Kertch

Kertch, previous to being levelled with the ground by the allies in 1855 the most important port of the Crimea, with a large trade in the export of corn, is situated on the eastern shore of the peninsula, on the strait of Kaffa or Yenikale, which, 26 miles long and 3 to 25 wide, connects the Sea of Azov with the Black Sea. The port still has a trade to the extent of nearly £200,000 annually in grain, linseed, leather, fish, and caviare (all exported). The museum for the Greek and other antiquities discovered in the neighbourhood was removed to the Hermitage at St Petersburg after having been partly rifled by the allied soldiers in 1855 (cf. D. Macpherson, Antiquities of Kertch, 1857). Two and a half miles to the south of the town are the fortified works designed to protect the passage of the straits. Kertch, the ancient Panticapæum or Bosporus, founded in the middle of the 6th c., B.C., by Miletans, was the capital of the ancient kingdom of the Bosporus, and subsequently of a state founded by the son of Mithridates, about 100 B.C. From 1318 to 1475 it was a depot of the Genoese; then it came into the hands of the Turks; and finally, in 1771, it was acquired by the Russians. Pop. with the neighbouring Yenikale (1890) 30,900.