Taman

Taman lies beside the Kerch Strait, between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. The site has a long history under several names: the Greek settlement of Hermonassa, the medieval town of Tmutarakan and, in the Genoese period, Matrega. The strait linked the northern Black Sea with the Sea of Azov and the routes leading inland.

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the area entered the Genoese commercial world. Members of the Ghisolfi family ruled in the peninsula, while the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire also sought influence. The historical accounts differ on the exact dates of changes in control. Taman subsequently became a centre of Cossack settlement near the ruins of the older town.