Sevastopol - unlocked!For years the town of Sevastopol was closed to foreigners even to Ukrainians who couldn't show that they had a good reason for going there eg family or business connections. You had to have a permit, because Sevastopol was the home of the soviet Black Sea fleet, and at the height of the cold war the town was definitely off limits to western tourists. In 1997, Russia agreed to hand over control of the town to Ukraine, and now Sevastopol welcomes visitors.
The fleet and the harbour
The Black Sea fleet is still there, but now you can get a boat tour of the harbour and take photos of the subs and battleships at their berths. The 1997 agreement left Russia and Ukraine with about half of the fleet each, although Russia bought back some of the more modern ships for cash. Russia rents three harbours from Sevastopol for the ships it stations there, but there are no nuclear weapons at the leased facilities.
Go to Black Sea Fleet photos Balaklava
You can also go to the once secret harbour at Balaklava with its maintenance bays for submarines built inside the mountain (if you're a scuba diver, one of the local centres offers a dive through the underwater tunnel into the maintenance cave, now no longer used.) Balaklava is equally famous as the base from which the British, French and Turkish allies launched their siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War.
Go to Balaklava page The Crimean War
The Charge of the Light Brigade, the nursing outposts set up by Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole, the famous battles - Balaklava and Inkerman - it all happened here in the 1850s when Britain, France, Turkey and Sardinia were at war with Russia. Visit the Sevastopol Panorama , an epic son et lumiere creation which enables you to stand at the centre of the siege of Sevastopol, with the sights and sounds of the battle raging around you. Visit the Sapoun-gora heights and see the `Valley of Death' immortalised in Tennyson's poem spread out across the plain below.
Go to the Sevastopol Panorama 1941-2 - the second siege
For two years during World War 2 soldiers and civilians held off the German army outside Sevastopol. In the end the town was almost completely destroyed it's estimated that 1.5 tons of metal from shells and bombs was dropped onto every square meter of the main defence areas. After it was taken, underground resistance continued, sometimes literally underground, using the kilometres of tunnels built under the town by sappers on both sides in the Crimean war some 90 years before. The town was eventually liberated by Soviet troops in 1944. There are monuments at the two main points of defence - Malakhov Hill and Sapoun-gora, where there is also a diorama and second world war vehicles and weapons are on display.
Ancient history : Khersoness
At Khersoness point on the outskirts of Sevastopol lies the most important archeological site in Crimea. ...
Go to Khersoness page Go to Khersoness photos
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