"The Golden Ring of the Bosporan Kingdom", a new tourist route, has been supported by the administration of the Krasnodar Territory. Prospects for the project were discussed at the Yalta Economic Forum by Governor of the Krasnodar Region, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Krasnodar Regional Branch of the Russian Geographical Society Veniamin Kondratiev and head of Crimea Sergey Aksenov.
"It is fundamentally important for us to link our cultural and archaeological sites. "The Golden ring of the Bosporan Kingdom" will unite several cities in the Krasnodar region and Crimea that will definitely increase interest in the Black Sea coast," Veniamin Kondratiev said.
The idea of creating a route that can link together historical sites of the ancient period, located in the South-Eastern part of Crimea, on the lands of Taman, the Abrau Peninsula and Kuban region, was announced at a meeting of the Commission for tourism development of the Krasnodar regional branch of the Society.
Lev Stepko, an author of the project and a researcher of the Novorossiysk historical Museum, spoke about the emergence of the Kingdom of Bosporus in the 5th century BC and further colonization of the black sea coast by the Greeks. The Kingdom of Bosporus included the cities of Torik (Gelendzhik), Gorgippia (Anapa), Bata (Novorossiysk), Hermonassa (Taman) with the capital of Panticapaeum (Kerch). On the Crimean and Kuban shores of the Black Sea, many fortifications and fortresses of that period were preserved.
Having supported the idea of the Golden ring of the Bosporan Kingdom, Chairman of the Krasnodar regional branch of the Russian geographical society Ivan Chaika noted that in addition to Crimea and Kuban, the Azov lands of the Rostov region could also enter the promising tourist route.
"We will present the idea of the "Golden ring of the Bosporan Kingdom” at the Ancient heritage of Russia festival. Now our specialists are actively working on the project. The route should be accessible to tourists traveling by train, car or water. The Crimean Bridge will make objects of the "Golden ring" more accessible," Ivan Chaika added.
The project was also supported by chairman of the Committee on natural resource management, environmental safety, and tourism of the Legislative Assembly of the Krasnodar region Alexander Dzheus and Minister of Resorts, Tourism and Olympic Heritage of the Krasnodar Region Christopher Konstantinidi. The idea was also supported by Rostourism.