Ukek or Uvek ( tt-Latn, Ükäk, russian: Увек) was a city of the

Golden Horde The Golden Horde, self-designated as Ulug Ulus, 'Great State' in Turkic, was originally a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century and originating as the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. With the fragmenta ...

, situated on the banks of the

Volga River The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchm ...

, at the ''Uvekovka'' estuary. Ukek marked the half-way distance between Sarai, the capital of the Golden Horde, and

Bolghar Bolghar ( tt-Cyrl, Болгар, cv, Пăлхар) was intermittently the capital of Volga Bulgaria from the 8th to the 15th centuries, along with Bilyar and Nur-Suvar. It was situated on the bank of the Volga River, about 30 km downstream ...

, the former capital of

Volga Bulgaria Volga Bulgaria or Volga–Kama Bulgaria, was a historic Bulgar state that existed between the 7th and 13th centuries around the confluence of the Volga and Kama River, in what is now European Russia. Volga Bulgaria was a multi-ethnic state wi ...

. Ukek was probably established in the 1240s, and it became an important trade center by the early 14th century.

Ibn Battuta Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Battutah (, ; 24 February 13041368/1369),; fully: ; Arabic: commonly known as Ibn Battuta, was a Berber Maghrebi scholar and explorer who travelled extensively in the lands of Afro-Eurasia, largely in the Muslim wo ...

stopped here, and called it "a city of middling size, with fine buildings and abundant commodities, and extremely cold." Several medieval chroniclers make reference to Ukek. It is also marked on some contemporary maps, including the 1367 map by Dominico & Francisco Pizzigani and the 1459 map by

Fra Mauro Fra Mauro, O.S.B. Cam., (c.1400–1464) was a Venetian cartographer who lived in the Republic of Venice. He created the most detailed and accurate map of the world up until that time, the Fra Mauro map. Mauro was a monk of the Camaldolese ...

Timur Timur ; chg, ''Aqsaq Temür'', 'Timur the Lame') or as ''Sahib-i-Qiran'' ( 'Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction'), his epithet. ( chg, ''Temür'', 'Iron'; 9 April 133617–19 February 1405), later Timūr Gurkānī ( chg, ''Temür Kür ...

's troops sacked the city in 1395. Its ruins are at about 10 km downstream of the modern city of

Saratov Saratov (, ; rus, Сара́тов, a=Ru-Saratov.ogg, p=sɐˈratəf) is the largest city and administrative center of Saratov Oblast, Russia, and a major port on the Volga River upstream (north) of Volgograd. Saratov had a population of 901,3 ...

. A village situated next to the ruins still has the name Uvek (Увек). The ruins of Ukek were described by

Anthony Jenkinson Anthony Jenkinson (1529 – 1610/1611) was born at Market Harborough, Leicestershire. He was one of the first Englishmen to explore Muscovy and present-day Russia. Jenkinson was a traveller and explorer on behalf of the Muscovy Company a ...

in 1558. In 2014 archaeologists associated with the Saratov museum unearthed what they believed to be the remains of two Christian temples, along with artefacts identified as being imported from Rome, Egypt, Iran and China, indicating the wealth of the city.

Literature

*Christian Martin Joachim Frähn: ''Über die ehemalige mongolische Stadt Ukek im Süden von Saratow und einen dort unlängst gemachten Fund'', Sankt Petersburg, Buchdruckerei der Kaiserlichen Akademie, 1835 *Leonard F. Nedashkovsky: ''Ukek : the Golden Horde city and its periphery'', Oxford, 2004 Germany tried to reach Ukek in 1942. The Whites fought the Reds in Ukek in 1919–1920.

References

History of Tatarstan Geography of Saratov Oblast Defunct towns in Russia Destroyed cities Populated places on the Volga Golden Horde Former populated places in Russia Cultural heritage monuments in Saratov Oblast Objects of cultural heritage of Russia of federal significance {{Russia-hist-stub