[PL] Polska wersja tutaj / Polish version here.

I like OpenStreetMap, for the idea of openness, and for maps details. I also like OsmAnd, because it's great navigation for this maps, both for main road, and for some off-road trails. And for the fact, that during the trip you can find some unknown places which otherwise you will never find.


Old Cossack cemetery

Bessarabian roads

When I crossed Ukrainian Bessarabia to see steppes and limans, I found interested place in my navigation. It was Старое козацкое кладбище, meaning Old Cossack cemetery. So I decided to go there...


Road and alternative road

Ukrainian roads are quite "specific", especially in the Bessarabian region, where the roadside is much better off that asphalt road. In many place the roadside has become an alternative route, allowed to drive at a dizzying speed of 30 km/h.


The name of the village means don't touch

In contrast to the Akerman Steppes, here you could see the steppes interwoven with fields and places that looked like the world forgot about them.


Time has stopped here ...


Eco breeding?

Sasyk (Kunduk) Liman

We decided to "enter the steppe". The road led to the edge of the liman, which ends with a large cliff.


"Road" to Sasyk Liman


Liman emerging above the steppe


Cliff at the end of the steppe


Cliff at the end of the steppe

Old Cossack cemetery

Arriving at the destination I didn't know what to expect. I wondered why someone stressed that it is precisely the Cossack cemetery, not just Orthodox.


Cossack gravestones


Steppe is also here

Before I wrote this text, I made small web research about this cemetery. I found some info in Ukrainian Wikipedia and two newspaper articles (here and here ). According to Wikipedia, the cemetery dates from the 18th century and the oldest grave is from 1855. However, I have doubts about it, because I found a tombstone with the date 1704.


A grave older than Wikipedia says about 150 years?


?


"Here lies the servant of God Vasily..."

The cemetery is still used, on the other side there are already new graves.


In the distance a new part of the cemetery.


Cossack gravestones


Cossack gravestones


Liman Sasyk, and Cossack gravestones

The press articles that I found mainly addressed the ecological disaster that is taking place in Liman Sasyk. In the times of the USSR, liman was deprived of access to the sea, and an attempt was made to pump out salt water (flooding liman with fresh water - yes, Soviets...). It devastated the liman and increased the level of water which significantly accelerated the erosion of its banks. In this context, the cemetery was mentioned because it is estimated that around 100m of the cemetery has already fallen into the water.