Shagiz

The Sagiz crosses the dry western Kazakh steppe towards the Emba basin, its lower channel disappearing among the salt flats of Tenteksor. Along the river stood a settlement on the caravan routes through Saraychik; coins of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries have been found there. In 1614 an escort accompanying a Russian embassy to Persia fought a band of mounted raiders on the Sagiz, a reminder of the dangers of travel across the steppe.