2-969-923 - /Heritage Images

The Siege of Sebastopol - Interior of the Redan - from a photograph by Robertson, 1856. Crimean War. 'The Redan is a portion of a line of natural mounds, which has its highest elevation in the Malakoff; and it is that portion which lies between two ravines (the Woronzoff-road ravine and the Karabelnaia ravine) that run from the Camp plateau down into the city. The fortifications connect these two ravines by a line of earthworks...The Redan is a stony mound, the last undulation citywards of the table-land on which the besiegers sat down. It overlooks the descent down into the harbour of Sebastopol. Approaching it...from the south side, it appeared a very gentle elevation; but...it was an elevation very difficult to reach. For many hundred yards...the earth was scarred with trenches fortified with gabions, with heavy guns couched between them, allowing us just room to pass between..'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.