Sarych is a headland

Headlands and bays

Headlands and bays are two related features of the coastal environment.- Geology and geography :Headlands and bays are often found on the same coastline. A bay is surrounded by land on three sides, whereas a headland is surrounded by water on three sides. Headlands are characterized by high,...

 ' onMouseout='HidePop("77632")' href="/topics/Romanization_of_Russian">translit

Romanization of Russian

Romanization of the Russian alphabet is the process of transliterating the Russian language from the Cyrillic alphabet into the Latin alphabet...

: mys) located on shore of the Black Sea

Black Sea

The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...

 on the Crimean Peninsula

Crimea

Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...

 in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

.

About 5 kilometers from the Sarych headland is the resort town of Foros. The city of Sevastopol

Sevastopol

Sevastopol is a city on rights of administrative division of Ukraine, located on the Black Sea coast of the Crimea peninsula. It has a population of 342,451 . Sevastopol is the second largest port in Ukraine, after the Port of Odessa....

 is located about 30 km away and Yalta

Yalta

Yalta is a city in Crimea, southern Ukraine, on the north coast of the Black Sea.The city is located on the site of an ancient Greek colony, said to have been founded by Greek sailors who were looking for a safe shore on which to land. It is situated on a deep bay facing south towards the Black...

 about 40 km. The length from Sarych to the Kerempe headland of Black Sea shore in Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

 is 142 miles, making it the narrowest point of the Black Sea, and the southernmost point of Ukraine.

A lighthouse

Lighthouse

A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....

 is located on the headland, which from 2005, was the subject of a controversy between Ukraine and Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

. From August 3, 2005, the lighthouse is occupied by the Russian Army

Russian Ground Forces

The Russian Ground Forces are the land forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, formed from parts of the collapsing Soviet Army in 1992. The formation of these forces posed economic challenges after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and required reforms to professionalize the force...

.

Not paying attention to the ruling of the Government Court in Sevastopol

Sevastopol

Sevastopol is a city on rights of administrative division of Ukraine, located on the Black Sea coast of the Crimea peninsula. It has a population of 342,451 . Sevastopol is the second largest port in Ukraine, after the Port of Odessa....

 on the subject of the return of 77 geographical objects to Ukraine (including the lighthouse on Sarych), Russian military officials referred to the fact that they only subordinate to the chief of the Russian Navy headquarters and no one else. The Ukrainian public activists state that Sarych is illegally occupied by the Russian Navy. As a military object the territory around the Sarych headland is closed to trespassers with barbed wire

Barbed wire

Barbed wire, also known as barb wire , is a type of fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the strand. It is used to construct inexpensive fences and is used atop walls surrounding secured property...

 with the Russian flag

Flag of Russia

The flag of Russia is a tricolour flag of three equal horizontal fields, white on the top, blue in the middle and red on the bottom. The flag was first used as an ensign for Russian merchant and war ships and only became official in 1896...

 flying above Sarych.

Battle of Cape Sarych

On 18 November 1914 the waters off Cape Sarych saw the encounter of a Russian and Turkish naval force. The latter consisted of the German battle-cruiser SMS Goeben

SMS Goeben

SMS Goeben was the second of two Moltke-class battlecruisers of the Imperial German Navy, launched in 1911 and named after the German Franco-Prussian War veteran General August Karl von Goeben...

 and the light cruiser SMS Breslau

SMS Breslau

SMS Breslau was a Magdeburg-class light cruiser of the German Kaiserliche Marine , built in the early 1910s. Following her commissioning, Breslau and the battlecruiser were assigned to the Mittelmeerdivision in response to the Balkan Wars...

. Both ships were formally purchased by the Ottoman empire and renamed as Yavuz and Midilli, although they retained their German crews. The Russian force consisted of five pre-dreadnought battleships. During the fight only a few salvoes were exchanged. The forces inflicted minor damage upon each other, but the commanding German admiral Wilhelm Souchon

Wilhelm Souchon

Wilhelm Anton Souchon was a German and Ottoman admiral in World War I who commanded the Kaiserliche Marine's Mediterranean squadron in the early days of the war...

broke off the action after Goeben took a hit in one of her 15 cm casemates. He had to be very careful in putting his ship at risk, as the Ottoman Empire didn't provide facilities for repairing a modern ship like the Goeben. So he had to keep her in a battleworthy state.

The Germans were quite surprised by the accuracy of the Russian gunfire.