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Makhachkala is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Dagestan in the North Caucasus, stretched along the Caspian Sea below the table mountain of Tarki-Tau, and it is famous for its great Central Juma Mosque and as the starting point for the Sulak Canyon and the Sarykum dune. More than 600,000 people of many Dagestani peoples live in the city.
Its forerunner was the Kumyk port town of Anji. The Russian fortification of Petrovskoye was founded here in 1844, named after Peter the Great, whose army is said to have camped on the spot in 1722, and in 1857 it became the town of Petrovsk-Port. In 1921 it was renamed in honour of the revolutionary Makhach Dakhadaev and became the capital of Dagestan.
Today it is the largest city of the North Caucasus, a busy seaport and one of the fastest-growing cities in Russia. Visitors see the mosque modelled on the Blue Mosque of Istanbul, the old lighthouse and the museums of history and fine art, climb to the ancient village of Tarki, and taste khinkal and chudu before driving out to the canyon and the dune.
The Central Juma Mosque in Makhachkala is the main mosque of the city, begun in 1991 with money from a wealthy Turkish family and modelled on the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. It was completed in 1998 and is also called Yusuf Bey Jami, and an expansion in 2004 to 2007 let it hold 15,000 people.
The Assumption Cathedral in Makhachkala is the cathedral of the Orthodox diocese of Makhachkala. A stone church replaced a wooden one here in 1905 to 1906 and was dedicated to the Mozdok icon of the Mother of God, and after years of use as a warehouse it took its present name in 1945.
Tarki is an old village on the slopes of Tarki-Tau mountain, now part of Makhachkala, and it was the capital of the Kumyk state of the Shamkhals until 1867. Some scholars place the Khazar capital Samandar here, and the village already appears on the Catalan Atlas of 1375.
Lenin Square is the main square of Makhachkala, with the building of the Government of Dagestan, the city administration and a statue of Lenin at its centre. It hosts the city's main events and celebrations, and it reopened at the end of 2019 after a large rebuilding paid for by the city of Moscow.
The National Museum of Dagestan in Makhachkala was founded in 1923 by the statesman Alibek Takho-Godi and opened in 1925. It occupies the historic Baryatinsky-Vanetsov house on Daniyalov Street and tells the history and culture of the many peoples of Dagestan, from ancient times to today.
The Dagestan Museum of Fine Arts in Makhachkala was created in 1958 from the picture gallery of the National Museum. It shows Western European art of the 16th to 19th centuries, Russian painting and Dagestani artists, including battle scenes of the Caucasian War by Franz Roubaud.
Khinkal is a hearty dish of Dagestan and one of the most popular meals in Makhachkala, made of pieces of dough boiled in meat broth. It is served with boiled lamb or beef, a garlic sauce and cups of the broth, and it should not be confused with the Georgian khinkali, which are filled dumplings.
Chudu are thin or thick filled flatbreads from Dagestan, sold all over Makhachkala and cooked on a dry pan. They are filled with meat, wild herbs, pumpkin, potato or cottage cheese, brushed with butter and stacked in a pile to soften, and they are always eaten hot.
The Makhachkala Lighthouse is a working lighthouse on the hill of Anji-Arka in the city. The first light was built on Tarki hill in 1852, and in 1866 it moved to the present spot, where a tower 27 metres tall shines about 80 metres above the Caspian and can be seen 15 miles out at sea.
Tarki-Tau is a long table mountain rising over Makhachkala, about six kilometres long and up to 725 metres high, only three kilometres from the Caspian shore. Its flat top and steep cliffs are important in Kumyk history, and paths from the village of Tarki climb to wide views over the city.
The Sarykum Dune rises about 18 kilometres northwest of Makhachkala and is one of the largest sand dunes in Eurasia, some three kilometres long and over 200 metres high. It has been part of the Dagestan Nature Reserve since 1987 and shelters rare desert plants found nowhere else nearby.
The Sulak Canyon is the deepest canyon in Europe, 53 kilometres long and up to 1,920 metres deep, about 100 kilometres by road from Makhachkala. Its walls expose rocks rich in fossils, and the canyon is home to the largest colonies of griffon vultures and black vultures in Russia.
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