Derbent

Derbent, previously romanized as Derbend, is a town within the Republic of Dagestan, Russia, placed at the Caspian Sea, north of the Azerbaijani border. It is the southernmost town in Russia. Derbent occupies the slender gateway between the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus Mountains connecting the Eurasian steppes to the north and the Iranian Plateau to the south. Derbent claims to be the oldest town in Russia with ancient documentation courting to the eighth century BCE. Due to its strategic vicinity, over the direction of history, the city modified possession often, particularly among the Persian, Arab, Mongol, Timurid, Shirvan and Iranian kingdoms.

In the 19th century, the metropolis handed from Iranian into Russian palms with the aid of the 1813 Treaty of Gulistan. Derbent's place on a narrow, three-kilometer strip of land inside the North Caucasus between the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus mountains is strategic within the complete Caucasus region. Historically, this position allowed the rulers of Derbent to govern land traffic among the Eurasian Steppe and the Middle East. The only different workable crossing of the Caucasus ridge turned into over the Darial Gorge.