In Dagestan - which the Foreign Office warns against visiting - Levison experiences warrior clans' hospitality, stunning beauty and ancient cities. Then it's on to country-of-contrasts Azerbaijan.

Levison meets nomadic shepherds and dangerous dogs in the Gobustan desert, climbs to a castle halfway up a cliff, visits Stalin's birthplace and meets a hermit monk who lives atop a 45-metre monolith.

Levison experiences breath-taking landscapes, bizarre ruins, and a sufi ceremony and crosses Chechnya - now ruled by a terrifying strongman - into Dagestan, where terrorists hide out in the mountains.

Levison and Rasheed head into the remote mountains on the journey to Igushetia, accompanied by a government minder as the area has had problems with Islamist terrorist attacks. Walking through what feels like an unknown paradise untouched for hundreds of years, Levison finds piles of bones - the remnants of ancient Ingush burial ceremonies - in centuries old fortified towers.