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BATUM TO TIFLIS 63
the Caucasus mountains, with the snow-white volcanic
glader of Mkimvari or Kasbek, which is over 5,000 metres
high, towering above the rest, and on the south by the moun
tain ranges of the Little Caucasus, in the direction of the
Armenian highlands. Along the flat bottom of the valley
the turbid golden-brown waters of the river flowed in ample
bends. Of this river it is said that if once you drink of its
water you will always long to return to it. It flows peacefully
and innocently enough past its fertile banks, but when in
spate it changes its course, demolishes bridges, and måkes
the country round impassable.
The Kura is the largest of the four great rivers of the
Caucasus, being more than a thousand kilometres long.
Unlike the others, it does not come from the great Caucasus
range, but from the mountainous country in the south-west,
its source being at a height of about 2,500 metres above sea
level, about 25 kilometres west of Kars. In a mighty curve it
thrusts its way through the mountains, first north and north
east down to this region ; then through the flat valley east
and south-eastwards past Tiflis ; and finally through the wide
plains of Azerbaijan to the Caspian Sea, after picking up the
Arax, Armenia’s great river in the south. The Greeks
called it Kyros (the Latin Cyrus), and the nåme was tåken to
be connected with the Persian king ; but later etymologists
have been inclined to derive it from the difficult Georgian
word mtkvari (Old Georgian mtkuar)^ said to mean sweet,
delectable water.
It flows through three large countries : the Kars region—
which is now Turkish—Georgia, and Azerbaijan. In its upper
reaches the Kura now hurtles down wild narrow gorges,
now glides more gently through wonderfully beautiful glens
full of oaks, beeches, and dark spruce firs, overlooked by high
mountains, then again rushes foaming through deep-cut
ravines until it reaches the great wide valley below.
It is said that the Georgians originally came to Georgia
from the country near the sources of the Kura. Though this
is perhaps doubtful, the upper reaches of the river pass by
many remarkable monuments of primeval history. Near the
narrow gorge by Khertvis, a good 80 kilometres above the
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