![Image](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David-Shneer/publication/265725478/figure/fig2/AS:370687706451971@1465390244484/View-of-the-Execution-Site-of-Soviet-Citizens-at-Babi-Yar-in-1941-Kiev-1944-Yad.png)
The name Babi Yar, or Babyn Yar in Ukrainian, means Old Women’s Ravine and for centuries referred only to one of several ravines, a natural obstacle to invaders, situated on the northwestern edge of Kiev (Kyiv). The geological formation consisted of nine spurs running east and west for approximately a kilometer that had steep, ten-meter slopes. In the nineteenth century, cemeteries for Jews, Karaites (non-Rabbinical Jews who do not recognize the Talmud as divinely inspired), Muslims, and Orthodox Christians were established nearby