In the 8th-9th centuries a fortified settlement appeared on a high plateau with precipitous slopes 3,5 km. east of Bakhchisarai. In 1299 it was beseiged and then seized by khan Nogai's troops. After that the town got the name of Kyrk-Er (Forty Fortifications). When Bakhchisarai was founded, the Tatars moved to their new capital and only Karaites remained here. Accordingly, the town was renamed Chufut-Kale (Jewish Fortress).
It occupied a territory of about 18 hectares and consisted of Old and New towns which were divided by a wall and protected by walls with towers and moats. Numerous domestic bildings and household structures had undegrond subsidary premises and stood along longitudinal streets and transversal lanes. Only their ruins and two houses from the 18th century have come down to us.
From public buildings especially notable were the Djanyke-Khanum sepulchre and two Karaite praying houses built in the 14th and 18th centuries. The Greater praying house is adjoined from the north-west by a stone fence on columns while the entrance to the Lesser is marked by wooden gallery. After the annexation of the Crimea by Russia and the lifting of the ban for the Karaites to settle in Bakhchisarai and other cities, Chufut-Kale became deserated by the mid-19th century.
The last resident of the formerly blossoming town was a well-known Karaite scholar A.S. Firkovich (1786-1875) who published medieval epitaphs, gathered a huge collection of ancient manuscripts and later donated it to the Public Library in St. Petersburg. He lived near the fortress gates in his estate over the precipice, which consisted of two-storey house with an extension and household structuries built of aslar and grouped around the inner courtyard. Today the structures have been
restored.
