Atil

Atil, also Itil, was the capital of the Khazar Khaganate from the mid-8th century to the late 10th century. Known to have been situated on the Silk Road, in the vicinity of the Caspian Sea, its precise location has long been unknown.

The name Atil is from the Turkic phrase meaning "great river", a name of the Volga River.^{[citation needed]} In 2008, a site at Samosdelka, a village in the Volga Delta that is some 30 km south-west of Astrakhan, was identified by some as the site of Atil, but this remains controversial.