Black Sea–Caspian Steppe Black Sea–Caspian Steppe The Black Sea-Caspian Steppe is an informal name for that part of the Eurasian Steppe that extends south between the Black and Caspian Seas. It is usually treated as part of the Pontic-Caspian steppe which includes the area north of the Black and Caspian Seas, but there is some reason to treat it as a distinct place. Its natural boundaries are the Sea of Azov and Black Sea on the west, the Caucasus Mountains on the south and the Caspian Sea on the east. Its northern boundary may be taken as the triangle formed by the lower
Black Sea turquoise), Middle Persian / ("blue"), and New Persian ("blue"), as well as Ossetic (“dark gray"). The ancient Greeks, most likely those living to the north of the Black Sea, subsequently adopted the name and altered it to . Thereafter, Greek tradition refers to the Black Sea as the "Inhospitable Sea", , which is first attested in Pindar (). The name was considered to be "ominous" and was later changed into the euphemistic name "Hospitable sea", , which was also for the first time attested in Pindar. This became the commonly used designation for the sea in Greek. In contexts related