FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   207   208   209   210   211   212   213   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223   224   225   226   227   228   229   230   231  
232   233   234   235   236   237   238   239   240   241   242   243   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   251   252   253   254   255   256   >>   >|  
Khozapin, Khopchalu, Arpa, Toporavan and Tabiztskhur, all situated between 6500 and 7000 ft. above sea-level. The principal water-divide in this highland region is, however, the range of Egri-dagh (Ararat), which just south of 40 deg. S. forms for 100 m. the boundary between Russian and Turkish Armenia, having Ararat at its eastern extremity and the extinct volcano of Kessa-dagh (11,260 ft.) at its western. Its importance lies in the fact that it divides the streams which flow into the Black Sea and Caspian from those which make their way into the Persian Gulf. The Egri-dagh possesses a sharply defined crest, ranges at a general elevation of 8000 ft., is bare of timber, scantily supplied with water, and rugged and deeply fissured. The transverse water-parting between the Black Sea and the Caspian begins on the south side of the main range of the Caucasus, at Mount Zikara (12,560 ft.), a little south-west of Kasbek, and runs south-west along the sinuous crests of the Racha, Suram or Meskes (3000-5000 ft.), Vakhan (10,000-11,000 ft.), Arzyan (7000-10,000 ft.), and its continuation the Soganluk, thus linking the Caucasus ranges with those of the Armenian highlands. This line of heights separates the basins of the Chorokh and the Rion (Black Sea) from those of the Aras and the Kura (Caspian Sea). North of the Caucasus ranges the water-divide between these two seas descends from Mount Elbruz along the Sadyrlar Mountains (11,000 ft.), and finally sinks into the Stavropol "plateau" (1600 ft.). But the main axis of the transverse upheavals would appear to be continued in a north-eastern direction in the Andi and other parallel ranges of Daghestan, as stated under CAUCASUS. The population in this region consists principally of Armenians, Tatars, Turks, Kurds, Ossetes, Greeks, with Persians, Tates and a few Russians (see particulars below). _Climate_.--Owing in part to the great differences in altitude in different regions of Caucasia and in part to the directions in which the mountain ranges run, and consequently the quarters towards which their slopes face, the climate varies very greatly according to locality. Generally speaking, it may be characterized as a climate of extremes on the Armenian highlands, in the Kura valley and in northern Caucasia, and as maritime and genial in Lenkoran, on the Black Sea coastlands, and in the valley of the Rion. The greatest rec
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   207   208   209   210   211   212   213   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223   224   225   226   227   228   229   230   231  
232   233   234   235   236   237   238   239   240   241   242   243   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   251   252   253   254   255   256   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

ranges

 

Caucasus

 
Caspian
 

eastern

 
Caucasia
 

climate

 

valley

 

Armenian

 

highlands

 

transverse


region

 
Ararat
 

divide

 

Tabiztskhur

 
parallel
 
Daghestan
 
CAUCASUS
 

stated

 

principally

 
Ossetes

Tatars
 

Armenians

 

consists

 

population

 
direction
 
Mountains
 

finally

 

Stavropol

 

Sadyrlar

 

Elbruz


descends
 

plateau

 

situated

 

continued

 

upheavals

 

Greeks

 

locality

 

Generally

 

speaking

 
greatly

Khopchalu

 
varies
 
characterized
 

Lenkoran

 

coastlands

 
greatest
 

genial

 
maritime
 

extremes

 
Khozapin