Simeiz ( Ukrainian : Сімеїз , Russian : Симеи́з , Crimean Tatar : Simeiz ) is a resort town , an urban-type settlement in Yalta Municipality in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , a territory recognized by a majority of countries as part of Ukraine and incorporated by Russia as the Republic of Crimea . Its name is of Greek origin (σημαία 'flag' + -εις, a plural suffix). The town is located by the southern slopes of the main range of Crimean Mountains at the base of Mount Kosh-Kaya , 18 kilometers (11 mi) west from Yalta . Population: 2,604 ( 2014 Census ) .
30-726: There are prehistoric dolmens and fortifications nearby; in the Middle Ages the area was under the control of the Byzantine Empire , which built a fortified monastery in the vicinity (and may have given the town its name). As the Byzantine power weakened, the area fell under the control of Genoa , which in its turn gave way to the Ottoman Empire ; under the Ottomans the village was ruled from Mangup . By 1778, with
60-626: A Breton language term meaning ' stone table ' but doubt has been cast on this, and the OED describes its origin as "Modern French". A book on Cornish antiquities from 1754 said that the current term in the Cornish language for a cromlech was tolmen ('hole of stone') and the OED says that "There is reason to think that this was the term inexactly reproduced by Latour d'Auvergne [sic] as dolmen , and misapplied by him and succeeding French archaeologists to
90-418: A population of 622 people. 431 of these were Crimean Tatars , 119 Russians , 31 Greeks , and 25 Ukrainians . By 2014, the population of Simeiz had risen to 3,501. Dolmen A dolmen ( / ˈ d ɒ l m ɛ n / ) or portal tomb is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb , usually consisting of two or more upright megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or "table". Most date from
120-567: A resort, Novy Simoiz. Novy Simoiz quickly became one of the most prestigious resorts in the Crimea. This period saw the construction of a park and a number of villas which remain to this day. In 1912 Nicholas II visited with his family. After the October Revolution , Simeiz was nationalized and public sanatoriums were created, mainly specializing in tuberculosis. In 1927 Simeiz was visited by around 10,000 people. During World War II ,
150-667: A second part such as de l'alarb ('of the Arab'), del/de moro/s ('of the Moor/s'), del lladre ('of the thief'), del dimoni ('of the devil'), d'en Rotllà/Rotllan/Rotlan/Roldan ('of Roland '),. In the Basque Country , they are attributed to the jentilak , a race of giants. The etymology of the German : Hünenbett, Hünengrab and Dutch : hunebed – with Hüne / hune meaning 'giant' – all evoke
180-471: A variety of names in other languages, including Galician and Portuguese : anta , Bulgarian : Долмени , romanized : Dolmeni , German : Hünengrab/Hünenbett , Afrikaans and Dutch : hunebed , Basque : trikuharri , Abkhaz : Adamra , Adyghe : Ispun Danish and Norwegian : dysse , Swedish : dös , Korean : 고인돌 , romanized : goindol (go-in = 'propped' + dol = 'stone') , and Hebrew : גַלעֵד . Granja
210-404: Is a traditional village ( desa ) on Sumba island, East Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia. It has some 1,400 dolmens - one of the highest concentrations of these megaliths on Sumba. Wainyapu is on the south-west coast of Sumba, about 8 kilometers (5.0 mi) from the western tip of the island and 200 kilometers (120 mi) west of Waingapu . It stands on the south side of the estuary of
240-546: Is used in Portugal , Galicia , and some parts of Spain . The rarer forms anta and ganda also appear. In Catalan-speaking areas , they are known simply as dolmen , but also by a variety of folk names, including cova ('cave'), caixa ('crate' or 'coffin'), taula ('table'), arca ('chest'), cabana ('hut'), barraca ('hut'), llosa ('slab'), llosa de jaça ('pallet slab'), roca ('rock') or pedra ('stone'), usually combined with
270-652: The Golan Heights , Jordan , Lebanon , Syria , and southeast Turkey . Dolmens in the Levant belong to a different, unrelated tradition to that of Europe, although they are often treated "as part of a trans-regional phenomenon that spanned the Taurus Mountains to the Arabian Peninsula ." In the Levant, they are of Early Bronze rather than Late Neolithic age. They are mostly found along
