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By Angela Charlton
Associated Press Writer
Thursday, Aug 22, 2002
SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine - For thousands of years, the cliffside vistas,
sun-washed coves and succulent apricots of Crimea were treasured by
visitors - so treasured that the visitors often vanquished local
rulers and stayed.
Today's visitors are hard-pressed to find a decent bathroom, much
less invest in real estate. Yalta, a beach getaway for Russian
leaders from Czar Nicholas II to former Soviet leader Mikhail
Gorbachev, struggles to attract tourists. Sevastopol, a once-closed
port city immortalized by British poets, has few hotel rooms with
reliable hot water.
Yet, Crimea's natural and historical wonders remain breathtaking, and
its pistachios, cherries and wines are still delectable, making it a
European destination well worth the pitted asphalt and surly service.
Greek and Roman adventurers, Judaic tribes, Genoese merchants,
Muslim Tatars, Turkish emirs and great Russian authors all set down
roots in this Black Sea peninsula, leaving marks that can be seen today.
In the Soviet era, communist elites who summered on Crimea's shores
ensured it had the country's best-paved roads and premier health
resorts. Select children from communist-bloc nations around the world
attended summer camps here. Many parts of Crimea were off-limits to
everyone but party bosses or naval officials.
In the decade since it became part of independent Ukraine with the
Soviet collapse, Crimea has gradually opened up to outsiders -
and
simultaneously plunged into a morass of high crime, ethnic tensions
and economic blight that accompanied the end of generous state
subsidies.
The number of annual visitors sunk from 8 million in the late Soviet
era to less than 3 million in the 1990s. It was back up to 4.5
million last year, and Andrei Vershidsky of Crimea's Ministry for
Resorts insists it will only keep growing.
"We're focusing on attracting more Westerners," he said, in hopes
that the peninsula will soon be Europe's next great vacation oasis.
Valentin Danilchenko, a tireless tour guide from the medieval Muslim
town of Bakhchisarai, is skeptical. "We may wait forever for our
prospects to be fulfilled," he says.
Among the few people prospering in today's Crimea are enterprising
grave robbers who scan metal detectors over long-forgotten cemeteries
and dig up buttons and belt buckles from the disintegrated uniforms
of British, French and Italian soldiers who died on Sevastopol's
hillsides in the Crimean Wars in the 1850s.
The diggers peddle their wares surreptitiously in a Sevastopol park,
and some wind up for sale on Internet sites and in British antique
shops.
Amateur archaeologists also uncover older treasures, such as the
terra cotta pottery found around the ruins of the Greek metropolis
Chersonesus on Crimea's southwest tip.
Built in the 5th century BC, Chersonesus thrived as a key port for
hundreds of years, then was forgotten for hundreds more. Today
several marble columns have been restored, framing a stunning view of
the aqua sea. Low stone walls surround intricate floor mosaics and
trace a complex of storerooms and courtyards.
For many Russians, the site's appeal lies in its claim to have been
the place where their ancestors first adopted Orthodox Christianity.
A gazebo stands on the spot where Prince Vladimir was reputedly
baptized in 988.
A few dozen kilometers (miles) to the east, archaeologists have found
remnants of an eighth-century Karaite Jewish settlement at Chufut-
Kale, with caves carved into limestone cliffs reachable via an
hourlong uphill walk.
Tucked in a nearby ravine is a Jewish cemetery with tombstones dating
between the 1300s and 2001, which survived even after Muslim khans
built a fortress on the promontory extending above the caves.
Mosques and Muslim palaces dot Crimea's countryside from the days
when Tatars ruled in the 13th-18th centuries. The palace at
Bakhchisarai is a must on Ukrainian and Russian school trips, with
its colorful facades and Sufi-inspired fountains.
Crimea's role as a Russian holiday getaway developed after Catherine
the Great annexed the peninsula in the 18th century. Czar Nicholas II
and his queen Alexandra built the Italian Renaissance palace at
Livadia, near Yalta, where their children spent much of their time
before the entire family was executed by the Bolsheviks.
Livadia rose to fame again in 1945 as the site of a pivotal meeting
at which U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill and Soviet dictator Josef Stalin set the stage for
the Cold War.
Livadia is now a museum, but the guest houses nearby are open to
tourists, their columned terraces overlooking seaside gardens.
Crimea's botanical and entomological bounties attract specialists
year-round, and its maze of mountains draw in die-hard Russian bikers
and backpackers.
Don't expect to find a map of hiking trails. Most maps of Crimea date
from the Soviet era, when swaths were left blank to indicate closed-
off areas. Satellite images from the Internet or a knowledgeable
local guide are far more reliable.
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