The history of the beginning of names of geographical features of south-east Dagestan as a cultural-historical heritage of the region

The article deals with materials on the South-East part of Dagestan, the place-name terminology as toponymic and linguistic images of geographical features. In the process of historical analysis, the authors are considered the place-name terminology as: 1) the kind of the settlements; 2) parts of the settlements; 3) the settlements that occurred in the mountainous areas; 4) the place-names that occurred during migration. In the article there are provided examples of each type of the place-name terminology on concrete geographical names of South-East Dagestan. Many examples were taken from the Dictionary of toponymy of South-East Dagestan, developed by one of the authors of this article.