It was mentioned by the Arab geographer al-Gharnati and the Persian Qazwini, among others, and recorded as "the land of the Saksins" in the report of Friar Benedict of Poland about the 1246 trip of Giovanni da Pian del Carpine through the camp of Mongol prince Batu Khan on the shores of the Volga.
Friar Benedict apparently misunderstood the name as somehow connected with the Saxons of Germany, stating incorrectly that the inhabitants were Christians and "believed to be Goths" related to those of Crimea.
Beginning in 2003 Dmitry Vasilyev of Astrakhan State University led a series of excavations at the Samosdelskoye site near the village of Samosdelka (Russian: Самосделка) in the Volga Delta.
Vasilyev connected artifacts from the middle strata with Khazar, Oghuz and Bulgar culture, leading him to believe that he had discovered the site of Saqsin.
Sarai Batu was excavated by a number of expeditions exploring the center of the city, and was probably located on the periphery of the original Saqsin.