The Kachi-Kalyon rock is one of the spurs of the inner ridge of the Crimean mountains, five miles to the south of Bakhchisaray. While there is no reliable information about the origin of its name, it is commonly believed to mean “cross ship”. People with vivid imagination can see something like a huge cross formed by natural cracks on the surface of the rock.

Like many other Bytzantine fortifications, the Kachi-Kalyon fortress was founded in the 6th century AD. Its territory totals 3,7 acres. The slopes offering easier ascent still contain the remains of the defensive wall made of hewn stone blocks and the gate that was protected with a rectangular tower. The man-made chambers of the settlement are located in five natural grottoes and around them. There are about 150 rooms for various purposes; they used to be connected by terraces and staircases, but the wooden structures of the latter did not survive.

Historians believe that the settlement was most actively developed in 7th-9th cc., when many churches, terraces, dwelling and utility rooms were built. There are traces of wine presses on the floor of many rooms, so there was probably a big wine-making complex in Kachi-Kalyon. Several grottoes were used as churches; there are Greek inscriptions, crosses, traces of burial vaults, and special priest benches in their walls. One of the collapsed pieces of rock contains a big shallow niche. Its relief (a cross embellished with vine design) indicates that it was probably a part of an apse of a small chapel.

The Kachi-Kalyon monastery was founded in Byzantine period in 8th-9th c., probably by the iconodules. The main church of the monastery, the cave church of Saint Sophia, was built at the same time. This church was operating until 1778 when the Greeks left Crimea, and was later restored. It is an oval room (17,4 ft. long, 7,8 ft. high, and 7 ft. high) carved in an enormous chunk of rock. The apse is of horseshoe form, separated from the nave (the place for worshippers) by a chancel barrier of medium height. There are icon niches in the northern and southern walls, and a niche for the altar in the apse floor. Inside the church one can see the remains of ancient graves. There is also a burial vault cut in another big segment of rock next to the St. Sophia’s church; a circled cross is carved in its walls, symbolizing eternity. The vault is surrounded with ancient carved gravestones. In the 19th century the St. Sophia’s church was restored by a local nobleman G. Hvitsky and sanctified in the name of St. Anastasia.

The other sacred place of Kachi-Kalyon is the spring bearing the name of the selfsame St. Anastasia the Deliverer from Potions, believed to help pregnant women. This spring is a small crack in the rock through which the water seeps out, filling a round baptismal font. Above the spring there are icon niches and a carved cross. A big old cherry tree grows in a rock cleft nearby. Christian pilgrims still put scraps of their clothes on its branches, believing in the magical power of the consecrated water and the tree.

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