Kura (Caspian Sea) drained and reservoirs were created to facilitate development of irrigation in the lower Kura valley. In the 1950s and 1960s, when the Caucasus region was part of the Soviet Union, construction of many of the reservoirs and waterworks in the Kura basin began. Of the major reservoirs in the Kura catchment, one of the earliest was at Varvara in 1952. Large scale construction of dams continued until the 1970s. Kura (Caspian Sea) The Kura (; ; , "Mt’k’vari"; , "Kur"; , "Cyrus"; , "Kuruš" ) is an east-flowing river south of the Greater Caucasus Mountains which drains the southern slopes
Caspian Sea Monster fly high. In the 1980s, after the KM was already destroyed, the United States discovered it was a large ekranoplan. The development of ground effect vehicles was not as widespread in the West as in the Soviet Union. Caspian Sea Monster The KM (Korabl Maket) (Russian: Корабль-макет, literally "Ship-prototype"), known colloquially as the Caspian Sea Monster, was a Soviet experimental ground effect vehicle (ekranoplan) developed by the Central Hydrofoil Design Bureau in the 1960s. The KM began operation in 1966, and was continuously tested by the Soviet Navy until 1980, when it was destroyed in a testing accident and sank