People & Language
The Khinalug and a language spoken nowhere else in the world.
The people of one village
The Khinalug are a small, distinctive people living in a single village. In all about two thousand people live here. Over thousands of years in isolation they have preserved their own identity, their customs and — above all — their language, which no neighbour has.
A language unique in the world
The Khinalug language belongs to the Northeast Caucasian (East Caucasian) family but stands apart within it — it is a language isolate, unlike the languages of the neighbouring peoples. It is spoken only in Khinalug and nowhere else on earth. The villagers speak it alongside Azerbaijani, but among themselves they speak Khinalug — and so they guard one of the rarest treasures of the Caucasus.
Mosques and traces of ancient fires
The Khinalug are Muslims; in the small village there are several mosques. But the mountains remember more ancient times too: with these places are linked traces of pre-Islamic beliefs and of the veneration of fire, reaching back to the Zoroastrian past of the Caucasus. So in Khinalug the ages are intertwined — from ancient fires to today's prayer.
Recognised by humanity
In 2023 the cultural landscape of Khinalug, together with the ancient transhumance route 'Köç Yolu', was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. So the world recognised what the Khinalug had guarded for centuries: a rare example of a living, sustainable mountain culture unbroken for thousands of years.
As long as Khinalug speech sounds in Khinalug, a language lives on earth that exists nowhere else.