Archaeological finds in the area suggest that Scythian nomads were living there two to three thousand years ago. The Scythians were replaced in time by Khazars, Pechenegs, Cumans, Tatars, and Eastern Slavs. The trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks passed through Khortysia island in old times.
In 1552 Dmytro Vyshnevetsky erected wood-earth fortifications on the island of Mala Khortytsia in the Dnieper River near Khortytsia island. These fortifications were a prototype of the Zaporizhian Sich. The Sich was a stronghold of the Cossacks who lived south of the rapids of the Dnieper on the border of the Polish�Lithuanian Rzeczpospolita and the Moscow kingdom.
From Fort Alexander to Alexandrovsk City
The city began with a small fortress, built in the steppe in 1775 during the reign of Catherine the Great in order to protect the southern territories from Turkish threats. Fort Alexander, founded in 1770, was only one link in the so-called "Dnieper Fortification Line". The fort was built on the left bank of the Dnieper River across from Khortytsia island. Historians are uncertain when asked in honour of which people the fort was named. Hypotheses were made about the names of Alexander Golitsyn, Alexander Vyazemsky, Alexander Rumyantsev. In 1921 the town was renamed Zaporizhia (Zaporozhye) (literally, "beyond the rapids").
German settlers
In 1789 Mennonites from Prussia accepted an invitation from Catherine the Great and settled in what became the Chortitza Colony, northwest of Khortytsia island. Mennonite-owned mills and factories were built in Alexandrovsk and later expropriated by the Communist government. After the Russian Revolution many Mennonites emigrated, fled as refugees, or were deported from the area. Currently few Mennonites live in Zaporizhia. Mennonite buildings still exist in the area and in the other main Mennonite colony center, current day Molochansk.
