Ferrous metallurgy is one of the few industries in Ukraine whose products are exported. In the course «Economic Geography of Ukraine» ninth graders study all 3 districts whose inhabitants are engaged in iron-steel smelting, casting of rails and wide diameter pipes. These are Donetsk, Pridneprovsky and Priazovsky, with the center in the city of Mariupol. The latter metallurgical region is fundamentally different from its colleagues in the industry. The Azov region has no resources of its own, so iron ore is delivered here by sea from the Kerch Peninsula, coking coal — from Donbass, and manganese — from the Dnieper region, from the Nikopol manganese ore deposit.
In total, the economic life of Mariupol is based on 3 whales — on metallurgists, on sailors and on machine builders, who use the results of their work (metal) and provide their comrades with tools (cranes, equipment). The best way to appreciate the industrial power of the city is from the observation deck. It is located on the street Klinovaya Balka, which runs parallel to the shore of the Azov Sea. In Turkey such a street would be called «the third line», because it is distanced from the water by the embankment and the block of «stalnokas». But due to the fact that the Looking platform is located on an elevation, it is from it that the best view of the city and the water area of the Sea of Azov opens up.
Naturally, the Mariupol observation deck is very different from the main Parisian one, located on the 2nd platform of the Eiffel Tower, or the 15 Kiev ones, equipped on the right bank of the Dnieper River, on the so-called Dnieper steeps. The main «panorama-bar» of the Azov region is just a platform fenced with a small curb and lined with red-gray paving stones. The rear of the site is covered with panel high-rises built in the last years of the USSR.
But, having risen to the Mariupol Observation Platform, the guests of the city can admire the gracefully curved, like a crescent, shore of the Sea of Azov. The Mariupol seaport complex, decorated with dinosaur towers of loading and unloading cranes, is perfectly visible from here. The silhouette of Azovstal Combine — the coolest enterprise and monopolist in certain types of products of the Azov metallurgical region — is perfectly visible from the observation deck. And only native Mariupol residents can distinguish the silhouettes of Azovmash, Ilyich Iron and Steel Works, Azovelektrostal, Termichesky and Oktyabrsky plants from the general picture of a typical industrial polis.
If you decide to visit the Azov region, it is from the Observation Deck that you can appreciate the music of the urban landscape of the main industrial center of the Azov region. And although this city also positions itself as a climatic and balneological resort, rest in Mariupol is a debatable issue. Recreation against the background of a coke plant is a very dubious pleasure. Perhaps, this city will be a resort. But only when all industrial enterprises will close down in it, and also several decades will pass, necessary for self-purification of the rivers Kalchik and Kalmius, soils, coast and coastal water area, and ships carrying ore will be replaced by yachts and cruise ships!