Sightseeing & Excursions crimea
Crimea
Crimea is a parliamentary autonomic republic which is governed by the Constitution of Crimea in accordance with the laws of Ukraine. The capital and administrative seat of the republic's government is the city of Simferopol, located in the center of the peninsula. Crimea's total area is 26,200 square kilometres (10,100 sq mi). As of 2007, Crimea has a population of 1,973,185 inhabitants. Crimea is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea and on the western coast of the Sea of Azov.
The southeast coast is flanked at a distance of 8–12 km (5–8 mi) from the sea by a parallel range of mountains, the Crimean Mountains. These mountains are backed by secondary parallel ranges. Seventy-five percent of the remaining area of Crimea consists of semiarid prairie lands, a southward continuation of the Pontic steppes, which slope gently to the northwest from the foot of the Crimean Mountains.
Most of Crimea has a temperate continental climate, except for the south coast where it experiences a humid subtropical climate, due to warm influences from the Black Sea. Summers can be hot (28°C Jul average) and winters are cool (-0.3°C Jan average) in the interior, on the south coast winters are milder (4°C Jan average) and temperatures much below freezing are exceptional. Precipitation in the interior is low with only 400mm a year. On the south coast precipitation is more than double of that, Yalta annually receives about 1050mm. Because of its climate, the southern Crimean coast is a popular beach and sun resort for tourists.
Yalta
Yalta is the most popular resort of the "Ukrainian Riviera", lies near the southern tip of the Crimean Peninsula (110 km from Simferopol via Bakhchisaray or 86 km via Alushta), in a horseshoe formed by spurs of the Crimean Mountains.
The city is ideally located and has an excellent climate. There are practically no north winds. The winters are extremely mild (roses often bloom in the open at Christmas) and the city is rich in acacia, laurel, magnolia, and palm trees, and is surrounded by orchards and vineyards. The mountains are covered with oak and beech forests. The heat of the summer months is tempered by the sea breezes. The annual sunshine hours equal those of Nice in the south of France. The bathing season lasts from June till the end of September.
The standard orientation tour of Yalta usually includes the next places to visit:
Livadiya Palace - the family palace of the Russian Royal family, the "Swallow Nest" - a tiny palace, looking like a medieval castle with bastions and battlements, located on the cliffs of Ay-Todor Cape right over the sea, - can be included. From Ay-Todor the whole Bay of Yalta opens out to the viewer. There are also the ruins of a 2,000-year-old Roman fortress nearby.
Tour of the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka. The Palace used to be the residence of Count Mikhail Vorontsov. Designed by a well-known British architect Edward Blore, one of the fathers of "romanticism in architecture". The construction began in winter 1832-33. It has 150 rooms and took 18 years to build. Its northern elevation is in Tudor style and recalls a medieval castle, while the southern front has distinct Moorish elements.
During the 1945 Yalta Conference of "The Big Three" it was the residence of the British delegation. Today it is a museum, including an art gallery of Russian and Western art.
The 120-acre estate is one of the finest on the Southern Crimean coast, with over 200 exotic plants and trees. In the Upper Park is the "Alupka Chaos", the quarry from which the material for the Palace was taken; it is now a picturesque and romantic labyrinth.
In Massandra (5 km from Yalta) the Central Research Institute of Viticulture and Viniculture is located, which has worked to improve some 800 varieties of grape and several thousand hybrids from Algerian, French, Italian, Hungarian and Syrian vines.
Massandra Wine Factory is closely connected with the Institute. Its cellars hold some wine bottled in 1775 - not for general consumption, of course :-). It has a special wine-tasting place, visit to which can be arranged on special order for groups.
Another attraction of Yalta is the Nikitskiy Botanical Garden located 6.5 km east of the city.
The garden was founded in 1812. It rises in terraces from the seashore mountainwards and covers some 500 acres. There are 7,000 trees and plants there, both native - some of them endemic - to the Crimea and imported from the five continents.
The Livadia Palace
Livadia Palace was built in 1911 and served as a summer retreat of the last Russian tsar, Nicholas II, and his family. The Yalta Conference was held there in 1945, when the palace housed the apartments of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and other members of the American delegation.
The palace was once used as a mental institution, and now serves as a museum. Most of the historical artifacts have been lost, but anything that has been recovered can be seen for a small fee.
The Livadia Palace is built of white Crimean granite in the Neo-Renaissance style. The edifice features an arched portico of Carrara marble, a spatious Arabic patio, an Italian patio, a Florentine tower, ornate Bramantesque windows, a "balcony-belvedere", and multiple bays with jasper vases. A gallery connects the palace with a neo-Byzantine church of the Exaltation of the Cross, built by Monighetti in 1866.
The palace contains 116 rooms, with interiors furnished in different styles. There are a Pompeian vestibule, an English billiard-room, a Neo-baroque dining room, and a Jacob-style study of maple wood, which elicited particular admiration of Nicholas II.
The trip to the Balaklava
Coach to Balaklava – a small town mentioned in Homer’s “Odyssea” with the more than 2500 years history.
Short sightseeing tour includes observing of Isaacs Zusmann former residence – a significant merchant and chairman of Balaclava shul in past, and building of it.
Ex-Nuclear submarine base
One of the attractions is an underground, formerly classified submarine base that was operational until 1993. The base was said to be virtually indestructible and designed to survive a direct atomic impact. The base remained operational after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 until 1993 when the decommissioning process started. In 1996, the last Russian submarine left the base, which is now open to the public for guided tours around the canal system, the base, and a small museum, which is now housed in the old ammunition warehouse deep inside the hillside.
Visiting the Bakhchisaray Khans Residence
The Bakhchisaray was the main official residence of the Crimean sovereigns for a few hundred years. The town is rather small and ebbed nowadays, but the Khan’s palace is really worth to visit.
The former capital of the Crimean Khanate (Tartar Moslem state), Bakhchisaray, a settlement long before the 13th-century invasion of the Tartars, has many historical monuments worth seeing.
The Historical and Archeological Museum is housed in the former palace of the Khans. The palace was built by Khan Abdul Sahal Girey in 1519; more than two centuries later fire destroyed the original structure but it was rebuilt in 1787 for Catherine the Great when Crimea was annexed to Russia. The harem is still in its original form, and so is the mosque, which dates from the 1700s; the cemetery of the Gireys has also been preserved - and so has the Fountain of Tears, the famous landmark of Bakhchisaray.
A visit to at least one of the 14 cave cities, inhabited as long ago as the 6th century AD, in the neighborhood usually makes the tour still more impressive. Another addition to the tour can be the visit to the medieval fortress of Tere-Kermen on a picturesque plateau 8 km east of Bakhchisaray (there is also a cave city with more than 200 caves, among them a 9th c. cave church).
An outing from Yalta (80 km one way) or Alushta (80 km one way).
Trip to the Sevastopol and Chersoneses of Tavria
Sevastopol together with Kronstadt and Gibraltar is one of the most famous naval citadels in Europe. It was founded in 1783, when Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula. It became an important naval base and later a commercial port. It is a significant cultural, scientific and tourists center as well a port of international significancy nowadays with the population of 400,000.
The must-see in Sevastopol is the National preserve “Chersoneses of Tavria”. Chersonesos' ancient ruins are presently located in one of Sevastopol's suburbs. They were excavated by the Russian government, starting from 1827. They are today a popular tourist attraction, protected by the state as an archaeological park.
The buildings mix influences of Greek, Roman and Byzantine culture. The defensive wall is hundreds of meters long. Buildings include Roman amphitheatre and a Greek temple.
In 2007 Chersonesos tied for fifth in the Seven Wonders of Ukraine poll.