Caucasus Visuals

We’ve got a new name. Pan Caucasus is now Caucasus Visuals. Nothing is changing about the content you came here for. We’ll keep exploring the Caucasus through history, art, photography, architecture, and visual storytelling. Same page. Same focus. New identity. Thank you for following along.

Commander of the 2nd Sotnia (Squadron) of the Dagestan Permanent Militia, Captain Aleskender Bek Alypkachev (Kumyk), 1860s. Photo: Fedor Petrov / Photographic Establishment of the General Staff of the Caucasian Army of the Russian Imperial Army.

Liza Tuganova with her husband Murtuza Mukhtarov. Baku, 1910s. Murtuza Mukhtar oglu Mukhtarov (1857-1920), an oil industrialist, inventor, and philanthropist, an ethnic Tat (Caucasian Persian) from the village of Amirjan in Azerbaijan, who worked his way up from a simple laborer to one of the wealthiest people in the Caucasus at the beginning of the 20th century. Mukhtarov funded hospitals, paid for the education of talented students from poor families, and donated vast sums to charitable organizations. His wife Liza (1876-?), an Ossetian, the daughter of the Tsarist general Khambi Tuganov. In April 1920, Murtuza Mukhtarov shot the Red Army soldiers who burst into his mansion and then committed suicide. The Soviet authorities nationalized Mukhtarov's property and allocated his widow a tiny room in the basement of her own home. She later managed to emigrate to France, where, stripped of her former wealth, she lived in extreme poverty.

A 14th-century pillar at the entrance to a mosque in the Lezgin village of Kurakh. Dagestan ASSR, 1952. Photo: Leonid Lavrov (1909-1982)

Abkhazian women in traditional mourning attire, 1993. Photo: Andrei Soloviev (1953-1993) / ITAR-TASS

Beyond Sochi, 2013. Photo: Thomas Dworzak / Magnum Photos

Rural portraits. Armenia, 2026. Photo: Garik Avanesian

Portrait of a young Kalmyk woman. Photo: Rada Sadygova

Abkhazians performing a prayer to the deity Afy - the god of lightning and thunder, according to the ancient beliefs of the Abkhaz people. Photo: Salima and Sariya Khashig The prayer is conducted on the family's sacred day, once every five years. The priest, addressing Afy, asks for the family's well-being. Only members of the clan are allowed to attend.

Georgian and Ossetian cultural figures at the unveiling of the Kosta Khetagurov monument. Tskhinvali, South Ossetian Autonomy, July 28, 1940. The monument to the classic of Ossetian literature, created by sculptor Inal Dzantiev, was originally planned to be completed for the poet's 80th anniversary in 1939, but the work was finished a year later.

Gurian hunter from Chokhatauri. Western Georgia, 1930s. Photo / Archive of the National Parliamentary Library of Georgia

Old Kabardian master Elmirza Sheozhev with a "kabak" - a shooting target. Stary Lesken village, Kabardian ASSR, 1947.

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@caucasusvisuals aul = barn?

Captured Shapsug boy and a Shapsug Circassian, 1850s. Artist: Theodor Horschelt (1829-1871) The Shapsugs are one of the Circassian tribes.

Bagin, a fighting dog breeder from the Avar village of Sogratl, Dagestan. shandi_ / IG

"Abkhazia Sings", a vinyl record cover of a song compilation by the State Merited Ensemble of Folk Song and Dance of Abkhazia. "Art of the Peoples of the USSR" series, 1972.

Balkar wedding, Kabardino-Balkaria. Photo: Rustam Nakhushev