Crimean Mountains

The Black Sea is a marginal sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. The Black Sea is supplied by major rivers, principally the Danube, Dnieper and Dniester. Consequently, while six countries have a coastline on the sea, its drainage basin includes parts of 24 countries in Europe.

The Black Sea, not including the Sea of Azov, covers 436,400 km (168,500 sq mi), has a maximum depth of 2,212 m (7,257 ft), and a volume of 547,000 km (131,000 cu mi).Most of its coasts ascend rapidly.These rises are the Pontic Mountains to the south, bar the southwest-facing peninsulas, the Caucasus Mountains to the east, and the Crimean Mountains to the mid-north.In the west, the coast is generally small floodplains below foothills such as the Strandzha; Cape Emine, a dwindling of the east end of the Balkan Mountains; and the Dobruja Plateau considerably farther north. The longest east–west extent is about 1,175 km (730 mi). Important cities along the coast include (clockwise from the Bosporus) the northern suburbs of Istanbul, Burgas, Varna, Constanța, Odesa, Yalta, Kerch, Yevpatoria, Sevastopol, Novorossiysk, Sochi, Poti, Batumi, Rize, Trabzon, Ordu, Simferopol, Samsun and Zonguldak.

The East European Plain (also called the Russian Plain, or historically the Sarmatic Plain) is a vast interior plain extending east of the North European Plain, and comprising several plateaus stretching roughly from 25 degrees longitude eastward. It includes Volhynian-Podolian Upland on its westernmost fringe, the Central Russian Upland, and, on the eastern border, encompasses the Volga Upland. The plain includes also a series of major river basins such as the Dnieper Lowland, the Oka–Don Lowland, and the Volga Basin. At the southeastern point of the East European Plain are the Caucasus and Crimean mountain ranges. Together with the North European Plain (covering much of Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and Poland), and covering the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), European Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, southeastern Romania, and, at its southernmost point, the Danubian Plain in Northern Bulgaria (including Ludogorie and Southern Dobruja), it constitutes the majority of the Great European Plain (European Plain), the greatest mountain-free part of the European landscape. The plain spans approximately 4,000,000 km (2,000,000 sq mi) and averages about 170 m (560 ft) in elevation. The highest point of the plain (480 metres (1,574.8 ft)) is in the Bugulma-Belebey Upland, in the Eastern part of the plain, in the elevated area by the Ural Mountains (priyralie).

The Principality of Theodoro (Greek: Αὐθεντία πόλεως Θεοδωροῦς καὶ παραθαλασσίας), also known as Gothia (Γοτθία) or the Principality of Theodoro-Mangup, was a Greek principality in the southern part of Crimea, specifically on the foothills of the Crimean Mountains. It represented one of the final rump states of the Eastern Roman Empire and the last territorial vestige of the Crimean Goths until its conquest by the Ottoman Empire by the Ottoman Gedik Ahmed Pasha in 1475. Its capital was Doros, also sometimes called Theodoro and now known as Mangup. The state was closely allied with the Empire of Trebizond.

Ai-Petri (Ukrainian: Ай-Петрі, romanized: Ay-Petri, Crimean Tatar: Ay Petri) is a peak in the Crimean Mountains. For administrative purposes it is in the Yalta municipality of Crimea. The name is of Greek origin, and translates as "St. Peter" (Greek: Άγιος Πέτρος, romanized: Ágios Pétros).

Cape Aya (Crimean Tatar: Ayya; Ukrainian: Мис Айя; Russian: Мыс Айя) is a rocky promontory jutting out into the Black Sea southeast of Balaklava. This 13-km-long spur of the Crimean Mountains separates Laspi Bay (to the east) from Balaklava Bay (to the west).

The name of the cape derives from "holy one" in Greek, “Άγια”.

The Tauri (/ˈtaʊəri/; Ταῦροι in Ancient Greek), or Taurians, also Scythotauri, Tauri Scythae, Tauroscythae (Pliny, H. N. 4.85) were an ancient people settled on the southern coast of the Crimean peninsula, inhabiting the Crimean Mountains in the 1st millennium BC and the narrow strip of land between the mountains and the Black Sea. According to the sources, the Tauri were the first inhabitants of the Crimean peninsula and never abandoned its borders. They gave their name to the peninsula, which was known in ancient times as Taurica, Taurida and Tauris.

The Vorontsov Palace (Ukrainian: Воронцовський палац, romanized: Vorontsovs'kyi palats; Russian: Воронцовский дворец, romanized: Vorontsovskiy Dvorets) or the Alupka Palace is a historic palace situated at the foot of the Crimean Mountains near the town of Alupka in Crimea. The Vorontsov Palace is one of the oldest and largest palaces in Crimea, and is one of the most popular tourist attractions on Crimea's southern coast.

The palace was built between 1828 and 1848 for the Russian Prince Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov for use as his personal summer residence at a cost of 9 million roubles. It was designed in a loose interpretation of the English Renaissance revival style by English architect Edward Blore and his assistant William Hunt. The building is a hybrid of several architectural styles, but faithful to none. Among those styles are elements of Scottish Baronial, Indo-Saracenic Revival Architecture, and Gothic Revival architecture. Blore had designed many buildings in the United Kingdom, and was later particularly well known there for completing the design of Buckingham Palace in London.