The history of the city goes back to late Bronze Age–early Iron Age (between the 20th and 10th centuries BC), when it was the earliest Greek settlement in the northwestern Black Sea Region and was mentioned by the Greek historian Herodotus as Emporion Kremnoi. In the 13th century Pisan merchants founded a colony, Portus Pisanus, which however was short-lived. Taganrog was founded by Peter the Great on September 12, 1698. The first Russian Navy base, it hosted the Azov Flotilla of Catherine the Great (1770–1783), which subsequently became the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Taganrog was granted city status in 1775.