Kimmerikon
Encyclopedia
Kimmerikón was an ancient Greek town in Crimea
Crimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...

, on the southern shore of the Kerch Peninsula
Kerch Peninsula
The Kerch Peninsula is a major and prominent geographic feature located at the eastern portion of Crimea. Stretching towards the Taman peninsula, it is reminiscent of an isthmus between two neighboring seas: Azov Sea and Black Sea...

, at the western slope of Mount Opuk, roughly 50 kilometers south-west of modern Kerch
Kerch
Kerch is a city on the Kerch Peninsula of eastern Crimea, an important industrial, transport and tourist centre of Ukraine. Kerch, founded 2600 years ago, is considered as one of the most ancient cities in Ukraine.-Ancient times:...

. The town was founded by the Milesian colonists in the 5th century BC and flourished at the beginning of the Christian era. Its name may refer to an earlier Cimmerian settlement on the site. Kimmerikon was an important stronghold defending the Bosporan Kingdom
Bosporan Kingdom
The Bosporan Kingdom or the Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus was an ancient state, located in eastern Crimea and the Taman Peninsula on the shores of the Cimmerian Bosporus...

 from the Scythians. Its walls ranged from 2.5 to 3.5 meters in thickness. In the mid-3rd century AD Kimmerikon was sacked by the Goths
Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....

, but some measure of urban settlement persisted until the end of the Roman era. The site was excavated by Soviet archaeologists in 1927, 1947–49, and 1950-51.
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