It's rare in the world where one can see as geographically and ethnically unique region as the South Caucasus that any Russian speaker habitually calls it Transcaucasia. Fertile lands, abundance of water and mild climate always led to the development of the drainage agriculture and cattle breeding. Here trade grew, crafts developed, cities were built, and transport routes were getting better. Being located on the crossroad of the Eastern Europe and the Western Asia, washed by the Black Sea on the West, and by the Caspian Sea on the East, Transcaucasia had passed reign of different empires: Roman, Byzantine, Mongol, Persian, Osman and Russian, each of which had promoted its own religious and cultural traditions. Rich soil, cities with developed trade and crafts had attracted warlike neighbours. The Medieval Period for Transcaucasia was the time of brutal wars, feodal fragmentation and devastating campaigns of the Mongol Horde and Tamerlane's warriors. Even in the recent history the region was an arena for political, military, religious and cultural disputes and expansionism. Contemporary Transcaucasia currently includes three countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia*, on the north it borders with the Russian Federation, on the south with Turkey and Iran.