of the ancient settlement is about a hectare. Bakla was organised as an ordinary medieval town: with a strong fortified citadel, a settlement and numerous household buildings around the citadel. In the earliest times, wine was produced here - the most discovered buildings related to wine production. Cisterns, settling tanks and wine storages were cut into the rock. The fortifications themselves were created in the rock that sheltered the city. In case of an attack, the city could be defended from the caves. Niches for lamps were found in the caves, the builders created staircases and a whole system of passages through hatches and corridors.
The citadel was a rectangle, two hundred metres wide and sixty long, made of limestone slabs. Traces of two towers on the edges of the cliff survived. On one of them there was a fighting platform from which the neighbourhood could be shelled. The most interesting object is the underground tunnel cut in the rock, which led from the fortress to the city.
The fortress has been fought over. It was badly damaged by one of the attacks in the 6th to 7th centuries. Traces of destruction and restorations have been found. It was fortified in 841 under Emperor Theophilus, due to the increasing attacks of the Khazars: there was a new line of walls, and a gap of half a metre between them was filled with mortar. Once again the fortress was rebuilt in the XI century. It is about the life of the fortress at this time we know best.
Here was a fairly dense urban development of two-storey houses on three or four rooms, which were divided by streets and alleys. Remains of pottery production and many granaries have been found. Crimea was the breadbasket of Byzantium and Bakla was a great centre of grain trade. One of the granaries has 109 large containers carved in limestone and two more cellars - and this is only one, and there are many of them found near the city.
Temples of the city
As many as eight temples of 11-13th centuries were found in the city. Inside the citadel itself there is a chapel and the tombs attached to it. Here the rulers of the city were buried. In the rocks above the city found a complex of two structures: a temple on the lower level above the burial ground and a chapel above it, cut out in the rock. A long and very low corridor led into it. Burials there are both common and cave burials - and it is not clear which of them appeared earlier.
In another rock there are remains of a monastery with a system of cells and surviving drawings on the walls. Several more churches were on the plateau below the city.
There are so many temples that according to one version, here was the seat of the bishop of the Khazar Kaganate - the legendary city of Fulla. We know the name of this city from written sources, but the exact location is still a mystery. Perhaps it was here, although there are more than a dozen versions of the city's location in total. If this version is correct, then St Cyril, one of the creators of Slavonic writing, visited here. True, the legend says that he found in the city of Fulla pagans who worshipped oak trees, and in his time there were already quite definitely Christians living here. But there were no such pagans anywhere in the Crimea, so most likely the legend is wrong.
The whole 13th century Crimea is subjected to attacks Tatar-Mongols. In 1299 the peninsula was completely conquered by Khan Nogai and became part of the Golden Horde. Most likely, this was the final point for the city of Bakla. From that time onwards it fell into desolation. In the fourteenth century, no one lives here anymore. New settlements in the area appear already in the XVI century and live in them Crimean Tatars - from the Gothic population by this time there is nothing left.
In Soviet times, there were short archaeological reconnaissance by employees of the Bakhchisarai Museum, which investigated all Crimean cave cities. In 1929-30, a Neanderthal site was found in the Devil's Cave. And the first full-fledged research of Bakla itself began in 1961. Archaeological expeditions worked here for 20 years, until 1981. Archaeologists D. L. Talis and V. E. Rudakov worked here. In the late 70s, the archaeological expedition was headed by historian Vladislav Yurochkin.
Durnoy Yar gully and Skalistinsky burial ground
As in many places in Crimea, the ancient burials around Bakla were subjected to merciless looting. On the Durnoy Yar gully, near the town, is one of the largest necropolises in Europe. The burials belong to 6-9th centuries. From them it is possible to establish the ethnic composition of the then population. Rock burial vaults were brought by the tribes of the Alans. Gothic elements in the burials can be identified by typical utensils and jewellery. But, to the great regret, there was a catastrophe for historical science: when in the 80s the research was stopped due to insufficient funding, the necropolis was almost completely excavated and looted by "black archaeologists". Up to 90 per cent of the ancient burials were lost. At the moment, the entire beam is riddled with pits and underground passages.
Another burial ground - a little earlier - managed to explore completely. It was excavated in 1959-60 by archaeologist E. В. Weimarn. It counts almost 800 burials. Many utensils and jewellery were found here. According to these graves is clearly determined by the date of penetration of Christianity here. Crosses and other symbols appear only in the 6th century.
Several things from Skalistinskogo burial ground can now be seen in the Bakhchisarai Museum. These are fibulae, utensils, jewellery, several crosses and belt buckles.
The new stage of excavations of Bakla came in 2003-2005, but at the moment there is no scientific research there, and the remains of ancient buildings and burials are still the prey of looters. For example, in 2013, a group of "black archaeologists" was detained here. They were digging up graves in Durnaya Balka and what seemed valuable to them - sold, and everything else was simply thrown away for uselessness.
Interesting facts
Bakla is considered a mystical place among the local population. The rocks around it have animal shapes and animal names - for example, the Sphinx and Serpent rocks.
The geological strata here are so interesting and diverse that geology students come here year after year for practical training. Bakla is considered not only a historical, but also a natural monument.
On a side note
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Location: Skalistoe village, Bakhchisaray district.
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How to get there: by train from Simferopol to the station "Pochtovaya" or by bus "Simferopol-Nauchny" to the station "Skalistoe".
