Anapa is a
town in
Krasnodar Krai,
Russia, located on the northern coast of the
Black Sea near the
Sea of Azov. Population:
History
The area around Anapa was settled in antiquity. It was originally a major seaport (Sinda) for the
Natkhuay tribe of the
Adyghe people and then the capital of
Sindica. The colony of Gorgippia was built on the site of Sinda in the 6th century BCE by
Pontic Greeks, who named it after a king of the
Cimmerian Bosporus. In the 2nd and 3rd centuries BCE, Gorgippia flourished as part of the
Bosporan Kingdom, as did its guild of shipowners, which controlled maritime trade in the eastern part of the Black Sea. A fine statue of Neokles (a local potentate, son of Herodoros) was unearthed by Russian archaeologists and is now on exhibit at the
Russian Museum. Gorgippia was inhabited until the 3rd century CE, when it was overrun by nomadic tribes. These tribes are a Circassian or
Adyghe origin, gave Anapa its modern name. Anapa was part of
Sarmatians,
Ostrogoths,
European Huns,
Avars,
Gokturks,
Khazars,
Circassians and
Golden Horde.