Bolgar stands on the left bank of the Volga in present-day Tatarstan, on the site of the medieval capital of Volga Bulgaria, a state that controlled the great river trade routes between the Baltic, the Islamic world and Central Asia. Its rulers adopted Islam in the tenth century, and the embassy sent from Baghdad in 922, described in a celebrated account by Ibn Fadlan, marks the moment at which the religion took root on the middle Volga. The archaeological complex preserves the remains of the cathedral mosque and its great minaret, mausoleums, a bathhouse, the structure known as the Black Chamber, and the earthworks that defended the city, together with a modern museum presenting the excavated material. Bolgar was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List for its testimony to that cultural and religious crossroads. For Muslims of the Volga region it remains a place of pilgrimage as well as an archaeological site, which gives the programme both a historical and a living subject.
