Derbent: Scenes of Russia's Southernmost City

In the republic of Dagestan, Derbent is the southernmost Russian city, located within the narrow pass between the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian Sea.



Due to its strategic location, the city was claimed by the Persian, Arab, Mongol, Timurid, Shirvan and Iranian kingdoms. The 1813 Treaty of Gulistan made the city Derbent Russian territory.

Visitors walk along the reconstructed walls of Derbent's citadel, perched high above the sea. Excavations reveal the site has been inhabited for about 5,000 years.

Doves on the mausoleum of Tuti-Bike, a female ruler who led a defense of Derbent in the 18th century.

Islam,18, had come from Ingushetia to study at the Babul Abvab Islamic University in Derbent. He said that Islamic State jihad in Syria was not real ?€” otherwise Russian bombers would not have routed them with such ease.

A woman walks past a carpet showing the face of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Images of Dagestan's president Ramazan Abdulatipov and Putin ?€” on billboards and fences ?€” are common in Dagestan.

Derbent has many mosques: from the 8th century Jumma Mosque that is the oldest mosque in Russia, to more recently built mosques.

The great walls of Derbent, which stretch from the citadel to the sea and were a key fortified gateway between the steppe peoples of the north and the civilizations of the Middle East, were built by the Sassanians in the 7th century.

Islam has been the dominant religion in Derbent since the city was seized by the Arabs from the Jewish Empire of the Khazars in the 8th century. Today, there is also a small Jewish community (of about 300 families), and Orthodox Christians.

Mosques and Islamic shrines in Derbent display this hand in memory of Fatima, the wife of an early ruler of the city. One day she dropped the spoon with which she was stirring a large bowl of boiling soup ?€” and it sank to the bottom. But she carried on stirring with her hand and was badly burnt.