Magas

Capital of the Republic of Ingushetia.

The city Magas was founded in the 2nd century A.D. at the site of present Ingush villages of Aliyurt, Surkhai and Yandyrka. Magas was the capital of medieval Alania, a union of mountain peoples and tribes. In the early 1239 (according to other sources, in 1230), the city was destroyed by troops of Mongolian Batu Khan.

In October 1994, the president of Ingushetia Ruslan Aushev made a decision to build a new capital of Ingushetia under the name and on the site of ancient Magas, which in the Ingush language means the city of the Sun. Construction of the city was begun in 1996 by Turkish civil engineering firms of Summa and Entos under the project designed by experts of St.-Petersburg Institute of Urbanistics (later, the construction was continued by Ingush companies of ZAO Neon and Maltes).

Opening of Magas was held on October 31, 1998: the national flag was aloft over the presidential palace (the only completed building in the city at that moment), and the administration of the president of Ingushetia has located in Magas since that day. Construction of buildings for the government and the republican parliament approached completion, but by the time of presentation was not finished yet. Residential quarters (designed for 30 thousand people) existed only as a project.

In 1999, the parliament and the government of the Republic of Ingushetia moved to Magas. On December 8 2000, the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted the law On Giving the Name of Magas to the Capital of the Republic of Ingushetia. On December 20, 2000, the law was approved by the Council of the Federation, and on December 26, it was signed by the President of Russia.

The plan of building-up provides division into the administrative centre and sleeping districts. The central part of Magas will site the University and a stadium, the Social Insurance Foundation, the City Administration, a mosque, a hotel, a film-and-concert hall, office buildings (with application of elements of traditional Vainakh architecture).

The sleeping districts are built up with three- or four-storeyed houses, their ground floors housing cafe, shops, hairdressers', etc. Construction of ten residential houses (about 45 flats each) should be completed by 2001. The 3rd microdistrict of the city is intended for individual housing under strict inspection of the City Administration. St. Petersburg Institute of Urbanistics has developed some typical cottages for future Magas inhabitants to select (cottages are to be built by the Malgobek Integrated House-Building Factory).

Magas is crossed by the dried channel of the Sunzha River; builders of the city intend to fill the channel with water and create a park area in this district.