KAZBEK (Georgian, Mkitt-vari; Ossetian, Urs-khokh), one of the chief summits of the Caucasus, situated in lat. 42° 48' N., long. 44° 29' E., altitude ft. It rises on the range which runs north of the main water parting and which is pierced by the gorges of the Ardon and the Terek. It represents an extinct vol cano, built up of trachyte and sheathed with lava, and has the shape of a double cone, whose base lies at an altitude of 5,800 ft. Owing to the steepness of its slopes, its eight glaciers cover an aggregate surface of not more than 8 sq.m., though one of them, Maliev, is 36 m. long. The heights of the lower terminations of these glaciers vary from 7,532 ft. for Devdorak, the best known of them, to 9,793 ft. for the Shau glacier. The Ardon and Terek rivers are glacial in origin. At the eastern foot runs the Georgian military road through the pass of Darial (7,805 ft.). The summit Was first climbed in 1868 by D. W. Freshfield, A. W. Moore and
C. Tucker, with a Swiss guide. Several successful ascents have been made since, the most valuable in scientific results being that of Pastukhov (1889) and that of G. Merzbacher and L. Purt scheller in 1890. Many primitive legends gathered round its naked, austere sides, with the vast snowy dome above them, and in mon astic times its treasures were reputed to include the tent of Abraham and the cradle of Christ. It has a great literature and has left a deep mark in Russian poetry. At its foot lies the village and posting station of Kazbek, so named by the Russians after a native chief, Kazibeg. This name was printed in atlases and so has superseded the more poetic native names, "Christ's Moun tain," "White Mountain," "Ice Mountain," etc. Antiquities dating from the iron age have been found at the village, and at a site 2,000 ft. above it.