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Balaklava In a picturesque setting at a distance of some 15 km to the South-East of Sevastopol Balaklava town and Balaklava Bay spread out. The ancient Greek, later on Byzantine historians mentioned the Balaklava Bay as Symbolon-Limne - the Harbour of Symbols (omens). The fact was reffered to by Strabo, Pliny the Elder, Polyen, Ptolemy, Flavius. The archeologists discovered near the Balaklava Bay an early Tauri settlement (about the 8th century B.C.) Myths and old legends, testimonials of scolarsand travellers, historians and poets overcome everyone who gets into contact with the ancient history of this place. Some associate the Balaklava Bay with the wanderings of the crafty and wise Odysseus and locate here the legendary Temple of Diana where Tauri priestes Iphigenia performed her bloody rite. The myth of Iphigenis has found its reflection in the works of literature and art of many countries that were being created throughout centuries. Dedicated to it are the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, immortal lines of Lucretius and Ovid. The subsequent history of Balaklava is closely linked to the Genoese. Towering on the Eastern Cape that overshadows the entrance to the bay are the majestic remains of their fortress Cembalo. From 1340 to 1357 the Genoese founded here their colony and erected on a top of a rock the town of St. Nicholas. Located there were a counsul's castle, a town hall and a small church. The Lower Town or fortress of St. George was surrounded with a fortress wall and defensive towers. As a rule marble blaques bearing inscriptions and consuls' coats of arms were affixed to them. In the summer of 1475 the Turks captured the Genoese colonoes in the Crimea including Cembalo which they gave a new name - Balyk-Yuve (Fish's Nest). In year 1787 Catherine the Great (Catherine II) visited Balaklava. In the period of the Crimean War of 1853-1856 during the siege of Sevastopol, Balaklava was the base of the British Army. Having fortified it with the double row of redoubdts and artillery battaries, the British built in the town an embarkment, hotels, and even the first in the crimea railway that connected their base with the front-line positions near Sevastopol. Near Balaklava in October 1854 a battle of the Allies with the Russian Army was fought that was to become for ever a black day in the military history of England. That day the British lost 500 horsemen. Among the fallen was a relative of Sir Winston Churchill, a member of the family of Dukes of Marlborough. In 1856 on the site of the battle the British set up a monument that has been preserved to this day. Situated in the vicinity of Balaklava on Cape Fiolent are the remains of the oldest in the Crimea St. George Monastery which in 1820 was visited by the great Russian poet A.S.Pushkin. In Balaklava and it's environs there are more than 50 monuments to military valour, testimonies of courage of the Soviet soldiers in the stern years of the World Wr II. Balaklava fighting 250 days side by side with Sevastopol was the southernmost point of the Soviet-German front. Abandoned in July 1942 it was liberated by the Soviet troops on April 18th, 1944. Today the town's unforgetable history and amazing beauty attract many visitors on holiday. From the top of the Balaklava Crag the town can well be seen spreading out below. Here mountains, rocks and the sea came close together. The bay hemmed in by the pink cliffs that looks rather like a lake has incredible dark blue water. Steps hollowed out of solid rock, dark time-worn ancient Genoese towers make up a truly impressive image.
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