Temryuk is a Russian town, the administrative center of the Temryuk District of the Krasnodar Krai.

The town with the population of 38 386 people (as of 2013) takes the area of 185 sq km.

It is located on the northern shore of Taman Peninsula, on the right bank of the Kuban River, near its confluence into the Sea of Azov, 193 km to the west of Krasnodar. It has a seaport (at the 4 km distance from the town) and a railway station.

History of Temryuk

In 1237 the Tatars, who had seized the Kuban steppes, founded a settlement in the area of modern Temryuk. In the 14th century a Genoa colony was settled there. In the late 15th - early 16th centuries, during the Turk-Tatar sovereignty, the town was named Tumnev.

Allegedly, the name Temryuk comes from the Kabardian Prince Aydarovich (Idarovich) who by means of the Russian armies drove Tatars and Turks out from the Taman Peninsula and constructed the Novy Temryuk fortress there. In 1570, after the Russian armies left, the Turks and Tatars regained their power again, and seized the fortress, which was renamed into Adis.

In the 17th and 18th centuries it was a part of Turkey, but in 1774 it became Russian again. In 1778 Starotemryuk fortifications were erected.

Temryuk was a Cossack kurin from 1831 and a Cossack village from 1843.

It has been the town of Temryuk since 1860. In 1860-1910 it was a district center of the Kuban Region.

During World War II the town was occupied by fascist armies on August 24, 1942. It was released by armies of the North Caucasian front and forces of the Black Sea navy in the course of the Novorossiysk-Taman campaign on September 27, 1943.

Economy of Temryuk

Modern Temryuk is the centre for fishing and fish industry, with fish-canning, sturgeon fish-breeding plants. Agricultural raw materials are processed at its milk plant, bakery, and wine-making enterprises. The town has an experimental mechanical plant, a building materials factory, a garment factory. There is even fur farming there.

Grapes, rice, vegetables, and grains are cropped in the Temryuk District. Cattle, pig, and sheep breeding also takes place there.

Fields of quartz sand, iron ore, oil and gas have been found and mined in the district.

Architecture and Sights

Starting from 1860 the town was built up according to the regular-shaped streets planning. The central part of the town was adjoined by a number of settlements. The town was mostly built up with wooden one-storeyed houses.