Batu Khan establishes Sarai on the Volga

1242

Returning from his European campaign, the grandson of Genghis chose a site on the lower Volga and founded the city of Sarai as capital of the Golden Horde. From its felt tents and mudbrick markets, Mongol officials would collect tribute from Russian princes for the next two centuries. At its peak Sarai housed over half a million people, a polyglot metropolis of Turkic warriors, Russian artisans, and Italian merchants.