Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv ( ; ) were three legendary brothersoften mentioned along with their sister Lybid ( ; )who, according to the Primary Chronicle, founded the medieval city of Kyiv, which eventually became the capital of Kievan Rus' and present-day Ukraine. There is no precise and historically established information about the rule of Kyi and the establishment of the city of Kyiv. Historical background In the Primary Chronicle, which is traditionally believed to have been written by a monk of Kyiv Cave Monastery by the name of Nestor and finished in 1113, a special place is held by the legend of the foundation of Kyiv by three brothers. Nestor places those brothers onto various hills of Kyiv. Geographically, the old Kyiv is located on a higher right bank of the Dnieper, which is an extension of the Dnieper Upland, where remnants of the Church of the Tithes are located. The Chronicle further states that there were people ("who did not know what they were saying") who considered Kyi a mere ferryman. But it later claims that Kyi, as a prince of his gens, was visiting Czargrad and received great honors from the Emperor. Dmitry Likhachov combined attestations of the Nikon Chronicle, which also recounts that Kyi with a great army marched onto Czargrad and received great honors from the Emperor. During his expedition to Constantinople, Kyi also founded a city of Kyivets on the Danube. Nestor also names the approximate date of the assault on Kyiv by the Khazar Empire as "after the death of Kyi," which supports Boris Rybakov's hypothesis of the 6th-7th centuries. In his chronicle Nestor does not indicate the date of Kyi's death nor the existence or absence of heirs who continued to rule after his death. The chronicle does mention a meeting between local residents with the newly arrived Askold and Dir who asked them whose city Kjiv was, and received the answer that the three brothers who built it were long dead and the residents now paid tribute to the Khazars. However, the Polish historian Jan Długosz points out the Przemysł Chronicle that asserts, "after the death of Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv, their children and grandchildren who descended from them by direct lineage ruled for many years." Excerpt from the Ruthenian Primary Chronicles Translation by Dmitry Likhachov Translation by Samuel Hazzard Cross Archaeological excavations Archaeological excavations have shown that there was indeed an