Dagestan facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Republic of Dagestan Республика Дагестан (Russian)
—  Republic  —
Flag Coat of arms
Anthem: State Anthem of the Republic of Dagestan
Political status
Country	Russia
Federal district	North Caucasian
Economic region	North Caucasus
Established	January 20, 1921
Capital	Makhachkala
Government (as of October 2017)
• Head	Vladimir Vasilyev (acting)
• Legislature	People's Assembly
Statistics
Area (as of the 2002 Census)
• Total	50,300 km2 (19,400 sq mi)
Area rank	52nd
Population (2010 Census)
• Total	2,910,249
• Rank	12th
• Density	57.86/km2 (149.9/sq mi)
• Urban	45.2%
• Rural	54.8%
Time zone(s)	MSK (UTC+04:00)
ISO 3166-2	RU-DA
License plates	05
Official languages	Russian;  Aghul, Avar, Azerbaijani, Chechen, Dargwa, Kumyk, Lezgian, Lak, Nogai, Rutul, Tabasaran, Tat, Tsakhur
Official website: http://www.e-dag.ru/

Dagestan is a federal subject of the Russian Federation in the Caucasus region. The name comes from two Persian words, dag which means mountain, and stan which means land. Dagestan has a population of nearly 3 million, and its people are known as Dagestani. Its capital city is Makhachkala.

People

Dagestan has the status of "republic" in Russia and has its own constitution and official languages. Republics in Russia are the home of its ethnic minorities (those who are not Russians), and usually one or two nationalities have a majority of the population in each republic. But in Dagestan, there are over 30 different nationalities (the largest of which are the Avar, Lak, Dargwa, Lezgian, and Tabasaran), and none of these form a majority. This is because the mountains in the region make it hard for people to move around. These people speak 30 different languages, but use Russian as their lingua franca to communicate between each other.

Most people of Dagestan are Muslims and belong to the Shafi`i school of Sunni Islam.

Famous people

• Imam Shamil
• Shaykh Said afandi al-Chirkawi

Images for kids

• 

  Kakhib, one of many abandoned auls in Dagestan

• 

  Abandoned Lezgin village of Grar

• 

  Sulak Canyon is one of the world's deepest

• 

  Silver coin of Nader Shah, minted in Dagestan, dated 1741/2 (left = obverse; right = reverse)

• 

  Dagestani man, photographed by Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky, circa 1907 to 1915.

• 

  A mountain village

• 

  A couple in Dagestan, as photographed by Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky at some point between 1907 to 1915

See also

In Spanish: Daguestán para niños