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     Check the listing for Europe in the Columbia Lippincott gazetteer! It
     is near the bottom of the first column of Europe text, on p. 594 of
     the 1961 CL.  I laughed out loud when I read this, and always thought
     some geographer at AGS was having a good one on us when he came up
     with this. Sure enough, it is a lowland draining into the Caspian
     Sea... There is another paragraph under Manych, which ends with
     "Manych Depression is sometimes regarded as a natural boundary between
     Europe and Asia." I'll bet.
 
     Another geographer must have written the text for the Union of
     Socialist Soviet Republics, as he did not even mention the Manych
     Depression.
 
     Alice Hudson
     Map Division, NYPL
 
 
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: Manych depression?
Author:  Darius Bartlett <[log in to unmask]> at Internet
Date:    11/27/95 4:52 PM
 
 
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Can anybody out there confirm or refute a small (and trivial) bit of
information that I picked up somewhere along the line?
 
Years ago, I remember reading (or perhaps I was told) that somewhere in
the former Soviet Union there exists a place known as the "Manych depression"
(pronounced "Manic Depression). It was suggested that this is a topographic
hollow or valley of some significance. But I have not found it on any map
or atlas.
 
I would love to know if the Manych Depression really exists, or is it a
mere figment of some Cold-War propaganda exercise?
 
Darius Bartlett