Pliny the Elder mentions an amazing 90 colonies that were founded by the people of the city in his work “Natural History.” Miletus was considered the greatest Greek metropolis of all, founding more colonies than any other Greek city.
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Located on the eastern shore of Crimea, which the Greeks called Taurica, the colony thrived for many centuries as a Greek enclave.
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Panticapaeum (or Pantikápaion, from the Scythian “Pantikapa,” or “Fish-path”) was an ancient Greek city founded by colonizers from Miletus. By the time of Christianity, the tomb may even have served as a place of refuge or religious sanctuary, since there are Christian symbols etched on the inside walls of the tomb. Therefore they believed that the kurgan had been looted in ancient times or in the intervening centuries. The many colonies of Miletus, the Asia Minor city which went on to found many other cities in the time of Ancient Greece. The kurgan was opened in the course of systematic excavations which went on from 1833 until 1837 however, the archaeologists found that by that time it contained only remnants of a wooden sarcophagus. The tomb could have been the final resting place of Leukon of Bosporus, who reigned from 389 – 349 BC. Historians believe that the Royal Kurgan, which is universally considered to be a unique masterpiece of ancient Greek architecture, was the final resting place for a ruler of the Bosporan Kingdom, which was founded in the 5th century BC from the Greek colonies in the northern Black Sea region and at the Sea of Azov. Both parts of the building were constructed of yellow limestone blocks the floor of the tomb is a tamped mix of clay, lime and limestone. Its unique dromos, or entrance passage, is only 2.80 meters (9 feet) wide but is 37 meters (121 feet) long, built using the corbelled vault technique. The total height of the burial chamber is 8.84 meters (29 feet). The burial chamber within it has a square floor plan measuring 4.39 meters (14.4 feet) X 4.35 meters (14.3 feet), which gradually morphs into the circular shape of a corbelled dome, or “false vault”, resembling the shape of a beehive. The mound is almost 20 meters (66 feet) tall and the perimeter of its base is an incredible 250 meters (820 feet). The Royal Kurgan is approximately 5 km ( three miles) northeast of the town center.Īncient Greek architecture of tomb is unique in the world This area of the eastern Crimea is rich in tumuli, or kurgans, with approximately 200 in Kerch and its immediate vicinity alone.
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The tomb, with its uniquely sloped entranceway, is located in the present-day town of Kerch, which was the ancient Greek town of Panticapaion (Παντικάπαιον), or Panticapaeum, founded in the late seventh or early sixth century BC. The Royal Kurgan, also called the Tsarskiy Kurgan, is one of the most impressive tumuli, or burial mounds, in the eastern Crimea. The monumental tomb known as the “Royal Kurgan of Kerch,” in the Crimea, was constructed in the 4th century BC its ancient Greek architecture is evidence of the colony there that was founded by the Greek city of Miletus, in Asia Minor.
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Credit: Investigatio / CC BY-SA 3.0 Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License The entrance to the Royal Kurgan Tomb in the Crimea, at the site of the Ancient Greek colony Panticapaion, which was founded by the Asia Minor city of Miletus.