English
This small settlement spread on the shore of the Uzkaya Bukhta (Narrow bay) has a rich history. The Crimean "wild west" sea-coast was occupied from ancient times. Nations replaced each other during millenniums - from Cro-Magnons to ancient Greeks and Scythians, from Crimean Tatars to Russian peasants resettled in the 30-ties of the XIX century.
Signs of the Stone Age people on the Tarkhankutsky peninsula have been revealed in the vicinity of villages Olenevka, Mezhvodnoe, Dalyokoe. During excavations they have found out silicic knives, fragment of ceramics, etc. related to the IV-III millenniums B.C. Besides, the region is renowned for barrows erected during the period from the Bronze Age to the Scythian times.
In the XII century B.C. in the north-western Crimea there appeared Cimmerians. It is supposed that it was a Cimmerian settlement that has been discovered near the village Vladimirovka. A lot of Scythian settlements have been discovered at the territory from the lake Donuzlav to the settlement Chernomorskoe.
In the VIII century B.C. colonization of the Crimean peninsula began. Greek polises emerged on the sea-coast. The port Kalos-Limen was on the northern outskirts of the Great Khersones possessions, it was mentioned in the Khersonessians' well-known oath: "I...shall betray neither Khersones, nor Kerkinitida, nor Kalos-Limen, nor other fortifications and lands belonging to Khersonessians..." A plaque with the oath text was found out during excavations of Khersones in 1891 and is dated the III century B.C.
Kalos-Limen was a port town and the centre of an agricultural district. In the district they grew wheat and grapes being the main article of export. The settlement was protected by a stronghold wall of thickness up to one and a half metres. The town passed repeatedly into ownership of Scythians who lived beside. In so doing the barbarians tried to use the Greek buildings, even completed them in their own way, true, Scythians were considerably inferior to Greeks in the building skill.
Centuries went, towns and nations became non-existent, the climate changed: coniferous forests on Tarkhankut disappeared, nomads arranged pastures on ruins of abandoned settlements.
During the period of the Crimean khanate on the Kalos-Limen spot there was a Tatar village the inhabitants of which were occupied with stock-breeding.
After Russia annexed the Crimea a part of the Tarkhankut lands have passed into possession of a Katherine's II court dignitary, Major-General Vasily Stepanovich Popov. He had founded a large estate, built a house (it has remained intact in the village of Olenevka, now it is one of the sanatorium buildings), laid a big orchard. In order to populate the tenantless lands (many Tatar families after 1783 left the Crimea migrating to Turkey) the retired soldiers were offered to remain in Tavrida, migrants were brought from Ukraine and Russia. To be engaged in recruitment was a paying business, especially it concerned women: for every young she-settler the State paid the recruiting agent a large sum.
In manors at Tarkhankut they began to breed sheep. This branch had reached a considerable flourishing when in 1824 one of M. Vorontsov's numerable Crimean possessions formed here. Fells of Tarkhankut lambs were valued highly - the manors affairs went up in the world sharply. The village Ak-Mechet also was expanded and built. Owing to M. Vorontsov effort new houses, a church had appeared in it, good roads led to the settlement. The estate owner strove for transformation into a town of the settlement neglected before.
After the Crimean Tatars' deportation in 1944 the settlement Ak-Mechet had been renamed into Chernomorskoe. The Republican historical-archaeological preserve "Kalos-Limen" is the main of the settlement's sights. Excursions are organized by the Yevpatoria excursion bureau.