Zaporizhia Zaporozhye, Ukraine
Ukraine
Frequently Asked Questions
At the city quays on the Dnipro, downstream of the great DniproHES dam, which vessels pass through by lock. From there passengers head for Khortytsia Island, right in the heart of the city.
Dnipro vessels head for Zaporizhzhia when river itineraries allow. Check program status with your travel adviser. The heritage described here endures.
A twelve-kilometre island splitting the Dnipro in the heart of the city: the largest river island in the country and the cradle of the Zaporozhian Cossacks. It is the core of the call.
From the porohy, the rapids that once barred the Dnipro. The horsemen known as those beyond the rapids established their fortified camps here. In the 1930s the DniproHES dam drowned those cataracts under a quiet lake.
A wooden palisade bristling with towers, reproducing the fortified camp where the Cossacks lived from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. Inside you walk past the kurins, communal lodgings with reed roofs, the wooden church with its pointed steeple and the parade ground where councils were held.
Two to three hours for the Sich and the adjoining museum, which holds the country's richest collection of Cossack relics: curved sabres, ceremonial bulawas, pipes, banners. The steppe trails and the lapidarium need extra time.
A gathering of stone stelae left by the Scythians and later nomads, at the end of trails crossing the high steppe between silver grasses and grey cliffs dropping into the water. The wind lays the grass down in waves, and mostly you hear skylarks.
A tree on the right bank that tradition holds to be seven centuries old and links to the famous mocking letter addressed to the sultan, a scene immortalized by the painter Repin. Its enormous trunk, held up by props, commands respect. True or embellished, the story makes even the guides smile.
The Ukrainian hryvnia. Ukrainian and Russian are spoken. Bring cash for shops and island sites.
Yes. The equestrian tradition is still alive on the island, and riders sometimes revive the old trick riding: sabres raised, mounts at full gallop, acrobatics inherited from the camps. Children love it. The steppe trails, however, call for good shoes and water.
