Zaporizhia. The territory of the contemporary city was populated
already in the Scythian and Sarmatian times which is evidenced by numerous
archaeological finds. The most famous among them is the Voznesens'kyi hoard (8th
c.). In the 15th - 18th cc. the Zaporozhian Cossacks, a powerful force resisting
Tatar and Turkish invaders, ruled these lands. They were a reliable support of
the Ukrainian people in the struggle against the feudal oppression. Island
Khortytsia, a peculiar natural fortress, became one of the first refuges for
serf runaways and centres of formation of the Zaporozhian Cossackdom.
The nature of the island is unique. Here grows almost 1,000 species of plants,
560 of them are representatives of wild growing flora. Rocks and gullies are an
inseparable feature of the island. Many legends are associated with these
monuments of nature. Thus, according to one of them, in 972 near the gloomy and
forbidding Black Rock Prince Sviatoslav was killed in the unequal combat against
the Pechenegs. The Black Rock shelters the Snake Cave, difficult of access,
where, according to legends, the Cossacks kept their treasury. A little further
behind the rock is Sahaidachnyi area, where mighty oaks grew once. The Cossacks
made their famous chaika dugouts of them. There is a wonderful creation of
nature on one of the rocks - Zaporozhian Basin - a cavity whose diameter is 1.5
m and depth - about one metre. According to legend, the Cossacks boiled their
dumplings in this basin as in a cauldron. The historico-memorial complex has
been built on Khortytsia, a unique monument to the Zaporozhian Cossacks. In the
park of the complex stand monuments to famous military leaders of the
Zaporozhian Sich - ataman I. Sirko, Hetmans P. Sahaidachnyi and B.
Khmel'nyts'kyi, to leaders of peasant uprisings - S. Nalyvaiko, T. Triasylo, and
M. Zalizniak, as well as the characters of N. Gogol's story - Taras Bulba and
his sons.
The inauguration of the Dniprohes in 1932 became a great event in the city
history. The construction of this unique hydroelectric power station was led by
Academician A. Vinter. Now there stands a monument to the scientist and one of
the city boulevards bears his name.
Balky. Near the village, there is a monument of hoary antiquity - the Haimanova Mohyla Burial Mound. During its excavations, a burial of a Scythian King (4th c. BC) was found there. Among the finds there was a set of vessels, a masterpiece of ancient art.
Berdians'k. The town under the name of Berdy was founded in the early 19th c. as a commercial seaport. In the 1870s, a park was laid out in the town on the initiative of Rear Admiral P. Schmidt, the Berdians'k mayor. Nearby stands a two-storey house where Lieutenant P. Schmidt, son of the Rear Admiral and leader of the uprising on the Ochakov cruiser in 1905, spent his childhood. Not far is the former gymnasia where he studied. At present Berdians'k is known as a resort town.
Melitopol'. The territory of the town was inhabited already in the
Scythian times, which is evidenced by numerous burial mounds. In 1769, during
the Russo-Turkish War (1768-1774) the Russian headquarters built here
fortifications where the Zaporozhian Cossacks kept watch. At the beginning of
1779 A. Suvorov visited this territory. Since then, the settlement had got the
name of Novooleksandrivs'ka. With time the town of Melitopol' arose on its place.
Now the town recreation park laid out in 1927 is a monument of landscape
architecture. The town outskirts border on Staroberdians'kyi forest, one of the
oldest monuments of steppe afforestation. The resort zone of the Molochnyi firth
also attracts tourists and holidaymakers.
Oblast farmsteads