Atil

From Freepedia

Atil, also spelled Itil (Turkic for "Big River"), was a name of the Volga River and of the capital of Khazaria from the middle of the 8th century until towards the end of the 10th century. As the name of the river Volga, the word Itil is used in various forms by nearly all Turkic-speaking peoples.

Atil was located along the Atil (Volga) delta at the northwestern corner of the Caspian Sea. The town was an administrative center with a court house and royal palace. Atil was inhabited by Jews, Christians, Shamanists, and pagans and included many public baths and shops. It was joined by a pontoon bridge to an adjacent Muslim-dominated commercial city named Khazaran. In Muslim sources Atil is sometimes referred to as "Khamlij".

Atil was destroyed by Svyatoslav I of Kiev around the year 969 CE. Ibn Hawqal and al-Muqaddasi refer to Atil after 969, indicating that it may have been rebuilt. Al-Biruni (mid-1000s) reported that Atil was again in ruins, and did not mention the later city of Saqsin which was built nearby, so it is possible that this new Atil was only destroyed in the middle of the eleventh century. Even assuming al-Biruni's report was not an anachronism, there is no evidence that this "new" Atil was populated by Khazars rather than by Pechenegs or a different tribe.

The remains of Atil have never been found, and there is good reason to believe that the site in the Volga delta has been engulfed by the Caspian Sea.