Yevpatoria, one of Ukraine's oldest and most beautiful cities, traces its roots from Greek settlement through Russian rule, and is renowned for its architectural and historic landmarks. Among them stands a rare gateway to the past: the Dervish Tekie, the only medieval Muslim monastery to survive in Europe. A tekke was the lodge of a Sufi brotherhood, a place of residence, teaching and ritual rather than a mosque in the ordinary sense, and this one preserves the characteristic form of the type: a plain cubic prayer hall crowned by a dome, ringed by the small cells in which the dervishes lived. Adjoining structures, including a mosque and minaret, complete a complex of the Ottoman period that has no comparable survivor on the continent.
