Great Meadow

The Great Meadow (Velykyi luh) is a Black Sea lowland area on the Dnipro and the Kinska Rivers to the south of Khortytsia Island that consists of a system of rivers, reed beds, swamps, flooded forests, and meadows. The Great Meadow landscape embodies the concept of Motherland for Ukrainians. Surrounded by the Pontic–Caspian steppe, it was around 20 kilometres (12 mi) wide and 100 kilometres (62 mi) long. The Great Meadow has been inhabited since the Bronze Age. The Scythians, who flourished during the 4th century BC, were followed by the nomadic tribes of the Sarmatians, Iazyges, Roxolani, and Yamnaya. In 16th–18th centuries, it was inhabited by the Zaporozhian Cossacks, who were protected from external threats by the dense forests and intricate waterways. Six of their eight Sichs were located on its northern border. Stephen Rudnitsky recognized the Great Meadow ("Veliki Luh") as the hunting grounds for the Zaporozhian Cossacks, and considered its landscape to be "a labyrinth of flat forest and reed-covered alluvial islands, river branches, old river beds, lakes and swamps." Minerals from the Dnieper Lowland flowed through the Great Meadow and accumulated on the shores of the Dnieper-Bug estuary. The Zaporozhian Sich depended on the Great Meadow for sustenance. After the Zaporizhzhian Sich was destroyed in 1775 by the order of Catherine the

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