Surprisingly, in our enlightened XXI century is still debate about which is the highest peak in Europe.Some scientists believe that this Elbrus, and others - Mont Blanc.It would seem so tough?With the help of modern technology, you can easily set the height above sea level of each vertex.But just leveled with no problems.Heights and Mount Elbrus and Mont Blanc were established a long time ago to the nearest centimeter.The problem posed in the field of borders.That is, in the statement "it is the highest peak in Europe - ..." should do the accent is not on the meters, and on what territory as being included in the composition of this continent.And if Mont Blanc is clear: Alpine peak - it is certainly Europe, the Elbrus is not so simple.Let's look at this issue.
Q values
«White Mountain», Mont Blanc, located on the west side of the Alps, on the border of France and Italy.This array also had problems with the territorial jurisdiction.But another plan.After the loss of independence of the Duchy of Savoy, the mountain and the valley around it repeatedly moved from Italy to France and vice versa.Now, after the redraw Europe in the postwar period, it was found that the main peak of the Mont Blanc Massif lies cordon between these states.Thus, lying on the slope of the town of Saint-Gervais belong to France, and Courmayeur ski resort, situated nearby - Italy.The height of Mont Blanc, reaches 4810 meters.Next to this peak towering peaks other array, only slightly inferior to the head.This Blanc de Courmayeur (over 4,700 meters), and even the Grand Bos, Rocher de la Turmetov and more than a dozen four-thousander.The height of Mount Elbrus - as much as 5642 meters.Unconditional champion!The question lies elsewhere.It is the highest peak in Europe or the usual mountain of Asia?
Question boundaries
As you know, the nature of love continuity and smoothness.The continents into one another.If not for the Bering Strait, formed not so long ago by geographical standards, and the Americas have been spliced with Eurasia.But the man - a strange creature: Give it clear limits.Therefore, the division of our continent to Europe and Asia - a purely arbitrary.And in many ways here, except for geography, politics is involved.Since the time of Herodotus and to the fifties of the twentieth century, it was more or less clear.The boundary that separates Europe and Asia, took place off the coast of the Kara Sea on the main peak of the Urals, and then on the eponymous river, then along the northern Caspian Sea and, following the Greater Caucasus Mountain Range on the Black Sea.Next cordon passed through the Bosporus and Dardanelles.In the Mediterranean, too, the confusion arose: the coast of modern Turkey - this is Asia, everything north of it - Europe and from South Africa outlines waters.The system of coordinates Elbrus - the highest peak in Europe, because it is located north of the main ridge of the Caucasus.
Irrepressible-Union Geographical Society
the border between Europe and Asia, it was clear until 1958.The confusion began on the fault of the All-Union Geographical Society.Pundits undertook an audit of long-established norms.They decided that the more useless to bisect natural landscapes.Caucasus mountain systems are ranked as such, despite the obvious differences in the climatic characteristics of the northern and southern slopes.In the same way, and we came to the waters and river valleys.One stroke of the pen all of the Urals and fully proved in Europe and the Caucasus - Asia.Thus, Elbrus, the highest peak in Europe, whose height is 832 meters ahead on the Mont Blanc, was not the first mountain on the new continent, significantly losing Everest.
Different systems
During Soviet times, the inhabitants of one-sixth of the land lived in isolation from the rest of the world.And it was not in the "Iron Curtain."Distortion was not just an idea of what life is like at a decaying capitalism, but also quite far from the policy of neutral terms.Thus, in all geography textbooks of the Soviet Union it was written that the boundary between Europe and Asia runs along the eastern edge of the Ural Mountains, then (it is illogical) Emba River until it flows into the Caspian Sea, then along the north shore of the waters to the source of the river Kuma.Next cordon passed through the Kuma-Manych Depression to the Don, and then to his mouth, and the Sea of Azov.As a result of this division is not only Elbrus, the highest peak in Europe, shifted to Asia, but the whole Taman Peninsula.
What's the point?
But let's try to guess the course of logical reasoning ... No, Soviet geographers and those whose horn they served.At the end of the 50s, not only America was the main rival of the Soviet Union, but also the countries of Western Europe.The ideology of the CPSU Central Committee (which covered all aspects of society), contrasted the socialist system decaying bourgeois.USSR had to stand alone, and it was believed that the smaller things it will link with Europe, the better.The fact that Mount Elbrus - the highest peak in Europe, and at the same time, Russia is very tormented Soviet leadership.Therefore, the revised border between Europe and Asia.It is this, and not care about the integrity of the natural landscape, is the true reason for this decision.
Discord in directories
Despite the fact that the decision of the All-Union Geographical Society was next in 1959 supported by the World Geophysical Congress, most countries have ignored the Soviet innovation.And discrepancies continue to this day.Consider, for example, to a very authoritative directory of "Wikipedia".The English version states that the boundary between Europe and Asia goes "... the watershed of the Ural mountains, on the eponymous river, the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus in the south-east ..." This means that in most countries believe that the highest peak in Europe - Mount Elbrus.But the Russian version gives very different information.
small legacies
Although the Soviet Union is long gone, some of its provisions are still living in people's minds.So, what will tell the curious seeker geographical truth Russian-language "Wikipedia"?What is the highest peak in Europe?It turns out that the border between Europe and Asia, this version of the World directory defines the spirit of compromise with the Resolution 1958 and the generally accepted concepts of "on the eastern base of the Urals, Mugodzhary, Emba, the northern coast of the Caspian Sea, on the Araks, Black and Marmara seas ..." What we see in the moderntreatment?The whole system of the Urals, as was proposed in 1958, is considered to be Europe.But it is also considered, and the entire Caucasus!New border runs along the Araks River, which flows at the foot of the southern mountain range.This means that the Russian-language version of "Wikipedia" Elbrus - the highest peak in Europe.Photos of the double-humped peak adorns the snow-covered and the relevant article.
Roof Russia
It's time to talk about Elbrus.What is she, the highest peak in Europe, and along with Russia?It turns out that the volcano.However, extinct.The last eruption, according to geologists who studied the hardened lava, occurred in 50 AD.Formed bicornuate top, like the rest of the Caucasus, twenty million years ago.The mountain is located on the border between the two republics of the Russian Federation: Karachay-Cherkessia and Kabardino-Balkaria.In contrast to the Mont Blanc, in the sky bristling with numerous peaks of Mount Elbrus at only two of them.It is, in fact, the edge of the cone of the volcano.Between them, about three kilometers.Highest - Western Peak.East - slightly lower (5621 m above the sea).But the saddle between two peaks does not drop below the level of 5300 meters.Determine the height of Elbrus Academician K. Wisniewski in 1813.The first was subdued, of course, the eastern top.It happened in July 1829.It took almost fifty years to a man set foot on the western peak of Elbrus.Europe's highest peak was conquered in 1874 by a group of British climbers.F. Grove led the expedition.But among the pioneers and was Balkar A Sottana.