300-748: The Late Neolithic period (4000–3000 BCE ) and were sometimes covered with earth or smaller stones to form a tumulus (burial mound). Small pad-stones may be wedged between the cap and supporting stones to achieve a level appearance. In many instances, the covering has eroded away, leaving only the stone "skeleton". In Sumba (Indonesia), dolmens are still commonly built (about 100 dolmens each year) for collective graves according to lineage. The traditional village of Wainyapu has some 1,400 dolmens. The word dolmen entered archaeology when Théophile Corret de la Tour d'Auvergne used it to describe megalithic tombs in his Origines gauloises (1796) using
330-552: The cromlech ". Nonetheless it has now replaced cromlech as the usual English term in archaeology, when the more technical and descriptive alternatives are not used. The later Cornish term was quoit – an English-language word for an object with a hole through the middle preserving the original Cornish language term of tolmen – the name of another dolmen-like monument is in fact Mên-an-Tol 'stone with hole' (Standard Written Form: Men An Toll .) In Irish Gaelic , dolmens are called Irish : dolmain . Dolmens are known by
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#1732780644195360-528: The departure of the Christian population , the village was almost entirely depopulated. In 1828 Simeiz came into the ownership of Ivan Akimovich Maltsov, who started vineyards in the area. In 1900, Maltsov, who was an amateur astronomer, founded the Simeiz Observatory . It would later be developed and expanded over the following decades. In the early 20th century, Maltsov's descendants created
390-702: The Bronze Age to the early Iron Age, with about 40,000 to be found throughout the peninsula. In 2000, the dolmen groups of Jukrim-ri and Dosan-ri in Gochang , Hyosan-ri and Daesin-ri in Hwasun , and Bujeong-ri, Samgeori and Osang-ri in Ganghwa gained World Cultural Heritage status. (See Gochang, Hwasun and Ganghwa Dolmen Sites .) They are mainly distributed along the West Sea coastal area and on large rivers from
420-792: The Germans occupied Simeiz beginning on November 8, 1941, causing much death and destruction; the town was liberated by the Red Army on April 16, 1944. During the occupation, the Simeiz Observatory was heavily damaged. On May 18, 1944, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin ordered the beginning of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars across the entire peninsula, including Simeiz. As a result, the Crimean Tatars , an indigenous people of Crimea, were exiled to Central Asia under
450-588: The Jordan Rift Valley's eastern escarpment, and in the hills of the Galilee, in clusters near Early Bronze I proto-urban settlements (3700–3000 BCE), additionally restricted by geology to areas allowing the quarrying of slabs of megalithic size. In the Levant, geological constraints led to a local burial tradition with a variety of tomb forms, dolmens being one of them. Dolmens were built in Korea from
480-859: The Liaoning region of China (the Liaodong Peninsula ) to Jeollanam-do . In North Korea, they are concentrated around the Taedong and Jaeryeong Rivers . In South Korea, they are found in dense concentrations in river basins, such as the Han and Nakdong Rivers , and in the west coast area ( Boryeong in South Chungcheong Province, Buan in North Jeolla Province, and Jeollanam-do. They are mainly found on sedimentary plains, where they are grouped in rows parallel to
510-654: The Luku Lambatama river. The traditional village of Ratenggaro [ id ] is within sight, just on the other side of the river. Administratively, it is a village ( desa ) in Kodi Balaghar District, in Southwest Sumba Regency ( Sumba Barat Daya ). Wainyapu, a Kodi village, has some 1,400 dolmens — one of the highest concentrations on Sumba. This island is the last place on Earth where some cultures still follow
540-431: The absence of clear evidence for this. Human remains, sometimes accompanied by artefacts, have been found in or close to the dolmens which could be scientifically dated using radiocarbon dating . However, it has been impossible to prove that these remains date from the time when the stones were originally set in place. Early in the 20th century, before the advent of scientific dating, it was proposed by Harold Peake that
570-480: The direction of the river or stream. Those found in hilly areas are grouped in the direction of the hill. Also called Muniyaras, these dolmens belong to the Iron Age . These dolmenoids were burial chambers made of four stones placed on edge and covered by a fifth stone called the cap stone. Some of these Dolmenoids contain several burial chambers, while others have a quadrangle scooped out in laterite and lined on
600-577: The dolmens of western Europe were evidence of cultural diffusion from the eastern Mediterranean. This "prospector theory" surmised that Aegean-origin prospectors had moved westward in search of metal ores, starting before 2200 BCE, and had taken the concept of megalithic architecture with them. Dolmens can be found in the Levant , some along the Jordan Rift Valley ( Upper Galilee in Israel ,
