The area around Anapa was settled in antiquity. It was originally a major seaport (Sinda) for the Natkhuay tribe of the Adyghe people and then the capital of Sindica. The colony of Gorgippia was built on the site of Sinda in the 6th century BCE by Pontic Greeks, who named it after a king of the Cimmerian Bosporus. In the 2nd and 3rd centuries BCE, Gorgippia flourished, as did its guild of shipowners, which controlled maritime trade in the eastern part of the Black Sea. A fine statue of Neokles (a local potentate, son of Herodoros) was unearthed by Russian archaeologists and is now on exhibit at the Russian Museum. Gorgippia was inhabited until the 3rd century CE, when it was overrun by nomadic tribes. These tribes are a Circassian or Adygheorigin, gave Anapa its modern name. Anapa was part of Sarmatians, Ostrogoths,European Huns, Avars, Gokturks, Khazars, Circassians and Golden Horde.
Anapa was conquered by the Genoese in 1300 and was renamed Mapa. Genoese possession of it lasted until Ottoman conquest in 1475. Ottomans completed a fortress to defend against the Russian threat in 1791. The fortress was repeatedly attacked by the Russian Empire and was all but destroyed during its last siege in 1829. The town was passed to Russia after the Treaty of Adrianople in 1829. It was included in Black Sea Okrug of Kuban Oblast and was granted town status in 1846.[citation needed]
It was occupied by Ottomans between 1853-1856 during the Crimean War. It became part of Black Sea Governorate in 1896.Elizabeth Pilenko, later named as a saint in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, was the mayor during the Russian Revolution. It became part of Kuban-Black Sea Oblast in 1920. During World War II, it was occupied and totally demolished by Nazi Germanywith the help of Romanian troops between August 30, 1942 and September 22, 1943
