Toward the west, the mountains drop steeply to the Black Sea, and to the east, they change slowly into a steppe landscape.

They are: Crimea's highest peak is the Roman-Kosh on the Babugan Yayla at 1,545 metres (5,069 ft).

Archaeologists have found the earliest anatomically modern humans in Europe in the Crimean Mountains' Buran-Kaya caves.

The fossils are 32,000 years old, with the artifacts linked to the Gravettian culture.

The fossils have cut marks suggesting a post-mortem defleshing ritual.