Kurgan - Melek-Chesmensky

Melek-Chesmensky mound is located in the center of the square of the bus station in Kerch. This mound is not as large as the Tsar’s or Golden Mounds, but it has entered history as the most technically and artistically perfect among the Bosporan ceded crypts. The mound was excavated by the directorate of the Kerch Museum of Antiquities in December 1858. When archaeologists penetrated the dromos and lit it with fire, they saw a long vestige of Egyptian architecture. At one end there was a large pyramidal crypt, at the other - an external entrance, all laid by plates. All order, all gave hope that this majestic tomb was preserved intact. However, the crypt was robbed through a hole made in the vault near the pediment. Only the remains of a wooden bed, fragments of alabaster and a twisted bronze bracelet were found, the ends of which ended with snakes with golden scales. In the mound were found traces of a memorial tripe and a fire on which sacrifices were made. During the trizna dishes were broken, and according to the wreckage of the red-figure lecan, now stored in the Hermitage, the time of construction of the mound was attributed to the second half of the IV century BC. The burial structure inside the mound consists of two parts: a chamber with a pyramidal vault and a dromos decorated at the entrance with a pediment. The burial chamber of the crypt has a regular, almost square base lined with stone slabs. The walls are made up of five rows of plates. Above the fifth row begins a vault formed by seven rows of plates, extending one above the other in such a way that the square hole of the chamber, gradually tapering, finally closes with one large plate. In the corridor, the walls of the same height with the walls of the crypt and also consist of 5 rows of plates. The arch of the corridor forms 3 rows of plates, closed on top by 13 plates. Special attention deserves skillfully and beautifully made connection of the pyramidal vault with the prismatic. The crypt of the Melek-Chesme mound, as well as the Golden and Royal mound, is made of stone fragments dry. The tradition of erecting tomb mounds came to the Bosporus from mainland Greece and Asia Minor, but there is no doubt that the pyramids of ancient Egypt served as their prototype. Probably, resting in Melek-Chesme mound belonged to the top of the Bosporan kingdom, perhaps even to the royal family. The mound was almost destroyed. The inhabitants of the area took out the clay. Soon, many high-ranking officials took part in the fate of the mound, and, finally, on May 5, 1870, Emperor Alexander II deigned to allocate from the state treasury annually an amount of 300 rubles for the repair of the crypt and the maintenance of a permanent guardhouse with it. Subsequently, the mound began to be filled with numerous monuments of Hellenic culture, purchased with the remnants of the amounts issued for the maintenance of the mound, and thus gradually turned into a small museum of antiquities. However, in recent decades, the crypt of the Melek-Chesme mound has been closed to visitors. Now the Kerch Reserve has conserved it, and it is reopened.