Caucasus Mountains the Gyumri-Vanadzor region of Armenia. Europe's highest mountain is Mount Elbrus in the Caucasus Mountains. Elbrus is higher than Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps and western Europe at . The crest of the Caucasus Mountains usually is taken to define the continental divide between Asia and Europe for the region between the Black and Caspian Seas. The table below lists some of the highest peaks of the Caucasus. With the exception of Shkhara, the heights are taken from Soviet 1:50,000 mapping. The list includes the ten ultras (mountains of more than 1,500 m prominence) and all mountains
Mount Elbrus Russia. The name "Elbrus" is a metathesis of "Alborz", which is also the name of a long mountain range in northern Iran. It is derived from Avestan "Harā Bərəzaitī", which is a legendary mountain in Iranian mythology. "Harā Bərəzaitī" reflects Proto-Iranian *"Harā Bṛzatī", which was reformed into Middle Persian as "Harborz", and into Modern Persian as "Alborz". "Bṛzatī" is the feminine form of the adjective *"bṛzant" ("high"), the reconstructed ancestor of Modern Ossetian "bærzond" ("high", "peak"), Modern Persian "barz" ("high"), "berāzande" ("elegant"), and "boland" ("high", "tall"), and Modern Kurdish "barz" ("high"). "Harā" may be interpreted as "watch" or "guard", from