Matrega

Phanagoria

Φαναγόρεια (Ancient Greek)
The remains of Phanagoria
Shown within European Russia
Location	Sennoy, Krasnodar Krai, Russia
Region	Taman Peninsula
Coordinates	45°16′37″N 36°57′58″E / 45.27694°N 36.96611°E / 45.27694; 36.96611Coordinates: 45°16′37″N 36°57′58″E / 45.27694°N 36.96611°E / 45.27694; 36.96611
Type	Settlement
Area	75 ha (190 acres)
History
Builder	Settlers from Teos
Founded	Approximately 543 BC
Periods	Archaic Greek to Medieval
Cultures	Greek, Bulgar, Khazar
Site notes
Condition	Ruined

Phanagoria (Ancient Greek: Φαναγόρεια Phanagóreia) was the largest ancient Greek city on the Taman peninsula, spread over two plateaus along the eastern shore of the Cimmerian Bosporus.

The city was a large emporium for all the traffic between the coast of the Maeotian marshes and the countries on the southern side of the Caucasus. It was the eastern capital of the Bosporan Kingdom, with Panticapaeum being the western capital. Strabo described it as a noteworthy city which was renowned for its trade. Shortly a Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese while a medieval Genosese colony under the name Matrega, it remains a Latin Catholic titular see.

Today the site is located at a short distance to the west of Sennoy in Krasnodar Krai, Russia. Another ancient Greek city, Hermonassa, lies 25 kilometres (16 mi) to the west, on the shoreline of modern Taman.

Phanagoria was founded ca. 543 BC by the Teian colonists who had to flee Asia Minor in consequence of their conflict with Cyrus the Great. The city took its name after one of these colonists, Phanagoras. "The unusual nature of the Taman peninsula near Phanagoria, with its ravines, crevices, hills, and low cones of active volcanoes, must have impressed the ancient colonists even more than it impresses us today", Yulia Ustinova has observed.

In the 5th century BC, the town thrived on the trade with the Scythians and Sindi. Located on an island in the ancient archipelago of Corocondamitis, between the Black Sea and the Palus Maeotis, Phanagoria covered an area of 75 hectares (190 acres) of which one third has been submerged by the sea. In the early 4th century BC the burgeoning Bosporan Kingdom subjugated much of Sindica, including the independent polis of Phanagoria. The town's importance increased with the decline of the old capital, Panticapaeum, situated on the opposite shore of the Bosporus. By the first centuries AD, Phanagoria had emerged as the main centre of the kingdom.