Dagestan means country of mountains.
I guess that probably a huge part of you do not know what actually hides behind this name. Also You may wonder why I start a series of traveler's stories by talking about my visit there.
Therefore, before I start to publish a series of stories from my journey through Dagestan, as an intro I've placed below 10 very important points, which will allow you to get a slightly know what Dagestan is and in later posts connect some pieces of facts with each other.
You will also briefly find out what makes this small but beautiful republic, which is part of a huge structure (such as the Russian Federation), so intriguing me. Let's start:
- The area of the Republic of Dagestan is 50 278 km2 = this means that Dagestan has an area similar to the Netherlands.
- In 2015, the population was 2,990,440 of which nearly 45% live in urban areas.
- 33 is the official amount of ethnic groups in Dagestan. This makes the Republic of Dagestan the most multi-ethnic region in the entire Russian Federation.
- Each ethnic group has its own language.
- 95% of the population is Muslim.
- Wrestling is the most popular sport in Dagestan.
- Dagestan is an area of counter-terrorism operations targeting Salafists. Many of them went to Syria and Iraq to fight under the flag of the Islamic State.
- The national hero of the Dagestan is Imam Shamil, the leader of the uprising against Russia, which took place in the 19th century.
- Mosques and Koranic schools were massively closed during the Soviet era.
- In recent years, the activity of criminal groups forcing people into slave labour has been revealed through NGOs.
Digits from travel.
2016 September,
71 days of travel,
5 days after crossing the Russian border
0 roubles,
90 Georgian lari, not exchangeable in Russia,
1 broken ATM card.
5 beef cans
1 jar of quince jar,
1 carrot salad in jar,
The beginning wasn't easy.