Buynaksk is a town in the Republic of Dagestan, Russia, located at the foothills of the Greater Caucasus on the Shura-Ozen River, 40km southwest of the republic's capital Makhachkala. Population: 40,000 .HistoryBefore 1922 Buynaksk was known as Temir-Khan-Shurá, that is, the lake or cliff of Tamerlane who is said to have camped here in 1396 after defeating Tokhtamysh during the Tokhtamysh-Timur war. It first appears in Russian annals in the 1590s when Muscovite ambassadors passed nearby on their way to Georgia. It remained a small town ruled by a Bek. In 1830 the Russians destroyed it when it sided with Kazi Mulla. In 1832 a Russian force under Klugenau camped here during Rosen's raid on Gimry. In 1834 Klugenau built a fort on the rock above the lake and it soon became the headquarters of the Apsheron Regiment and the most important Russian fort in the interior of Degestan during the Murid War. In 1849 Hadji Murad led a daring raid into the town. The place was unhealthy and Argutinsky drained the lake in 1858 to prevent the spread of disease. It was granted town status in 1866. In 1920, it was the center of the ephemeral Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus. On November 13, 1920, the government of the Russian SFSR declared Dagestan's autonomy during the congress of the Dagestani people, which took place in Temir-Khan-Shura. In 1922, the town was renamed Buynaksk in honor of a revolutionary Ullubiy Buynaksky. In May 1970, Buynaksk was badly damaged by an earthquake.