A detailed study of the mountain began in the 19th century. Vannheim von Kvalan in 1842 published the first information about the Shihan. Earlier (1841), Schachtau was visited by Roderick Murchison and Edmund Verney, who compiled a profile through Shakhtau in the form of a brachyanticlinal fold, complicated by a fault. Subsequently, paleontological materials on shihan were processed by S. Kutorga, V. Miller, H. G. Pander, and others; F. Chernyshev and N. Gerasimov gave the most complete description of the brachiopods of Shakhtau.