Idea Svyatoslav on the Kozars … and the former battle, Svyatoslav defeated the Kozars and their city Belo Vezhu taking
These lines are taken from The Tale of Bygone Years. Before defeating Belaya Vezha, which the Khazars themselves called Sarkel, Svyatoslav established order among the Vyatichi and Volga Bulgars, took the capital of the Khazars, Itil, and then descended along the Caspian coast from the Volga delta to the south. There the city of Semender was waiting for him, which also suffered the fate of Itil. From the description given in the "Tale..", we can conclude that the area in which the Khazars lived was very, very extensive.
Almost all the peoples of Eurasia mention the Khazars - Arabs and Armenians, Turks and Georgians, Slavs and chroniclers of Byzantium. The latter noted that they had quite friendly relations with the Khazars: trade with Constantinople was mutually beneficial for both sides. "Ships come to us from their countries, and bring fish and leather, all kinds of goods … they are with us in friendship and we are revered … they have military strength and might, hordes and troops." Byzantine historians also mentioned the beauty of the capital, Itil, and the gorgeous gardens of Semender, and the reliable walls of the Belendzher fortress. It's a paradox, but, despite the abundance of information about the Khazars in different countries, they themselves left mere crumbs of information about themselves. Of course, archaeologists who conducted research on the Don, in the Caucasus, on the Volga - in a word, wherever this people was mentioned at least somehow - found both coins and burials,and other signs of Khazar life, but this is too little.
The correspondence between the Khazar king Joseph and the dignitary of the Cordoba caliphate Hasdai ibn Shafrut has been preserved. In his letters, Joseph tells about where and how he lives, what his subjects do. Among other things, the kagan says that "… near this river there are numerous peoples in villages and cities, some in open areas, and others in fortified cities … They all serve me and pay tribute", and also clarifies that the region in which they live his subordinates, spread over a four-month journey. Joseph notes that the location of his cities is very convenient in order not to let the Ismailites go to the Gate, and the Rusov to the side of Baghdad.
Indicates the king and the size of his cities. He writes that Itil (Volga) has three cities. In the first, located on the island, he lives, and his closest retinue (3x3 farsakhs), in the second - representatives of several peoples, artisans (8x8 farsakhs), and the third king indicates how to his homeland - the queen lives there (50x50 farsakhs). In these cities, Joseph and his subjects spent winters. Starting from the month of Nisan (March-April according to the Gregorian calendar), the princes were elected to their ancestral domains. The kagan claims that he, "… princes and slaves walk and move for 20 farsakhs of the way, until we reach a large river called V-d-shan, and from there we go around our country until we come to its end …". The fertile, fat land with an abundance of rivers gave birth to many orchards, vineyards and fields on which its inhabitants worked. The ruler was not too lazy to describe to his overseas acquaintance the size of his country: 20 Farsakhs to the east, to the G-r-gan Sea, 30 Farsakhs to the south, to the Ug-ru River, and 30 Farsakhs to the west to the Buzan River.
The doubts of historians who discovered Joseph's letter were quite understandable, but only until that time, until the response letters from Hasdai ibn Shafrut himself, who actually lived in the 10th century and served at the court of Caliph Abdrahman III, were not discovered. The dignitary even asked the Byzantine emperor for a ship to get to Itil, but Constantine Porphyrogenitus refused him.
From Joseph's letter it is very difficult to figure out how large his country was. The main confusion comes from the units of measurement. What is farce? What was he equal to? If you consider it the usual Persian measure of length, which indicated the distance of the caravan's passage to the parking lot, or the distance that a traveler on foot can cover in an hour. But if we take this farce as a basis, then it turns out to be sheer absurdity: the cities that Joseph described in his letter will be too large, and the country itself will be tiny. If it’s a waste of time to cover a certain distance, then the confusion only increases. If we try to transfer the information of the kagan to a modern map, then this does not bring much clarity: the Ug-ru can be either a sleeve of the Volga, or any other river, and what kind of river is Buzan? Suppose that both Ug-ru and Buzan are the arms of the Volga,but why then did Joseph and his retinue spin for so long inside such a small piece of land?
