in the 1930's.]] Sarkel (literally, "White Tower" or "White Fortress")See, e.g., Brook, passim; Dunlop, "Sarkel", passim. was a large limestone-and-brick fortress built by the Khazars with Byzantine assistance in the 830s. Sarkel was located on the left bank of the lower Don River, in present-day Rostov Oblast of Russia. Construction Sarkel was built to protect the north-western border of the Khazar state in 833, when the Khazars asked their ally, Byzantine emperor Theophilus, for engineers to build them a fortified capital, and Theophilus sent his chief engineer Petronas. In recompense for these services, the Khazar khagan ceded Chersonesos and some other Crimean dependencies to Byzantium. Historians have been unable to determine why such a strong fortress was built on the Don. It is usually asserted that its costly construction was motivated by the appearance of a strong regional pow

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