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Mount Kazbek, one of the chief mountains of the Caucasus, is located in modern-day Georgia, dominating the town of Kazbegi near the border with North Ossetia. Georgians call the mountain Mkinvari meaning "Ice Mountain".
Kazbek rises on the range which runs north of the main range (main water-parting), and which is pierced by the gorges of the Ardon and the Terek. It represents an extinct volcano, built up of trachyte and sheathed with lava, and has the shape of a double cone, whose base lies at an altitude of 1,770m (5,800 ft). Owing to the steepness of its slopes, its eight glaciers cover an aggregate surface of not more than 8 square meters, though one of them, Maliev, is 36 metres long. The best-known glacier is the Dyevdorak, which creeps down the north-eastern slope into a gorge of the same name, reaching a level of 2,295m (7,530 ft). At its eastern foot runs the Georgian Military Road through the pass of Darial (7805 feet).
The summit was first climbed in 1868 by D. W. Freshfield, A. W. Moore, and C. Tucker, with a Swiss guide.
External link - Kazbek on Peakware (http://www.peakware.com/encyclopedia/peaks/kazbek.htm) - photos
This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. |
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