Brief History of Mangup-Kale

People started visiting Mangup more than six thousands years ago. The first permanent unfortified settlement on Mangup appeared in the middle of the third century A.D. In all probability the inhabitants were Goths and Alans who pushed their way through into the Crimea. Up until the middle of the 6th century they were hostile to the Byzantine empire, but later they became allies and joined the federation. The town of Chersonese, in the middle ages known as Kherson, is located just fifteen kilometres from Mangup. That was the main bridgehead of the Byzantine ideological and political presence in the Crimea. The second point of operation was Kerch on the Cimmerian Bosphore.

The historian of Justinian I, Procopius of Caesarea, (Kissariisky) wrote that Justinian I rebuilt and renovated the walls of Chersonese and Bospor. In addition to this he built two other fortresses at Alushta (Alustan) and Gurzuf (Gorzubity). The location of these two fortresses are in present day resort cities on the Black Sea coast, and are being excavated by archaeologists. In the last few years rumor has it that Justinian fortress traces have been found. Procopius wrote also about the construction of long walls, in Greek Makratei. These long walls have been found and one of the walls cuts through the valley on the approach to Mangup from the north. Along the asphalt top highway the wall crossed the valley.

Evidently the construction of the fortresses on Mangup and on neighbouring Eski-Kermen took place during the last years of Justinian's life. Procopius never mentions the construction of the fortresses on those sites. However on Mangup a tablet was found with an inscription bearing the name of Justinian I and archaeological research has led to the conclusion that the time period for the construction of the Mangup fortress was during his reign.

Why would they go to such tremendous trouble to build a fortress up on Mangup? The fortress is very close to Kherson and defended the approaches to Chersonese. The general reason was to give the local population and refuges a safe haven from attacking armies. The proximate reason was the emergence of the huge Turkic Khaganate state laying in Asia from the Azov Sea to the Pacific Ocean basins. In the last decades of Justinian's rule, that in the sixties and seventies of the sixth century, it is generally accepted that the Turkic Khaganate posed a real military threat and that Justinian was well aware of this. Later, in the eighties of the sixth century, the Turkic armies did conquer the Bosphor, but were unable to conquer this area. These were the early, Turkic peoples, who preceded the Cumans and Pechenegs, (Kipchaks). The Pechenegs came about at the end of the 9th century, whereas the early Turkic (pronounced "Tiurki"), formed a state in the 6th and 7th centuries.

Historical interpretation is focused on the question regarding the mission of the Byzantine Empire in the Crimea and the archaeological work on the numerous sites of which Dr. Gertsen has been the latest leader of scholars attempting to ascertain the location of such early medieval cities as Fulla. Since the nineteen twenties the question of the discussion has centered on the historical time frame and reasons for the appearance of fortified settlements located inside the Justinian Long Walls. In the Vth and VIth centuries, the Byzantines were busy strengthening the old cities and building fortresses in the mountainous border areas, trying to stem the flow of barbarians into the peninsula. Justinian brought to heel the Goths in the Bosphore and in Kherson. He rebuilt the city walls and on the southern shoreline he built the fortresses of Aluston and Gorzuvitakh..

The answers were not found in contemporary documents of the VI-IX-th centuries. One such source is the writings of Menander the Protector on a diplomatic mission of Emperor Tiberius II to the Turkic Khanate, whose empire spread over Asia to the eastern shores of the Azov sea in 576-579. Another is the Life of Ioan Gotskyi in which archbishop Iona is held captive by the Khazars in the "Fullas, and a third is an historical event in the Life of Constantine (Kiril) the Philosopher, where-in on the return leg of his journey from Khazar lands, where he had been to participate in religious debates, Constantine managed prior to sailing away from Chersonese, to visit the Fullas, no-doubt located nearby. It was here that he preached the word of God to the pagans and after their conversion he convinced them to cut down the oak they had worshiped.

Khazars

The Khazars were a splinter group having gained independence from the huge Turkic Khaganate state which existed for 70 years but broke up in the second half of the 7th century. The Khazars were in the western part, between the Caspian and Black Seas and north of the Caucasus mountains. At the end of the 8th century the Khazars were able to bring under their control a large part of the Crimean peninsula including the brief capture of Mangup. It was to have a telling effect on the local population which had diminished following the invasion of the Huns and was partially regenerated.

