Dagestan in photos by Gusen Halilullaev

Village Tindi. Photo by Gusen Halilullaev. Link

This blogs name is "Kaukasus", but it mainly covered topics on Georgia, as I am living in Tbilisi. Thats why, I am very happy today getting the contact to the author of an impressive Dagestanian website: Gusen Halilullaev from Makhachkala. Gusen collected comprehensive materials on www.tsumada.ru on the Tsumada Region in Dagestan with a photo gallery of almost 4000 images by Gusen and other photographers.


Winter in Tindi. View to the Minaret. Photo by Magomed Zakaryaev. Link

Some infos on Dagestan from wikipedia:

Dagestan is the largest republic of Russia in the northern Caucasus, both in area 50,300 km² and population 2,576,531 (2002).

The word Daghestan or Daghstan means "country of mountains", it is derived from the Turkic word "dagh" meaning mountain and Persian suffix meaning "land of". The spelling Dagestan is a transliteration of the Russian name and is rather modern.

The republic is situated in the North Caucasus mountains. It is the southernmost part of Russia.Dagestan has about 400 km of coast line on the Caspian Sea. Most of the Republic is mountainous, with the Greater Caucasus Mountains covering the south. The highest point is the Bazardyuzi peak at 4,466 m.

The people of Dagestan include over a dozen sizeable groups, including:

• Dagestani peoples — 80%, including:
  • people from the Northeast Caucasian language group 67%
    • Avars — 28%, around 500,000
    • Dargins — 16%, around 300,000
    • Lezgins — 12%, over 200,000
    • Laks — 5%, around 100,000
    • Tabasarans — 4%, around 70,000
    • Rutuls — 1%, around 15,000
    • Aguls — 1%, around 15,000
    • Tsakhurs — around 10,000
  • people from the Turkic languages 19%
    • Kumyks — 13%, over 200,000
    • Nogays — 2%, around 35,000
    • Azeris — 4%, around 85,000
    • Tatars — less than 10,000
• Russians — 9%, around 85,000
• Chechens — 3%, around 65,000
• Other — 8%, including
  • Tats — 1% around 10,000
  • Ukrainians — around 10,000
  • Kurdish — fewer than 5,000
  • Ossetians — fewer than 5,000
  • Mountain Jews — likely fewer than 5,000

Location of Dagestan in Russia, image by Wikipedia

What a beautiful country, what a rich history !