Caucasus
Categories: Eastern Europe | Middle East | Caucasus
The Caucasus, a region bordering Asia Minor, is located between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea which includes the Caucasus Mountains and surrounding lowlands. The highest peak is Mount Elbrus (5642m).
The nations that comprise today's Caucasus include Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and parts of Russia. The northern slopes of the Caucasus are in the Russian Federation: Krasnodar Krai, Stavropol Krai and the autonomous republics Adygea, Kalmykia, Karachay-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia, Ingushetia, Chechnya and Dagestan. The northern section of the Caucasus is known as the Ciscaucasus, and the southern as the Transcaucasus.
Three nationalistic political entities, comprising part of the area, claim independence, but are not acknowledged by international institutions: Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh and South Ossetia. The Caucasus is one of the most linguistically and culturally diverse places on Earth. The Caucasus region (Caucasia) is geographically a part of Asia (thus the Farsi name Qafqaz), but historically and culturally it is often seen as a part of Europe.
The Biblical Mount Ararat where Noah's Ark is said to have landed is regarded as the landmark of the ancient Armenian realm. The peak of Ararat is seasonally capped with snow. In Greek mythology, the Caucasus, or Kaukasos was one of the pillars supporting the world. Prometheus was chained there by Zeus. The Roman poet Ovid placed Caucasus in Scythia and depicted it as a cold and stony mountain which was the abode of personified hunger. Cheese is a major product of this region.
See also
- Caucasian languages
- Ibero-Caucasian languages
- Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline
- Ciscaucasus
- Transcaucasus.
External links
- BBC News: North Caucasus at a glance, September 8 2005]
- United Nations Environment Programme map: Landcover of the Caucasus
- United Nations Environment Programme map: Population density of the Caucasus
- Some Basic Facts about Caucasian Rugs
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