The Multiethnic Caucasus and Geographic Environment

The Caucasus is a multinational geographic region. Representatives of approximately 50 ethnicities with different cultures live here. Often, even within one ethnos, different traits of culture occur due to
geographical factor. What is the reason for the multiethnic composition and cultural diversity of the Caucasus? Natural and geographic diversity has been one of the reasons for the multiethnicity of the Caucasus.
The location of the Caucasus between two cultural worlds should also be considered; these are the civilized societies of the Middle East in the south and nomadic societies in the north. The peoples of the South Caucasus have historically been connected with the Middle East and the peoples of the North Caucasus with nomads.
In the disappearance of the Albanian ethnos, who lived in the South Caucasus in the early Middle Ages, their residence in the lowlands played an important role, while the Georgians survived thanks to the mountains and forest valleys.
The limited contacts of the peoples living in the mountains hindered ethnic assimilation, preventing the formation of a single ethnic entity. For example in multiethnic Dagestan, the existence of various ethnic groups was facilitated by endogamous marriages.