Seventh-Kilometer Market, Open-air market near Odesa, Ukraine

The Seventh-Kilometer Market is a vast open-air market on the Ovidiopol highway outside Odesa, in Avanhard. Its rows are made up largely of steel shipping containers rented as shops, alongside ordinary shops in buildings and newer roll-up pavilions. Long single-storey pavilions with green pitched roofs and a large hall with a red-and-green striped roof and arched windows stand among parallel lines of kiosks.

The market grew out of an Odesa flea market held in Slobidka, near the 3rd Jewish cemetery on Khimichna Street, open only on Sundays and later Saturdays. In 1989, during Perestroika, it was formally registered and moved outside the city limits to the seventh kilometre of the Odesa–Ovidiopol highway, which gave it its name. Its first trading ground, later called "Pole Chudes", was fenced, asphalted and fitted with metal tables and canopies.

The market grew from a flea market where only used goods could be sold officially; traders with new items walked the rows selling "from hand" (z ruk), and entry was charged to anyone carrying something. Today Odessans joke that a job at the Seventh requires two university degrees. The name comes from its location at the seventh kilometre of the Odesa–Ovidiopol road.

The market has ten vehicle entrances and exits around its perimeter, and about 30 regular bus routes run to it from Odesa alone, plus services from other regions and CIS countries. The site covers 75 hectares with 8 car parks, a bus station, a bank, a hotel and 11 free toilets. Traders work from containers, pavilions and open places, so expect long walks between sections.

The market grew out of an Odesa flea market of the 1960s and 1970s, held near the third Jewish cemetery on Khimichna Street and open only on Sundays, later Saturdays. Entry was charged to anyone carrying anything in their hands, since new goods were sold from hand by traders walking the rows, while used items were laid out on the ground.