Vladikavkaz

Vladikavkaz, a town and fortress of Russia in northern Caucasia, the capital of the province of Terek. Pop. (1900) 49,9 2 4. It stands on a plateau, at an altitude of 2345 ft., on both banks of the Terek, where that river issues from the Darial gorge. It is 434 m. by rail S.E. from Rostov-on-the-Don, and has regular communication with Tiflis (133 m.) by coach through the Darial Pass (Georgian military road) of the Caucasus. Moreover, a line of railway, running eastwards to the Caspian ports of Petrovsk and Baku, connects Vladikavkaz, or rather the station Beslan, 14 m. N. of it, with the Transcaucasian railway, i.e. with Tiflis, Poti and Batum. Russians, Armenians and Jews constitute the bulk of the population, which also contains Ossetes, Chechens, Ingushes and others. There are distilleries and a number of smaller factories. The fort, around which the town has grown up, was built in 1784. The town is an episcopal see of the Orthodox Greek Church.