Neglinnaya River

The arch in the embankment immediately after the bridge on the left is the Neglinnaya river outlet.

In ancient times, the Neglinnaya river flowed through what is today Alexandrovsky Sad: the gardens running along the wall of the Kremlin. In fact, the natural water barrier also determined the choice of the place for constructing a fortress. The barrier along the third flank of the Kremlin was artificial. There was a moat along the eastern wall of the Kremlin with a width of half that of Red Square, which was filled with water from both rivers.

The engineering construction of Alevizov moat, which was the name of the moat at the site of Red Square today was extremely ingenious and progressive for its time. Due to the different levels of water in the Moskva and Neglinnaya Rivers, as well as the consideration given to the groundwater and ice-melt water, the moat consisted of several sections. That, among other things, made it possible to drain the water into the ground, as otherwise the barrier would have been transformed into an ice bridge. Incidentally, in the 16th century, a real elephant used to live at the section of the moat furthest from here! It was a Gift from the Arabian king to Ivan the Terrible as a pledge of future Russian-Arabian friendship. Ivan, however, not only destroyed his fellow countrymen, the elephant also met a similar fate.