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Sturgeons – contemporaries of dinosaurs
91
THE CASPIAN SEA AND ITS MISTERIES
The name Caspian Sea was mentioned back to Herodotus’ time, but in 
subsequent periods other names are also mentioned, such as Girkan, Khazar 
and Khvalyn (the latt er was used in Russia until up to the 17
th
 century); the 
Turks know it as Kutsgun Denizi, the Tatars – as Ak-Deniz, the Persians – 
as Dortsa and Shizir, and the Turkmens – as Kyukkyuz. Over centuries the 
Caspian Sea had diff erent names (nearly 70 names), namely the Abeskun Sea, 
the Alban Sea, the Guzgun Sea, the Baku Sea, the Gilyan Sea, the Gyurgyan 
Sea, the Mugan Sea, etc.
Khazar Sea is the name of the Caspian Sea in Arabic (Bahr-al-hazar), 
Persian (Daryâ hazar), Turkish and Azerbaij ani  (Khazar deniz) languages. It 
originates from the name of people called Khazars, who in VII-X centuries 
established the Khazar Khaganate – a powerful state on the northwest coast 
of the Caspian.
This name appears fi rst in the Arabic geographical treatises of the IX 
century writt en byIbn Khordadbeh and his followers, Ibn al-Fakih and 
Kudama Ibn Ja’far. Initially, the Black Sea and, less frequently, the Sea of 
Azov, were called Khazar (the positions of the Khazars in the Crimea were 
strong at that time). Beginning with the X century, this name was att ributed 
to the Caspian Sea. It is worth noting that the Khazars themselves have never 
sailed on the seas and had no fl eet. The fact that their name remained in 
history is evidence of the extraordinary role they played in the history of the 
region. In the VII-VIII centuries, the domination of the Khazars was shown 
through their regular invasions, and later (in IX-X centuries) - through active 
sea trade. The capital of Khazar khaganate, city of Itil, was a major trading 
post of the Muslim merchants in the delta of the Volga River.
The writt en sources of those times also mention other names of the Caspian, 
derived from the names of the tribes living along its coasts. These ‘local’ names 
include the Tabaristan Sea, the Delaim Sea, the Shirvan Sea, with the most 
common being the  Jurjan Sea. It is notable that this name is mentioned in the 
Khazar manuscript - a lett er of Khazar Czar Joseph ben Aaron.
Aft er the fall of Khazar khaganate, the sea was frequently referred to 
as the Sea of Khvarezm, sounding as Khvalin Sea in Russian language. The 

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G.M.Palatnikov,  R.U.Qasimov
92
Khvalin Sea is the ancient Russian name of the Caspian Sea, derived from the 
name of inhabitants of Khwarezm who traded on the Caspian; the Russians 
called them the Khvalis.
Currently the Caspian Sea is the world’s largest inland body of water. It is 
bigger than the area of the Great Lakes of America or Lake Victoria in Eastern 
Africa. The Caspian is located in the depression at the border of the European 
and Asian continents, between 47° 07’ and 36° 33’ North latitude and 45° 43’ 
and 54° 20’ East longitude. The Caspian is approximately 1,030 km long; its 
maximum width is 435 km, and minimum – 196 km. The sea is not linked to 
the World Ocean. It’s level is currently some 26.5 meters below the average 
level of the World Ocean. The coastline of the Caspian Sea is almost 7,000 km 
long; it covers an area of about 386,400 square km and contains some 78,700 
cubic km of water.
Over 130 large and small rivers fl ow into the Caspian Sea - mostlyy from 
the north and west.  The largest, the Volga river, fl ows into to the sea from 
north and has a water basin area of 1,400,000 km
2
. Three rivers account for 
90% of the total annual fl ow into the sea: the Volga river – 241 km
3
, the Kura 
River – 13 km
3
, the Terek River - 8.5 km
3
, the Ural River – 8.1 km
3
, and the Sulak 
River – 4 km
3
. The remainder comes in from the minor rivers and streams of 
Iran; the sea’s eastern shore does not have rivers permanently fl owing into it. 
Nevertheless, the Caspian Sea is characterized by brackish water; the 
salinity of the surface waters at the eastern shore is 1.4%; at southern and 
western shores - 1%; in the middle - 3.5%; and at the northern shore - 0.75%. 
The ratio of the salinity of the Caspian Sea and World Ocean is 3 to 8, whilst 
the Caspian Sea is abundant with sulfuric salts. But why is the water of the 
Caspian Sea saline?
It is believed that the Caspian Sea is part of the ancient Tethys Sea 
(Fig.1).

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Sturgeons – contemporaries of dinosaurs
93
Tethys Sea
Tethys Sea (named aft er Poseidon’s daughter, the sea goddess Thetis) 
existed during late Paleozoic - Mesozoic periods (i.e., 320 to 66.5 million 
years ago), and it divided the ancient continents of Gondwana and Laurasia. 
Tens of millions of years ago, this ancient giant sea covered the areas of 
the Mediterranean Sea, the Sea of Marmara, the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, 
the Caspian Sea, and the Aral Sea. Tethys Sea consisted of two parts: a) the 
western – the area of the modern Mediterranean Sea, which was saline; and 
b) the eastern, freshwater area where many rivers used to fl ow.
Approximately 280 million years ago, a so-called Cimmerian continent 
separated from Gondwana, and, gradually crossing the Tethys Sea, it collided 
with Laurasia about 200 million years ago. Finally, about 66.5 million years 
ago, the collision of Gondwana with Laurasia resulted in the formation of the 
Alpine-Himalayan belt. Aft er the collision of continents, Tethys Sea remained 
a shallow water reservoir covering the large part of the south Eurasia.
About 13 million years ago, when the Alps were formed, the link between 
the two parts of the Tethys Sea was broken. The fresh watered Sarmatian Sea 

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