Gunib Tunnel, or the Tsar’s Tunnel, as it is called by the locals. Year of construction: 1866-1867. Length 103 meters, height 6 meters, width 4 meters. The tunnel was built (cut manually) for strategic and communication purposes by Russian soldiers and local residents.

In the autumn of 1871, Emperor Alexander II arrived in Dagestan for the first time as the head of the Russian state. After visiting Port-Petrovsk and Temir-Khan-Shura, the emperor arrived in Gunib. Preparations for the emperor’s arrival were thorough. Roads were laid in the mountains, bridges were thrown over rivers, and near Gunib, a tunnel was cut directly into the rock.

The tunnel is pierced under one of the peaks of the Gunib plateau, called Kaligeg, and allows the shortest route through Mount Gunib from the Kara-Koysu valley to the Avar Koysu valley and further to Khunzakh.

It was built primarily for safety reasons — as an emergency exit from Gunib. Additionally, there was a superstition: it was improper for royal persons to travel the same road twice.

Before entering the tunnel, the royal procession switched from carriages to horseback and proceeded down a steep descent towards the Karadakh Gorge.

Knowing that the emperor enjoyed thrills, the officials organizing this excursion decided to entertain their patron. And so, when the royal cavalcade approached the gorge, suddenly a shout rang out from somewhere above. The tsar and his retinue looked up and froze in surprise. A mountaineer-beekeeper was descending the sheer rock face from a great height. After a while, he reached the bottom, approached Alexander II, and handed him a jug of honey.

After the Caucasian War, soldiers mined combustible shale here for the garrison stationed in Gunib. Up to 80,000 poods of fuel mined in the gorge were annually delivered on donkeys and carts to the Karadakh bridgehead fortification on the Avar Koysu.

Sources:

https://welcomedagestan.ru/placepost/gunibskij-tsarskij-tonnel/