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Most likely, the clue lies in the volatile Caspian Sea - in the unstable water level that floods huge coastal areas, then recedes from them at a decent distance. Now this level is below the waters of the World Ocean by about 28 meters. But what was he like during the heyday of the Khazars? This can only be assumed.
Myths say that Jason with the Argonauts went from Colchis to the Caspian Sea. This means that we can assume that there was some kind of communication between the Caspian and Black seas. In addition, old maps show that the Caspian extended much further north than it does now, and even merges with the Baltic Sea. Another evidence is given by contemporaries of Alexander the Great: according to the statement of Aristobulus, the historian, and Patroclus, the navigator, the Amu Darya flowed into the Caspian Sea, and at the same time waterfalls were formed. But again, both the myth of Jason and the data of the contemporaries of the great commander touch the sea level 2-3 thousand years ago, and say nothing about the 6th-10th centuries, which are of interest to us.
The Khazars themselves do not say a word about this, but one can refer to the information of other peoples. The starting point may be the Gate that Joseph mentions in his letter. This is Derbent, and its famous wall, which blocked the way to the Caucasus. The description of a Moscow merchant, Kotov Fyodor, has survived: “Derben is a stone city, white, it used to be strong, but not crowded. And it stands with the end in the mountains, and the other end in the sea. And the mountains are more than three miles long. And they say that the sea took thirty towers from that city. And now the tower in the water is big and strong."
The chronicles of the Arabs claim that the wall appeared in the middle of the 6th century. The slabs for its construction were transported to the site with the help of rafts tied from inflated wineskins. When the raft arrived at the desired point, it was simply cut, and the load sank to the bottom. But Lev Gumilyov doubted this method, and conducted a series of studies. They showed that in the 6th century there was land at the site of the gate, which means that the level of the Caspian was much lower than today's level.
But time passed, and the sea regained its positions. By the 10th century, it had already taken 300 m of the Derbent wall, and continued the offensive: in 1304 it flooded the port of the Persians, Abiverd. The geographer Marina Sanuto notes that the sea "… comes from year to year, and many good cities are already flooded."
It was this fate that befell the Khazar Kaganate. While the Caspian was quietly splashing in shallow water, the Khazars firmly held their positions on many small channels, into which the Volga split. The channels were impassable for ships, and the kagan's warriors could well control this path. But as the water level rises, trouble comes in the form of Svyatoslav, who breaks the Khazars and takes their cities. However, it turned out to be pointless - the capricious Caspian Sea became the true winner, flooding the surrounding villages. Apparently, Khazaria is there even now - at the bottom of a fickle sea.
However, the country should have at least partially left its traces on land. Archaeologists have found only Belaya Vezha - Sarkel, destroyed by Svyatoslav. But there were no traces of the Khazars themselves - there were only mercenaries from the steppe who guarded the fortress. The islands of the Volga delta have preserved some burials and presented scientists with at least some clues, but the researchers have not found Itil, the capital of the kaganate, until now.
There were also very great disputes over Belenzher. This name was borne by the city in Northern Dagestan, and the river, and the wall. Its location is also variable - either four days' journey from Derbent to the east, or eight days to the north, or even to the south of Semender. Almost all theories were checked, only a defensive tower was found.
Usually, the territory inhabited by any particular people is calculated quickly. On it, during excavations, evidence of the life of this people is discovered, logical chains are built with regards to everyday life, customs, and existence itself in general. But the history and chronology of events are often incredibly confusing, and it takes a lot of effort and time to restore them. With the Khazars, it is exactly the opposite: their history can be easily traced thanks to detailed records made in neighboring countries, but the life, culture, even the exact habitat of this people remain a mystery. Since the 10th century, the sea begins to crowd out Khazaria from the south, and the peoples wandering in search of a better life from the north. The kaganate was defeated. Presumably by the XIII century, the "capital" part of its territory had already disappeared under the water column, turning into the second Atlantis.