Economy and Culture
The city is home to machine building, food, textile, fishing and fishery supplies, construction materials and wood industries. It is the production center of Russian brandy. The education infrastructure is fairly extensive; there is a university as well as several technical schools. On the cultural front, there is a Lezgin drama theater (named after S. Stalsky). About two kilometers from the city is the vacation colony of Chayka (Seagull).
Derbent, being in practice a huge museum and with magnificent mountains and shore nearby, a great potential for development of the tourism industry exists, further increased by UNESCO's classification of the Citadel, Ancient City and Fortress as a World Heritage Site in 2003; however, instability in the region has not allowed further development.
The Soviet novelist Yury Krymov named a fictional motor tanker after the city in his book The Tanker "Derbent".
Read more about this topic: Derbent
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