Buynaksk, known as Temir-Khan-Shura before 1922,'s a town in Dagestan, Russia, located at the foothills of the Greater Caucasus on the Shura-Ozen River, some 40 km south-west of Makhachkala. Population: 61,437 (2002 Census); 40,000 (1970). Buynaksk was founded in 1834 as a fortified outpost near the ruins of medieval Balanjar. It was granted town status in 1866. In 1920 it was the centre of the ephemeral Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus. On November 13, 1920, the government of the… (More on Buynaksk)