Arabika Massif (Arabika) is a glacially eroded

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 ...

outcropping of the Gagra Range,

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 ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

in the West Caucasus, by the city of

Gagra Gagra ( ka, გაგრა; Russian language, Russian and ) is a town in Abkhazia/Georgia (country), Georgia, sprawling for 5 km on the northeast coast of the Black Sea, at the foot of the Caucasus Mountains. Its subtropical climate made Ga ...

. The highest elevation - mountain Arabika is .Mta Arabika

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 ...

Geology

The 13-km-long massif is composed of

Lower Cretaceous Lower may refer to: * ''Lower'' (album), 2025 album by Benjamin Booker * Lower (surname) * Lower Township, New Jersey *Lower Receiver (firearms) * Lower Wick Gloucestershire, England See also * Nizhny {{Disambiguation ...

and

Upper Jurassic The Late Jurassic is the third epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time from 161.5 ± 1.0 to 143.1 ± 0.8 million years ago (Ma), which is preserved in Upper Jurassic strata.Owen 1987. In European lithostratigraphy, the name ...

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

s that dip continuously southwest to the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

and plunge below the modern sea level. The area is densely wooded, with large areas of both coniferous forest and mixed woodland. The Arabika contains a number of remarkable caves, gorges, wells, and precipices, including the three deepest-measured caves in the world, Sarma cave (1,830 m, 6,000 ft),

Veryovkina Cave Veryovkina Cave (also spelled Verëvkina Cave, , ) is a cave in Abkhazia, a disputed region of Georgia_(country), Georgia. At deep, it is the deepest-known cave on Earth. Veryovkina is in the Arabika Massif, in the Gagra Range, Gagra mountain ra ...

(2,209 m, 7,247 ft), and Voronya Cave (2,224 m, 7,297 ft). Alexander Kruber was the first to explore some of these features in 1909. According to Rebecca Felix, the Arabica's "towering heights of limestone suggest the possibility of amazingly deep caves, boring the length of the massif and into the earth below its base".

Notes

References

Mountain ranges of the Caucasus Mountain ranges of Abkhazia {{Georgia-geo-stub