With it inimitable beauty, eventful past and age-old hospitality, this land attracts tourists by the thousand. Its centre, the old city Astrakhan, sprawls along the Volga banks. The first written references to it go back to the 13th century, when the Astrakhan Khanate emerged in the lower reaches of the great river after the Golden Horde disintegrated. For several centuries, Astrakhan prospered on the crossing of trade routes which linked Europe and Asia. Today, Astrakhan is a major industrial and cultural centre of the Volga coun-try, with a population of 1000,000.
Every visitor is sure to be greeted here as a welcome guest.
A strakhan began to acquire its present-day look after the year 1558, when the khanate was conquered and incorporated into Russia. A wooden fort rose on the high Hare Hill in the Volga estuary. In 1582, Tsar Ivan the Terrible sent Muscovite architects Dei Gubasty and Mikhail Velyaminov to add to it formidable walls of white limestone with eight towers. The citadel, locally known as Kremlin, received a magnificent Trinity Cathedral in the 16th century. The gorgeous Dormition Cathedral appeared early in the 17th.