Caucasus

This article is about the geographic region in Eurasia. For other uses, see Caucasus (disambiguation) and Caucasia (disambiguation).

Administrative map of Caucasus in USSR, 1952-1991.

The Caucasus, also referred to as Caucasia, is a geopolitical, mountain-barrier region located between the two continents of Europe and Asia, or Eurasia, with various altitude highlands and lowlands.

South Caucasus

The South Caucasus, or Transcaucasus, is a region in south-central Eurasia bordered on the north by Russia, on the west by the Black Sea, on the east by the Caspian Sea, on the southwest by Turkey, and on the south by Iran. The Caucasus includes the Caucasus Mountains and surrounding lowlands. See also: South Caucasus

North Caucasus

The North Caucasus, or Ciscaucasus, is a region in north-central Eurasia and contains the larger majority of the Greater Caucasus Mountain range, also once known as the Major Caucasus mountains.

Geography

The Caucasus Mountains are commonly reckoned as a dividing line between Asia and Europe, and territories in Caucasia are variably considered to be in one or both continents. The northern portion of the Caucasus is known as the Ciscaucasus and the southern portion as the Transcaucasus. The highest peak in the Caucasus is Mount Elbrus (5,642 m) which, in the western Ciscaucasus in Russia, is generally considered the highest point in Europe.

The Caucasus is one of the most linguistically and culturally diverse regions on Earth. The nation-states that compose the Caucasus today are the post-Soviet states Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan; and northeast reigon of Turkey and various parts of Russia. The Russian divisions include Krasnodar Krai, Stavropol Krai, and the autonomous republics of Adygea, Kalmykia, Karachay-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia, Ingushetia, Chechnya, and Dagestan. Three territories in the region claim independence but are not acknowledged as nation-states by the international community: Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh and South Ossetia.

The Caucasus is an area of great ecological importance. It harbors some 6,400 species of higher plants, 1,600 of which are endemic to the region.http://www.endemic-species-caucasus.info/ Its native animals include leopards, brown bears, wolves, European bison, marals and golden eagles. Among invertebrates, some 1,000 spider species are recorded in the Caucasushttp://caucasus-spiders.info/introduction/checklists/. The natural landscape is one of mixed forest, with substantial areas of rocky ground above the treeline. The Caucasus Mountains are also famous for a dog breed, the Caucasian Shepherd Dog (Ovcharka).

Affiliated states

• Russia
• Georgia
• Turkey
• Armenia
• Azerbaijan
• Iran

Previous states

• Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic

Myths and religions

The Biblical Mount Ararat where Noah\'s Ark is said to have landed is sometimes regarded as the landmark of the ancient Armenian realm. The peak of Ararat is seasonally capped with snow and located in modern-day, far-east Turkey.

In Greek mythology, the Caucasus or Kaukasos was one of the pillars supporting the world. Prometheus was chained there by Zeus after Prometheus had presented man with the gift of fire.

The Roman poet Ovid placed Caucasus in Scythia and depicted it as a cold and stony mountain which was the abode of personified hunger. The Greek hero Jason sailed to the west coast of the Caucasus in pursuit of the Golden Fleece, and there met the famed Medea.

Today the peoples of the Northern and Southern Caucasus tend to be either Orthodox Christians or Sunni Muslims. There is also a very strong historic prescence of Shia Islam in Azerbaijan, to the east of the region.

See also

• Peoples of the Caucasus
• Transcontinental nations
• South Caucasus
• Languages of the Caucasus
• Islam in Russia
• Russian-Circassian War
• Prometheism

References

• Caucasus: A Journey to the Land Between Christianity and Islam By Nicholas Griffin
• Small Nations and Great Powers: A Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict in the Caucasus By Svante E. Cornell
• The Caucasus By Ivan Golovin

External links

• Ethnographic map of Caucasus
• (Caucasian Review of International Affairs - an academic journal on the South Caucasus)
• Caucasus Wiki
• 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
• Caucasus and Iran entry in Encyclopaedia Iranica
• University of Turin-Observatory on Caucasus

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia