Since the most ancient times the history of the area where Bakhchisaray is situated now was determined by its localization on the boundary between two great historical-geographical provincies: the Eurasian Plains and the Mediterranean Mountains. These two worlds were not isolated one from another, being in a tight interaction.

By one side from that conditional border (in plains and foothills) lands of the nomads laid. After the decline of the Scythian State the dominancy in the Crimean plains passed to Turkic peoples: Huns in the 4th-6th centuries, Qazarians and Bulgarians in the 7th-9th centuries, Bacanaqs (Pechenegs) in the 9th-11th centuries and Cumanians (Qıpçaqs) from the middle of the 11th century.

The area to the south from the plains, in the Crimean Mountains and along southern seashores of the peninsula, was inhabited by a complicated ethnical conglomerate of descendants of different peoples: Tauris, Greeks, Scythians, Sarmatians, Goths, Alanians, partly Turkic peoples as well. The overwhelming majority of the highlanders were affiliated with the Byzantine civilization.

The plateau of Qırq Yer

During the early Middle Ages the valley of the Çuruk Su river (where Bakhchisaray was to rise in the future) was the most outlying district which influences of the Byzantine Empire reached in these lands. (The center of the Byzantine possessions on the peninsula was the town of Chersonesos, present Sevastopol). The local outpost of Byzantine was situated in a fortress on a mountain plateau known later as Qırq Yer or Çufut Qale. When the political influences of Constantinople had decreased a semi-independent princedom arose here. Alanian princes who adopted Greek religion and culture ruled it. Due to this the vicinities of the fortress became known as Alania or the Country of the Minor Alanians.

Simultaneously with formation of the Alanian Princedom the Turkic peoples in the plains and foothills of the peninsula developed their statehood as well. After the 10th century the fortress of the Alanian princes along with its possessions in the valley passed under the control of Turkic state units, particularly to the Cumanian khans, which the Alanian princes paid annual tribute to.

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