Maghas

Maghas or Maas — more properly, Mags or Maks — was the capital city of Alania,[1] a medieval kingdom in the Greater Caucasus. It is known from Islamic and Chinese sources, but its location is uncertain, with some authors favouring North Ossetia and others pointing to Arkhyz in modern-day Karachay–Cherkessia, where three 10th-century churches still stand.

Maghas was capital of medieval Alania (9th–12th century)
Political map of the Caucasus region in 1060

Historian John Latham Sprinkle from the University of Ghent (Belgium) identified Maghas with an archeological site known as Il’ichevskoye Gorodische in Otradnensky District, Krasnodar Krai.[2]

The destruction of Maghas is ascribed to Batu Khan, a Mongol leader and a grandson of Genghis Khan, in the beginning of 1239. Some Russian geographers, like D. V. Zayats, point to a location in Ingushetia.

The capital of the Russian Republic of Ingushetia, Magas, is named after Maghas.[3]

References
  1. The Jews of Khazaria by Kevin Alan Brook
  2. Verstraete, Alexander. "Location metropolis Magas from the Middle Ages after 200 years of searching deciphered: "Everyone was looking in the wrong place"". vrt.be/vrtnws. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  3. D.V.Zayats (2001). "Maghas – "The Sun City" – New Capital of Ingushetia". Archived from the original on 2 May 2013.


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