Maghas
Maghas or Maas, more properly, Mags or Maks, was the capital city of Alania, a medieval kingdom in the Greater Caucasus. It is known from Islamic and Chinese sources, but its location is uncertain, with some authors favouring North Ossetia and others pointing to Arkhyz in modern-day Karachay–Cherkessia, where three 10th-century churches still stand. Historian John Latham Sprinkle from the University of Ghent (Belgium) identified Maghas with an archeological site known as Il’ichevskoye Gorodische in Otradnensky District, Krasnodar Krai. The destruction of Maghas is ascribed to Batu Khan, a Mongol leader and a grandson of Genghis Khan, in the beginning of 1239. Some Russian geographers, like D. V. Zayats, point to a location in Ingushetia. The capital of the Russian Republic of Ingushetia, Magas, is named after Maghas. Name The name is given in Arabic sources as Maghas or Ma'as, in Persian as Magas or Makas, and in Chinese as Muzashan (木栅山). The name Magas is a homonym of the Persian word magas, meaning "fly", and the medieval writers al-Mas'udi and Juvayni made plays on words about the city's name. The Chinese transcription Muzashan uses the characters for wood (mu, 木) and mountain (shan, 山), which John Latham-Sprinkle interprets as