43°00′34″N 46°49′40″E / 43.00944°N 46.82778°E
The Sulak Canyon (Avar: Сулахъ кӏкIал, Russian: Сулакский каньон) is a steep-sided deepest canyon in Europe carved by the Sulak River in Dagestan, Russia. The Sulak Canyon is 53 kilometres (33 mi) long, and attains a depth of over a mile (1,920 meters or 6,300 feet). It is 63 meters deeper than the Grand Canyon in the US and 620 meters deeper than the Tara River Canyon in Balkans.
Dagestan (/ˌdæɡɪˈstæn, -ˈstɑːn/ DAG-i-STA(H)N; Russian: Дагестан; IPA: [dəɡʲɪˈstan]), officially the Republic of Dagestan, is a republic of Russia situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, along the Caspian Sea. It is located north of the Greater Caucasus, and is a part of the North Caucasian Federal District. The republic is the southernmost tip of Russia, sharing land borders with the countries of Azerbaijan and Georgia to the south and southwest, the Russian republics of Chechnya and Kalmykia to the west and north, and with Stavropol Krai to the northwest. Makhachkala is the republic's capital and largest city; other major cities are Derbent, Kizlyar, Izberbash, Kaspiysk, and Buynaksk.
Dagestan covers an area of 50,300 square kilometres (19,400 square miles), with a population of over 3.1 million, consisting of over 30 ethnic groups and 81 nationalities. With 14 official languages, and 12 ethnic groups each constituting more than 1% of its total population, the republic is one of Russia's most linguistically and ethnically diverse, and one of the most heterogeneous administrative divisions in the world. Most of the residents speak one of the Northeast Caucasian, or Turkic languages; however, Russian is the primary language and the lingua franca in the republic. Dagestan is known internationally for its strong culture of combat sambo, many of their fighters later turned to mixed martial arts.
The Tara River Canyon (Montenegrin: Kanjon Tare, Serbian Cyrillic: Кањон Таре; [kǎɲɔːn târɛː]), also known as the Tara River Gorge, is the river canyon of the Tara river. It is for the most part located in Montenegro, and in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The most attractive part of the canyon are the high rocks of the mountain range of Ljubišnja, which are located in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Durmitor National Park. Also in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the canyon is designated nature park, and is called Tara Nature Park.
Known as "The Tear of Europe," the Tara River Gorge stands as the deepest canyon in continental Europe, the second deepest in Europe behind the Sulak Canyon, and also behind the Grand Canyon for third deepest globally.