Cities of Khazaria. Kromos Estatium
======================
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.
=======================
Sarkel Right-bank on the Don **
It is believed that the right-bank settlement on the Don was the predecessor of Sarkel with a similar name, which reflected the essence of the city, which consisted in controlling the crossing of the Don. The construction of its first fortifications dates back to the beginning of the 8th century.
It was one of the three main cities that stood on the right bank of the Don. In the first quarter of the 9th century, the fortress was attacked by khazars from another noble clan, when the owner of the fortress, a major khazar nobleman who owned the right-bank city, dared to resist the appearance of the Tsar's headquarters on the left bank with a fortress, which would take away most of the revenue from transportation across the Don and across the Volga river.
Apparently, there were no defenders in the city, for some time it was left without protection, someone in the fortress gave a sign to the steppe people, who captured it. Among the attackers were the pechenegs, Rus and magyars, who had not yet formed into the khanates, who at the beginning of the 9th century were already in the Don steppes.
Women, old people and children tried to hide in their yurts, but the attackers started setting them on fire. In other places, citizens of the city were killed en masse, so that they did not even have time to run away.
After a while, the defenders of the Fortress returned, but did not bury the dead, but simply covered them with earth and stones.
The fact that the Right-bank city was subjected to a show flogging is confirmed by the fact that at that time there was a small but well-equipped khazar settlement very close to it, where it was easy to profit from the loot. However, the magyars with the pechenegs and Rus passed by without touching it.
Apparently, not only the Ruler of the right-bank city opposed the Central government. Other khazar princes participated in the uprising, which made the right bank nobility feel confident and did not bother to protect their city, going almost all the male population to hunt.
=====================
After a brutal demonstration of the destruction of the population of the right-bank Sarkel, its Owner bowed his head before the King and joined his retinue. After pacifying the troublemakers, the Kagan and the King were able to seek help from Byzantium, which sent its important official Petronas, under whose supervision a new fortress was built on the left bank, the Kagan named it Sarkel, apparently not without a hint from the King of the jewish faith, who knew that among the jews the word «sar» means a King, by the way, the byzantine greeks also knew this position.
According to another version, the name Sarkel comes from the words «white» and « stone». This name was transferred to the new fortress on the opposite, left bank of the Don.
Historians believe that the destruction of the Right-bank Sarkel and the brutal massacre of its civilians, and then the subsequent construction of the Left-bank Sarkel, were the two final chords in the establishment of new rules by King Obadiah and his brother Hanukkah.
It is also important to note that the Khazarian King Obadiah, allowing the greeks from Byzantium to be present on the Don under the guise of builders of Sarkel, did not give them the opportunity to build a Christian Temple, although the Emperor Theophanes counted on this, apparently paying for the presence of his diplomatic mission so much money that they were enough to build the largest fortress in the history of the Don on the left bank.
In the first third of the 9th century, the center of the Khaganate of Rus was far from the lower reaches of the Don, so it could not take an operational military participation in this part of the military strategy, although there were many artisans of russian-slavic origin.
After the destruction of the Right-bank fortress built against the pechenegs, the western enemies of the khazars, the Khagan, with the help of Byzantium, builds the Left-bank fortress of Sarkel, which was commissioned in 839.
Khazaria was pushed to an alliance with Byzantium by Rus, which at that time demonstrated increasing activity on the coast of the Azov and Black sea.
=======================
The fortress with many lands around it belonged to the Khaganate, which also took payment for crossing to the left bank of the Don.
The Right-bank Fortress was built on a low promontory of the native bank of the Don, in its very bend. The cape had an area of up to 10 hectares. The fortress was small but strong, it was located at the very tip of the cape, which was an area of three hectares and was cut by ravines.
The Right-bank fortress is distinguished by its complex layout, that is not found anywhere else in the Khaganate. There were eight towers within the walls of the fortress, and the fortress itself and its city were divided into three sectors that were difficult to penetrate. The fortress and its walls were built of rectangular blocks of white limestone.
All approaches to the fortress were covered with large angular rubble, which made it impossible to get to the walls on horses. In quiet times, the residents themselves laid plank decks in the places where they left the fortress.
The architectural system of the fortress and the settlement under him belonged to the saltov-mayatsk culture in its lower don version and dates back to the architecture of the Sassanid rule in Transcaucasia.
The fortress plan was triangular, in accordance with the configuration of the area. High observation and battle towers completed the corners of the walls. The walls of the fortress were paved with rubble and lined with hewn blocks of white limestone on the outside. The thickness of the blocks in some places reached 4 meters. Some of the white limestone stones were later moved to the Left bank fortress.
The stones of the fortress were fitted to each other very carefully with high skill, here you can feel the masonic hand. In terms of its architectural level, this fortress significantly surpassed all the stone structures known to the saltov culture.
The dwellings were of a light type, resembling yurts in construction, sunk into the ground and arranged in circles around a larger yurt, apparently the head of the family. All these circular neighborhoods were located inside the fortress walls. The hearth stove was built in the middle of the dwelling and was made of calcareous stones.
Within the fortress there were also dwellings made entirely of stone with a tiled roof and a floor made from baked clay tiles. These were dwellings or social structures of the merchant nobility.
Craft in the Right-bank city was common for the saltov culture. The pottery produced here is found on the Semikarakor settlement in the lower reaches of the Sala river. Here the fortress was built using the technology of the Right-bank city, but made of mud bricks.
After the death of the population of the Right-bank Sarkel, there were several attempts to restore it. At the same time, the Left-bank city was already built and functioning, and some of its products, things and objects appear on the Right-bank Sarkel.
++++++++++++++++++++++