Museum of Tatar Life

A long time ago, from the staff of a local history museum I heard the phrase that in their work the main thing is “to preserve the subject remains for future generations”. My remark that we are already those “future generations” for museum exhibits was misunderstood. Perhaps that is why in museums of local lore I always had the impression of a dead space filled with useless old things of long-forgotten people. I always wanted to get out on the street, to the light and life.

The ethnographic museum of culture and life of the Crimean Tatars Dervish Evi was completely different. At the stairs to the second floor, we were met not by a cloistered employee of the museum, but by a real mistress of a “living” traditional Crimean Tatar house, where family life is still boiling, hidden from prying eyes. The hosts seemed to be waiting for guests: in the hearth a thick layer of ash and a smoked chimney. The hearth is closed with an iron lid: there remains a hot treat for a hospitable table.

The hostess leads around the house and yard, explains the purpose of incomprehensible household items and inconspicuous nooks of planning. It tells how the most ordinary household needs were solved a hundred or two years ago. Not without cultural surprises. The ingenuity of people of past eras is surprising and respectful! Words are incomprehensible, which, if you listen, turn out to be quite familiar language borrowings from Tatar to Russian and from Russian to Tatar: store / store, Kemer / Camor(k)a, Terem / Terem and others. It shows how long people have lived with each other.

To comprehend what you heard, share impressions, relax from the bustle of the tourist can be in a cozy, decorated in national color, but quite modern in kitchen equipment, a coffee room. Here you will have a choice of several varieties of coffee beans and many recipes for making an invigorating drink in classic locally made copper jezz in the workshop next door. For dessert will be offered national Crimean Tatar sweets. Don't refuse! Not everything that is offered contains excess sugar. You won't regret it.

The tour is conducted regardless of the number of tourists. Working hours: 10:00-17:00; Monday, Tuesday - weekends. Address: Bakhchisarai, St. Ostrovsky, 14 (the second line of houses opposite the Khan's Palace; from the restaurant "Pushkin" up and left 1 minute walk).