CAUCASUS

Russian Kavkaz, mountain system and region lying between the Black and Azov seas (west) and the Caspian Sea (east) and occupied by Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia. The Caucasus Mountains. The great historic barrier of the Caucasus Mountains rises up across the wide isthmus separating the Black and Caspian seas in the region where Europe and Asia converge. Trending generally from northwest to southeast, the mountains consist of two rangesthe Greater Caucasus (Russian: Bolshoy Kavkaz) in the north and the Lesser Caucasus (Maly Kavkaz) in the south. Mount Elbrus in the Greater Caucasus range, at 18,510 feet (5,642 metres), is the highest peak. The watershed of the Greater Caucasus, the backbone of the system, traditionally has been part of the line dividing Europe and Asia; but the whole region is so subject to Asian influences that there is now general agreement for assigning the Caucasus to Asia. The name Caucasus is a Latinized form of Kaukasos, which the ancient Greek geographers and historians used; the Russian Kavkaz is of the same origin. The ultimate derivation is thought to be from Kaz-kaz, the Hittite name for a people living on the southern shore of the Black Sea. This ancient nomenclature reflects the historical importance of the region: the Greeks made the mysterious range the scene of the mythical sufferings of Prometheus, and the Argonauts sought the Golden Fleece in the land of Colchis (modern Kolkhida Lowland), nestling against the range on the Black Sea coast. The ranges also became a major land route for cultural diffusion from south to north of the Middle Eastern Fertile Crescent civilizations. The peoples of the region have exhibited an extraordinary ethnic and cultural diversity since early times: the Colchians, for example, as described in the 5th century BC by the Greek historian Herodotus, were black-skinned Egyptians, though their true origin remains unclear. In subsequent centuries, successive waves of peoples migrating across Eurasia added to and were molded by the more established groups in the region. Not surprisingly, a greater variety of different languages are spoken in Caucasia than in any other area of similar size in the world. Caucasia is defined as the region including not only the mountain ranges of the Caucasus proper but also the country immediately north and south of them. The land north of the Greater Caucasus is called Ciscaucasia (Predkavkazye, or Hither Caucasia); that south of it is Transcaucasia (Zakavkazye, or Farther Caucasia). The whole region, which has an area of 170,000 square miles (440,000 square kilometres), is, nevertheless, predominantly mountainous. It extends southward from the lowlands of the Kuma and Manych river basins in the north to the northern frontiers of Turkey and Iran in the south and so constitutes the southernmost extent of Russia (including Dagestan); the Transcaucasian republics of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan; and several minor administrative units constituted on an ethnic basis. Russian Kavkaz, region and mountain system lying between the Black and Azov seas (west) and the Caspian Sea (east) and occupied by Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia. The Caucasus is part of the traditional dividing line between Europe and Asia, but there now is general agreement for assigning the mountains wholly to Asia. The Greater Caucasus range extends for approximately 750 miles (1,200 km) southeastward along the breadth of the Caucasus region. The country north of the Greater Caucasus is called Ciscaucasia; the region south of the range is called Transcaucasia. The western Greater Caucasus range near Mount Dombay-Ulgen, Stavropol kray (region), Russia. The Greater Caucasus is a series of ranges running generally northwest-southeast, including the principal peaks of Mount Elbrus (18,510 feet ), Mount Dykhtau (17,073 feet ), and Mount Shkhara (16,627 feet ). The Greater Caucasus has more than 2,000 glaciers, which cover about 1 percent of its total area. The Caucasus Mountains are crossed by several passes, notably the Mamison and the Daryal, and by the Georgian Military Road and the Ossetian Military Road, which connect Ciscaucasia with Transcaucasia to the south. Ciscaucasia north of the Greater Caucasus consists of vast plains, much of them under cultivation for cereals. Transcaucasia is dominated by similar plains and by the Lesser, or Little, Caucasus range. Water power resources are considerable. The deepest and most powerful rivers are the Rioni, the Kura, and the Araks. Lake Sevan is the largest lake of the Caucasus. The mountain slopes of the Caucasus are covered with forests, which include oak, chestnut, beech and alder, Caucasian fir, ash, and linden. Animal life includes chamois, red deer, bear, lynx, fox, and two species of mountain goat. The clear rivers and lakes are full of trout. The Caucasus is rich in deposits of various minerals, including coal, iron ore, lead, zinc, copper, molybdenum, and manganese. Petroleum is exploited in Azerbaijan and in Krasnodar and Stavropol kraya (regions), and natural gas deposits have acquired great importance. Additional reading Literature on the mountain ranges within the former U.S.S.R. is scarce, especially in English. N.A. Gvozdetskii, Kavkaz: ocherk prirody (1963), discusses the wealth and diversity of the natural environment and focuses on the economic value of the natural resources of the Caucasus. More detailed treatment of the physical environment is offered in N.V. Dumitrashko (ed.), Kavkaz (1966). Only descriptive works are available in English: Douglas W. Freshfield, The Exploration of Caucasus, 2nd ed., 2 vol. (1902), a classic work by a famous English alpinist; Michael Pereira, Across the Caucasus (1973); and Fitzroy Maclean, The Caucasus, the End of All the Earth: An Illustrated Companion to the Caucasus and Transcaucasia (1976). The life of the peoples of the region, their customs, and social conditions are discussed in Tamara Dragadze, Rural Families in Soviet Georgia: A Case Study in Ratcha Province (1988); Ronald Grigor Suny, The Making of the Georgian Nation (1988); and Paula Garb, From Childhood to Centenarian (1984). Nikolay Andreyevich Gvozdetsky Solomon Ilich Bruk