Then in the 7th century Khan Kubrat, ruler of the Unogundurs established Old Great Bolgary there before his heir Batbayan surrendered it to the Khazars.

The Golden Horde claimed most of the coast in the 13th and 14th centuries, but the Venetian and Genoese merchants were granted permission to settle on the site of modern-day Azov and founded there a colony which they called Tana.

[12][13] In autumn 2000, Thor Heyerdahl wanted to further investigate his idea that Scandinavians may have migrated from the south via waterways.

He sought the origin of Odin (Wotan), the Germanic and Nordic god of the mythologies of the early Norse Eddas and Sagas.

Heyerdahl wanted to test the veracity of Snorri's claims and as a result, organized the Joint Archaeological Excavation in Azov in 2001.

[14] In 1471, the Ottoman Empire gained control of the area and built the strong fortress of Azak (Azov).

During the Azov campaigns of 1696, Peter the Great, who desired naval access to the Black Sea, managed to recover the fortress.

[17] Azov was granted town status in 1708,[citation needed] but the disastrous Pruth River Campaign constrained him to hand it back to the Turks in 1711.

During the Great Russo-Turkish War, it was taken by the army under Count Rumyantsev and finally ceded to Russia under the terms of Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji (1774).

For seven years Azov was a seat of its own governorate, but with the growth of neighboring Rostov-on-the-Don it gradually declined in importance.

[4] Sergey Bezdolny of the United Russia party was elected Mayor of Azov on April 3, 2005 and re-elected on October 11, 2009 by 72.9% of the voters.

[citation needed] The current head of administration (city-manager) Vladimir Rashchupkin holds office from December 2015.

Built in 1799, the Powder Cellar Museum in Azov is the only remaining fortress of Catherine's time in all of what was once southern Russia.

Fortresses she built in Rostov, Taganrog and elsewhere have been completely destroyed, so Azov's deserves to be considered an architectural monument to the art of military engineering in the 18th century.