Timur the Lame, Tamerlane, tarnished the Armenian city of Sivas in the Armenian plateau. According to historians, Timur the Lame buried 4,000 Armenians on a promontory outside of the city of Sivas. Angered at the Armenians for defending the city upon his conquest of the said territory, the Church tried to placate the Eastern conqueror by lining up 4,000 Armenian children dressed in white and bearing relics in order to 'soften the conqueror's heart.' It was these 4,000 children who were buried alive in a pit and covered up. Legend intimates that Timur ordered his cavalry to stomp on the soil in a horse match to further consolidate the soil. The site was known by the Armenians as 'Sev Hogher' or 'Black Earth' that marked the terrible crime against the Armenians.