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 Lowland Plateau, Podillia Upland, Dnieper Upland, Zaporizhian Ridge, Azov Upland. Azov, Crimean, and Bugeac lowlands consider to be extension of the Black Sea Lowland and its regional extremities. Black Sea Lowland is an accumulative, weakly divided plain which being part of the greater Eastern European Plain gradually slopes towards the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Black Sea Lowland Black Sea Lowland is a major geographic feature of the Northern Pontic region and the East European Plain. It almost completely within the Southern Ukraine covering half of its territory. The lowland is located along the northern shores of Black Sea.