horses galloped, cannons roared, men were killed and wounded, and history was decided.

In Soviet times, Balaklava also featured a top-secret submarine base hidden by a tunnel cut into the mountains. As a closed city, only Soviet citizens with special authorization were allowed to visit. Today, it is home to yachts and boasts restaurants offering fresh fish from the Black Sea.

The Battle of Sevastopol is depicted dramatically in a purposebuilt, circular gallery that houses a panorama of the fighting as seen from the main Russian position, on Malakhov hill, on June 6, 1855. In fact, most museums in Sevastopol are devoted to military history, and you cannot go far in the town without coming face to face with its marshal past.

Mark Twain, who visited the Crimea in 1867, said Sevastopol then, over a decade after the siege, was a virtual wasteland still. In his collection of letters, "Innocents Abroad", he wrote:

"Ruined Pompeii is in good condition compared to Sebastopol. Here, you may look in whatsoever direction you please, and your eye encounters scarcely any thing but ruin, ruin, ruin! - fragments of houses, crumbled walls, torn and ragged hills, devastation every where! It is as if a mighty earthquake had spent all its terrible forces upon this one little spot."

The second major conflict fought there was in World War II, when German forces, that already controlled the rest of Crimea,
managed to capture the city after a long siege that saw extensive damage inflicted by huge German guns. This time, the German objective was to cripple the Soviet's Black Sea fleet, and advance on Russia's southern flank.

But enough of wars and battles.
Head west along the coast from Sevastopol and you soon come to Chersonesos, originally a 6th Century BC settlement of Greeks. Or turn northward towards Simferopol, and wind your way through steep valleys, to the seat of power of the Crimean Tartars at the Kharn's palace at Bakhchisaray.

Crimea is a place to remember. Its special natural beauty, combined with its rich cultural and geopolitical history, make it one of those places on earth where human destiny is shaped.


For Ukrainians and Russians it continues to be a favored summer vacation destination, a place of spas and various holiday options that is only going to expand as new facilities and resorts are the number might soon well exceed the eight million who visited annually when it was the favored warm destination for the Soviet

Union.

For Washingtonians, one might want to follow the example of the Tsars, and try a silk visit in the spring or a velvet visit in the fall. The Crimea is less crowded then, and displays special charms.

The most common way to get there is via Kyiv, which has several flights a day to Simferopol. Several agencies offer packages that include air tickets, transport to and from the airports, and a car with driver and guide for travel around the Crimea. For example, the Bytsko agency in Kyiv can arrange a two or three-day trip to the Crimea from Kyiv for $850-$950, depending on the services you want.

If you are lucky, you will get Alexey Solovyov as your guide. A native of Yalta, he knows Crimea’s past and present, nature and history, in great depth. He’ll make your visit a rich experience.

Ambassador Oleh Shamshur is upbeat about US-Ukrainian relations, and sees good prospects for strengthening bilateral relations in various fields. He said bilateral relations "are in pretty good shape" but could definitely be strengthened. He believes that among the most pressing issues in Ukraine is political and judicial reform, and that Washington can help with these. Indeed, a major reason US companies often give for their reluctance to invest in Ukraine is weakness in the rule of law. Second, there are a number of key sectors in Ukraine that would welcome US investment, including energy (hydrocarbon exploitation, transportation and refining, as well as developing alternative energy sources), hi-tech, aerospace and aircraft, manufacturing and		infrastructure development. His own special interest is in "developing people-to-people contacts," especially between young people in America and Ukraine. He hopes he can develop programs along these lines as part of his legacy in Washington. For this, he sees the need to reach out beyond the Beltway, to the wider American public.