Saturday, December 4, 2010

Odessa, Ukraine

Ukraine, as with the majority of former USSR countries, makes it hard for me to grasp that they have lighthouses...but they do.

This is the Vorontsov lighthouse in Odessa, which is a famous red and white 27.2 meters high landmark in the Black Sea. It is named after Prince Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov, one of the governor-generals of the Odessa region.
The current lighthouse is the third lighthouse to stand on the same spot. The first one was built in 1862 and was made of wood.
The lighthouse was built with iron tubing and lead gaskets. It has a one-million watt signal light, and its signal can be received up to twelve nautical miles (22 km) away. The Morse code call signal of three dashes the first letter is "O" which stands for Odessa. When there is a severe storm or fog, the lighthouse also sounds a foghorn.
The lighthouse is connected with the port's shoreline by a long stone causeway and jetty. The jetties protect the port from the southern high seas.
The port is protected on the east by huge concrete breakwaters (ramparts), built on rocks, rising above the water.

you should be rather familiar with the stamps by now....the left one is a definitive issued in 2007, while the other one is a definitive issued in 2009.

1 comment:

olia said...

Hello,
You have a really nice blog!
Would You like to swap pc from other cities of Ukraine?

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