The Avars are the largest ethnic group of Dāghistān (capital, Makhachkala) in the Northeast Caucasus and form smaller communities in adjoining regions. About 500,000 of the 600,000 Avars live in Dāghistān (especially in the Andi and Avar Qoy Su region), where the Avar nationality often includes smaller, linguistically related groupings. Ethnic identification, in a region of more than thirty distinct ethnicities, is often situational and includes strong "sub-ethnic" identities. The Avar self-designation is maʿarulal "mountaineers" (< Avar meʿer "mountain," although this etymology is disputed; Arutyunov, Osmanov,