for the whole world, yekaterinburg is the location where the last russian emperor nickolay ii and his family, savagely lost their lives. this tour shows you the most dramatic period of russian history, the time of the revolution. the czar’s family was executed in the basement of ipatiev house on the night 16-17th of july in 1918. just after the well-known midnight tragedy the corpses were transported out of the city and put in an open mine (about 10 meters deep), called ganina's pit or ganina yama. hand grenades were thrown down the mine shaft by their executioners. russian orthodox church insists on the version, that the bodies were taken out of the mine, dissected and burnt into ash. there is the monastery there founded in 2000 after the visit of patriarch alexij ii – the head of russian orthodox church. the church in the names of saint newly martyrs and five wooden churches have been built in honour of different russian saints on the place where the remains of the romanov's were burnt. the churches were built with the local timber without the aid of any nails.
