Aji-Mushkay Quarry, Memorial complex and quarry site in Kerch, Ukraine.
Aji-Mushkay Quarry is a system of underground limestone mines in the Adzhi-Mushkay settlement of Kerch, named for that settlement. The Central Quarries' excavated passages run about 8,800 metres, with layers 9–10 metres thick above workings 4–7 metres wide and 1.6–2.7 metres high, sometimes 4 metres. A walled southern section holds the Museum of the History of the Defense of the Adzhimushkay Quarries.
During World War II, Soviet forces and civilians took shelter in these tunnels as a fortress against German occupation. The site became crucial to resistance efforts in the region during 1942.
The memorial complex "Heroes of Adzhimushkay" was built in 1982, designed by sculptors Ye. Gorban and B. Klimushko with architects S. Mirgorodsky and V. Sentsov. It includes the underground Museum of Defense, opened in 1966, and surface monuments. The quarries also preserve 19th-century graffiti of quarrymen's surnames in the Dedushevy quarries.
Tours through the tunnel system require advance booking and sturdy footwear for navigating the passages. Plan for about two hours to walk through the full underground route.
The quarries were first used as a battlefield in the Russian Civil War: from late 1918 the Red partisan detachment "Red Moles", up to 550 fighters, operated from these tunnels, and in January–May 1919 partisans carried out more than 70 combat operations, including raids on the Kerch railway station and the Kerch Metallurgical Plant.
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