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Alevizov moat was a fortification ditch that existed from 1508 to 1814 on the territory of Red Square in Moscow. The canal ran along the walls of the Kremlin from the Corner Arsenal to the Beklemishevskaya Tower and connected Neglinnaya with the Moscow River. It was named after the architect Aleviz Fryazin (New), who led the construction of the structure.
According to the testimonies of foreign travelers, in the second half of the XVI - early XVII century, part of the Alevizova ditch between the Nikolsky and Spassky gates was drained. This indicates the loss of the defensive value of the structure.
The empty channel was used for various purposes. Thus, during the reign of Ivan the Terrible (ruled from 1547 to 1584), the site near the Nikolsky and Spassky Gates was converted into a menagerie, where a lion and a lioness were placed. The animals were presented to the Russian tsar by the English Queen Mary I Tudor, but they died in 1571 during a fire after the Khan raid. According to other reports, the lioness died of hunger during the siege of the fortress.
German oprichnik Heinrich von Staden reported that some time in the canal also lived elephants who came from Arabia as a gift from Shah Tahmasp.
According to legend, when meeting unusual animals, Ivan the Terrible learned about their ability to kneel and demanded that they pay respect to him in this way. When one of the elephants could not be forced to perform this trick, the king allegedly ordered the slaughter of the rebellious beast. However, according to another version, the animals were exhausted by a long journey and in autumn one of them died from pneumonia. For the remaining elephant, a log extension was arranged next to the lion's enclosure. In winter, the structure was heated, the animal was covered with a thick felt blanket and shoeed in special boots. He was also drunk with wine diluted with hot water. However, when a plague broke out in the city a few years later, Muscovites accused the overseas beast and the driver of spreading the infection: This Arab was slandered and agreed by the Russians to mix with his elephant, that the plague, which in Moscow and did not think, came from him and his elephant. Then the Arab and his elephant were exiled in disgrace to the Gorodetskaya. The Arab died there, and the Grand Duke sent a nobleman with a decree to kill the elephant. The elephant usually stood in the barn, and around the barn was a tyn. An Arab was buried near him. Then the elephant broke through the thorn and lay down on the grave. There he was finished, his fangs were knocked out and delivered to the Grand Duke as proof that the elephant had indeed stunned.