Ukraine · 9th century
Burun Kaia ranks #8,581 of 9,040 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #158 of the 195 mapped in Ukraine. Founded c. 850, it is older than 94% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 85 atlas entries founded in the 9th century. 15 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Sevastopol, 30 km away. See how Ukraine compares in the castle statistics.
Burun Kaia (also Kalay-Burun) is the ruin of a medieval fortified enclosure (refuge) of the 9th–10th century.
It is located on the crag of the same name in the Kurushlyu massif, which forms the eastern edge of the Kacha Gates, 1.5 km west of the village of Bashtanovka. The cape is bounded on three sides by cliffs 15–35 m high, while on the landward side the plateau was blocked by a wall (about 3 m thick and 87 m long, surviving to a height of up to 1.2 m) laid dry of rubble, immediately against the inner side of which are the heavily ruined foundations of some buildings. The area of the fortification is 0.8 hectares (most of it overgrown with forest). On the basis of surface archaeological material the fortification is dated to approximately the 9th–10th century, while the negligible cultural layer suggests brief, episodic use as a refuge.
The ruined walls at Burun Kaia were discovered in 1938 by the Crimean archaeologist V. P. Babenchikov; the fortification was mentioned by N. I. Repnikov in his 1940 manuscript "Materials for an Archaeological Map of the South-Western Highlands of Crimea". E. V. Veimarn and M. Ya. Choref, in their 1976 book "A Ship on the Kacha", identified the fortification as the centre of a certain feudal domain, while according to present-day understanding the isar was a refuge for the local inhabitants in case of military danger. By decision No. 16 of the Crimean Regional Executive Committee of 15 January 1980 the ruins of the fortification on the Burun-Kaia rock were declared a historical monument of regional significance.
Machine-translated from “Бурун-Кая” on the Russian Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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