Regions
The Caucasus
KAW-kuh-sus
Also Known As Caucasia
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The Caucasus is the mountainous region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Greater Caucasus range runs along its north, the Lesser Caucasus along its south, and Mount Elbrus, at 5,642 metres the tallest peak in the system, is counted by many geographers as the highest point in Europe. Where the region sits relative to the Europe-Asia boundary is a live disagreement among geographers rather than a settled fact; see the open question this entity carries.
Facts
Disputed
Area (sq km)The Caucasus straddles the conventional Europe-Asia boundary and different sources draw the region's own outer edge differently; this is the commonly cited approximate figure. Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
On Continent
Asia, Continents Why this is disputed. Geographers disagree which continent the Caucasus belongs to. This atlas places it on Asia by the Greater Caucasus watershed convention, the same convention that puts Mount Elbrus in Europe by an alternative reading; other conventions (the Kuma-Manych Depression, or the Kura and Rioni rivers) draw the line differently. See the linked open question and dissent.
Sources
1. Caucasus (EBSCO Research Starters)
EBSCO Information ServicesCaucasus region overviewQuote, Caucasus region overview
approximately 170,000 square miles (440,000 square kilometers)
Caucasus (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationGeographic overview sectionQuote, Geographic overview section
According to that, the highest peak in the Caucasus, Mount Elbrus (5,642 meters) located in western Ciscaucasus, is considered the highest point in Europe.
Caucasus (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationGeographic overview section, aliasQuote, Geographic overview section, alias
The Caucasus is situated between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea, spanning parts of Eastern Europe and Western Asia.
Caucasus (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationEurope-Asia boundary dispute section, on-continent edgeQuote, Europe-Asia boundary dispute section, on-continent edge
The watershed along the Greater Caucasus range is considered by some sources to be the dividing line between Europe and Southwest Asia.
Asia (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Asia, Geography section, Main regions subsectionQuote, Associated With: Asia, Geography section, Main regions subsection
North Asia (Siberia), Central Asia, West Asia (the Middle East or Near East and part of the Caucasus), South Asia (Indian subcontinent), East Asia (Far East), Southeast Asia (East Indies and Indochina).
Open Questions (1 open question)
Where does Europe end and Asia begin?
Europe and Asia form one continuous landmass, Eurasia, with no continuous physical barrier separating them. The conventional line runs along the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Greater Caucasus, the Black Sea and the Turkish straits, but this is a human convention rather than a physical fact, and the modern division reflects East-West cultural, linguistic and ethnic differences that vary on a spectrum rather than falling at a sharp line.
What would resolve this Nothing in physical geography can resolve this, since the boundary is conventional by construction; what would change the answer is a shift in which convention geographers, national governments and international bodies choose to follow, which has already moved more than once historically.
Europe (Wikipedia)
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
On Continent: Asia
A widely used convention draws the Europe-Asia line along the Greater Caucasus watershed itself rather than around the whole range, which places Ciscaucasus (the northern slope, including southern Russia's Caucasus republics) in Europe and counts Mount Elbrus, on that northern slope, as the highest point in Europe rather than in Asia. Other sources instead draw the line at the Kuma-Manych Depression well north of the mountains, or along the Kura and Rioni rivers south of them, so the region's continental placement genuinely depends on which convention is followed rather than on any single physical boundary.
A dissenting reading, from a reviewerCaucasus (Wikipedia), Wikimedia Foundation
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