At the end of the VII-th century the Khazar Khaganate began to spread its rule over the eastern regions of the peninsula, making possible a flow here of Turkic speaking population. The situation sharply changed at the end of the VIIIth century, when, according to the "Life Of John the Goth," the Khazars decisively penetrate into the hinterland regions of the South-West Taurid and capture its main fortress Doros".

This city was destroyed when the local Orthodox Church Metropolitan, John the Goth, led an uprising in 787 against the Khazars and this fortress and Mangup with its city of Doros joined in the rebellion. The local inhabitants were appalled at the barbarity of the Khazars and rebelled with the support of an unknown who went under the name "The Lord Doros." Taking into consideration the opposition of John the Goth to the empire's iconoclastic rule, this unlikely alliance (of Goth/Alans and Greek Christians) can be construed as an independence movement in the Taurid from the Byzantine empire and the Khaganate.

The Khazars controlled the Mangup fortress for only a half century. The Byzantine empire wrested the fortress back and set up a military gubernatorial administrative system, the Thema in Kherson. A more concise description is that of a large military units, bivouacked in the provinces of the Byzantine Empire, namely those displaced in Asia Minor. The Taurid was freed from the rule of the Khazars, joined the ranks of the Thema under the name of the Goth Klimat (Alan Climates, the definition of this term as it pertains to the region of the Taurid on which were built seven fortresses belonging at first to Byzantium and later turned over to the Khazars and then retaken).

Later History

The pause in the activity of the Mangup fortress came at the turn of the 10th and 11th century. This is thought to have been linked to a cataclysmic earthquake. Life and inhabitants returned in the 14th century. At this time Mangup is known as the Principality of Feodoro. The population of the principality were the descendants of Goths and Alans that were converted to Christianity. This was the height of the Mangup society.

In 1475 the Ottoman Turks took all of Crimea. In one month they took Kaffa and other Genoese fortresses. They laid siege to Mangup for half a year. They used the same tactics they used in the siege of Constantinople twenty years before, but Mangup, being a perfect castle, built by nature itself, succesfully resisted the siege even when all other Crimea was overtaken by the Ottomans.

The main action took place in a crevice between two of the plateau arms. The Turks emplaced their artillery battery on the slope. They had two large siege artillery pieces, with calibre of 40 centimetres and 35 centimetres. The cannons fired granite projectiles weighing up to 100 kilograms. The fire was concentrated on two walls. One wall which bridged a gorge has been excavated. The second focus of fire and was another wall crossing the valley, where the Turks broke through and ended the siege. It crossed at a point where trees are now fully grown and hide the precipice. The walls and the towers were 15 meters high. They are well preserved, but were subsequently rebuilt by the Turks. The Turks were able to break through into the city in this direction and were not even slowed down by the second tier wall of the defensive line of which a tower remains.

The last refuge of the garrison was a Citadel. The area of the citadel was one and two tenths hectares, the promontory is defended by a defensive line.

In the centre of it was a keep, or donjon, that might have been a fortified palace. The gateway was built in the Armiano-Seljuk architectural style, the present configuration was constructed in the 1420s. Prior to this was another citadel in 1395 with another wall, which preceded this one and was destroyed when Tamerlane conquered Mangup during war against the Golden Horde leader, Toktamysh, who fled to Lithuania. (btw, the mausoleum of Toktamysh's daughter is not far from here, on Chufut-Kale).

When the Turks captured the citadel, they re-built the walls to their configuration to facilitate their use of cannon fire. (The Feodorites did not have cannons). The Ottoman Turks used this fortress for more than three hundred years. It was an overseeing emplacement, a control point and outpost from which they were able to maintain order and rule over the Crimean Tatar Khans. The territories that were occupied by the Ottoman Turks namely the land of the Feodorite principality and the Genoese holdings were all part of the Ottoman empire. The lands of the Crimean Tatars began to the north at Belbeck. The Turkish garrison abandoned the fortress in 1774. In 1792 the last inhabitants left Mangup, these were the Karaites.