Qarasuvbazar

On the Salhyr in the Crimean interior stood Ak-Mescit, the town that later became Simferopol. Its name, meaning “White Mosque,” recalls the Muslim town of the Crimean Khanate. The khans established it to protect their capital at Bakhchisaray against incursions from the steppe. According to the Ottoman traveller Evliya Çelebi, the qalgha, or heir to the khan, had a palace outside the town. Russian forces destroyed Ak-Mescit in 1736; after the annexation of Crimea, Simferopol was founded there in 1784.