Bakhchysaray

Bakhchisaray... We find its name written in many ways. This city of 26,000 inhabitants is located in the autonomous Republic of Crimea. When visiting Ukraine and Crimea, it was one I liked, especially its Hansaray Palace (the only surviving palace of the Khans in the Crimea) and the mountains from which you can see and hear the call to prayer from the mosque inside the palace. In the 16th century it became the capital of the Crimean Khanate and the center of political and cultural life of the Crimean Tatar people. After the occupation of the Crimean Khanate by the Russian Empire in 1783, it became an ordinary city, but remained a Tatar cultural center until the mass deportation in 1944.