On the embankment by the hills glisten lakes that are now called Behemotyky (Little Hippos), although two or three decades ago they had another name – Hlynyshcha (Clay Pits), because at one time there were pits here where the people of Vyshhorod took clay suitable for making bricks. After all, in the mid-19th century the entire shore along Vyshhorod was occupied by brickworks. Brickmaking was profitable at that time. Brickworks owners had to obtain a special permit for this production, so every brick of that time bears the stamp of the manufacturing plant. This building material was extremely popular with the magnates of the time who built apartment buildings in Kyiv in the 19th century. Besides ordinary building brick, produced in Vyshhorod and the village of Novi Petrivtsi, there was huge demand for the so-called mezhyhirka – a refractory brick used to build stoves. It was small in size, and it was the only type of brick whose production required no permit.
Today, apart from the Behemotyky, no visible traces of brick production can be found on the Kyiv Reservoir embankment. And the Behemotyky have become one of the tourist calling cards of Vyshhorod, because where else will you see a lake in the shape of a heart?
