Caucasus

The Caucasus, also known as the Russian Kavkaz, is a mountainous area between the Black Sea in the west and the Caspian Sea in the east that is inhabited by Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia.

The name Caucasus is a Latinized version of the ancient Greek name Kaukasos, which was used by Greek geographers and historians; it shares this origin with the Russian word Kavkaz. The Hittite name for a people who lived on the southern shore of the Black Sea, KaK-Kaz, is assumed to be the ultimate derivation.

In the area where Europe and Asia meet, the massive Caucasus Mountains rise across the vast isthmus separating the Black and Caspian oceans. The mountains are made up of two ranges, the Greater Caucasus in the north and the Lesser Caucasus (Maly Kavkaz) in the south, and they generally run from northwest to southeast.

The tallest mountain in the Greater Caucasus range is Mount Elbrus, which rises 18,510 feet (5,642 meters). The Greater Caucasus watershed, the system's axis, has long been considered part of the line separating Europe from Asia, but Europe's eastern border has been hotly contested. One widely used theory places the region's northern and southern boundaries along the crest of the Greater Caucasus mountain range, with the former belonging to Europe and the latter to Asia.

Location: lying between the Black Sea (west) and the Caspian Sea (east)

Length of range: 680 mi