Why does nobody talk about this region very often here? Any important history there?Also, why is the west side green/forested while the east side is mostly desert?
>>18409740While St. Petersburg usually hogs the "Venice of the North" title, Astrakhan is often called the "Venice of the Caspian" (or the Volga Venice). It sits on 11 islands in the Volga Delta, and its history is a dizzying mix of Persian, Central Asian, and Russian influences. Astrakhan was a massive hub for Indian merchants from the 17th to the 19th centuries. Indian traders, mostly from the Multan and Sindh regions, settled there to trade spices, silks, and jewels. They built a dedicated stone "Guest Court" (Podvorye) where they lived, worked, and even practiced their religion. At one point, there was even a Hindu temple there, a rarity in that part of the world at the time
>>18409740That southern region were where some of Persia's only native heavy infantry developed. Daylamites.
>>18409740It's not a "region". Many people talk about the Caucasus and Persia, nobody talks about the Eastern shore of the Caspian because it is an uninhabited desert.
>>18409740Ancient Georgia contained the mythic kingdom of Colchis as well as the very real nation of Phasis. Here is an ancient description of Phasis which occupied the Rioni river basin. People used to paddle up and down the rivers in canoes like in Venice. >> As to the inhabitants of Phasis, their country is fenny, warm, humid, and wooded; copious and severe rains occur there at all seasons; and the life of the inhabitants is spent among the fens; for their dwellings are constructed of wood and reeds, and are erected amidst the waters; they seldom practice walking either to the city or the market, but sail about, up and down, in canoes constructed out of single trees, for there are many canals there. They drink the hot and stagnant waters, both when rendered putrid by the sun, and when swollen with rains. The Phasis itself is the most stagnant of all rivers, and runs the smoothest; all the fruits which spring there are unwholesome, feeble and imperfect growth, owing to the redundance of water, and on this account they do not ripen, for much vapor from the waters overspreads the country. For these reasons the Phasians have shapes different from those of all other men; for they are large in stature, and of a very gross habit of body, so that not a joint nor vein is visible; in color they are sallow, as if affected with jaundice. Of all men they have the roughest voices, from their breathing an atmosphere which is not clear, but misty and humid; they are naturally rather languid in supporting bodily fatigue. The seasons undergo but little change either as to heat or cold; their winds for the most part are southerly, with the exception of one peculiar to the country, which sometimes blows strong, is violent and hot, and is called by them the wind cenchron. The north wind scarcely reaches them, and when it does blow it is weak and gentle. Thus it is with regard to the different nature and shape of the inhabitants of Asia and Europe.
>>18409898Georgia isn't part of the OP image. It's farther west.>>18409769It's Turkmenistan.
>>18409740>Also, why is the west side green/forested while the east side is mostly desert?mongols and soviets destroyed anything green
>>18411079That’s nonsense. The Mongol invasions didn’t rewrite climate.It's most-likley the Rain Shadow Effect from the Caucasus Mountains, where west gets rain, east stays dry. Basic geography.
>>18411079>>18411314Mongols aren't why it's desert, but the Soviets did drain the Aral Sea and completely ruined the region's ecosystem.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_Sea
>>18410889Rioni is on the very border of the image to the left so it counts. Phasis is also by far the most notable ancient civilization of the area by a mile.
>>18409740>Also, why is the west side green/forested while the east side is mostly desertWest side have mountains and is close enough to the black sea to receive some wet winds. East side have nothing of these and is very close to the center of Asia, bound to be dry like all landmasses in the middle of supercontinents
