Several years ago, on the Anapa embankment, archaeologists uncovered one of the sections of an ancient Greek settlement. Now the archaeological museum "Gorgippia" has been created here in the open air and visitors are given a rare opportunity to see the cobbled streets of the ancient city, the foundations and walls of dwellings, the remains of workshops, wineries, fish-salting baths; get acquainted with the monuments of architecture, marble slabs with inscriptions, sarcophagi and tombstones for the local nobility taken from the necropolis, a great variety of figurines, painted black-glazed utensils, antique coins, jewelry. The works of antique art found in Anapa are now on display in the Hermitage, the Museum of Fine Arts named after Pushkin in Moscow, in the museums of Krasnodar, Kerch, Odessa. Archaeologists have discovered ancient villages with large agricultural estates, necropolises, and mounds in the vicinity of ancient Gorgippia. The villagers were engaged in arable farming, viticulture, gardening.
In the first centuries of the new era, more and more people of the Sarmatian circle began to appear among the local population - Greeks and Sindians. Elements of classical Greek culture were closely intertwined with the traditions and culture of the barbarian tribes.
In 1975, in the center of the city, while digging a foundation pit for the construction of a house, a unique monument of ancient culture - a painted crypt of the Greek nobility of Gorgippia was opened. The crypt is called by archaeologists "The Crypt of Hercules" and belongs to the end of the 2nd - early 3rd centuries. The expressive colorful wall paintings depict the exploits of the legendary hero in episodes of struggle, in tense scenes of exploits: Hercules kills the Nemean lion, fights with the Lernaean hydra, catches the Erimantian boar, tames the Cretan bull, defeats the Amazon, prepared to defeat the Stimphalia birds with the bow, the removal of Gery from the bow, strikes the cruel king Diomedes.
Another crypt with two sarcophagi was discovered nearby. And good luck! It turned out to be unbroken. In one sarcophagus were the remains of a noble Gorgippian with rich ornaments: a wreath of gold leaves, gold eyecups and mouthpieces, a torch of thick gold wire, a gold bracelet with turquoise, three gold rings with gems, a ceremonial dagger with embossed relief, inlaid with turquoise and garnet a gold brooch (fastener for clothes), a polychrome bowl with gilding, a bronze censer with colored enamel and other valuable things. In another sarcophagus, two girls were buried - and also with rich decorations. The finds formed the basis of the "Golden Storeroom" of the Krasnodar Regional Museum-Reserve, were exhibited in Japan, Germany, and Yugoslavia.