Gottfried Merzbacher on the High Mountain Regions of the Caucasus

Abstract

Gottfried Merzbacher travelled in the Caucasus between 1891 and1892. His two-volume book The High Mountaineous Regions of the Caucasus, published in Leipzig in 1901, is an important source to learn about the geology and geography of the Caucasus as well as the historical past and ethnography of its inhabitants. This paper considers Merzbacher’s ideas and observations on Caucasian highlanders from a modern perspective.