Russian Caucasus – World Travel

Starocherkassk Russian Caucasus travel destination

WorldTravelDB.com — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 17:00:00 +0000

Founded in 1593, Starocherkassk (Old Cherkassk) was the Don Cossack capital for two centuries. Once a fortified town of 20, 000, it’s now a farming village with a main street restored to near 19th-century appearance.

Allegedly, Peter the Great met a drunken Cossack here sitting on a barrel, wearing only a rifle. This image of a soldier who’d sooner lose his clothes than his gun so impressed the tsar that he commissioned the scene as the Don Cossack army seal.

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Sochi Russian Caucasus travel destination

WorldTravelDB.com — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 06:00:00 +0000

Sochi may not have the best European beaches and there’s still an element of tackiness but the city is in makeover mode. Investment money is being pumped in, some by government and some by developers who’ve gone overseas, seen what they’ve liked and copied it in Sochi.

Wander the downtown area by the elegant sea terminal and you’re in a garden city where the scent of magnolia trees mingles with the tang of salt carried on sea breezes. Follow the sea embankment (naberezhnaya) and you’ll cruise by a blur of restaurants, bars, shops and souvenir stalls jostling for attention. The place oozes booze and food and at night resounds to a pumping mix of Russian ballads, rousing Armenian tunes, Western pop and a little dance music.

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Russian Caucasus travel destination

WorldTravelDB.com — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 21:00:00 +0000

This beautiful and many-faceted part of Russia receives few travellers, despite being only a plane or train journey from Moscow, and that’s a pity. The colossal Caucasus mountains, 1100km of soaring peaks and deep valleys, stride from the Caspian to the Black Sea. Between the mountain range and the Black Sea is a coastal strip that endows Russia with its most southerly seaside resorts. The pearl is Sochi, with glorious summer sun, warm sea, plenty of classy bars and restaurants, and performances by Russia’s top entertainers. In the mountains near Sochi lies Krasnaya Polyana, on the way to being another big European ski resort. Here, in this ‘Switzerland by the sea’, you can easily ski and swim in the sea on the same day.

This region, one of the last to be added to the tsarist Russian Empire, was won and controlled with the help of Cossack warriors. Their homeland lies in the Kuban Steppe, around Rostov-on-Don, where Cossack culture remains undiminished; their old capital, Starocherkassk, is where to find it. Wander east and the central Caucasus mountains rise from the vast steppe in a land of dead volcanoes and gushing mineral springs. Their curative powers attracted mid-19th-century society, which transformed Pyatigorsk and Kislovodsk into elegant spa towns. Visitors to the sanatoriums can roam the parks and take day trips to Dombay and Mt Elbrus. Threaded into this landscape is the drama of writer Lermontov’s death echoing the plot of his novel A Hero of Our Time, also set here.

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Rostov On Don Russian Caucasus travel destination

WorldTravelDB.com — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 20:00:00 +0000

Rostov-on-Don is an expansive town with the bustle of a regional capital, but the wide leafy streets and scattered parks take away any notion of crowding. Passing through the city is the Don River, celebrated in Mikhail Sholokhov’s novels of the Civil War – And Quiet Flows the Don and The Don Flows Home to the Sea.

The Don is no longer quiet. In 1952 the Lenin Ship Canal linked the Volga and the Don near Volgograd, creating an immense network of canals, lakes and rivers. Ocean-going ships can now sail across Russia from the Arctic to the Mediterranean.

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Pyatigorsk Russian Caucasus travel destination

WorldTravelDB.com — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 18:00:00 +0000

Pyatigorsk, the name being a Russification of Mt Beshtau (Five Peaks), began life as Fort Konstantinovskaya in 1780. It quickly developed into a fashionable resort as it attracted Russian society to its spas and stately buildings. Many of these buildings remain today, making this an attractive town to ramble around and appreciate the bars and restaurants on pr Kirova.

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Novorossiysk Russian Caucasus travel destination

WorldTravelDB.com — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Novorossiysk is home to the Russian navy and much of the country’s cement production comes from dismantling the surrounding hills. For travellers it’s a transport hub for the nicer seaside towns of Anapa, Gelendzhik and Sochi, or maybe a boat to Turkey.

The Krasnodar road skirts the south of the port to become Anapskoe sh and then ul Sovietov as it arrives in the CBD.

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Nalchik Russian Caucasus travel destination

WorldTravelDB.com — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 15:00:00 +0000

Nalchik, pleasant capital of the Kabardino-Balkaria Republic, strides the rise of the steppes to the foothills of the Caucasus. It was founded as a fort in 1822 to protect Russian advances into the Caucasus. Apart from a worthwhile museum and a side trips to Chegem Canyon and some medieval villages, visitors come to Nalchik to reach Mt Elbrus.

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Mineral Water Spas Russian Caucasus travel destination

WorldTravelDB.com — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 10:00:00 +0000

The central Caucasus rises from the steppe in an eerie landscape studded with dead volcanoes and spouting mineral springs. The curative powers of the springs have attracted unhealthy, hypochondriac or just holiday-minded Russians since the late 18th century, when wounded soldiers appeared to heal quicker after bathing in them. The area had already passed from Turkish to Russian hands in 1774 but still came under attack from local tribes. The first settlements were forts that evolved into graceful spa towns.

Today Kavkazskie Mineralnye Vody (Caucasian Mineral Waters) is a holiday resort where the healthy outnumber the ailing. The atmosphere is relaxed, the air fresh and the walks lovely. The parks and elegant spa buildings recall the 19th century, when fashionable society trekked from Moscow and St Petersburg to see, be seen and look for a spouse.

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Kuban Steppe Russian Caucasus travel destination

WorldTravelDB.com — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 19:00:00 +0000

From Rostov-on-Don, the overland routes to the Caucasus and the Black Sea coast cross the intensively cultivated Kuban Steppe, named after its river flowing from Elbrus into the Sea of Azov. The trip from Rostov-on-Don to Pyatigorsk or Kislovodsk on the northern fringe of the Caucasus can be made in a day – by road it’s just under 500km.

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Krasnodar Russian Caucasus travel destination

WorldTravelDB.com — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:00:00 +0000

When Catherine the Great travelled south to tour the lands conquered from the Turks, her lover Potemkin had cheerful façades erected along her route. These hid the mud-splattered hovels that made up the newly founded city bearing her name, Yekaterinodar (‘Catherine’s gift’).

Krasnodar no longer needs those façades, as many of the elegant, turn-of-the-20th-century buildings have been externally restored. Modern development has happened elsewhere and single-storey buildings still line the main street. Wander east through the backstreets or better still hop on a rickety tram down ul Kommunarov and enjoy the vista of old houses.

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