According to Keppen, Sudak was not so much a town as it was a sprawling vineyard sewn with little houses occupied by their owners during the autumn harvest. (Keppen, 124)
Writing at nearly the same time as Keppen, Bronevskii claimed that Sudak once had over 100,000 inhabitants. By 1815, in addition to the 100 invalids settled in poor quarters, there was no one.
In spring though, and in autumn, approximately 2,000 workers and manufacturers came to work the land and harvest the grapes.(Bronevskii 1815, page 123)