Dagestan, Gunib (16pics)

Greeting, friends.

I want to tell about Dagestan again. This time I want to show the village of Gunib. It is the administrative center of the district of the same name. It is located on the Gunib plateau at an altitude of about 1500 meters, 172 kilometers southwest of Makhachkala.
We stopped in this village to have lunch and visit the local history museum. In the mountains, settlements located on the road are of great importance, because it is impossible to pass and drive past them. This is especially important in the case of military aggression. Dagestan has always been interesting for many conquerors and has a rich history in this regard.
Looking at the village from the equipped observation deck, you can see how the road meanders like a snake on the right. For us who live on the plain, it looks very amazing.

After looking at the village from a bird's-eye view, we went down to visit an excellent cafe. All tourists who have visited Dagestan and visited the mountains, note a very tasty cuisine. All products are natural and grown in the same area. The national cuisine mainly consists of beef and lamb meat, a lot of dairy products and cheeses, fruits, and vegetables.
But before we sat down at the table, we looked at the mountains from the terrace and the girls actively took selfies. The Sun was shining all 3 days while we were in the mountainous area. Probably, the Lord God himself decided to patronize us with the weather!

Even the author of these lines, i.e. I, looking at the girls, decided to leave my face as a souvenir to show people close to me that I was in this place.

Such a tray with food was brought to each person, but previously there were also common plates with food to raise the appetite. We didn't even know that there would be such a basic food tray.
I have to say that every time for breakfast, lunch, and dinner there was a lot of food on the table. This is such a national feature - mountains take energy and it needs to be replenished.
And I must also say that none of the establishments offered us alcohol. This is also a feature of Dagestan. This is a Muslim region and there is no alcoholism here.
Of course, grapes are grown in Dagestan and there are factories producing excellent cognacs and wines. We drank them in the evening at the mountain hotel, but local young people refused cognac.

In Dagestan, you can meet a lot of cats. They are everywhere here. Near any cafe, you can meet these predators who protect their territory from rodents. We met cats even in canyons, far from residential buildings. They probably expect offerings from tourists.

Wonderful delicious local cheeses and butter. These are soft cheeses, they differ from hard European cheeses, which I love very much, but these Dagestan cheeses have conquered me.

Local History Museum. This is a small building in size, but there are a lot of interesting exhibits and a very active competent museum guide. This woman has been talking about life in this village since about the middle of the last century. All the local people I talked to told me that life in the mountains began to change with the collapse of the USSR in 1991. Another life has come, and before that people lived as if at the beginning of the 19th century. In everyday life, clay and copper dishes were used, which were inherited from the ancestors. Life went on steadily and unhurriedly.

The day ends quickly in winter. We left the museum and it was already dark outside. We loaded into the minibuses and went on. Where to? We didn't know. We drove for about 2 hours and when we arrived at the place, we also did not understand what was around us. It was absolutely dark and only a few flashlights were burning on the territory of a small mountain motel.
We saw and appreciated all the beauty around us in the morning.