Fortress of Mergen-Taisha on the Yenisei (preliminary publication)

In scientific literature there is a belief that peoples of South Siberia and Central Asia in Medieval and early Modern times were mainly a nomadic life and, accordingly, when clashes sought to mobile warfare, in connection with which, allegedly, did not need in fixed fortifications. However, the learning experience to Russian sources XVII-XVIII centuries shows that the Yenisei Kyrgyz and Mongolians used in combat stone-earthen and wooden building. So according to the document in 1652 the nephew of the Altyn-Khan taisha Mergen, came into conflict with his uncle, withstood a siege of his «stone town below Syda River». As a result, we conducted in the field season of 2010, surveys the coast of the Krasnoyarsk reservoir at the mouth of the river Syda were indeed found the remains of a large structure of a defensive nature in the form of a stone wall, and a very extended deep moat and a strong earthen rampart to protect a large area on top of the mountain Unyuk. This structure, in the absence of any traces of such structures below the mouth of Syda, as well as guidance G. F. Miller in 1735 for a «former city» on the mountain Unyuk, and may be remnants of the fortress, where was at the siege Mergen-taisha.