DAGESTAN

SCHEDULE AND COST:

Dates:
May 25 – 28,
June 22 – 25,
July 18 – 21,
August 24 – 27, 2023

Duration: 4 days / 3 nights

Number of participants: 4 – 12

Cost per person:
– 43 900 rubles subject to 10 – 12 participants, or
– 45 900 rubles subject to 8 – 9 participants, or
– 48 900 rubles subject to 6 – 7 participants, or
– 50 400 rubles subject to 6 – 7 participants

Everything is included except for:
- flight to Makhachkala and back,
- medical insurance,

Estimated flight cost Moscow – Makhachkala – Moscow: 10000 – 16000 rubles. To be bought on your own.

Single occupancy: upon request





TRAVEL PROGRAM: TOUR DAGESTAN

Day 1. Makhachkala - Derbent - Caspian Sea - Sarykum

No later than 11 am arrival in Makhachkala. At the airport of Kaspiysk meeting and acquaintance with the guide. Departure by SUVs to Derbent (110 km, 1.5 - 2 hours on the way).
Derbent, previously recognized as the oldest city in Russia, in 2014, with the annexation of Crimea, although it lost this title to Kerch, still remained the oldest settlement in the country with a 26-century history. The modern city was founded in 438 AD. e. as a Persian fortress, consisting of a citadel located on a hill and two stone walls extending from it to the sea, which blocked a narrow three-kilometer passage between the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus Mountains and protected the territory of the city from the north and south. During its history, being a tidbit, Derbent passed from hand to hand several times, which could not but be reflected in its architecture and culture.
After lunch, we will visit the main attraction of Derbent - Naryn-kala citadel, which offers a beautiful view of the city.

We will take a short walk through the historical part of the city, go to the Juma Mosque, the central Muslim shrine, and go underground, to the famous Maiden Baths, which date back to the 16th - 19th centuries, and in which unmarried girls met before the wedding for a kind of bachelorette party.
In the evening we will drive to the shore of the Caspian Sea with coarse sand and emerald water. The water in the Caspian Sea is moderately cool and only slightly brackish, which makes swimming really comfortable. There you can swim and take pictures of the miracle of Soviet technology - the giant ekranoplan "Lun".
The Caspian Sea, which has an area larger than Germany, is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth, which is called both a lake and a sea. With a maximum depth of more than a thousand meters (the 3rd deepest lake in the world), the Caspian Sea contains more than three times the capacity of Baikal waters.
Transfer to the Sarykum hotel, where there are all conditions for recreation, including a spa (or to a recreation center on the shores of the Caspian Sea (150 km, 2 hours on the way).
On the way, dinner with traditional Dagestan cuisine.

* It is recommended to arrive in Makhachkala from Moscow by Aeroflot at 11:00 am or Pobeda at 10:15 am

Meals included: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Accommodation included: double rooms at the Sary-Kum hotel (or in double rooms at the recreation center on the Caspian Sea).

Day 2. Sarykum (Inche) - Saltinsky waterfall - Chokh - Gamsutl - Gunib

After breakfast at the sea, we leave the coast and go to the mountainous region of Dagestan, to the Gunib region, rich in its natural and cultural diversity.
Transfer to the Saltinsky waterfall (120 km, 3 hours on the way) - one of the most bizarre waterfalls in Russia, and the only underground one in Dagestan. The waterfall and the cave are located in the Saltinskaya Gorge, where the Saltinka River flows. Hike to the waterfall right along the river, along large pebbles, between the narrow walls of the gorge, through which goats sometimes jump. At the end of the path we find ourselves in a cave illuminated by light through a hole pierced by water in the stones. Depending on the season, there may be no water in the Saltinka mountain river.
Transfer to Chokh - one of the best preserved traditional auls of Dagestan and one of the most ancient in the North Caucasus. A Neolithic site has been found here. The remains of a settlement near the village of Chokh date back to the 6th millennium BC. e. Traditional Avar lunch in Chokh and participation in an excursion about the Avar culture and the history of the village.
After lunch, transfer to the ghost village of Gamsutl (30 km, 1 - 1.5 hours on the way), spread out like flowing volcanic lava on the crest of Mount Gamsutlmeer, at an altitude of 1730 meters above sea level. From the Avar "gamsutl" is translated as - "at the foot of the khan's fortress", from which one can make such an assumption that in ancient times, even before the spread of Islam in Dagestan, the local khan chose this mountain to build his khan's tower or fortress. The village itself is surrounded by steep slopes, precipices and cliffs, from where you can make wonderful shots of the "dead city". For its obvious resemblance to the Inca settlement, Gamsutl has already received the unofficial name of "Dagestan Machu Picchu" :)
The only way to get to the village is along a narrow path that used to be a road. Climbing takes no more than an hour (height difference 230 m).
Transfer (20 km, 1 hour on the way) to the observation deck to the village of Gunib, where Aivazovsky painted the painting "Aul Gunib". It offers a stunning view of the eastern slope of Mount Gunib (from the Avar Guni-meer - "haystack", which outwardly resembles the outlines of the mountain), and located in the "bowl" of the mountain, at an altitude of 1600 m above sea level, the village of the same name.
The natural fortress of Gunib was once the last stronghold of Imam Shamil and was taken and destroyed by Russian troops in 1859.
Dinner and overnight at the new hotel Gunib on the central square of Gunib.

