Upon the other hand, Sebastopol was naturally weak on the land side.

It lay in a hollow, and guns from the upper ground could everywhere search it.
At the time when the Allied Armies arrived before it the only defences were an old loop-holed wall, a battery of fourteen guns and six mortars, and one or two batteries which were as yet scarcely commenced.
The march from the Katcha to the south side was performed without interruption, and on the 26th, six days after the battle of Alma, the Allied Army reached their new position.

According to arrangements, the British occupied the harbor of Balaklava, while the French took possession of Kamiesch and Kaznatch, as bases for the supply of their armies.

At the mouth of Balaklava Harbor are the ruins of a Genoese fort standing 200 feet above the sea.

This was supposed to be unoccupied.