Mount Kazbek

Kazbek

The Kazbek (Georgian ყაზბეგი / Qasbegi, also მყინვარწვერი / Mqinwarzweri, " ice peaks ") is the third highest mountain in Georgia and the eighth highest mountain in the Caucasus.

He is in the middle between the Caspian and the Black Sea and rises as a trachytic extinct volcanic cone on a 1,770 m high basis up to 5047 m. Several sizable glacial and partly permanent, partly periodic snow fields extend on its sides. The mountain is part of the Choch chain, a northern spur of the main ridge of the Greater Caucasus.

The Kazbek is supposed to be that mountain of Greek mythology, Prometheus was chained to, because he stole from the gods of light. According to the myth he tore an eagle daily always renewable liver from the body.

Below the summit is at 2170 m the church Zminda Sameba ( German Holy Trinity Church). It was built in the 14th century and is the only domed church in the Georgian mountains. For centuries it was home to the Georgian crown jewels and the vines of the Holy Cross Nino. At the foot of Mount Kazbek is the place Stepantsminda, of the name Qasbegi ( German after the Russian spelling also Kazbegi ) contributed to 2006. The surrounding mountain management unit ( Munizipaliteti, municipality ) Qasbegi the Mtskheta - Mtianeti region as previously named the place is not on the mountain, but after there born Georgian writer Aleksandre Qasbegi ( 1848-1893 ). Passes through the area, the Georgian Military Highway, which connects Russia and Georgia.

The mountain was climbed for the first time in 1868 by Douglas W. Freshfield, Adolphus Warburton Moore, Charles C. Tucker and a Swiss mountain guide. It is relatively easy to access for mountaineers and a former meteorological station on 3,600 meters above sea level is a temporary shelter for mountaineers available. The normal increase is not technically difficult and results over flat to moderately steep glacier. From Kazbegi if we include two to three days, if one is already well acclimatized.

From one of the Kazbek Glacier flows from the Terek River.