Meals included: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Accommodation included: double rooms at Gunib Hotel


Day 3. Gunib - Karadakh gorge - Goor - Kahib - Sarykum

After breakfast at the Eagle's Nest, a visit to the museum in Gunib, where we learn more about the great history of the village of Gunib and the whole of Dagestan, a visit to the monument to the cranes, about which Rasul Gamzatov wrote and Mark Bernes sang.
Transfer to the Karadakh gorge (35 km, 1 - 1.5 hours on the way). The gorge is a narrow, in some places up to two meters, gorge in a rock mass, almost half a kilometer long. The gorge is so narrow that even at noon it is twilight here. The Avars call it so: "Bets-kvarili", which means "dark gorge". Imagine a mountain 400 - 450 meters high, cut like a sharp razor, from top to bottom. - This is how the Karadakh gorge looks like. They say that even Emperor Alexander II himself was surprised here.
After a two-hour walk and lunch in Hebda, transfer to Goor (45 km, 1 hour on the way). On the way, visit the Datong Temple - a Georgian Orthodox church built by missionaries in the 10th - 11th centuries, located in a wild and beautiful gorge. Of interest are the double walls in which the cells are located, which may indicate the existence of a once monastic life here.
In Goor, a village with traditional Avar architecture, we are met by the Avars themselves with a short cultural program and a national dinner with khinkals.
The history of the village, which used to be located at a height of 1800 meters, dates back to the 17th and 18th centuries, when twice captured and burned villagers found refuge here, on the edge of the abyss, where they felt safe from almost three sides. Here, 3 defensive towers of 15 meters in height have been preserved, for which today Goor is called the "Land of Towers". Thanks to the towers and the dizzying view from the cliff, Goor resembles the Georgian Svaneti.
No matter how strong and no matter how high the Khunzakh khans sit on their sheer plateau, who in their best years could afford not only to besiege Derbent, but also to ruin Georgia, they could not conquer the entire Avaria. The villages of free Avars climbed the steepest slopes and menacingly bristled with battle towers!
Not far from Goor, another amazing place awaits us - the ruins of the ancient Kahib, another "ghost town". Kahib (or as this place was previously called - Bakdab) settled on a steep ridge on the left bank of the Kahibtlyar River, at an altitude of about 1700 meters. According to scientists, the village was built in the 8th - 10th centuries, as evidenced by pagan frescoes on the foundations of buildings. The central building is a mosque and a 20-meter battle tower, which you can climb. Trekking to the ruins of Kahiba takes at least two hours (200 m climb).
In the evening we drive off-road vehicles from mountainous Dagestan to the plains and make a late transfer to the Sary-Kum dune area (170 km, 4 hours on the way), where we will spend the night in the hotel of the same name.

Meals included: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Accommodation included: double rooms at Sary-Kum Hotel

Day 4. Sulak canyon - Chirkey reservoir - Barkhan Sary-Kum - airport

After an early breakfast, we will go to the holy of holies of Dagestan tourism - the Sulak Canyon. The Sulak Canyon is one of the deepest in the world. Its length is 53 kilometers, and the depth reaches 1920 meters. It is 120 meters deeper than the famous Grand Canyon on the Colorado Plateau.
We will immediately descend (about 80 km, 2 hours on the way) to the Sulak River on the opposite bank and take a boat trip along the emerald water to enjoy the nature of these places: the surrounding mountains contrasting with the emerald water.
Traditional lunch in Kamal's atmospheric peach orchard.
Then we will climb to Dubki (1 hour on the way), from where a breathtaking view of the Sulak Canyon opens. At the bottom of the canyon, the Sulak River winds like a thin turquoise snake, in fact, the most full-flowing river of Dagestan. We will have the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of the canyon from two viewing platforms in Dubki at once. We will also tickle your nerves at the "Troll's Tongue" - perhaps the most extreme lookout on the Sulak Canyon. From here you can see the dam of the Chirkeyskaya hydroelectric power station. Chirkeyskaya HPC is the most powerful hydroelectric power plant in the North Caucasus. It has the second highest dam in Russia and the highest arch dam in the country! The Chirkeyskaya HPC, along with the Miatlinskaya HPP, the Chiryurt HPP and the small Bovtugai HPC, is included in the Sulak HPC Cascade, being its upper step regulating the entire cascade. The Chirkeyskaya hydroelectric power station is located in a narrow gorge of the same name with a depth of more than 200 m. The width of the gorge in the upper part is 300 m, in the lower part it is 12–15 m.
On the way, visit the Chirkey reservoir (20 minutes on the way) - the largest in the North Caucasus.
Transfer to the dune Sary-Kum (80 km, 1.5 hours on the way), which will appear before us in warm colors in the evening light. Sary-Kum, which, according to various sources, has a height of 244 to 262 meters, is one of the highest dunes in the world, competing with the Saharan and Namibian dunes, and the highest isolated sand massif in the world!
Many mysteries and legends are associated with this place; it has long attracted the attention of travelers and scientists. The local peoples called this mountain Sary-Kum, which means "yellow sands" in Turkic. Sary-Kum stretches for 3 kilometers at the very gates of mountainous Dagestan in the valley of the Shura-Ozen River, which divides the dune in half. It is a mystery how here, far from the Central Asian deserts, a dune has appeared.
The film "White Sun of the Desert" was filmed here.
In the evening transfer to Makhachkala airport (50 km, about 1 hour on the way). Check-in for the flight and flight home.
* Recommended flight from Makhachkala to Moscow by Aeroflot airline at 18:45 or NordStar at 19:30, or another flight departing no earlier than 18:30.

Meals included: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Accommodation included: double rooms at Sary-Kum Hotel