Phanagoria

Phanagoria, also Phanagoreia (Greek Φαναγορεία ), in ancient times, the largest Greek colony on the Taman Peninsula on the Cimmerian Bosporus and for centuries an important trading town. She was after Pantikapaion one of the capitals of the Bosporan kingdom, and in the 7th century capital of the United Bulgarian Empire.

Location

Phanagoria lies on the eastern side of the Kerch Strait that connects the Black Sea with the Sea of ​​Azov. The city was built on the northern side of the tip of the Taman peninsula, a few miles east of Hermonassa. Approximately one third of the city's former territory is now under water.

History

Antiquity

Phanagoria was founded in 543 BC as a colony of Teos. In the 5th century BC, the city was the resulting Bosporan Empire. She was then under constant threat by the Scythians. After the extinction of the dynasty ruling the empire fell by 107 BC, Mithridates VI. of Pontus, who used his son Manchares as king. During the Mithridatic wars Phanagoria be presented on the side of Rome and remained allied with Rome afterwards. In the 4th century it was destroyed by the Huns.

Middle Ages

In the 7th century Phanagoria capital founded by Khan Kubrat Great Bulgarian Empire. Last Bulgarian ruler was the khan Batbajan (or Vatbajan ), son of the Great Khan Kubrat. Later, she fell under Khazar and Byzantine influence. The Byzantine emperor Justinian II lived there around 700 as a refugee and brother of the ruler of the Khazars.

In the 10th century, the area was conquered by the Kiev Rus and Phanagoria was supplanted by the built on the ruins Hermonassas Tmutarakan. In the 11th (?) Century the city became a trading point of the Venetians and Genoese, and was in 1349 the archbishopric Matrega. In the 15th century it fell under Crimean Tatar / Ottoman rule and then no longer mattered.

Excavation

After the conquest of the territory by Russia in 1792 began excavation work that led to the uncovering of part of the city and the necropolis in the 19th century. In the 20th century, the submerged parts of the city were then explored.