History of the Tower Complex, located on one of the branches of the Great Silk Way, goes back to medieval Alania.
The Tower Complex stone walls remember military incursions of the Alanian era after the Turco-Mongol attack, the Caucasian War and many other battles down to the Great Patriotic War.
History of the Tsallagov’s Tower Complex
The Republic of North Ossetia-Alania is a mountain part of historical territories of the Alanian state. It is situated in the center of the Caucasus Mountain Range, and has been controlling the branches of the Great Silk Way, that connected Eastern Asia and Europe with caravans, for thousands of years. The first references to the Alans are found in Chinese written sources dating back to the 1st century: warlike tribes living in the Cis-Azov Region and Ciscaucasia. References to the Alans in Europe preserved since the 3rd century, and even now, dozens of European cities have Alanian names.
In 916, Alania was baptized, and in 991, the Rus was baptized by Prince Vladimir. The important part in the history of christening was played by Maria Yasynia, the Alanian princess, the spouse of Prince Vsevolod of Vladimir and the grandmother of Prince Vladimir.
In 1222, led by Genghis Khan, Turco-Mongols undertook a large-scale march on the Rus and to western lands of the medieval Alania. Destiny of the Alanian state was determined by internal strife in the ruling elite, and the deceitful scheme of neighboring people with the Turco-Mongols on the basis of different faith deprived them of the closest allies, and opened possibilities for the attack.
Consequently, Alanian plains were taken within the next few years, and the Alanians were driven to rocky Caucasian mountains, where they were forced to hold the line for the next few centuries. The landslide victory over the mountain part of Alania was won only by Tamerlan (Timur the Lame), a grandson of Genghis Khan, due to his excellent military strategic vision.
Few high mountain castles managed to hold the line, and the Alanian lands became desolate for centuries, being overtaxed with tax levies from the side of Kabardian princes, viceroys of Turco-Mongols.
One of grandsons of the last Alanian king, Os-Bagatar, from Sydamont’s generation, who lived in Zilakhar, was Samsyko, the father of Tsallag, Daur and Suan, who did not come back from battlefields. The mother had to raise her children on her own, while paying monstrous taxes, just in time when the prince’s viceroys arrived to take her last cows and a horse, thus foredooming the family to hunger. The elder son, Tsallag, who was 17 years old by that time, saw his mother’s tears, drew a dagger and killed the prince’s representatives.
Understand the inevitable pursue, they escaped through the “White Mountain” ridge. The mother took the younger brother, Suan, who was 6 years old, and went to a father’s house in the upper part of the Mamison Gorge. The middle brother, Daur, 11 years old, was left at his father’s friends in the Tagaur Gorge, close to the village of Dargavs. Tsallag himself addressed the Baskayev who gave him shelter in the rock fortress of the “White Mountain”, where he spent the next 10 years, only going out at night for hunting. Years were passing by, no persecutors were seen, and the Baskayev decided to arrange Tsallag’s marriage, allocated a land lot close to the forest to him, and helped to pay ransom for the Zembatov’s daughter. Thus, blood of the Zembatov’s flows in veins of each representative of the Tsallagov’s family, consequently, marriages between these families are still restricted under the laws of Ossetia-Alania. They had five sons, from whom, the entire family enhanced further. The need to enhance their lands made them buy out and take charge of the most vulnerable rea of the road that has been used by merchants’ caravans and enemy conquerors for ages.
The condition to build a tower was the same for everyone, and it was crucial for Tsallag’s family, because the condition of construction was an allocated term of 1 year. Then, Tsallag sent sons to his brothers, Daur and Suan, who by that time have also started families and settled in their gorges. The brothers called forth, having come to Tsallag already with their own sons. By joining forces, the construction was completed in time, and it appeared in the course of work that the persecutors of the brother found sanctuary in a forest by the village of Lamardon, where Daur’s sons closed the longstanding issue forever.
The first archive references to the Tsallagov’s Tower Complex date back to the early 15th century. Since that, history has known many events that occurred in these lands. You will learn all this, and even more, from tower walls and people who have lived here for ages and who pass the memory of their ancestors down through generations. Today, we work at preservation of our history, and care about the things that will be written after us…