1,206-CITY ATLASSOURCE-BACKED CITY REFERENCE
Russia
Compare this sourced profile of Makhachkala, Russia before planning. Stable fields identify the place; confirm current transport, access and opening details with official sources.
01What the data says — and does not say
This page separates the checked GeoNames row for Makhachkala—596,356, Europe/Moscow, and source coordinates—from live travel claims. Those fields identify and compare the record; they do not prove current transport, accessibility, census totals, or a City Atlas Club visit.
Wikidata's localized description: city in Dagestan, Russia.
02This city's dataset fingerprint
The source row behind Makhachkala is GeoNames ID 532096. Its recorded administrative path is Dagestan → Russia, and GeoNames classifies the place as a first-order administrative seat. Makhachkala occurs once as a primary city label in this atlas sample; the numeric ID remains the durable source key if names change. The city row itself was updated 2026-04-14; that date belongs to the source record, not to every transport or visitor detail in the real destination.
Within the fixed 1,206-record atlas, Makhachkala ranks 936 by recorded population. Inside the 39 selected Russia entries it ranks 27; inside the 125 entries in its broad region it ranks 82. Its 596,356 population value is 0.92 times the 648,213 median for the country cohort and 0.90 times the 664,046 regional median. Makhachkala sits in the lower half of this atlas's selected Russia entries. Makhachkala's recorded value stays within one quarter of the country-cohort median used here. These comparisons describe this selected dataset only; they are not current census rankings or official urban-area boundaries.
Makhachkala's three nearest other atlas coordinates are Tbilisi at 261.681 km with 1,049,498 recorded people; Baku at 350.747 km with 2,351,300 recorded people; Astrakhan at 377.36 km with 533,925 recorded people. The closest-to-farthest distance spread is 115.679 km. Compared with Tbilisi, Makhachkala's recorded population is 0.57 times as large. Against Makhachkala, Tbilisi follows Tbilisi → Georgia in the source. Its point has lower latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the selected Georgia cohort rather than Russia, uses Asia/Tbilisi instead of Europe/Moscow, and carries capital of a political entity rather than first-order administrative seat. Its recorded population is above Makhachkala's. Against Makhachkala, Baku follows Baki → Azerbaijan in the source. Its point has lower latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the selected Azerbaijan cohort rather than Russia, uses Asia/Baku instead of Europe/Moscow, and carries capital of a political entity rather than first-order administrative seat. Its recorded population is above Makhachkala's. Against Makhachkala, Astrakhan follows Gorodskoy Okrug Astrakhan' → Astrakhan Oblast → Russia in the source. Its point has higher latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the same selected Russia cohort, uses Europe/Astrakhan instead of Europe/Moscow, and carries the same first-order administrative seat class. Its recorded population is below Makhachkala's. Its nearest-neighbor distance ranks 1,080 of 1,206 from shortest to longest in the same snapshot. Makhachkala's nearest-coordinate gap belongs to the wider half of atlas distances. This pattern can reveal whether other catalog references are geographically close, but it cannot establish whether a border crossing is possible or practical, or whether rail, road, fare, or journey-time connections exist. Read as one record signature, GeoNames 532096, the coordinate pair 42.9778 / 47.5003, country rank 27 of 39, and neighbor GeoNames 611717 at 261.681 km bind Makhachkala to a reproducible comparison. That combined key distinguishes the row; it is not a recommendation or evidence of a physical connection.
Makhachkala's reference point is 42.9778° north and 47.5003° east. The IANA identifier Europe/Moscow is shared by 15 city rows in this catalog, while the GeoNames class PPLA is shared by 429 rows. Makhachkala's row carries a first-order administrative label but no second-order label. Makhachkala's point falls in the middle-latitude coordinate band used by this atlas's row checks. Makhachkala's time-zone field defines the narrower catalog cohort; its place class is shared more broadly. GeoNames supplies no elevation for Makhachkala, so the profile preserves that missing value instead of guessing terrain. Together these fields form a reproducible identity check for this page, not a claim about walkability, climate or accessibility.
03Nearby atlas references
Makhachkala's closest other entries in this atlas are Tbilisi (261.681 km), Baku (350.747 km), Astrakhan (377.36 km).
04Verify before you book
Before visiting Makhachkala, confirm changing decisions with current first-party sources:
Read how City Atlas Club verifies changing travel facts →05Sources and freshness
GeoNames updated the row 2026-04-14; the atlas checked the dataset 2026-08-04. Available Wikidata fields were verified in the same run.
GeoNames data: CC BY 4.0. Wikidata labels and descriptions: CC0 1.0.