Kura (South Caucasus river)

Common card · No. 314923

The Kura, also known in Georgian as Mtkvari (Georgian: მტკვარი, romanized: mt'k'vari [mt‘k‘ʷäɾi]), is a transboundary river that flows between the Greater Caucasus and Lesser Caucasus mountains. It drains the southern slopes of the Greater Caucasus and northern slopes of the Lesser Caucasus. Starting in northeastern Turkey, the Kura first flows north to Georgia, then southeast into Azerbaijan, where it receives the Aras as a tributary, and finally enters the Caspian Sea. The total length of the river is 1,515 kilometres (941 mi). People have inhabited the Caucasus region for thousands of years and first established agriculture in the Kura Valley over 4,500 years ago. Large, complex civilizations eventually grew on the river, but by 1200 CE most were reduced to ruin by natural disasters and foreign invaders. The increasing human use, and eventual damage, of the watershed's forests and grasslands, contributed to a rising intensity of floods through the 20th century. In the 1950s, the Soviet...

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