Chufut Kale - Fortress of the Jews

We have a ready picture of those who dwell in caves - crude, grunting, skin-clad, club-wielding folks with sloping foreheads and hunched gaits. Yet it might surprise some that caves have hosted civilisation before. These cave cities, more than mere functional depressions in the rock, are carven and not just hewn.

Below: caves - more than a simple hole in the wall. Here one has been fashioned into a chicken coop.

Fortress of the Jews

Chufut Kale, which in Crimean Tatar translates into 'Fortress of the Jews', was one of these cave cities, and another reason why we visited Bakhchisaray. Built into and atop one of the tufa plateaux which surround the town, it is one of many such cities in the vicinity. Tufa is a type of soft volcanic rock which is easily moulded by wind, water and man. Another better known tufa site of interest in the Black Sea environs, where cave cities abound too, is the spectacular fairy chimneys further south in Cappadocia.

The Cappadocian cave cities belonged in an ancient time, inhabited as they were by the Hittites and Phrygians. Chufut Kale is of more recent vintage. Although the Crimean cave cities predate the arrival of the Tatars, they were themselves newer than their Cappadocian counterparts. Chufut Kale's origins, however, are disputed. One of its earliest inhabitants, sometime from the sixth century, were Christianized Alans (the ancestors of the modern-day Ossetians) allied to the Byzantine Empire.

The occupation of Chufut Kale by the Karaites, which gave rise to its present name, adds yet another element to the Ukrainian cultural potpourri. These Karaites were adherents of a religion related to Judaism (hence their being classified as "Jews") which only adhered to the Torah (the Mosaic scripture), as opposed to orthodox Judaism which derived authority from rabbinic sources as well. Karaites, however, were of Turkic origins, and their settlement of the area generally followed the Tatar takeover of Crimea. In a time and age when ethnicity, faith and nationality are indelibly linked in most perceptions, a people professing a Jewish faith, speaking a Turkic tongue and living under Muslim rule must defy easy categorisation.

In fact, one Tatar Khan, Haji Girai chose to base himself in Chufut Kale, the already formidable location of which he fortified further. It was only with the definitive political atrophy of the Mongol Golden Horde (his overlord that dominated the Pontic steppes north of Crimea) that he moved out of this natural fortress and into the valley where Bakhchisaray was located.

The gates were shut

Two buses, naturally numbered 1 and 2, ply the route between either ends of Bakhchisaray. One of these ferried us to the eastern end of the Old Town where we began our hike. But for icy paths, it would have been a gentle climb which would pass the Orthodox Uspensky Cathedral and its adjourning monastery. We carried on up the valley, passing the monastery, strolling monks in their flowing black robes who seem to glide on the ice and toiling builders to reach the southern gates of Chufut Kale.

Below: in descending order, the Uspensky Cathedral and Monastery.

The gates were shut. We encountered instead a cheerful Russian trio, a couple and their elderly father, from Sevastopol. They greeted us from one of the hollows beneath the walls which they managed to clamber up to. The lady even introduced a plump well-groomed cat which she held aloft atop the rocky ledge like Rafiki and Simba on Pride Rock. A gift from Ukraine, she declared. We thought she couldn't leave her pet behind. Turned out she couldn't keep her hands off a stray tabby.

When she eventually released the cat, she climbed down and purposes to help us breach Chufut Kale's stubborn defences. Stooping to pick up a large pebble nearby, she strode forward and hammered on the iron gate with it, calling out in Russian, Ukrainian and English for it to be opened. There was no answer, they left (the cat behind, too), and we contented ourselves with the views from the hollow beneath the walls.

The mostly downhill return journey was a lot easier. We had our afternoon meal (not sure what to call it since it was neither lunch nor dinner) and made it back to our guesthouse before dark. Max the house cat awaited our return, confined to the second level where our room was by this particular member of staff because she didn't like cats.

Below: Poor Max, before his unfortunate eviction.

Thing was, Mary didn't like cats too, which this member of staff knew very well. So Max was banished as soon as we got back. It seems between two women's ire is the last place to be, whether you're man or cat.