Azov
Azov names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 1 of them is described by more than one encyclopedia.
Azov SEA OF, named after the town
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
SEA OF, named after the town, is a large gulf of the Black Sea, formed by the Crimean peninsula, or rather an inland lake connected with the Black Sea by the Strait of Yenikale or Kertch (ancient Bosporus Cimmerius), 28 miles long, and barely 4 wide at the narrowest. The intricate Siwash or Putrid Sea, which is just a succession of swamps, is cut off from the W. portion of the Sea of Azov by the long, narrow slip of low, sandy land called the Peninsula of Arabat. The ancient name of the Sea of Azov was Palus Mæotis or Mæotic marsh, from the Mæote dwelling on its shores; by the Turks it is called Balik-Denghis, or fish sea, from its abundance of fish. The water is almost fresh. The whole sea is shallow, from 3 to 52 feet deep; and measuring 235 by 110 miles, it occupies an area of 14,500 square miles. The largest river emptying into it is the Don. During the Crimean War, an expedition, having on board 16,500 English, French, and Turks, was sent to the sea in May, 1855, which bombarded the ports, and cut off supplies intended for Sebastopol,
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
Sea of, a shallow, Russian branch of the Black Sea . It is eighty miles wide and perhaps twice that distance in length. Area, 14,000 square miles. It nowhere exceeds fifty feet in depth. It receives the Don. It abounds in fish. There are several safe harbors. The waters, particularly of the western part, are so offensive as to win the name of "The Putrid Sea." The Russians have constructed a military road along the coast of Crimea. See Aral ; Caspian
Azov a town in the S
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a town in the S. of Russia, on the left bank of the Don, 7 miles from The inhabitants depend its mouth. mostly on fish-curing. Pop. about 30,000. Azov was built 9 miles from the site of the ancient Greek colony of Tanaïs; and when, in the 13th century, it was taken possession of by the Genoese, they altered its name to Tana. They were driven out of it by Timur (Tamerlane) in 1392. In 1471 it was taken by the Turks, and in 1696 by Peter the Great; and it was finally ceded to Russia in 1774.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Collier's wrote in 1921 the Sea of Azov was a Russian inland water "almost fresh" and fed by the Don; since the Don was dammed at Tsimlyansk in the 1950s the reduced river inflow has pushed its salinity up, and its fisheries, once famous enough to earn the Turkish name "fish sea," have collapsed under pollution and overfishing. Politically the sea is no longer one country's: after the Soviet Union broke up in 1991 its northern shore became Ukrainian, Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and opened a road-and-rail bridge across the Kerch Strait — the "Strait of Yenikale or Kertch" of the account — in 2018, and the Ukrainian port of Mariupol was besieged and largely destroyed in 2022. The town of Azov itself, described as a fish-curing place of about 30,000, is now a Russian river port of roughly 80,000 people in Rostov oblast.
Written for this edition, 2026.