The Valley of the Shadow of Death, Caves in the Woronzoff Road behind the 21 Gun Battery

Watercolour and pencil by William Simpson (1823-1899). Reproduced as Plate 36 in Simpson's 'Seat of War in the East', First Series, published by Paul and Dominic Colnaghi, London, 1855.

The so-called 'Valley of the Shadow of Death' was the Vorontsov Ravine to the rear of the British right attack, the position of which is indicated in this picture by the puffs of smoke on the horizon. The valley was given this name because of the enormous number of Russian shot and shells fired from the Malakhov which overshot their target and rolled into it. This drawing, made before the second bombardment, depicts only a fraction of the shells that came to fill the ravine by the end of the war.