A lighthouse is a high building in the form of a tower on the sea shore designed to serve as a navigational aid for ships at sea using visual surveillance, radiolocation and audio detection.
The Tarkhankut and the Chersonesus Lighthouses are located on the Black Sea coast of the Republic of Crimea. They are called “twin-brothers” because they both were built in 1816 by the same design and put into service in June 1817.
The Chersonesus Lighthouse belongs to Sevastopol and is located in the most western point of the city. The lighthouse was completely destroyed during the Great Patriotic War and built anew in 1950–1951 by the military engineers of the Black Sea Fleet. Topped by a huge glassed-in lantern construction, the white architecturally styled reinforced-concrete tower of the lighthouse is 36 meters high and coated with Inkerman limestone. The seamen know the Chersonesus Lighthouse by the “SV” signal letters, which is short for “Sevastopol”. The lighthouse transmits this two-letter identifier in Morse code every night.
The Tarkhankut Lighthouse is made of the Inkerman limestone. It is about 40 meters high and can be seen from afar off. It is a conical stone tower capped by a wooden regular decagonal lantern construction. The quality of the lighthouse’s construction is so high that it has only undergone cosmetic repairs for the past 200 years.
The postages stamps feature the Tarkhankut and the Chersonesus Lighthouses against the maps appropriating to their location, and a wind rose.
Additionally, FSUE PTC “Marka” has manufactured an illustrated cover with the postage stamps and first day covers with cancellation (Moscow, Sevastopol) inside. Two non-stamped postcards bearing the images of the lighthouses have also been made.
Design: O. Shushlebina
Face value: 14.00 RUB.
Size of stamp: 42×30 mm, size of sheet: 146×170 mm.
Form of issue: sheet of 15 (3×5) stamps.
Circulation: 405,000 stamps (27,000 sheets).
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