Vladikavkaz is the capital of North Ossetia republic, southwestern Russia. It lies along the Terek River and on the northern slopes of the Caucasus Mountains. Founded in 1784 as a fortress during the Russian conquest of the Caucasian region, it was long the military and political center of Russia in the Caucasus. It was made the capital of the Gorskaya (Mountain People's) ASSR in 1921, which in 1936 became the North Ossetian ASSR. It was renamed Ordzhonikidze in 1932, Dzaudzhikau in 1944, again Ordzhonikidze in 1954, and once again Vladikavkaz in 1990. The famous Kazbek Peak rises just above the city. Modern Vladikavkaz is an industrial and the oldest cultural centre of the North Caucasus. By the beginning of the 1990s, the city had the largest industrial enterprises in North Ossetia of all-Russian significance: the Electrocontactor factory , factory of automobile and tractor electrical equipment , an electrolamp factory, an instrument-making factory, a factory of process equipment for poultry farms, Gazoapparat, the Electrozinc factory The gridiron pattern of streets in Vladikavkaz, going in parallel and at the right angle to the Terek River, appeared in the 19th - 20th centuries. The left bank of the Terek is the site of a Sunnite Mosque . In the 1920 - 1950s, the city was renovated and equipped with modern services and utilities.