other major cities are Derbent, Kizlyar, Izberbash, Kaspiysk, and Buynaksk.

Dagestan covers an area of 50300 km2, with a population of over 3.1 million, consisting of over 30 ethnic groups and 81 nationalities. With 14 official languages, and 12 ethnic groups each constituting more than 1% of its total population, the republic is one of Russia's most linguistically