Lakia

Lakia, Lakistan (Lak: Lak, Lakral kanu, Lakku bilayat, Lakkuy) is the name of the ethnic territory of the Laks in Dagestan in the North Caucasus. Kumukh is the main historical, cultural, spiritual and political center of Lakia that consists of Lakskiy and Kulinskiy districts.

Lakia is bordered to the North and West by Avaria, to the East by Dargo (occasionally called Darginstan or Darganstan), to the South by Agul and Rutul. On the other side of the Caucasus lie Georgia and Azerbaijan (including the historical kingdom of the Tsakhurs).

Lakia represents itself as a triangle with slightly rounded sides, facing its apex to the north and the base to the south. Apex of this triangle is the gorge of Tsudakhar. The sides of this triangle are the so-called cross-ridges of the Caucasian mountains. The east side includes the Karinsko-Kundi mountains, Ali mountain, Shunudag, and Kulinsko-Khosrekh ridge. Western side of the plateau includes Turchidag, Shali ridge, and Archavarsky ridge. Base of the triangle includes Dultidag and Kukminski mountains.

Russian general and historian A. V. Komarov (1869) wrote: "The country of the Lak people consists of many canyons that connect into one in three miles below the main village Gumuk; from the Samur valley it is separated by a high ridge, parallel to the Greater Caucasus Mountain Range, whose many peaks are covered with eternal snow and passage through them is possible only in the summer months, and the same ridges but slightly lower separate Lak people from the neighbors — Kurins, Dargins and Avars".

In Laksky and Kulinsky Districts there are about 90 Lak villages, most of which are located within the specified triangle, representing the pool of Kazikumukh Koisu and its tributary Kulinka river. This basin is cut by various tributaries of major rivers, over which rise the mountains and ridges of smaller sizes. Rivers tend to fill the entire bottom of the bed and steep slopes, hanging over them, allowing only narrow footpaths. Between the ranges of the mountains stretch alpine plateaus, whose average level is 1400–2000 meters. There are little forests in Lakia. Most likely they were cut down to increase the area of grazing land for livestock.

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