2-913-930 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Balaclava - view inside the port, 1854. Crimean War. View of the'...inside of the port, which is only accessible through a very narrow circuitous channel, in the form of the letter S. The entrance is not seen at a cannon-shot distance, even when in the bay. The port looks like a pool in a little valley, surrounded by high perpendicular cliffs. On the left of a Genoese fortress (three round towers) lies the town - consisting of one street alongside the shore: it is hidden by the shipping (some sixty large vessels) in the port - a two-decker amongst them. A few houses lie scattered above the hidden street: on the left is the hospital. On the side of the mountain some camp fires are burning. In the foreground is the road leading to Sebastopol, with carts and waggons drawn by mules or oxen and two camels abreast'. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.