Derbent is the most ancient city in the Russian Federation. It is located in Dagestan, on the shores of the Caspian Sea. The exact date of the founding of the city is not known for certain, but historians suggest that its age is at least 5 thousand years. The main attraction of the village is Derbent Fortress. The photos presented in this publication allow you to see all the beauty and grandeur of the most ancient fortification.
The strategic purpose of the complex
The fortress in the vicinity of Derbent was erected to protect the peoples inhabiting the Near East and Transcaucasia from the destructive invasions of the northern nomads. It is a massive defensive complex, which included city, sea, mountain walls and Naryn-Kala (citadel). Ancient buildings were erected during the reign of the Sassanid dynasty. In their power, they were not inferior to the Great Wall of China.
The city was not in the best strategic position and was vulnerable from the Caucasus Mountains and the sea, so the local population paid special attention to strengthening it. The massive walls that surrounded the village from all sides became reliable protection from the invaders.
Theories of Origin Attractions
Historians have not been able to find out who built the Derbent fortress. There are a lot of legends about this. One legend says that the founders of the city and the fortress were the giants breathing fire, who inhabited these lands before the advent of mankind.
There is another version of the appearance of Derbent and the fortress around it. According to her, the founder of the ancient city was Alexander the Great. The great commander ordered to build an impregnable wall between the mountains and the sea, to crown it with towers and install iron gates in it, so that strangers could not penetrate here. Many historians consider this version of the emergence of a complex of fortifications a legend, since Alexander the Great never visited the described lands. But the very fact of the existence of various versions of the appearance of the defensive complex testifies to its significance in the life of southerners.
Naryn-Kala
Looking at photographs of the Derbent fortress, one can see that the center of the defensive structures was the huge Naryn-Kala citadel. Of all the parts of the complex, its stone walls are best preserved, which gives tourists the opportunity to admire this diva of ancient architecture in all its glory. Naryn-Kala extends along the city for 700 m. The thickness of its walls reaches 3.5 m in places, and its height is 20 m. The citadel rises on top of a 300-meter steep hill. The steep slopes reliably protected it from the invasion of enemies from the east and north. The southern part of the fortification is equipped with steps, and on its wide walls are sites that are used today by tourists to view the panorama of the city and the Caspian Sea.
Derbent fortress Naryn-Kala is a structure of irregular shape with an area of 4.5 hectares. Its walls are decorated with numerous tower-like ledges located at a distance of 25-35 m from one another. In the southwest corner rises a large tower connecting the citadel with the city wall.
Internal buildings
Inside the citadel, you can see the ancient khan baths with windows in the roofs and buildings that have survived to our time (they are in ruins). One of these structures was the cross-domed church of the 5th century, later converted to Muslim religious institutions. Also on the territory of the citadel was located the oldest mosque in Russia, Juma, founded in the VIII century. In ancient times there was a khan's palace, but today only ruins remained in its place, by which it is difficult to judge the beauty of this building.
Two stone water tanks located inside the citadel deserve special attention. They were built in the XI century by Byzantine craftsmen. Large capacities of water were placed in the tanks, which allowed the fortress to withstand the prolonged precipitation of the city by the invaders. The fluid entered the reservoirs from the springs through special ceramic and metal pipes. Thanks to this, the population of the city was provided with water even in the most difficult times and did not surrender to enemies. But the Derbent fortress was not always impregnable. The story contains information when the enemies managed to capture the city, poisoning the springs and leaving its defenders without water.
The citadel served not only as a defensive, but also as the administrative center of the city. It housed an office, a courtroom and an underground prison (zindan), from which it was impossible for the prisoner to get out. Its walls were inclined, and the offender, having been imprisoned, was forced to die of hunger. The prison is located behind the ruins of the Khan's palace.
Lovers of antiquity are happy to visit the museum, open on the territory of the citadel. It displays household items, ceramics, stone tools, precious jewelry, weapons, coins, etc. The age of some rarities amounts to several millennia.
A guardhouse built in 1828 rises on the central site (after Dagestan became part of Russia). In this building today are paintings that depict Derbent. Outside the guardhouse is decorated with anchors and guns of imperial times.
Other parts of defensive structures
The Derbent fortress, a photo of which all tourists seek to bring from Dagestan, attracts not only the citadel, but also its walls. Their length within the city is 3.6 km. The north and south walls were built parallel to each other. The distance between them ranges from 300 to 400 meters. Dag-bars (mountain wall) stretched for 40 km in the direction of the Caucasus Range. Unfortunately, she could not be preserved in its original form: in many places the structure collapsed. The sea wall blocked the entrance to the city from the Caspian. She plunged into its waters and stretched almost half a kilometer. Like Dag-bars, the sea wall has been preserved fragmentarily.
Goal
Within the walls of the fortification complex there were several small but very strong gates, through which in ancient times it was possible to get to Derbent. They not only defended the city, but also were its decoration. Gates opened for guests, allies and merchants. The entrances were located in different parts of the fortress. They still have elements of rich decor that can be used to judge how beautiful they were in antiquity. The doors looking north, from where hostile nomads might have come to Derbent, looked massive and intimidating. In contrast to them, the southern entrance to the city was smart and solemn. Today it is difficult to establish the exact number of gates, since not all of them have survived.
Names of the landmark in different languages
Derbent fortress at all times impressed travelers with its size and power. Foreigners gave her different names, but in almost all of them the word "gate" was present. This is not surprising, because in the walls of the fortress there were a large number of strong doors through which it was impossible to penetrate the enemies into Derbent. The ancient Greeks called the defensive structure the Caspian Gate, the Arabs - Bab al-Abva (Main), the Georgians - Dzgvis Kari (Sea), and the Turkish inhabitants - Temir Kapysy (Iron).
The hypothesis of a single defensive wall
Everyone who is interested in the history of Derbent and the Derbent Fortress will be interested to learn about the theory expressed by scientists at the beginning of the last century, according to which in ancient times in Eurasia there was a solid fortification line that divided the continent in half. Nomadic tribes lived in the north of it, and farmers in the south. Settled peoples suffered from the attacks of nomads and erected defensive walls to protect their lands. Historians mapped all the fortifications that existed at different times on the Eurasian continent, and were struck. The Abkhaz, Transcaucasian, Crimean, Derbent, Balkan walls, Roman ramparts, the Great Wall of China and other ancient fortifications, many of which have not survived to our days, formed an inextricable chain in the distant past. And although the theory expressed is not recognized as an official historical science, it makes us seriously think about the past of mankind.