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Tsarskyi kurhan

Image - The dromos to the Tsarskyi kurhan in Panticapaeum, the former capital of the Bosporan Kingdom. Near Kerch in the Crimea. Image - The Tsarskyi kurhan near Kerch, Crimea.
Image - The Tsarskyi kurhan near Kerch, Crimea.

Tsarskyi kurhan [Царський курган]. A 4th-century BC Bosporan Kingdom burial mound located southwest of Kerch, Crimea. The tomb is an elaborate structure built of finished blocks of stone. It contains a corridor (7 m high and 36 m long) leading to a chamber, in which a king was probably buried. The corridor (dromos) is vaulted in a striking manner, while the main burial chamber is a rectangular room in which the walls gradually close in overhead to form a cupola. A layer of stones and 17 m of earth were placed over the structure. Excavations in 1837 found the structure had been thoroughly looted.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]



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