A part of
Russia, located in the Caucasus Mountains north of Azerbaijan, that along with its neighbor Chechnya, has become another hellhole because of al-Qaeda. Daghestan is home to small tribes of people speaking over thirty languages, some Caucasic (
e.g. Avar, Lak, Rutul, Bezhta, Dido, Lezgin, Tsakhur etc.), Turkic (
e.g. Noghai and Kumyk), Semitic (
e.g. Assyrian, Hebrew and Arabic), Indo-European (
e.g. Russian, Armenian, Greek etc.), and even Tungusic (
e.g. Kalmyk, a close relative to Mongolian).
The Dept. of
the State has issued travelers' advisories for
people who want to visit Daghestan from Azerbaijan: don't
even think about it. The borders are closed!