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Ancient City of Tauric Chersonese and its Chora
Site number:
1411
Type of site: Cultural
Date: 5th century BC
Date of Inscription: 2013
Location: Eastern Europe, Ukraine, the northern shores of the Black Sea
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Description: The site features the remains of a city founded by Dorian Greeks in the 5th century BC on the northern shores of the Black Sea. It encompasses six component sites with urban remains and agricultural lands divided into several hundreds of chora, rectangular plots of equal size. The plots supported vineyards whose production was exported by the city which thrived until the 15th century. The site features several public building complexes and residential neighbourhoods, as well as early Christian monuments alongside remains from Stone and Bronze Age settlements; Roman and medieval tower fortifications and water supply systems; and exceptionally well-preserved examples of vineyard planting and dividing walls. In the 3rd century AD, the site was known as the most productive wine centre of the Black Sea and remained a hub of exchange between the Greek, Roman and Byzantine Empires and populations north of the Black Sea. It is an outstanding example of democratic land organization linked to an ancient polis, reflecting the city’s social organization. --WHMNet's description is from WHC Site, where additional information is available.
  Chersonesus (Ancient Greek: Χερσόνησος (Chersonēsos); Latin: Chersonesus; Byzantine Greek: Χερσών; Old East Slavic: Корсунь, Korsun; Ukrainian and Russian: Херсонес, Khersones; also transliterated as Chersonese, Chersonesos, Cherson) is an ancient Greek colony founded approximately 2,500 years ago in the southwestern part of the Crimean Peninsula, known then as Taurica. The colony was established in the 6th century BC by settlers from Heraclea Pontica. The ancient city is located on the shore of the Black Sea at the outskirts of Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula of Ukraine, where it is referred to as Khersones. It has been nicknamed the "Ukrainian Pompeii" and "Russian Troy". The site is now part of the National Historical-Archeological Museum-Zapovednik of the Ukrainian Khersones Tavriysky. The name "Chersonesos" in Greek means "peninsula", and aptly describes the site on which the colony was established. It should not be confused with the Tauric Chersonese, the name often applied to the whole of the southern Crimea along with Taurica. During much of the classical period Chersonesus was a democracy ruled by a group of elected archons and a council called the Damiorgi. As time passed the government grew more oligarchic, with power concentrated in the hands of the archons. A form of oath sworn by all the citizens since the 3rd century BC has survived to the present day. --Wikipedia [http://www.wikipedia.org]. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
Source: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1411
Source2: Wikipedia (http://wikipedia.com)
Reference: 1. UNESCO World Heritage Center (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1411). 2. Wikipedia.
 
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