Nalchik is the capital city of Kabardino-Balkaria, a republic located in the very south of the Russian federation. The city comprises some 300'000 inhabitants and can thus be considered - by Russian standards - a small to medium sized town.Nalchik, like the republic around it, is ethnically mixed. The majority of the population is Kabarda a sub-group of the Cherkess, also called Circassian people. They speak a dialect of the Adygue language, a Caucasian language with no equivalent elsewhere. Most Kabardas are muslims. Ethnic minorities include Balkars a turkic speaking muslim population, russian and cosaques ethnic russian having settled in the Caucasus for generations having thus somehow adapted their ways to the region.
