Abkhaz Ridge or Chkhalta Ridge ( ka , აფხაზეთის ქედი, ''apkhazetis kedi''; , ''Apsnytvi ridge''Instructions for the Russian transfer of geographical names of the Abkhaz ASSR. - M .: Nauka, 1977. - P. 11.) —

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have aris ...

Abkhazia Abkhazia, officially the Republic of Abkhazia, is a List of states with limited recognition, partially recognised state in the South Caucasus, on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, at the intersection of Eastern Europe and West Asia. It cover ...

, on the southern slopes of

Greater Caucasus The Greater Caucasus, ''Didi K’avk’asioni''; 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 t ...

. Ridge provides

drainage divide A drainage divide, water divide, ridgeline, watershed, water parting or height of land is elevated terrain that separates neighboring drainage basins. On rugged land, the divide lies along topographical ridges, and may be in the form of a single ...

between the Chkhalta River

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

and basins of the Amtkeli, Jambali, Kuabchari and Zimi rivers.

Geography

The ridge serves as an eastern continuation of the

Bzyb Range Bzyb Mountain Range
GeoNames ( ka, ბზიფის ქედი, ''bzipis kedi''; , ''Ageish'kha'') is a ...

, from which it is separated by a low cofferdam pass Amtkeli, in the area of which the river Kelasuri begins, the valley of which separates southern spurs of two ridges. It stretches in accordance with the direction of folding parallel to the Main Caucasian (Dividing) ridge, from which it is separated by the upper reaches of the

Bzyb River The Bzyb or Bzipi ( or ; ka, ბზიფი, Bzipi; ) is (along with the Kodori) one of the two longest rivers of Abkhazia and the twelfth longest river in Georgia. The river valley has rich biodiversity of herbaceous garden plants, particularl ...

and the valley Chkhalta River. The length of the ridge is about 60 km, the height is up to 3026 m. Notable

mountain peaks A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used only for a ...

: (3026 m),Mta Shkhap’izga 3026 m

GeoNames GeoNames (or GeoNames.org) is a user-editable geographical database available and accessible through various web services, under a Creative Commons attribution license. The project was founded in late 2005. The GeoNames dataset differs from, b ...

(2638 m),Gora Shaudidi ca. 2526 m

(2670 m),Gora Atsgara 2670 m

Zurgia (2295 m) and others. A ridge with sharp mountain glacial forms (traces of significant ancient glaciation), modern glaciation is insignificant: three

cirque glacier {{No footnotes, date=October 2024 A cirque glacier is formed in a cirque, a bowl-shaped depression on the side of or near mountains. Snow and ice accumulation in corries often occurs as the result of avalanching from higher surrounding slopes. If ...

s with a total area of no more than 1 km². The gentle southern slopes are cut by deep

canyon A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency t ...

rivers Amtkeli and Jampali, as well as their tributaries. In the middle part of the northern slope, there are several high-mountainous lakes belonging to the Chkhalta basin. The mountains consist of

porphyry Porphyry (; , ''Porphyrios'' "purple-clad") may refer to: Geology * Porphyry (geology), an igneous rock with large crystals in a fine-grained matrix, often purple, and prestigious Roman sculpture material * Shoksha porphyry, quartzite of purple c ...

from the Jura and

mica schist Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock generally derived from fine-grained sedimentary rock, like shale. It shows pronounced ''schistosity'' (named for the rock). This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a l ...

. The slopes are covered with

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' ( ), a genus of about 40 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal (taiga) regions of the Northern hemisphere. ''Picea'' ...

fir Firs are evergreen coniferous trees belonging to the genus ''Abies'' () in the family Pinaceae. There are approximately 48–65 extant species, found on mountains throughout much of North and Central America, Eurasia, and North Africa. The genu ...

and

beech Beech (genus ''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to subtropical (accessory forest element) and temperate (as dominant element of Mesophyte, mesophytic forests) Eurasia and North America. There are 14 accepted ...

oval forests, in the ridge part there are mountain meadows.

Karst Karst () is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone and Dolomite (rock), dolomite. It is characterized by features like poljes above and drainage systems with sinkholes and caves underground. Ther ...

new phenomena are widespread: underground rivers,

cave Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's Planetary surface, surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance undergrou ...

s, wells.

References

;Notes Mountain ranges of Abkhazia Mountain ranges of the Caucasus {{Abkhazia-geo-stub

Geography

See also

References