Olenivka, Crimea

Underwater Museum at Cape Tarkhankut

Submerged busts of communist and socialist figures from the USSR.

Organized more than 15 years ago, this museum boasts a collection of busts of communist leaders and the heads of socialism throughout the history of the USSR — lined up on stone shelves and racks and buried underwater.

It’s without an official website of its own and without a lot of documentation, but the underwater museum at Cape Tarkhankut is considered a must-see attraction in Crimea.

The organizers of the underwater museum are always open to adding new figures to the collection, which currently has more than 50 different busts. The busts are known as the Alley of Leaders.

Known as a romantic and mysterious place, Cape Tarkhankut is at the western end of the Crimean peninsula. Here, a hot and humid steppe fades into the Black Sea and fresh springs erupt from the bottom of the salty waters. It is at this point that the summers are hot and dry, the days warm and windy, and the nights cool an quiet. It is at this point that the sea is crystal clear, drawing in tourists from all over the world.

With the sea as clean and clear as it is here, underwater visibility can often exceed 30 feet, making the Alley of Leaders visible even from above the surface of the water.