Mogilev

Mogilev is a city in eastern Belarus, on the Dnieper River, about 76 kilometres (47 miles) from the border with Russia's Smolensk Oblast and 105 km (65 miles) from the border with Russia's Bryansk Oblast. As of 2011, its population was 360,918, up from an estimated 106,000 in 1956. It is the administrative centre of the Mogilev Region and the third largest city in Belarus.

There is no reliable information about the origin of the name of the city. There are only assumptions, legends and legends. The name may be based on the personal name Grave, as evidenced by the presence of the possessive suffix "-ev", usually combined with personal names. However, a specific person with that name has not been identified in the history of the city. The introduction to the Mogilev Chronicle says that this name comes from the name of Prince Lev Danilovich Mogiya (mighty lion), who built the Mogilev Castle in 1267. Some researchers associate the origin of the name of the city with the name of Prince Lev Vladimirovich of Polotsk, or Leo the Mighty. There is also a version about the origin of the name of the city from the Finno-Ugric mogilai — "mountains above water".

The next stage in the development of Mogilev began in the XII — first half of the XIII centuries. The cultural layer that speaks about people's lives was found on the territory of the castle — on the site of the modern park named after him. Gorky, near the current buildings of the Gorvodokanal, in the area of the Borisoglebskaya and Holy Cross churches, and in a small part of the Mogilev (Bykhovsky) market.