Mystique of a mountain range

Frontline, India - 30 Jan 2007

TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHS SUDHA MAHALINGAM
Exploring romance and reality in the Caucasus, which forms a bridge between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.

WHERE can you see snow-topped mountain ranges straddling two seas, one aquamarine and another sapphire blue? Where can you drive through a continuous canopy of russet and golden maple leaves festooning winding hill roads? Where in the world does one encounter bright sunshine in one stretch of the road and a blinding blizzard in the other on the same day? How does it feel to get a panoramic 360-degree view of the horizon splattered with the myriad hues of a setting sun?

full text: No glossy tourist brochure will tell you the answer because the grand Caucasus is the last bastion that has not yet been ravaged by that all-pervasive, unstoppable juggernaut called tourism. There is truly a mystique about the Caucasian landscape - Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and parts of Turkey, Iran and Russia that abut the three Caucasian states - not least because of their remoteness. The lofty Caucasus forms a mountainous bridge between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Aloof and mysterious, the region is home to an array of ethnic groups and nationalities, some of them living peaceably with one another, some not. One reason why the Caucasus has remained outside the tourist radar is that the area is inaccessible, not so much because of its geography as because of its complex geopolitics.