Derbent Wall in Derbent: description with photo

Among the city museums in Russia Derbent is distinguished by an authentic eastern color, internal power and a multi-thousand-year history. The external appearance of the "pearl" of Dagestan is characterized by grandiose defensive structures dating back to that time when it was a mighty fortress that blocked the passage along the Caspian coast. The multi-kilometer double Derbent wall, fortified by the fortress of Naryn-Kala, blocked the way to the "barbarians" of the north who sought the rich south.

From the height of the mountains

From the height of the Dzhalgan Range, Derbent seems a narrow white ribbon stretching between the blue wall of the sea and the green crest of the mountains. Starting at the sea a fairly wide band of buildings and gardens, the city, gradually climbing the mountain, shrinks into clear frames of parallel walls and rests on a steep ascent of one of the spurs of the Jalgan Ridge.

Here, on a cliff near the mouth of a deep gorge sloping up the mountain, the gray walls of the citadel dominate the flat roofs and a network of crooked lanes located beneath the ancient city. Especially majestic is the Derbent wall in Derbent, the photo of which strikes the scale of the construction of architects of antiquity.

World Heritage

Fortified here fifteen thousand years ago, Sassanid Iran and then the Arab Caliphate not only stood the onslaught of powerful associations of steppe nomads, but also spread their power and influence to the entire eastern Caucasus. Surprisingly, the Derbent Wall is a double wall of the Sassanid times - survived dozens of wars, partially preserved.

Archaeological research shows that in such an important strategic location, regular settlements existed even 6000 years ago. This fact allows Derbent to be considered the oldest Russian city and one of the oldest in the world. 2003 was a landmark for the city: UNESCO specialists recognized the citadel as a World Cultural Heritage site, as one of the best preserved monuments of the fortification architecture of the ancient Persians.

Location:

Ancient Derbent was all placed between two long walls, stretching in parallel, not far from each other, across the passage between the sea and the mountains. One of the long defensive walls of Derbent, the northern one, survived almost throughout its entire length and still forms the northern boundary of the city.

The southern Derbent Wall, parallel to the first, has been preserved only along the upper or western part of the city and small plots in other places. Destruction of it began after the Russian conquest, when the growing lower part of the city of the European type, not containing in the ancient borders, began to expand to the south. The best preserved citadel, not built up by modern buildings.

Sea station

The ancient travelers were particularly struck by the sections of walls that had left for the Caspian and disappeared in the sea depths. Historian Lev Gumilev was one of the first to study this phenomenon and found that the reason for this is significant fluctuations in the level of the Caspian Sea. In ancient times Derbent wall in Derbent sheltered from the land port, now flooded.

Today, from the walls that protruded into the sea, there were only ridges of stones, traced on the seabed. Correctly laid hewn blocks are clearly visible under the water with a calm sea surface.

Description

The name of the Naryn-Kala defensive complex (citadel and derbent wall) means "narrow gate". Indeed, here the Caucasian mountains most closely approach the Caspian Sea, forming a narrow "neck", the movement through which is easy to control. The length of the structure is about 1300 m within the city limits. The mountain part of the wall, like the Great Chinese, stretches into the Caucasus for 42 km.

The thickness of the surviving walls of Derbent reaches 4 m, and the height in some places reaches 18-20 m. On some sections of the walls there is a notched parapet. Throughout its entire length, the walls are separated by more or less often located tower protrusions of a rectangular or semi-circular shape, sometimes, and in the citadel permanently, continuous masonry. In the most important defensive places, the tower protrusions expand to the size of forts. On the inside, wide staircases led to the walls, along which the garrison rose to repel enemies.

North Gate

The most decorative part of derbent constructions is the gate. According to Arab writers in ancient Derbent, in the northern, Khazar, most militarily threatened, wall, there were only three gates. They have survived to the present day. One of them is a gate not far from the citadel. The road from them leads to a deep ravine, enveloping the fortress from the north-west. They are called Dzharchi-kapy - gate of the messenger.

Very interesting in their decorative design are the Kırkhlar Gate - the Kırkhlar-kapı, named after the ancient cemetery near them, which according to legend contains the graves of the first Muslims in these parts of the world. On the sides of the gate span outside, there is a capital and two sculptural images of lions. The third gate, the Shurinskys, is apparently shifted in the later period. In fact, the northern Derbent Wall means the border between the nomadic north and the agricultural south at that time.

South Gate

In the southern wall facing the Muslim countries, according to Arab writers, there were many gates. Despite the insignificant extent of the preserved part of this wall, four gates survived here. Some at the citadel at the top - the Kala-kapa - are now completely destroyed, others - Bayat-kapy, located near the ascent to the citadel - although flanked by ancient round towers, but are themselves greatly rebuilt.

The third gate of the southern wall is the Orta-kapa, located between the quadrangular towers and consisting of two successive spans. The first span outside is decorated in the form of three pointed arches separated by two round columns with quadrangular low capitals decorated with stalactites. Here the Derbent wall is decorated with lateral small arches, above which are placed stalactites - decorative arcades, arranged in three rows in the form of a stepped triangle.

The second span of a completely different type, rectangular, covered with a horizontal flat vault, resting on profiled cornices. Above this arch there is a high arc unloading arch with a dead lunette. A sculptural image of a lion standing on the facade on a special bracket and executed (as well as the sculptures of the Kırkhlar Gate) is very highly generalized and schematic.

From the fourth gate of the southern steppe, located in the lower town and called Dubara-kapa, two massive pylons with traces of an arch between them survived. In addition, there are two gates in the citadel: the eastern ones, which are in a rectangular tower and bearing traces of numerous alterations, and the western flanked by two towers.

Other attractions

The Derbent Wall and the citadel are not the only antiquities of the city. In the fortress there are ruins of numerous buildings for various purposes. Especially interesting are:

• The colossal tank here, carved into a rock and covered with a dome on four arched lancet arches.
• Curious are the ruins of bathhouses, where even before 1936 one of the domes of the same type as the above mentioned tank was intact.
• On both long sides of Derbent there are extensive cemeteries with a whole forest of stone gravestones.

The city also has a number of ancient buildings, mosques, fountains, ponds, minarets. The most remarkable and grandiose structure is the cathedral mosque, the green dome of which rises above the flat roofs of the upper part of present-day Derbent together with the mighty crowns of century-old plane trees growing in the courtyard of the mosque.