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
Black Sea–Caspian Steppe may have been proto-Chechen. Iron appeared in the eighth century BC. The small western area around the Taman peninsula had a distinct history since it was in contact with the literate civilizations of the Mediterranean basin. From the eighth century Greeks founded colonies around the Black Sea and we begin to have written reports. Maeotians was the Greek name for the peoples around the Sea of Azov. The Hellenized Sindi people appeared with a possible capital or seaport at Anapa. Both were perhaps ancestors of the Circassians. The Greek colonies exported grain and slaves to Byzantium and beyond – a