South of Bakhchysaray, on the western coast of Crimea, is Sevastopol, a picturesque port city of 360,000 people. In the fourth to second centuries B.C.E. the area was the northernmost Greek outpost on the Black Sea. About 420 B.C.E. a Greek colony and city-state were founded near present-day Sevastopol. Known as Khersones, it became an important manufacturing and trading center, supplying wheat from southern Ukraine to Greece. By the first century C.E. the Romans ruled it and gave it a Latin name, Chersonesus Taurica. Chersonesus was known for its wine production. By the fourth century the area was part of the Byzantine Empire, and in the tenth century it was captured by the Kyivan-Rus leader Volodymyr. Its influence waned in the 13th to the 14th centuries, and it was ruined by Tatar invasions that lasted until 1399. After Russia annexed Crimea in 1783, Catherine II ordered the fortress and naval port built as a base for the Russian Black Sea Fleet. A post-Soviet dispute between Russia and Ukraine over ownership of the fleet and control of the city was resolved by dividing the fleet and allowing Russia use of the port. Today the city is a large fishing and fish-processing center with many canneries and refrigerated ships. It's also important for its vegetable production and vineyards. The high-quality grapes make Sevastopol a supplier of Ukraine's best wines and champagne. With its sparking limestone buildings set on broad tree-lined avenues, Sevastopol is an attractive city with much to interest tourists.
The ruins of the 2,500-year-old Khersones settlement are a 10-minute drive east of Sevastopol. The Khersones National Historical Preserve covers hundreds of acres of land dotted with pillars of ancient Greek buildings standing above layer upon layer of buried civilizations. The archeological preserve is owned by the Moscow Patriarchate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and regulated by Ukraine's Ministry of Culture. The Church is reconstructing a huge basilica on the site where Kyivan Rus Grand Prince Volodymyr is said to have accepted Christianity about 987 C.E. Artifacts spanning two thousand years that were uncovered during archaeological digs are on display in the Khersones Historical-Archeological Museum in Sevastopol.
Other museums worth seeing are the Museum of the Black Sea Navy and the Art Gallery, which has a good collection of paintings by Russian and Western artists. Other attractions are a dolphinarium with scheduled dolphin shows; an aquarium of the Ukrainian Scientific Academy; a fantastic circular panoramic oil painting, "Defense of Sevastopol" depicting one day in the Crimean War; and an oil painting diorama "The Taking of Sapun-Mountain by Assault on the 7th of May, 1944," depicting the struggle against Nazi invasion.
Sixteen kilometers (ten miles) to the south of Sevastopol is Balaklava (Балаклава). On its rolling hills in 1854 a decisive battle of the Crimean War took place that was immortalized by English poet Alfred Lord Tennyson in his poems, "Charge of the Light Brigade" and "Charge of the Heavy Brigade."