[1] The system of Odesa Catacombs consists of a network of basements, bunkers, drainage tunnels and storm drains as well as natural caves.

[2] According to urban legend, these mines were abandoned and later used and widened by local smugglers who created a labyrinth of tunnels and hid treasure beneath Odesa.

[4]Limestone was cut using saws, and mining became so intensive that by the second half of the 19th century, the extensive network of catacombs created many inconveniences to the city.

[citation needed] After the Russian Revolution of 1917, stone mining was banned within the central part of Odesa (inside the Porto-Franko zone, bounded by Old Port Franko and Panteleymonovskaya streets).

[citation needed] During World War II the catacombs served as a hiding place for Soviet partisans, in particular the squad of Vladimir Molodtsov.

[4] In his work The Waves of The Black Sea, Valentin Kataev described the battle between Soviet partisans against Axis forces, underneath Odesa and its nearby suburb Usatove.

Lata wrote a widely circulated online post stating that he and other explorers had found the body of a local student named Masha, who on New Year's Eve in 2005 had wandered into the catacombs with her friends after drinking.