Bakhchysarai is a city in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Bakhchysarai Raion (district), as well as the former capital of the Crimean Khanate. Its main landmark is Hansaray, the only extant palace of the Crimean Khans, currently open to tourists as a museum. Population: 27,448 (2014 Census).
Since the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2014, it has been occupied by the Russian Federation.
The Khan's Palace (Crimean Tatar: Hansaray; Turkish: Han Sarayı) is located in the town of Bakhchysarai, Crimea. It was built in the 16th century and became home to a succession of Crimean Khans. The walled enclosure contains a mosque, a harem, a cemetery, living quarters and gardens. The palace interior has been decorated to appear lived in and reflects the traditional 16th-century Crimean Tatar style. It is one of the best known Muslim palaces found in Europe, alongside the Sultan palaces of Istanbul and the Alhambra in Spain.
In December 2022, Russian forces dismantled a damaged roof and an ensemble of colored stained glass windows in the palace and replaced it with modern ones in order to prevent possible damage during fighting. The move has been described by the Ukrainian side as part of an "ongoing assault" on cultural heritage.
Crimean Tatar (qırımtatar tili, къырымтатар тили, قریم تاتار تلی), also called Crimean (qırım tili, къырым тили, قریم تلی), is a Turkic language spoken in Crimea and the Crimean Tatar diasporas of Uzbekistan, Romania, Turkey and Bulgaria, as well as small communities in the United States and Canada. It should not be confused with Tatar, spoken in Tatarstan and adjacent regions in Russia; Crimean Tatar has been extensively influenced by nearby Oghuz languages and is mutually intelligible with them to varying degrees.
A long-term ban on the study of the Crimean Tatar language following the deportation of the Crimean Tatars by the Soviet government has led to the fact that at the moment UNESCO ranks the Crimean Tatar language among the languages under serious threat of extinction (severely endangered). However, according to the Institute of Oriental Studies, due to negative situations, the real degree of the threat has elevated to critically endangered in recent years, which are highly likely to face extinction in the coming generations.