Chersonesus (Latin; modern Russian and Ukrainian: Херсоне́с, Khersones) is an ancient Greek colony founded approx. 2,500 years ago in the SW part of the Crimean Peninsula. Settlers from Heraclea Pontica in Bithynia established the colony in the
6th c. BC.

The ancient city is located on the shore of the Black Sea on the outskirts of present-day Sevastopol. The site is part of the National Preserve of Tauric Chersonesos. The name Chersonesos in Greek means "peninsula" and aptly describes the site on which
the colony was established. It should not be confused with the Tauric Chersonese, a name often applied to the whole of the southern Crimea.

During much of the classical period Chersonesus operated as a democracy ruled by a group of elected Archons and a council called the Demiurgoi. As time passed, the government grew more oligarchic, with power concentrated in the hands of the archons. A
form of oath sworn by all the citizens from the 3rd century BC onwards has survived to the present day. In 2013 UNESCO listed Chersonesus as a World Heritage Site.

The 1935 basilica is the most famous basilica excavated in Chersonesus. The original name is unknown so "1935" refers to the year it was opened. The basilica was probably built in the 6th c. on the site of an earlier temple, assumed by historians to be a
synagogue, itself replacing a small temple dating from the early days of Christianity. The 1935 basilica is often used as an image representing Chersonesos. Its picture appears on one Ukrainian banknote.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chersonesus

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