Ipatovo

The Kalaus River crosses the open steppe north of the Caucasus, where the land around Ipatovo was once used by Nogai pastoralists. The river valley cuts through a landscape marked by ancient burial mounds; one such mound contained a richly furnished burial dating to the third century before Christ. Until the late eighteenth century the wider district was part of the nomadic country of the Budjak Nogais, whose herds moved across the grasslands.