ИСТИНА

The area around the Elbrus Mountain is the orographically elevated territory in Russia and the whole of Europe. Its height is 5642 meters above the sea level, and many other mountain peaks are 5000 meters above the sea level. It has a huge number of glaciers covering a huge area. In addition to many interesting geographical features, the North Caucasus itself raises considerable interest in terms of history and archeology. It is one of the most ancient world’s cultural centers of the early Bronze Age and it can be compared to the early civilizations of Egypt and Shumerian state. Numerous findings of bronze, gold, and silver artefacts found in huge earth mounds - kurgans erected four – five thousand years B.C. can be compared in terms of their size and importance to the Egyptian pyramids, well-known all over the world. This region has seen the civilizations of very many peoples: Scythians, Sarmatians, Huns, Alans, Aesirs, Khazars. These peoples and especially the Bulgars whose traces had been reflected in the ancient Syrian and Armenian manuscripts that go as back as the 2th century B.C. have given origin to the modern Balkar people. The Balkar people have many relict features in their material and spiritual culture that go back to the ancient peoples. Many old words of the disappeared peoples have been retained by the language, especially in the toponymy. Some geographical areas have about 30 to 40 percent of such relict toponym words. The studies of such rich toponymy of the region is very promising and is of great interest for research in general.