The Tsemes Bay (also Tsemess Bay and Novorossiysk Bay; Russian: Цемесская бухта, Tsemesskaya bukhta) is an ice-free bay located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, in Krasnodar Krai of Russia. It takes its name from the Tsemes River which flows into the bay. The depth of the sea varies from 21 to 27 meters. The length of the bay is 15 kilometers; its maximum width is 9 kilometers. It is bordered by the Sudzhuk Spit and Cape Doob.
A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a type of smaller bay with a circular inlet and narrow entrance. A fjord is a particularly steep bay shaped by glacial activity.
The Black Sea is a body of water and marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean between the Balkans, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Western Asia. It is supplied by a number of major rivers, such as the Danube, Dnieper, Southern Bug, Dniester, Don, and the Rioni. Many countries drain into the Black Sea, including Austria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey and Ukraine.
Krasnodar Krai is a federal subject of Russia, located in the North Caucasus region in Southern Russia and administratively a part of the Southern Federal District. Its administrative center is the city of Krasnodar. The third most-populous federal subject, the krai had a population of 5,226,647 as of the 2010 Census.
Although the navigation is affected by strong autumn and winter bora winds (up to 220 kilometers per hour), the bay was frequented by ancient Greek navigators who established the colony of Bata on the shore. Michael Rostovtzeff explained this by the fact that there are no other decent harbours along the coastline all the way to Batumi. [1] During the Middle Ages, the coast was controlled by the Ghisolfi merchant family of Genoa.
Novorossiysk is a city in Krasnodar Krai, Russia. It is the country's main port on the Black Sea and the leading Russian port for exporting grain. It is one of the few cities honored with the title of the Hero City. Population: 241,952 (2010 Census); 232,079 (2002 Census); 185,938 (1989 Census).
Mikhail Ivanovich Rostovtzeff, or Rostovtsev was a historian whose career straddled the 19th and 20th centuries and who produced important works on ancient Roman and Greek history. He was a member of the Russian Academy of Science.
Batumi is the capital of Autonomous Republic of Adjara and the second-largest city of Georgia, located on the coast of the Black Sea in the country's southwest. It is situated in a Subtropical Zone at the foot of Caucasus. Much of Batumi's economy revolves around tourism and gambling, but the city is also an important sea port and includes industries like shipbuilding, food processing and light manufacturing. Since 2010, Batumi has been transformed by the construction of modern high-rise buildings, as well as the restoration of classical 19th-century edifices lining its historic Old Town.
Novorossiysk, founded by Russians as a military facility, is the chief port on the bay. Several ships of the Black Sea Fleet were scuttled in the bay to avoid their capture by the Germans in 1918. It was also the scene of several notable shipwrecks, including that of SS Admiral Nakhimov in 1986. Following the establishment of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, the Commercial Seaport of Novorossiysk has emerged as the busiest oil terminal in the Black Sea. The southern portion of the bay, with the minor resort of Kabardinka, is administered from Gelendzhik (see Gelendzhik Bay).
The Black Sea Fleet is the fleet of the Russian Navy in the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov and the Mediterranean Sea.
SS Admiral Nakhimov, launched in March 1925 and originally named SS Berlin, was a passenger liner of the German Weimar Republic later converted to a hospital ship, then a Soviet passenger ship. On 31 August 1986, Admiral Nakhimov collided with the large bulk carrier Pyotr Vasev in the Tsemes Bay, near the port of Novorossiysk, Russian SFSR, and quickly sank. In total, 423 of the 1,234 people on board died.
The Caspian Pipeline Consortium is a consortium and a pipeline to transport Caspian oil from Tengiz field to the Novorossiysk-2 Marine Terminal on Russia's Black Sea coast. It is also a major export route for oil from the Kashagan and Karachaganak fields. As of 2009, the CPC pipeline is the only oil export pipeline in Russian territory not wholly owned by Transneft.