630-453: The former USSR would commonly go to Simeiz for summer vacations. Couples walked hand in hand, starting from the bus station. No one threw stones, no one created any obstacles, except for everyday hooliganism, which is everywhere. According to Denis Kratt, a local art director, the gay community was very visible in the town, saying that gay couples could hold hands in public without fear of harassment or violence. However, after Russia's takeover of
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#1732780644195660-473: The grounds of allegedly collaborating with Nazi Germany. After the war, the resort experienced a rebirth, and the ruins were gone by 1955. The Simeiz Observatory was rebuilt, and continued to be important in the field of astronomy. Before the 2014 annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation , Simeiz was known in the post-Soviet space as a " gay resort". Homosexual couples from countries of
690-720: The image of giants buried ( bett / bed / grab = 'bed/grave') there. Of other Celtic languages , Welsh cromlech was borrowed into English and quoit is commonly used in English in Cornwall . It remains unclear when, why and by whom the earliest dolmens were made. The oldest known are found in Western Europe , dating from c. 7,000 years ago. Archaeologists still do not know who erected these dolmens, which makes it difficult to know why they did it. They are generally all regarded as tombs or burial chambers, despite
720-462: The left side of river Pambar as is evident from the usage of neatly dressed granite slabs for the dolmens. At least one of them has a perfectly circular hole of 28 cm diameter inside the underground chamber. This region has several types of dolmens. Large number of them are overground with about 70–90 cm height. Another type has a height 140–170 cm. There is an overground dolmen with double length up to 350 cm. Fragments of burial urns are also available in
750-467: The peninsula in 2014, the new occupation government enforced homophobic policies in Crimea, largely destroying the vibrant gay scene. LGBT community leaders were forced to flee or go underground. Local art director said that for active LGBT representatives in Crimea, "it is impossible to live there". In 2018, journalists described a bar in Simeiz as "the last gay bar on the peninsula". As of 1926, Simeiz had
780-408: The region near the dolmens. This indicates that the dolmens with 70–90 cm height were used for burial of the remains of people of high social status. Burial urns were used for the burial of the remains of commoners. The dolmens with raised roofs might have been used for habitation of people. Why some people lived in the cemeteries has not been satisfactorily explained. Wainyapu, Sumba Waiyapu
810-509: The sides with granite slabs. These are also covered with cap stones. Dozens of Dolmens around the area of old Siva temple (Thenkasinathan Temple) at Kovilkadavu on the banks of the River Pambar and also around the area called Pius nagar, and rock paintings on the south-western slope of the plateau overlooking the river have attracted visitors. Apart from the dolmens of Stone Age, several dolmens of Iron Age exist in this region especially on
840-472: The spelling dolmin (the current spelling was introduced about a decade later and had become standard in French by about 1885). The Oxford English Dictionary ( OED ) does not mention dolmin in English and gives its first citation for dolmen from a book on Brittany in 1859, describing the word as "The French term, used by some English authors, for a cromlech ...". The name was supposedly derived from
870-412: The traditions of the hill tribes of South-East Asia and commonly build megaliths such as dolmens for collective graves. About 100 megalithic tombs are still built each year (as of 2021). These tombs are more frequent in the west part of Sumba, inhabited by segmentary societies made of clans and of politically autonomous villages. Wainyapu follows the typical set-up where the dolmens are mainly within
900-407: The village, many of them in front of the lineage's main house. Some dolmens are also outside the village in the fields or near the pastures. Wainyapu owns a lime quarry that provides the huge slabs needed for the dolmens. In 2008, Anakalang prince Umbu Dingu ordered a 16-tons stone to cover the tomb of his father Reda Ana Buni. This stone slab was manually pulled by about 400 men from the quarry to
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