
Political Map Of South Caucasus

Geopolitical map
The
Caucasus or
Caucas (also
referred to as
Caucasia, ; , ; , , ) is a
geopolitical region at the border of
Europe
and
Asia.
It is home to the Caucasus
Mountains
, including Europe's highest mountain (Mount Elbrus
).
North Caucasus comprises:
South Caucasus comprises:
Etymology
The word Caucasus derives from
Caucas, the
ancestor of the North Caucasians. He was a son of
Togarmah, grandson of Biblical
Noah's third son
Japheth.
According
to Leonti Mroveli after the fall of
the Tower of Babel and the division
of humanity into different languages, Togarmah settled with his sons: Kartlos, Haik (Georgian:ჰაოს, Haos),
Movakos, Lekos
(Lak people), Heros
(Kindgom of Hereti), Kavkas, and Egros (Kingdom of Egrisi) between two inaccessible
mountains, presumably Mount Ararat
and Mount
Elbrus
.
Geography and ecology
The lower
parts of the Caucasus
Mountains
are situated in the Greater Middle East area. They
are generally perceived to be a dividing line between Asia and
Europe, and territories in Caucasia are alternately considered to
be in one or both
continents.
The highest peak in
the Caucasus is Mount
Elbrus
(5,642 m) in the western Ciscaucasus in Russia,
which is the highest point in Europe
(according to the definitions of Europe as including
Caucasus).
The Caucasus is one of the most
linguistically and
culturally diverse regions on Earth.
The nation states that comprise the Caucasus today
are the post-Soviet states
Georgia
, Armenia
, and
Azerbaijan
. The Russian divisions include Krasnodar Krai, Stavropol Krai, and the autonomous republics
of Adygea
, Karachay-Cherkessia
, Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia
, Ingushetia
, Chechnya
, and Dagestan
. Three territories in the region claim
independence but are not universally 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 6400 species of higher plants, 1600 of which are
endemic to the region. Its wildlife includes
leopards,
brown
bears,
wolves,
European bisons,
marals,
golden eagles and
Hooded
Crows. Among
invertebrates, some
1000
spider species are recorded in the
Caucasus. The natural landscape is one of
mixed forest, with substantial areas
of rocky ground above the treeline. The Caucasus Mountains are also
noted for a
dog breed, the
Caucasian Shepherd Dog
(Ovcharka).
The
northern portion of the Caucasus is
known as the Ciscaucasus
and the southern
portion as the Transcaucasus.
The
Ciscaucasus contains the larger majority of the
Greater Caucasus Mountain range, also known as the Major Caucasus
mountains. It includes Southwestern Russia and northern parts of
Georgia and Azerbaijan.
The
Transcaucasus is bordered on the north by Russia
, on the west
by the Black
Sea
and Turkey
, on the east
by the Caspian
Sea
, and on the south by Iran
.
It
includes the Caucasus
Mountains
and surrounding lowlands. All of Armenia,
Azerbaijan (excluding the northern parts) and Georgia (excluding
the northern parts) are in South Caucasus.
History

