Sarkel
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Sarkel was a large limestone-and-brick fortress in what is now Rostov Oblast of Russia, on the left bank of the lower Don River.
Aerial photo of the excavations conducted at Sarkel in the 1930s.
Turkic Tamgas on some of the bricks from Sarkel
Chasaren
Chersonesus
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Chersonesus, contracted in medieval Greek to Cherson, was an ancient Greek colony founded approximately 2,500 years ago in the southwestern part of the Crimean Peninsula. Settlers from Heraclea Pontic
Sarkel
…to build a fortified capital, and Theophilus sent his chief engineer Petronas Kamateros. In recompense for these services, the Khazar khagan ceded Chersonesos and some other Crimean dependencies to Byzantium. Historians have been unable to determine why such a strong fortress was built on the Don. They generally…
St. Vladimir's Cathedral overlooks the extensive excavations of Chersonesus.
Greek Coin from Chersonesos in Crimea depicting Diotimus wearing the royal diadem r., in exergue, ΧΕΡ ΔΙΟΤΙΜΟΥ Chersonesus in Crimea. 2nd century BCE.
Viktor Vasnetsov: Baptism of Saint Prince Vladimir in Korsun.
The Saint Vladimir Cathedral in Chersonesus was built in the 19th century in the Byzantine Revival style.