Template:Short description Template:Redirect Template:Infobox mountain
Mount Kazbek or Mount KazbegiTemplate:Efn is a dormant stratovolcano and one of the major mountains of the Caucasus, located in Georgia, just south of the border with Russia.<ref name="gvp">Template:Cite gvp</ref>
Lying at 5,054 meters (16,581 ft) above at sea level, Mount Kazbek is the highest mountain in Eastern Georgia. It is also the third-highest peak in the country (after Mount Shkhara and Janga). Kazbegi is the second-highest volcanic summit in the Caucasus, after Mount Elbrus. The summit lies directly to the west of the town of Stepantsminda and is the most prominent geographic feature of the area.<ref name="gvp" /> The last eruption occurred Template:Circa.<ref name="gvp"/>
Origin of the nameEdit
The name Kazbegi is disputed; some claims are it is named after a Circassian nobleman who lived on it, other claims are it is named after local nobleman Dimitri Chopikashvili (grand father of the Georgian writer Aleksandre Kazbegi) who was given the title of "Kazbeg" by Georgian king Erekle II. The word "Kazbek" means a "nobleman" in Kabardian language and is originally Turkic in origin. The title appeared under Georgian king Rostom in the 17th century. The name of the mountain in Georgian, Mqinvartsveri, translates to "Glacier Peak" or "Freezing Cold Peak".<ref>"მყინვარი", Donald Rayfield et al., A Comprehensive Georgian-English Dictionary (2006)</ref> The Ingush name Beshloam and Chechen name Bashlam translates as "Molten Mount".
LocationEdit
Kazbek is located on the Khokh Range, a mountain range which runs north of the Greater Caucasus Range, and which is pierced by the gorges of the Ardon and the Terek. At its eastern foot runs the Georgian Military Road through the pass of Darial 2,378 meters (7,805 feet).<ref name=EB1911>{{#if: |
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}}{{#ifeq: ||}}</ref> The mountain itself lies along the edge of the Borjomi–Kazbegi Fault (which is a northern sub-ending of the North Anatolian Fault). The region is highly active tectonically, with numerous small earthquakes occurring at regular intervals. An active geothermal/hot spring system also surrounds the mountain. Kazbek is a potentially active volcano, built up of trachyte and sheathed with lava, and has the shape of a double cone, whose base lies at an altitude of 1,770 meters (5,800 feet).<ref name=EB1911/> Kazbek is the highest of the volcanic cones of the Kazbegi volcanic group which also includes Mount Khabarjina (3,142 metres).
Owing to the steepness of its slopes, the glaciers of Kazbek are not very large.<ref name=EB1911/> The total combined area of all of Kazbek's glaciers is 135 km2. The best-known glacier is the Dyevdorak (Devdaraki), which creeps down the north-eastern slope into a gorge of the same name, reaching a level of 2,295 meters (7,530 feet). Kazbegi's other glaciers include the Mna, Denkara, Gergeti, Abano, and Chata. The recent collapse of the Kolka Glacier, located in a valley between Mt. Jimara and Kazbegi in the year 2002 was attributed to solfatara volcanic activity along the northern slope of the mountain, although there was no eruption. In addition to the 2002 event, a massive collapse of the Devdaraki Glacier on the mountain's northeastern slope which occurred on August 20, 2014, led to the death of seven people. The glacier collapse dammed the Terek River in the Daryal Gorge and flooded the Georgian Military Highway.
From 24 to 28 May 2019 Caucasus Skitouring Network organized an expedition to survey Mt. Kazbegi's height. On 27 May 2019 at 12:22 GMT+4, for the first time, a survey team placed a GPS receiver on the Mt. Kazbegi peak. The new height is defined with the WGS 84 datum. Height was determinate with 5mm accuracy. Defined height is 5053.927m.Template:Citation needed
LegendEdit
Mount Kazbegi is associated in Georgian folklore with Amirani, the Georgian version of Prometheus, who was chained on the mountain in punishment for having stolen fire from the gods and giving it to mortals. The location of his imprisonment later became the site of an Orthodox hermitage located in a cave called "Betlemi" (Bethlehem) at approximately the 4,000-meter level. According to legends, this cave housed many sacred relics, including Abraham's tent and the manger of the infant Jesus.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
According to Prince Ioane of Georgia, Ingush mountaineer Yosif Buzurtanov, also known as "Yosif the Mokhevian", was the first to ascend the mountain peak of Kazbek in the late eighteenth century during the reign of Heraclius II of Georgia,Template:Sfn though, officially, this occurred in 1868 by D. W. Freshfield, A. W. Moore, and C. Tucker<ref name=EB1911/> of the Alpine Club, with the guide François Devouassoud, guided by local Gveletians climbers, among them Tsogol Buzurtanov (son of Yosif Buzurtanov).Template:Sfn They were followed by Russian alpinists Vladimir Kozmin and Maria Preobrazhenskaya, who made the climb nine times starting in 1900.Template:Citation needed
Kazbegi nature reserveEdit
The area around Mount Kazbegi was designated a nature reserve by the Soviet government in 1979, and includes beech forests, subalpine forests and alpine meadows. Many of the plants and animals in the reserve are endemic to the Caucasus region.
ClimateEdit
Mount Kazbek summit has a polar ice cap climate (Köppen: EF).Template:Weather box
See alsoEdit
GalleryEdit
- Georgianroad.jpg
19th-century postcard of the Georgian Military Road near Mount Kazbegi
- Kazbegi.July.2009.jpg
Mount Kazbek from the outside of the Gergeti Trinity Church
- "Kazbegi", Panoramic view of Mount Kazbek (Mqinvartsveri) range, Caucasus, Georgia.jpg
Mount Kazbek,
- Kasbek Cross (10600426125).jpg
Mount Kazbek, Georgia
- 980522-IMG 6729-2-Kazbek.jpg
Mount Kazbek, Georgia
- Kazbek, Gergeti Trinity Church 2017.jpg
Mount Kazbegi in the Autumn
- 980522-GergetiGlacier-Kazbek-IMG 6459-2.jpg
Crevasses of the Gergeti Glacier
- 980522-IMG 6827-2.jpg
Kazbegi Mountain, August 2019
- Kazbegi, Mount Kazbek, Georgia.jpg
Mount Kazbek, Georgia
- 980522-Kazbek-GregetiGlacier-pan1.jpg
Crevasses of the Gergeti Glacier
- "Kazbegi", Panoramic view of Mount Kazbek range, Caucasus, Georgia.jpg
Mount Kazbek, Georgia
- Mkinvarcveri.jpg
Mount Kazbek, Georgia
- 980522-Kazbek-Pan1.jpg
Crevasses of the Gergeti Glacier
- 980520-Kazbek-IMG 5933-2.jpg
Mount Kazbek, Georgia
- 980520-Kazbek-IMG 5941-2.jpg
Mount Kazbek, Georgia
- 980522-IMG 6727-2-Kazbek.jpg
Mount Kazbek, Georgia
- 980520-Kazbek-IMG 5944-2.jpg
Mount Kazbek, Georgia
- 980522-IMG 6840-2-Kazbek.jpg
Mount Kazbek, Georgia
- 980522-IMG 6579-2-Kazbek.jpg
Mount Kazbek, Georgia
- 980522-IMG 6607-2-Kazbek.jpg
Mount Kazbek, Georgia
- 980520-IMG 6003-Kazbek.jpg
Mount Kazbek, Georgia
- Kazbegi.Tbilisi.Sunset.jpg
Mount Kazbegi as Viewed from Tbilisi during Sunset