Simferopol

Simferopol belongs to a number of low-key modest towns though it has a solid position – administrative, economical, scientifit and cultural center of Autonomous Republic of Crimea. The population of Simferopol exceeds 400 thousands. Here are government bodies of Crimea, its main airport, railroad stations and bus stations; here are theaters, museums; a lot of commercial enterprises and servicing companies.

Simferopol is called the Gathering Town or the Town of Benefits. The foundation year of Simferopol is considered 1784 but this locality was populated long before and there are lots of evidences of this town and its outskirts. You can look at them right on spot or in Crimean Republican Regional Museum in Simferopol (Gogolya Str, 14). There was a site of an ancient people that lived about 40-50 thousand years ago, within town limits (south-eastern outskirts), in Chokurcha cave. From the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AC during six centuries there was an ancient town called Naples Scythian on the plateau to the south of the downtown. It was the capital of the Late Scythian state.

During first years after foundation, Simferopol was constructed by soldiers dismissed from the army, and by peasants driven from Ukraine and central provinces of Russia. During the Crimean War Simferopol was a rear base of the battling Sevastopol. There were all main rear services of the Russian army in it. Simferopol was turned into a huge hospital: thousands of wounded and sick defenders of Sevastopol were delivered here.

In 1874 construction of the railroad from Kharkov to Simferopol was finished and life of provincial Simferopol became lively. First amateurish enterprises appeared – canneries, confectionaries, tobacco companies. On the right bank of Salgir River there were made new wide and even streets built with two and three-storey buildings surrounded with green of gardens and ornamental trees.

The most vivid part of Simferopol is a central one where Karl Marx Str, Pushkina Str, Kirova Str and Gorkova Str intersect. Here you can find theaters, libraries, multiple shops, restaurants, cafes and bars. Here Simferopol has been born and it is not strange that majority of monuments and memorial places are here.

Simferopol is one of tourist centers in Crimea. There are several major tourist organizations here. Biggest part of tourist routes around the peninsula starts here. The town has a lot of historical and cultural monuments and among them – Naples Skythian which has international value.

And of course Simferopol has other historical and memorial places worth visiting. Among them is the building of the former Simferopol Man Gymnasium where Mendeleyev D.I. started his teaching career, and Kurchatov I.V. studied during 1912-1920. Nowadays this is High School #1 (which was verbally a cradle of periodical system of chemical elements and soviet atomic bomb).

There are three permanent theaters in Simferopol: Russian Drama Theater after Gorki, Ukrainian Music and Drama Theater, Puppet show. Besides own troupes, these theaters accept artistic groups from the former USSR.

There are a circus and a zoo in Simferopol for children. You can stay in Simferopol for a day or for several days. Simferopol is the main transport junction in Crimea. Railroad and automobile ways go from Simferopol around Crimea into resort, tourist and other centers: Sevastopol, Alushta, Evpatoria, Feodosia, Kerch, Bahchisaray, Stariy Krim and others. Internal railway communication is made by electric trains to Sevastopol, Evpatoria, Djankoy, Feodosia, Kerch (via Djankoy).

Foreland highway penetrates through the Southern Crimea from Feodosia to Sevastopol. Regular bus communication is made from Simferopol bus-station to about 20 bus-stations of all resort and tourist centers in Crimea.