Elista

Elista takes its name from a sandy ravine in the Ergeni hills, where Kalmyk herders paused during their movements across the steppe. The sheltered hollow and its water made a useful stopping place amid the dry grasslands west of the Volga. The Kalmyk Khanate emerged in the seventeenth century under Torghut leaders; after a great migration east in 1771, the Russian government abolished the khanate. Pastoral communities nevertheless continued to use the country around the ravine long before a permanent town grew there.