Kerch

Kerch, one of the oldest cities in Crimea, was founded around 600 BC as Panticapaeum by Greek colonists from Miletus. By the 5th century BC it became the capital of the Bosporan Kingdom, a major Hellenistic state that exported grain and fish to Mediterranean markets. Archaeological remains on Mount Mithridates include royal palaces, defensive walls, and the 1st-century AD Demeter Crypt with painted Greco-Roman funerary art. The Panticapaeum necropolis has yielded over 1,000 tombs with gold jewellery, ceramics, and weapons. The nearby Kul Oba mound contained a rich 4th-century BC Scythian burial.