Azov Fortress (Azov)

 museum, fortification, star fort, object of cultural heritage of federal importance (Russia)

First settlements of ancient people as say archaeologists,have appeared here in III century BC.Here are extremaly interesting archaeological fields and a local Museum which is full of artefacts from different ancient cultures that were existing here in the distant past.From May to September you could enjoy warm and mostly dry weather and could get free access to other historical places like Tanais, Starochercassk(ancient capital of Cossack's Region)etc. Famous Russian tzar Peter the Great captured this region for Russian Empire in XVII century.
It is possible to manage a cruise by ship on Don river,its estuary and Taganrog Bay of Azov Sea.The infrastructure of this place suits enough for travelers.People are not aggressive.Basically, they don't speak English.Deals are cheap enough in this region if you have got a private guide to travel across Rostov-on-Don,town of Azov or any other place in the area.

" The Family of Odin

The various royal houses of English history—the Saxons, Danes, Normans, Tudors, Stuarts, Plantagenets, Hanoverians, Saxe-Coburgs, all lines blended and fused with Scottish royalty to form the modern House of Windsor—trace their bloodlines back to a common ancestor. Indeed, the various monarchs of Europe, as attested to in the medieval Viking sagas and histories, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and pedigree after pedigree of every European royal lineage, are all traced back to the same person. To the Germans he was known as Votan. To the Anglo-Saxons Woden. To the Norse and other Scandinavians, he was known by the name by which he is still commonly referred to today—Odin.

Yet Odin is, of course, the chief god of the Teutonic pantheon known as the Aesir, who lived at the supposedly mythical Valhalla ("Hall of the Chosen") in Asgard—considered the Norse version of "heaven." So, as we might expect, modern scholarship usually dismisses the notion outright. But what are we to make of it?

Thor hunts for Odin


www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxX2oc5ueMw&feature=player_...

Notice a Reuters News Agency report from Nov. 30, 2001: "The Viking god Odin may have been a real king who lived in what is now southern Russia 2,000 years ago, Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl said in a controversial new book on Thursday. In The Hunt for Odin, Heyerdahl says his archaeological digs by the Sea of Azov in Russia backed evidence in 13th century sagas written by Snorre Sturlason that Odin was more than a myth.

"Heyerdahl, who won worldwide acclaim with his 1947 voyage across the Pacific on the Kon-Tiki balsa raft, said Odin was a king who lived around Azov before being driven out by the Romans and taking his followers to Sweden. Ancient metal belt holders, rings and armbands dating from 100-200 AD found in excavations around the mouth of the Don River were almost identical to Viking equivalents found in Gotland, Sweden, some 800 years later, he said. ‘Snorre didn’t sit down and dream this all up,’ Heyerdahl told a news conference to launch his latest book with co-author Per Lillestrom. ‘In ancient times, people treated Gods and Kings as one and the same thing.’ Snorre’s stories about Odin, viewed as the king of the gods in Norse mythology, portrayed him as fighting battles. By contrast, Snorre treated Thor, the god of thunder, as a mythical hammer-wielding figure riding through the air. And he said that many of the place names in Snorre’s sagas matched the ancient Greek names for places around the Sea of Azov, such as Tanais." www.ucg.org/brp/materials/throne/appendices/ap10.html
The names of nearest good places for sunbathing besides Azov City are:Pavlo-Ochakovo sea spit,Chumbur sea spit,Dolzhanskaya sea spit.Have a look from space with wikimapia and take your chance to travel and then you could say, you've visited one of the white spots on your previuos maps!
Azov.The town of Russian glory
Given the profitability of trade with the nomads Greeks Bosporus in the middle of the III. BC appeared oldest city of Tanais, which is in the II. BC become a major economic, political and cultural center of Podolia - Azov Sea. At the turn of our era on the banks of the Lower Don river appears the number of settlements emerged politically and economically closely related to the Tanais. Two of them- Paneardis and Patarva occurred in the territory of the modern city of Azov.
According to legend, the name of the city is connected with the name of the Polovtsian Khan Azup, who in 1067 won the fortified towns Paneardis and Patarva.
However, there is evidence that the name "Azov" was known in the tenth century., So that version associated with the name Azup looks unconvincing.Inside cultural layers are in place of these two settlements are found various archaeological artefacts www.museum.ru/M836
members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/b4c91/#TL
According to that in ancient times there lived the different tribes and peoples, living in the Don region and the Sea of Azov. Numerous Meaut -Sarmatian tribes served as a bridge between the civilizations of East and West. Occupying an advantageous geographical location at the crossroads of Northern Europe to the Caucasus and Transcaucasia, and from Western Europe to Asia, the settlements based here always aroused considerable attention and has repeatedly been attacked and destroyed. After the destruction of Tanais (middle of the III cent.) And the invasion of the Huns (IV cent.) Here for many centuries was the seat of seasonal habitat of various nomadic tribes.
In the Middle Ages here was the Italian factory (trading settlement)-Tana.

Through the city of Azov passed the famous Silk Road, whose memory is preserved until the beginning of XXI century(local museum).

In the XIII century the Genoeses made city of Azov a large trading base for trade with India and China.Than they have strengthened it.

In 1395 Tamerlane captured the town, and destroyed it to the ground, but in
1400 the Genoeses rebuilt the colony again.

In 1471 the city was taken by the Turks. Since then,Turks created a ban to entering the region for the European ships. Trade in Azov came to a complete collapse, and the town became insignificant.

Turks had there the garrison of about five thousand warriors(yanichars).The only task of Tukish fortress Azak was to keep a barrier between Osmans and the Don Cossacks and whole European civilization.

In June 1637 Don Cossacks, showing remarkable engineering ability were exploding mines and digging of fortifications and towers, took the fortress.

In 1641 Turks, angered by the loss of Azak( Azov) and the raids of the Cossacks on the Black Sea coast, sent a strong fleet and army for the capture of Azov, but after a siege lasting several months (the siege of Azov), were forced to retreat from its walls.

In 1643, the Don Cossacks, seeing the impossibility to hold Azov and receiving no assistance from the Russian tsar, completely blew up all buildings, taking their dead comrades and trophies as a gate of the fortress, parts of guns and urban scales, went to the town of Cherkassk(old capital of Cossacks)
In 1695, Russian Tsar Peter the Great is fulfilling his plan to turn Russia into a great maritime power of Azov, but without success.
The following year he established with the assistance of the Voronezh shipyards the new Azov flotilla Peter the Great captured the fortress.

After an unsuccessful campaign Prut, Azov again passed to the Turks, but in 1736 was again taken by the Russian troops and will forever remain in Russia.

In 1775, the town of Azov became the administrative center of the newly established province of Azov.

In 1782, the provincial administration was transferred to Ekaterinoslavl. Azov became the center of the province.

In 1888, the town has been attached to the Don Army Region.