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Chechnya, also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, republic in southwestern Russia, situated on the northern flank of the Greater Caucasus range.

The first known settlement of what is now Chechnya is thought to have occurred around 12500 BCE, in mountain-cave settlements, whose inhabitants used basic tools, fire, and animal hides.

Chechnya is bordered by Russia proper on the north, Dagestan republic on the east and southeast, the country of Georgia on the southwest, and Ingushetiya republic on the west.

Traces of human settlement go back to 40000 BCE with cave paintings and artifacts around Lake Kezanoi.

In the early 21st century, more than a decade of bitter conflict had devastated the republic, forced the mass exodus of refugees, and brought the economy to a standstill. Area 4,750 square miles (12,300 square km). Pop. (2008 est.) 1,209,040.

Chechnya is a predominantly Muslim and semi-autonomous Russian republic in the North Caucasus with a population of roughly 1.27 million people.

Chechnya Land

Chechnya falls into three physical regions from south to north. In the south is the Greater Caucasus, the crest line of which forms the republic’s southern boundary.

It borders the country of Georgia, the semi-autonomous Russian republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia, North Ossetia-Alania and Stavropol Krai in Russia proper.

The highest peak is Mount Tebulosmta (14,741 feet [4,493 metres]), and the area’s chief river is the Argun, a tributary of the Sunzha.

The second region is the foreland, consisting of the broad valleys of the Terek and Sunzha rivers, which cross the republic from the west to the east, where they unite.

Third, in the north, are the level, rolling plains of the Nogay Steppe.

The great variety of relief is reflected in the soil and vegetation cover.

Chechens are muslim but they are Chechens first, a Chechen woman who picks a non Chechen men is going to get severely and physically reprimanded along with her non Chechen boyfriend.

The Nogay Steppe is largely semidesert, with sagebrush vegetation and wide areas of sand dunes.

Chechnya, officially the Chechen Republic, is a federal subject of Russia.

This gives way toward the south and southwest, near the Terek River, to feather-grass steppe on black earth and chestnut soils.

It is located in the North Caucasus, situated in the southernmost part of Eastern Europe, and within 100 kilometres of the Caspian Sea.

Steppe also occupies the Terek and Sunzha valleys.

Up to 6,500 feet (2,000 metres) the mountain slopes are densely covered by forests of beech, hornbeam, and oak, above which are coniferous forests, then alpine meadows, and finally bare rock, snow, and ice. The climate varies but is, in general, continental.

Chechnya has been much in the news this past week due to the two alleged Boston bombers being ethnic Chechens.

Chechnya’s main ethnic group is the Chechens, with minorities of Russians and Ingush. The Chechens and the Ingush are both Muslim and are two of the many Caucasian mountain peoples whose language belongs to the Nakh group.

Fiercely independent, the Chechens and other Caucasian tribes mounted a prolonged resistance to Russian conquest from the 1830s through the ’50s under the Muslim leader Shāmil.

Chechnya lies to the south of the Russian Republic and is bound by Russia on almost all sides - it shares a border with Georgia high in the Caucasus Mountains.

They remained successful while the Russians were occupied with the Crimean War, but the Russians used larger forces in their later campaigns, and, when Shāmil was captured in 1859, many of his followers migrated to Armenia.