Ahaz on the Sala river

Cities of Khazaria. Kromos Estatium
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     The khazar cities here include not only those cities that were built by the khazar architects, but also those that were built before the arrival of the khazars, were used by the khazars for their needs and tasks for a long time.
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Ahaz on the Sala river **
     Also Ak-az. As-kala among alans.
     This city is often identified with the Zolotov settlement on Kurkin island on the Don, at the place where the Seversky Donets flows into it. The city was part of a system of fortresses, subject to khazar Voivodeship, located in Semikarakorsk.
     In the lists of cities of the Moscow Kingdom, the city was not reported, since it did not belong to the Moscow Principality.
     According to historical materials, it was a city whose main population was alans, but the city belonged to the khazars.
     Ahaz fortress was built at the end of the 7th century after the birth of Christ on the site of an ancient alano-slavic settlement of the 6th century, which, in turn, was located in its turn in place of sarmatian era of the Beginning of the Centuries.
     Not far from Ahaz was the Great Crossing at the crossroads of the river and land trade routes, which in khazar times and earlier went to the caravans of the Great Silk Road.
     Here passed the river caravan route. Ships docked at the walls of the city, and upstream there is also a pier, next to which was the Bab ferry, the most convenient in khazar times. Local rumor remembers oak piles sometimes washed out from under the bank of the Don in this place, which indicates an attempt to build a bridge over the Don.
     The fortress served as a defense of the borders of Khazaria from the water borders. Here, for the khazars, the main danger in the 9th century was the Novgorod ushkuiniks, who somehow made their way to these regions on their combat boats.
     The first chronicler to mention Ahaz is Baron Herberstein, who was on the Don in the early 16th century as a diplomat from the Holy Roman Empire. When he visited these places, the city of Ahaz was no longer there.
     Herberstein pointed out that it took three days from Azov to the mouth of the Donets river, which is 105 kilometers, and four days to Ahaz, which is 140 kilometers. He also noted that, according to local tradition, Ahaz was provided with all natural resources except salt. This city qualification has become a local saying.
     The coordinates indicated by the Baron correspond quite accurately to the island on the Don river in the yurt of Zolotov stanitsa, where there is a vast settlement with very noticeable signs of stone and brick walls, ruins of towers, burial mounds. The non-flooded part of the island is 100 hectares. Now this place is called «Sadki». There are mounds scattered everywhere, a lot of ancient ceramics mixed with the ground, hewn stone, remains of mud bricks.
     In 1395, Tamerlane destroyed the city of Azov, and Ahaz defended not far, Tamerlane could not leave behind a formidable fortress, for sure, he attacked it. In the future, there is not a word about Ahaz in the documents of the Moscow Princes.
     Eastern geographers write about the ancient trading and rich city of Ahaz on the Tanais river, which stood for 2 centuries after the invasion of Tamerlane.
     Karamzin claimed that the cossack city of Cherkessk is located on the site of Ahaz.
     Mercator in his map of the world for 1595 indicates the city of Ahaz. The reliability of its data confirms the presence of the city of Sarkel on this Atlas, as well as the Veliky Perevoz.
     According to some assumptions, Ahaz can be associated with a settlement at the mouth of the Temernik river.
     According to another version, it can be identified with a settlement near the mouth of the Don.
     On the site of the Kobyak settlement near the village of Aksay was the alanian city of As-Kala, the name of which Herberstein could hear as Ahaz.
     The most likely location of Ahaz is still considered to be the fortress of the Zolotov settlement. It stood on the high bank of the Don. There are remnants of a stone wall of lime masonry with towers at five corners and in the gaps where there were gates. On the opposite bank of the Don there is a quarry where stone was extracted for the fortress.
     People here were engaged in the manufacture of stucco ceramics of various kinds, there were bone cutters, stone cutters. There were gunsmiths who riveted military weapons and ammunition, and the people of the town were also engaged in the manufacture of tools for fishing.
     There is another settlement that may match the descriptions of Baron Herberstein. This is the Ust-Sala settlement on the right bank of the Sala river on a small flat hill at the confluence of the river with the Don.
     The fortress of the city here in the plan was pentagonal with ramparts, on top of which were walls of mud brick. In the middle of the fortress was a brick castle and a well. Behind the rampart to the north was a fortification. It looks like there was a bridge, and there are hewn stones in the water.
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Cities of Khazaria. Kromos