Greater Caucasus

The Greater CaucasusTemplate:EfnTemplate:Efn is the major mountain range of the Caucasus Mountains. It stretches for about from west-northwest to east-southeast, from the Taman Peninsula of the Black Sea to the Absheron Peninsula of the Caspian Sea: from the Western Caucasus in the vicinity of Sochi on the northeastern shore of the Black Sea and reaching nearly to Baku on the Caspian.

Geography

The range is traditionally separated into three parts:

• The Western Caucasus between the Black Sea and Mount Elbrus
• The Central Caucasus between Mount Elbrus and Mount Kazbek
• The Eastern Caucasus between Mount Kazbek and the Caspian Sea

In the wetter Western Caucasus, the mountains are heavily forested (deciduous forest up to , coniferous forest up to and alpine meadows above the tree line). In the drier Eastern Caucasus, the mountains are mostly treeless.

Europe–Asia boundary

The watershed of the Caucasus is also considered by some to be the boundary between Eastern Europe and Western Asia. The European part to the north of the watershed is known as Ciscaucasia; the Asiatic part to the south as Transcaucasia, which is dominated by the Lesser Caucasus mountain range and whose western portion converges with Eastern Anatolia.

Most of the border of Russia with Georgia and Azerbaijan runs along most of the Caucasus' length. The Georgian Military Road (Darial Gorge) and Trans-Caucasus Highway traverse this mountain range at altitudes of up to .

Watershed

The watershed of the Caucasus was the border between the Caucasia province of the Russian Empire in the north and the Ottoman Empire and Persia in the south (1801) until the Russian victory in 1813 and the Treaty of Gulistan which moved the border of the Russian Empire well within Transcaucasia. The border between Georgia and Russia still follows the watershed almost exactly (except for Georgia's western border, which extends south of the watershed, and a narrow strip of territory in northwestern Kakheti and northern Mtskheta-Mtianeti where Georgia extends north of the watershed), while Azerbaijan is south of the watershed except that its northeastern corner has five districts north of the watershed (Khachmaz, Quba, Qusar, Shabran, and Siazan).

Peaks

File:Kazbeghi.jpg

14th-century Georgian Orthodox Gergeti Trinity Church building, with Mount Kazbek in the background

• Mount Elbrus, , is the highest mountain in Europe.
• Dykh-Tau, ,
• Shkhara, ,
• Koshtan-Tau, ,
• Shota Rustaveli Peak, ,
• Kazbek (Mkinvartsveri), ,
• Tebulosmta, ,
• Diklosmta, ,
• Bazardüzü, ,
• Babadag, ,
• Katyn-Tau, ,
• Template:Ill, ,
• Janga, ,
• Tetnuldi, ,
• Ushba, ,
• Ailama, ,
• Mount Karakaya, , , highest of the Skalisty Range, Caucasus

Passes

• Bogovatchosgele Pass ,
• Abano Pass ,
• Mamison Pass ,
• Datvisjvari Pass ,
• Marukhi Pass ,)
• Pereval Klukhorskiy ,
• Jvari Pass ,
• Dübrar Pass ,

See also

• Lesser Caucasus
• Skalisty Range, Caucasus
• Tumsoy-Lam (mountain)