The Greater Caucasus ( az, Böyük Qafqaz, Бөјүк Гафгаз, بيوک قافقاز; ka, დიდი კავკასიონი, ''Didi K’avk’asioni''; russian: Большой Кавказ, ''Bolshoy Kavkaz'', sometimes translated as "''Caucasus Major''", "''Big Caucasus''" or "''Large Caucasus''") is the major mountain range of the Caucasus Mountains. The range stretches for about from west-northwest to east-southeast, between 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 (Temperate deciduous forest, 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 Asia and Europe, boundary between Eastern Europe and Western Asia. The European part north of the watershed is known as North Caucasus, 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 Region, Eastern Anatolia. Most of the border of Russia with Georgia (country), 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 Qajar dynasty, Persia in the south in 1801, until the Russo-Persian War (1804–1813), Russian victory in 1813 and the Treaty of Gulistan which moved the border of the Russian Empire well within Transcaucasia.Encyclopædia Britannica o 1833
vol 5, p. 251
The border between Georgia (country), 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 District, Khachmaz, Quba District (Azerbaijan), Quba, Qusar District, Qusar, Shabran District, Shabran, and Siyazan District, Siazan).

Peaks

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

Passes

*Bogovatchosgele Pass , *Abano Pass , *Mamison Pass , *Datvisjvari Pass , *Marukhi Pass ,) *Pereval Klukhorskiy , *Georgian Military Road, Jvari Pass , *Dübrar Pass ,

References