2-969-991 - /Heritage Images

Interior of the Monastery of St. George, Balaclava, 1856. 'This antiquarian nook of the Chersonese has been frequently described of late, in letters from the seat of war in the Crimea. Mr. Danby Seymour, in his deservedly popular work, pictures the famous Monastery as ensconced in a ledge of the precipice: "A door and staircase, cut in the rock, form the only entrance to this great hermitage, which was no doubt first created by the ancient Troglodytes, or dwellers under ground, whose remains are so numerous in the Crimea, as all the rocks near the Monastery, which are composed of chalk, are pierced by ancient grottoes, which are now only used as cellars and poultry-yards, although they were inhabited by the monks so lately as the time of Pallas, in 1794".' From "Illustrated London News", 1856.