Morovaia

Orheiul Vechi

Old Orhei (Romanian: Orheiul Vechi) is a historical-archaeological museum-reserve and natural-cultural landscape situated within the Orhei District of the Republic of Moldova, set inside the limestone gorge of the Răut River between the villages of Butuceni, Trebujeni, and Morovaia (roughly 50–60 kilometers northeast of Chișinău). The complex forms a natural amphitheater where the meandering river bisects ancient Sarmatian limestone escarpments along the Peștere promontory. The site preserves a continuous archaeological palimpsest spanning millennia: Thracian and Geto-Dacian earthworks, the 14th-century Golden Horde stone city of Shehr al-Jedid, the medieval Moldavian fortress of Stephen the Great, and rupestral Orthodox cave monasteries carved directly into the sheer cliff walls.