Dolmens of the North Caucasus

Most of them are represented by rectangular structures made of stone slabs or cut in rocks with holes in their facade.

These dolmens cover the Western Caucasus on both sides of the mountain ridge, in an area of approximately 12,000 square kilometres of Russia and Abkhazia.

The Caucasian dolmens represent a unique type of prehistoric architecture, built with precisely dressed large stone blocks.

In spite of the variety of Caucasian monuments, they show strong similarities with megaliths from different parts of Eurasia, like the Iberian Peninsula, Italy, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Iran and India.

[citation needed] A range of hypotheses has been put forward to explain these similarities and the building of megaliths on the whole, but still it remains unclear.

The dolmens could have been vaults of metal objects or jewelry that were pillaged by the invading Scythians around the first millennium BC.

One of the most interesting megalithic complexes – group of three dolmens - stands in a row on a hill above Zhane River on the Black Sea coast in the Krasnodar area near Gelendzhik, Russia.

In this area there is a great concentration of all types of megalithic sites including settlements and dolmen cemeteries.