The Republic of Dagestan constitutes a part of the Russian Federation. It is situated in the North Caucasus and is the most southern part of Russia. Makhachkala, Dagestan’s administrative and cultural center, is located 2166km from Moscow.

By land and the Caspian Sea Dagestan is bound by five states - Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran, while within the Russian Federation, it is bound by Stavropol Territory, Kalmykia and Chechnya.

The geographical situation, landscape diversity and the Caspian Sea reservoir make the climate of Dagestan rather diversified. Dagestan comprises five climatic and a number of geographical zones: from the Caspian lowland at 28 meters below the level of the world ocean and the subtropics - up to the snow peaks of more than 4 thousand meters high. Local summers are warm and long. Average winter temperature is 0-5C, average summer temperature is +25C.