The village of Chernomorskoye, located in the far west of the Tarkhankutsk peninsula, enjoys undying love among budget travelers. People are attracted here by the warm sea, sandy beaches, low prices and the presence of several historical sights of luxury class. They appeared here thanks to the first settlers — pure-blooded Hellenes, who landed on the shore of the Narrow Bay back in the IV century BC.
Greeks-migrants, delighted with the local nature and appreciating the two coastal lakes — fresh Ak-Mechetskoye and salty Mayakskoye, gladly founded a city here. They named it Kalos Limen, i.e. Happy Harbor. In the II century B.C. the newly formed city was captured by the Scythians and stayed here until the III century A.D. already. Artifacts left by the Hellenes and Scythians, and formed the basis of the local Black Sea Historical and Local History Museum. It appeared in the city in November 1987, as a branch of the Evpatoria Museum of Local Lore. In 2000, it was turned into one of the departments of the republican reserve «Kalos Limen». This establishment is located on Revolution Street, not far from one of the last surviving monuments to Lenin in Ukraine.
To date, the museum has collected about 7 thousand exhibits. All of them are divided into several thematic categories: antique period, World War II, nature of the Tarkhankutsk peninsula, economy of the Black Sea region, ethnography and works of modern artists and potters. Only now exhibits related to Crimean Tatars have started to appear in the museum. They were deported from here in 1944, and the Ak-Mechet settlement was given its current name — Chernomorskoye.
Naturally, the most valuable in the Chernomorskoye Museum of History and Local Lore is the antique department. It is filled with the results of excavations of Greek and Scythian settlement. Amphorae of different sizes, black-lacquer ware, Megarian bowls and fragments of triers are collected here in quantity, as if it were Chersonesos or Athens National Archaeological Museum.
Special reverence is paid to the local bust of Demeter. This is the goddess of fertility. Only the Hermitage possesses a copy of such level of preservation on the territory of the SND. In the neighborhood with Demeter there are Scythian stone women, samples of weapons and clothes of nomadic ancestors of modern Ukrainians.
The department devoted to ethnography looks quite exotic. Very unusual, but harmonious looks here stand eclecticism — fragments of Ukrainian huts next to examples of national clothes, household and religious items of Bulgarians, Karaites and Crimean Tatars. The ethnographic collection is supplemented by samples of money signs that have been in use on this territory for the last thousand years, firmans of the Crimean Khanate period and decrees sent here by the Russian emperors.
Nature lovers will be pleased to see floral and faunistic attractions of Chernomorskoe, or rather their stuffed animals and herbariums. The specimens caught in the Black Sea are especially popular. And those who are looking for new impressions on vacation in Krym, the museum staff will please with historical reconstructions and miniature copies of the most valuable copies of their collection, which they will sell you as souvenirs.