Balaklava

Balaklava , section of the city of Sevastopol , in S Ukraine, on the Crimean peninsula. Fishing and limestone quarrying are carried on. In ancient times it was an important Greek commercial city. In the Middle Ages it belonged to the Genoese until it was taken (1475) by the Turks, who gave it its present name. In the Crimean War , Balaklava became famous for an allied victory (Oct., 1854) over the Russians and particularly for the charge of the Light Brigade, celebrated by Tennyson. On Oct. 25, through a disputed error in orders, the earl of Cardigan led an English light cavalry brigade of some 670 in a hopeless charge on a heavily protected Russian position, and more than two thirds of his men were killed or wounded. Balaklava was the capital of the former Balaklava dist. in the Crimean region until 1957, when it was incorporated into Sevastopol. There are ruins of a Genoese fortress (14th-15th cent.) in Balaklava.

Balaklava (Balaclava) Town in the Crimea, site of an inconclusive battle (1854) during the Crimean War. The British, French and Turks held off a Russian attack on their supply port of Balaclava. The battle is famous for a disastrous charge by Lord Cardigan's Light Brigade to capture Russian guns.

Balaklava, Australia, Ukraine Ukraine: it is said to have received its first name, Symbalon, from the son of the Scythian prince Skiluros in the 2nd or 1st first century bc However, it may represent the Greek sumbolon ‘sign’ and this is the more likely name to have evolved into the Genoese Cembalo. A popular explanation for the present Ukrainian name has it coming from the Tatar balık ‘fish’ and possibly a word associated with the Turkish yakala ‘to catch’. Originally a Greek city in the Crimea, it was conquered by the Genoese in 1357, by the Turks in 1475, and by the Russians in 1783. It was the site of the Battle of Balaklava in October 1854 during which the British Light Brigade famously charged down a valley towards retreating Russian cavalry and was cut to pieces. The town has given its name to the balaclava, a knitted woollen covering for the head and neck worn by the British against the cold and much favoured by modern criminals.