Administrative map of Caucasus in
USSR, 1952-1991.
Located
on the peripheries of Turkey
and Russia
, the region
has been an arena for political, military, religious, and cultural
rivalries and expansionism for centuries. Throughout its
history, the Caucasus was usually incorporated into the
Iranian world.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the
Russian
Empire
conquered the territory from the Qajars.
Ancient
kingdoms of the region included Armenia
, Albania, Colchis
and Iberia, among others.
These kingdoms were later incorporated into various empires,
including
Media,
Achaemenid Empire,
Parthian Empire, and
Sassanid Empire. By this time,
Zoroastrianism had become the dominant
religion of the region; however, the region would go through two
other religious transformations. Owing to the rivalry between
Persia and
Rome, and later
Byzantium, the latter would invade the
region several times, although it was never able to hold the
region. However, because Armenia and Georgia had become a Christian
entity, Christianity began to overtake Zoroastrianism. With the
Islamic conquest of
Persia, the region came under the rule of the
Arabs. Armenia and the majority of Georgia maintained
Christianity and georgian king David The Builder drove the Muslims
out. The region would later be conquered by the
Seljuks,
Ottomans,
Mongols, local kingdoms and khanates, as well as,
once again, Persia, until its conquest by Russia.
The
region was unified as a single political entity twice – during the
Russian Civil War (Transcaucasian Democratic Federative
Republic
) from 9 April 1918 to 26 May 1918, and under the Soviet
rule
(Transcaucasian SFSR) from
12 March 1922 to
5 December 1936.
The Northern Caucasus has been under
Scythian influence in antiquity, while the Southern
Caucasus (
Caucasian Albania,
Colchis) was absorbed into the
Persian Empire.
In modern
times, the Caucasus became a region of war among the Ottoman Empire, Iran
and Russia
, and was
eventually conquered by the latter (see Caucasian Wars).
In the 1940s, the
Chechens and
Ingush (480,000 altogether), along with the
Balkars,
Karachays,
Meskhetian Turks (120,000),
Kurds and
Caucasus
Germans (almost 200,000) were
deported en masse to
Central Asia and Siberia.
Following
the end of the
Soviet Union
, Georgia
, Azerbaijan
and Armenia
became independent in 1991.The Caucasus
region is subject to various territorial disputes since the
collapse of the Soviet Union, leading to the
Nagorno-Karabakh War (1988–1994), the
Ossetian-Ingush conflict
(1989-1991), the
War
in Abkhazia , the
First Chechen
War (1994–1996), the
Second
Chechen War (1999–present), and the
2008 South Ossetia War.
Demographics

Ethno-Linguistic groups in the
Caucasus region 2009
The region has many different languages and languages families.
There are more than50 ethnic groups living in the region. No less
than three language families are unique to the area, but also
Indo-European languages such as
Armenian and
Ossetic, and the Altaic language
Azerbaijani are local to the
area.
The most numerous peoples of the Caucasian-language family are
Georgians (4,600,000);
Chechens (800,000); and
Avars (500,000).
Georgians are the
only Caucasian language-speaking people who have their own
independent state - Georgia
. Others of those peoples possess their
republics within the Russian
Federation
: Adyghe (Adygea
), Cherkes (Karachay-Cherkessia
), Kabardins (Kabardino-Balkaria), Ingush (Ingushetia
), Chechens (Chechnya
), while Northeast Caucasian peoples mostly live in
Dagestan
. Abkhazians live in
Abkhazia
, which is de facto independent, but de
jure is an autonomous republic within Georgia.
Today the peoples of the Northern and Southern Caucasus tend to be
either
Eastern Orthodox
Christians,
Oriental
Orthodox Christians, or
Sunni
Muslims.
Shia Islam has had many
adherents historically in Azerbaijan, located in the eastern part
of the region.
In mythology
In Greek mythology the Caucasus, or Kaukasos, was one of the
pillars supporting the world. After presenting man with the gift of
fire,
Prometheus was chained there by
Zeus, to have his liver eaten daily by an
eagle.
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.
The Indian Book Ramayana stated that the second wife of King
Dasharath and step mother of Lord Ram belong to country Kekaye
(Caucasus), thats why she was called as Queen Kekai.
Energy and mineral resources
Caucasus has many economically important
minerals and
energy resources,
such as:
alunite,
gold,
chromium,
copper,
iron ore,
mercury,
manganese,
molybdenum,
lead,
tungsten,
uranium,
zinc,
oil,
natural gas, and
coal (both
hard and
brown).
See also
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
- http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/caucasia
Merriam-Webster
- G.Qoranashvili (1995), Questions of Ethnic Identity
According to Leonti Mroveli's Historical Chronicles, Studies,
Vol. 1, Tbilisi.
- Endemic Species of the Caucasus
- Caucasian Spiders » CHECKLISTS & MAPS
- Thorez, Pierre. "Caucasus." Encyclopaedia
Iranica - 2 June 2007
- Caucasian peoples, Encyclopædia
Britannica
External links
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