French-speaking explorers of the Northern Caucasus in the XVIII and XIX centuries reporting on the largest silk route (an approach to the ancient contacts between the communities inhabiting the Northern Caucasus, Asia and Europe)

The paper presented a review of the records made by the French-speaking explorers of the Caucasus (of the period from the XVIII to XIX centuries) reporting the facts on the Largest Silk Route. The notes mentioned the ancient contacts between the Northern Caucasian ethnic communities and the communities of Asia and Europe. The contribution the French-speaking researchers have made had shaped the headway elaborating the issue, in particular, exploring cultural interactions established from the IV century B.C. to XI century A.D. owing to the ancient tracks beaten across the Northern Caucasus. Carl von Richthofen was the first to launch the expression the «Largest Silk Route» into the academic turnover once having published the book in 1877 where the writer called by this term the tracks having linked two worlds, - the Orient and the West. The ancient writers Herodotus, Strabo, Pliny had evidenced for existence of the ancient merchant track since the IV century B.C. Some French-speaking explorers over the XVIII and-XIX centuries had taken a keen interest in discovering the ancient merchant routes in the steppes of the Southern Russia and the Northern Caucasus. The paper reviewed different standpoints on the issue of the Silk Route that such French-speaking authors produced as J. Potocki et F. Dubois de Montereux. Owing to details reported by F. Gilles, the author made the substantial amendment to the issue of positioning for the ancient Caucasian fortress Borgoustan.