Nagorno-Karabakh is located in the southern part of the Lesser Caucasus range, at the eastern edge of the Armenian Highlands, encompassing the highland part of the wider geographical region known as Karabakh. Under Russian and Soviet rule, the region came to be known as "Nagorno-Karabakh", meaning "Mountainous Karabakh" in Russian. The name Karabakh itself (derived from Persian and Turkic, and meaning "Black Vineyard") was first encountered in Georgian and Persian sources from the 13th and 14th centuries to refer lowlands between Kura and Aras rivers and adjacent mountainous territory.