The establishment of the early settlement is associated with the
Ingush highlanders moving from the Assinkoe gorge to the plains. In the 18th century Ingush highlanders established settlements in the modern Sunzhensky district of Ingushetia. According to the maps of 1834, several Ingush settlements are known to the area, including Kurei-Yurt which was lying on the modern boundaries of the town of Sunzha. According to the rapport by the Vladikavkaz commandant the population of the village of Kurai-Yurt was 585 people, which was considered to be a relatively large settlement. The other sources acknowledge the village under the name of Korei-Yurd, such as on the "Map of left flank of the Caucausian line" in 1840. The founder of the village was Kuri, the son of Ali ), from the Leimi village of the mountainous Dzheirakhski district of Ingushetia. In the late 1820’s, he moved from his native Leimi and established Kuri-Yurt which existed until 1845, where it was destroyed during the Russian colonization, which established Sunzha line of cossacks settlements on the sights of villages of the indigenous population. During the
Russian Empire, the town was the administrative capital of the
Sunzhensky Otdel of the
Terek Oblast. In 1845, during the Caucasian war, stanitsa Sunzhenskay had been established as a part of the Sunzha cossack line. The stanitsas were inhabited by settlers from already existing cossack settlements in the Caucasus, as well as Don cossacks. == Notable people ==