Beshtau
Russia · Europe
About
Beshtau (Russian: Бештау, from Turkic beş 'five' and tau 'mountain') is an isolated five-domed igneous mountain (volcano) in the northern vicinity of Pyatigorsk in the Northern Caucasus, Russia. It gave name to the historical region of Pyatigorye (literally "area of five mountains"), the town of Pyatigorsk, and the ethnonym Pyatigoryan Circassians or Pyatigortsy (Circassi Quinquemontani on old Western European maps).
Its height is 1,401 m (4,596 ft). The slopes are forested with ash, oak, hornbeam, and beech deciduous forests, and the summit is treeless. Beshtau used to have uranium mines managed by the Mine Administration No. 10 of the Ministry of Medium Machine-Building (a euphemism for the Soviet nuclear industry), which were operating during 1950 – 1988.
By the foothill of the mountain there is the Second Athos Monastery of the Dormition.
Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.