It had been inhabited from pre-historic times by the tribes of Tauris, who
lived in the mountains in the 1st
millennium B. C. "The father of History", ancient Greek historic
Herodotus was the first who mentioned Tauris in his works. Actually
Yalta began to develop as a resort in. the middle
of the 19century and the buildings you
can see now had been constructed by the end the 19th century. Yalta is a resort town and there
are almost no industries here, except those to provide local people and holidaymakers with food staff. The only
highly developed industry is winemaking. In 1899 a small house was constructed for Anton Chekhov in Yalta and after the writer's death in 1904
the house was inhered by Chekhov's
sister who lived a very long life and preserved everything in the rooms as in was at her brother's life. Now the Chekhov's
house in the memorial museum of the great Russian writer. Yalta itself is a small resort town on the slopes of the
hills of the Crimean mountains, its population is about 90 thousand
people. Greater Yalta includes Smaller Yalta and
a number of seaside settlements along the coast and stretches about 70 km from Gurzuf near a very
picturesque mount named Bear mount (you could see it from your boat to the east
of Yalta) to
Foros in the west where former Gorbachov's residence is located. Its population
is twice as large and in summer when holidaymakers come it increases five,
seven, sometimes ten times.
The word "yalta"
originates from the Greek word "yalos" which can be translated as
"a sea shore" and there is a legend which explains the origin of this
name. The legend says: once upon a time approximately in the 5-th B.C. Greek
navigators were sailing in the Black sea and
one day they were coped by a very thick fog. And they lost their way because
for a long time they couldn't see the land. When they had no food and fresh
water left they lost the hope to survive and prayed their Gods to be rescued.
And all of a sudden early in the morning a fresh breeze blew from the top of
these mountains and one of the sailors noticed the land in the distance. He got
very happy and shouted loudly "Yalos. yalos" which means "a sea
shore". The navigators landed somewhere in the place where Yalta is located now,
founded a small village and named their settlement "Yalos". Later
other nations, other people came to this land and they changed the word. The
settlement on the sea shore was named "Yalita", "Jalita",
"Etalita" and finally it got its present name "Yalta”.
But it's just a legend. The first document in which
our town was mentioned under the name of "Jalita" is dated by the
beginning of the 12th century A. D. At that time it was a small
fisherman village.
In 1783 when the Crimea was joined to Russian Impair
there were only 33 or 35 small fisherman's houses in Yalta but in 50 years it became big enough
that in 1838 it was granted a Charter. At that time Yalta could hardly be named a town because
its population was about 220 people. But all the Southern Coast of the Crimea
was at that time almost uninhabited and Yalta
was approximately big. Russian tsar Nicolas I who came to the Crimea in 1837
traveled along the coast and liked Yalta
best of all. He decided to make it the administrative center of the Southern
Coast of the Crimea and that's why he gave Yalta the Charter. Yalta started to extend, to develop and some
decades later it became a very popular seaside resort town.
The
main reason that people came to Yalta
is the local climate. Its type is dry subtropical climate, with annual average
temperature +14 degrees C, the warmest months are July and sometimes August,
with average temperatures +24 — +25 degrees C.
Two factors influence the Yalta
microclimate: the first is the mountain chain which is about 1000 meters high and
makes a good shelter to protect Yalta from cold
northern winds and the second factor is the warm Black sea which curbs summer
heat and warms the air in Yalta
in autumn and winter. So we have mild climate here without sharp differences of
summer and winter temperatures. Sometimes it snows on the coast in winters,
especially in the mountains, but usually autumns are warm and dry and winters
aren't cold in Yalta.
The coldest month is February with the average temperature +4 degrees C. The
coast is usually snowless though in the mountains one can enjoy snow but not
every winter and only from January till March.
