Kaspiai Pylai/Caucasiae Portae
a Pleiades
place
resource
Creators: David Braund Copyright © The Contributors. Sharing and remixing permitted under terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (cc-by).
Creators: David Braund Copyright © The Contributors. Sharing and remixing permitted under terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (cc-by).
Last modified
Apr 12, 2021 06:56 PM
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History
The river Terek flows through the Darial Gorge in eastern Georgia along the flank of Mount Kazbek. This natural pass was known by many names in antiquity, including the Caspian Gates, the Caucasian Gates, and the Gates of Iberia. It was also referred to as the Gates of the Sarmatians and the Gates of the Alans. The latter name provides the source for the current toponym describing the gorge itself. Anderson 1928 notes that "Caspian Gates" (Caspiae portae) is used to refer to at least three locations in the ancient sources, with the Darial Gorge being one of those.
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https://pleiades.stoa.org/places/863824
42.744722, 44.6225
- Representative Locations:
- Geohack location of Darial Gorge (modern) accuracy: +/- 5 meters.
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- Portae Caucasiae (Caucasiae Portae: Latin, 30 BC - AD 300)
- در الان (Dar-i Alān: Modern Persian)
- Kaspiai Pylai (Ancient Greek, unspecified date range)
- Σαρματικαὶ Πύλαι (αἱ) (Sarmatikai Pylai: Ancient Greek, 30 BC - AD 300)
- None
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None
pass, "gates" (landform)
Barrington Atlas: BAtlas 88 C2 Kaspiai Pylai/Caucasiae Portae
None
David Braund, DARMC, R. Talbert, Sean Gillies, Jeffrey Becker, Diane Braund, and Tom Elliott, 'Kaspiai Pylai/Caucasiae Portae: a Pleiades place resource', Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places, 2021 <https://pleiades.stoa.org/places/863824> [accessed: 16 June 2025]
{{cite web |url=https://pleiades.stoa.org/places/863824 |title=Places: 863824 (Kaspiai Pylai/Caucasiae Portae) |author=Braund, D. |accessdate=June 16, 2025 2:05 pm |publisher=Pleiades}}