It borders on two states, Azerbaijan and Georgia with a southern border running along the Watershed of the Great Caucasus mountain range, and it shares the Caspian with three others: Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran.я Within Russia, its regional neighbors are the Stavropol Krai, Kalmykia and Chechnya.яя Dagestan stretches about 400 km from north to south,я and about 200 km from east to west, and has the longest Caspian Sea shoreline in Russia - about 530 kms.яя Dagestan's 10 cities, with Makhachkala the capital and Derbent the oldest by far also the largest, and its 14 settlements and 14 districts, straddle five climate zones from the Caspian lowland 28 meters below sea level to mountainous areas at over 4000 meters in height.я Three rivers, the Terek, Sulak and Samur have long been viewed for their potential for hydropower construction and irrigation, as well as sources of local public water supplies.я In all but the alpine sections of the country, the summer growing season tends to be long and warm.я Three major spas complement a long history of use of medicinal herbs and vegetable, organic and inorganic medicaments.

Dagestan has mineral wealth.я Its offshore oil deposits, only partially explored and minimally produced, are deep, but very clean, in contrast to its deposits of brown coal, bituminous shale and peat.яя The republic has substantial deposits of ferrous and non-ferrous and rare earth metals; the Kizil-Dere range is the largest deposit of copper ore in the North Caucasus.яя Dagestan has substantial supplies of building material resources: the largest reserves of limestone and easy to access glass-making sandя (Severnoye deposit) in the North Caucasus and Russia respectively, and huge reserves of dolomites, molding sands, rubble stone, gravel and raw materials for cement.яя Underground fresh, mineral, thermal and industrial waters are plentiful, with about 3,000 artesian wells in operation to tap them.я Finally - solar energy, a subject of research by the local branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, has yielded solar energy technology now used in the republic's spas, hospitals, children's camps and oil towns, in the form of heating and more recently through multi-rechargeable, powerful, pocket sized heat accumulators.