Teng-Kala

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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Teng-Kala **
     Also Gangkala.
     This well-fortified settlement at farm As-Aul in Dagestan, historians and archaeologists call both the city and the fortress of the Khazar Khaganate, which was finally completed in the 8th century.
     It is fair to note that the first settlement with elements of fortification around city appears here during the reign of the persian Shahinshahs of the Yazdigerd dynasty from the beginning of the 5th century after the birth of Christ. This city appears in order to protect their influence on the Caspian trade routes of the Great Silk Road through Derbent and further towards Eastern Europe.
     This mega-project was directed against the increased pressure on this historically persian territory from the huns, ruled by the hunnic Kings, and then against the turks with their Western Turkic Khaganate.
     In the first third of the 6th century, Kavad finished the construction of walls and fortresses along the Great Silk Road along the Caspian sea. According to persian writers, it took him exactly a year to visit each fortress, which turned out to be exactly 360, in each of which he stopped once to spend the night.
     At the end of the 7th century, the fortress was taken over by the khazars, led by their Khagans, and savirian-bulgars live here, who harmoniously fit into the local socio-culture, which has a thousand-year history.
     The khazars did not destroy the system of fortresses that had developed under the sarmatians, the last aryans who came here in the 4th century before Christ, and became the ethnic basis for the spread of the power of the persian Kings, their blood relatives. All this was inherited by them and adapted to their new strategic tasks in the North Caucasus. Having concluded an eternal alliance with Byzantium, Khazaria begins to attract the autochthonous tribes of the Kumyk platform to its annual trade and military campaigns in Transcaucasia and the Crimea, which was not the case under the persians.
     Now the military garrisons of fortresses are formed mainly from the local population, to whom the khazar fortresses were rented out. The khazars needed not so much the income from passing caravans here, but the possibility of using the Kumyk tract for military and strategic purposes.
     The participation of local tribes in the khazar armies during the campaigns in Transcaucasia, as well as in the Azov and Crimea, enriched the culture of the tribes and peoples of the Terek-Sulak interfluve. Gradually, in the depths of the Khazar state on this territory, new ethnic socio-cults are formed, which existed until the 21st century..
     There is a military garrison in the fortress, which is recruited from local soldiers, and weapons workshops are organized at the fortress, which provide soldiers with weapons and other military ammunition, which was not the case with the persians, who distanced themselves from the local population.
     The city was relatively small, only 1 hectare, relative to others in the region. It was surrounded by ramparts up to 4 meters high, on top of which were walls of glinobit and mud brick. The walls were of a conical type, with a slight slope inwards, the width of the walls at the base reached 25 meters, and the top width was 5 meters.
     The khazars, with their cities on the Caspian slopes, also formed a merchant class, the most literate basis of which was the jews. The jews had a written language, they sent letters with caravans to their addressees in the Crimea, Byzantium, China, Persia, Kiev, Europe, in which they reported on the prospects of trade in the territory of their presence. They received letters back with information about what and where they could sell and buy.
     Under the city of Teng-Kala, a system was created to provide the garrison in the fortress with everything necessary for service, military weapons, uniforms, which can be called a military-industrial complex, which was also used for civilian production, since this was required to provide trade caravans, as well as for effective work in agriculture and cattle breeding, which also included horse breeding.
     In the 10th century, after the destruction of the Khazarus state, the fortress was deserted. posad artisans gradually dispersed to the surrounding towns and villages.
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