City and administrative center of Odesa Oblast, Ukraine
About Odesa
Odesa, also spelled Odessa, is the third-most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrative centre of the Odesa Raion and Odesa Oblast, as well as a multiethnic cultural centre. As of January 2021, Odesa's population was approximately 1,010,537. On 25 January 2023, its historic city centre was declared a World Heritage Site and added to the List of World Heritage in Danger by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in recognition of its multiculturality and 19th-century urban planning. The declaration was made in response to the bombing of Odesa during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has damaged or destroyed buildings across the city.
Name
English: Odesa or Odessa oh-DESS-ə Ukrainian: Одеса, romanized: Odesa [oˈdɛsɐ] Russian: Одесса, romanized: Odessa [ɐˈdʲes(ː)ə, ɐˈdɛs(ː)ə] Greek: Οδησσός, romanized: Odissós Yiddish: אָדעס, romanized: Odes Romanian: Odesa Odesa is sometimes called the Pearl by the Sea, the Southern Capital, or Southern Palmyra, as well as Odesa-mama. In 1795 the city was named Odessa in accordance with the Greek Plan of Empress Catherine II. Catherine's Secretary of State Adrian Gribovsky claimed in his memoirs that the name was his suggestion. Some expressed doubts about this claim, while others noted the reputation of Gribovsky as an honest and modest man. Odesa is located between the ancient Greek cities of Tyras and Olbia and it was named using a Slavic feminine form for the ancient Greek city of Odessos (Ancient Greek: Ὀδησσός; in Roman times, Odessus). …
History
Odesa was the site of a large Greek settlement no later than the middle of the 6th century BC (a necropolis from the 5th–3rd centuries BC has long been known in this area). Some scholars believe it to have been a trade settlement established by the Greek city of Histria. Whether the Bay of Odesa is the ancient "Port of the Histrians" cannot yet be considered a settled question based on the available evidence. Archaeological artifacts confirm extensive links between the Odesa area and the eastern Mediterranean. In the Middle Ages successive rulers of the Odesa region included various nomadic tribes (Petchenegs, Cumans), the Golden Horde, the Crimean Khanate, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Ottoman Empire. Yedisan Crimean Tatars traded there in the 14th century. Since the middle of the 13th century the city's territory belonged to the Golden Horde domain. …
Geography
Odesa is located (46°28′N 30°44′E) in the Black Sea Lowland in Southern Ukraine which being part of the greater Eastern European Plain gradually slopes towards the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. The city lies on the northwestern coast of the Black Sea along the southwestern shore of the Gulf of Odesa, approximately 31 km (19 mi) north of the estuary of the Dniester river and some 443 km (275 mi) south of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. The international border between Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova lies some 40 km (25 mi) west of the city. The city is situated on terraced hills overlooking a small harbor. The average elevation at which the city is located is around 50 metres (160 feet). The maximum is 65 metres (213 feet) and minimum (on the coast) amounts to 4.2 metres (13.8 feet) above sea level. There are three large estuaries near the city: Kuialnyk, Khadzhibey and Sukhyi. …
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