Black Sea–Caspian Steppe The Manych Depression is not much more than 65 feet above sea level and the area around Astrakhan and part of Kalmykia is below sea level. Rivers: Through the center runs the northwest-tending Kuma-Manych Depression. This was once a strait connecting the Black and Caspian Seas and is now marked by the Manych River which is basically a chain of lakes. It will probably be the route of the Eurasia Canal if that great engineering work is ever built. In the south the rivers that flow north from the Caucasus are caught by the west-flowing Kuban River and the east-flowing
Caspian expeditions of the Rus' in 913. A fleet of 500 ships reached the southern shores of the Caspian Sea through the country of the Khazars. In order to secure a peaceful passage through the land of the Khazars, the Rus' promised the Khazars half of their spoils. They sailed down the Dnieper River into the Black Sea, then into the Sea of Azov, then up the Don River past the Khazar city of Sarkel, and then by a portage reached the Volga, which led them into the Caspian Sea. The Rus' attacked in the Gorgan region around Abaskun, as well as Tabaristan, pillaging the