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Semikarakorsk Fortress (russian: Семикаракорская крепость) was an early medieval
Semikarakorsk Fortress (russian: Семикаракорская крепость) was an early medieval Khazar
The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...
fortification situated near the city of Semikarakorsk
Semikarakorsk (russian: Семикарако́рск) is a town and the administrative center of Semikarakorsky District in Rostov Oblast, Russia, located on the left bank of the Don River, northeast of Rostov-on-Don, the administrative center of ...
(Rostov Oblast
Rostov Oblast ( rus, Росто́вская о́бласть, r=Rostovskaya oblast, p=rɐˈstofskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located in the Southern Federal District. The oblast has an area of and a populat ...
, Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...
).
History and description
An early medieval Khazar fortress in Rostov Oblast near the city of Semikarakorsk was built in the late 8th - early 9th century. It was situated on the island hill near Semikarakorsk. The island itself is located at the Sal River. The fortress was a residence of KhazarKhagan
Khagan or Qaghan (Mongolian:; or ''Khagan''; otk, 𐰴𐰍𐰣 ), or , tr, Kağan or ; ug, قاغان, Qaghan, Mongolian Script: ; or ; fa, خاقان ''Khāqān'', alternatively spelled Kağan, Kagan, Khaghan, Kaghan, Khakan, Khakhan ...
s on the Lower Don, and it was four times larger than the -- a well-known fortress of the same period.
In 1971-1974, archaeological excavations were carried out at the area. It was discovered that the fortress was built according to the "square in square" system, had a wall sized 215 x 200 m and a citadel inside of it measuring 85 x 80 meters. The fortified city also was of great commercial importance.
The fortress and citadel with a total length of six-meter walls almost a kilometer in length was a prominent achievement of the Khazar Khaganate
The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...
. The walls of the fortress and the citadel were constructed of about 2 million pieces of bricks.
Raw brick of high quality was used as a building material. The dimensions of the bricks were 25 x 25 x 5 cm. The fortress walls have been preserved to the height of up to one meter, and the main tower, the donjon
A keep (from the Middle English ''kype'') is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in ...
- up to a two-meter height. With the wall thickness of about 2 meters, the maximum height of the walls could reach 5–6 meters. Archaeologists first assumed that the houses inside the fortress were also built of raw brick, but later it turned out that there were houses of burned bricks. Because of this, it is assumed that the fortress was intended to be a residence for the Khagans: since only they lived in brick houses.
In 2011, archaeologists under the leadership of Irina Arzhantseva from the Institute of Anthropology and Ethnography
The Institute of Anthropology and Ethnography or N.N. Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology (russian: Институт этнологии и антропологии им. Н.Н. Миклухо-Маклая; abbreviated as ИЭА ...
of the Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...
began studying the site of the fortress.
See also
* Golden Hills (Russia)References
{{reflist History of Rostov Oblast Archaeological sites in Russia Saltovo-Mayaki culture