located_on_terrain_feature tuzla island
Ancient Greek includes the forms of Greek used in ancient ___MASK84___ and the ancient world from around the 9th century BC to the 6th century AD . It is often roughly divided into the Archaic period ( 9th to 6th centuries BC ), Classical period ( 5th and 4th centuries BC ), and Hellenistic period ( 3rd century BC to the 6th century AD ). It is antedated in the second millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek . ___MASK58___ ( from the  Rus '), also officially known as the Russian Federation , is a country in Eurasia . At , ___MASK58___ is the largest country in the world by surface area , covering more than one - eighth of the ___MASK27___ ' s inhabited land area , and the ninth most populous , with over 140 million people at the end of March 2016 . The European western part of the country is much more populated and urbanised than the eastern , about 77 % of the population live in European ___MASK58___ . ___MASK58___ ' s capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world , other major urban centers include Saint Petersburg , Novosibirsk , Yekaterinburg , Nizhny Novgorod and Samara . The Sea of Azov (" Azovs ' ke more / Azovke more ") is a sea in ___MASK55___ . To the south it is linked by the narrow ( about ) Strait of Kerch to the ___MASK24___ , and it is sometimes regarded as a northern extension of the ___MASK24___ . The sea is bounded in the north by mainland Ukraine , in the east by Russia , and in the west by the Crimean Peninsula . The Don and Kuban are the major rivers that flow into it . The Sea of Azov is the shallowest sea in the world , with the depth varying between . There is a constant outflow of water from the Sea of Azov to the ___MASK24___ . Tuzla Island ( Ukrainian :  ; Russian :  ; Crimean Tatar : Tuzla ) ( from Turkish `` tuzluk '' - saturated solution of salt in water for salting fish ) - is a sandy islet in the form of a spit located in the middle of the Strait of Kerch between the ___MASK76___ in the west and the Taman Peninsula in the east . Administratively , it is part of Kerch city in eastern Crimea . Krasnodar Krai is a federal subject of ___MASK58___ ( a krai ), located in the Southern Federal District . Its administrative center is the city of Krasnodar . It had a population of 5 , 226 , 647 ( 2010 Census ). The ___MASK64___ (" Krymskiy poluostrov ;" , " Kryms ' ky pivostriv "), also known simply as Crimea ( " Krym " " Krym "), is a major land mass on the northern ___MASK2___ of the ___MASK24___ that is almost completely surrounded by both the ___MASK24___ and the smaller Sea of Azov to the northeast . The peninsula is located south of the Ukrainian region of Kherson and west of the Russian region of Kuban . It is connected to Kherson Oblast by the Isthmus of Perekop and is separated from Kuban by the Strait of Kerch . The Arabat Spit is located to the northeast , a narrow strip of land that separates a system of lagoons named Sivash from the Sea of Azov . An islet is a very small island . Types . As suggested by its origin as " islette ", an Old French diminutive of " isle ", use of the term implies small size , but little attention is given to drawing an upper limit on its applicability . An island or isle is any piece of sub - continental land that is surrounded by water . Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets , skerries , cays or keys . An island in a river or a lake island may be called an eyot or ait , and a small island off the ___MASK2___ may be called a holm . A grouping of geographically or geologically related islands is called an archipelago , e . g . the Philippines . Pontic Greek is a Greek language originally spoken in the Pontus area on the southern shores of the ___MASK24___ , northeastern Anatolia , the Eastern Turkish / Caucasus province of Kars , southern Georgia and today mainly in northern Greece . The linguistic lineage of Pontic Greek stems from Ionic Greek via Koine and Byzantine Greek and contains influences from Georgian , Russian , Turkish and to a lesser extent , Persian ( via Ottoman Turkish ) and various Caucasian languages . Its Ophitic variant has been identified as the living language that is closest to Ancient Greek . Its speakers are referred to as Pontic Greeks or Pontian Greeks . Kerch (, Old East Slavic :  , , , Ancient Greek : " Pantikapaion ") is a city of regional significance on the ___MASK76___ in the east of the Crimea . Population : Phanagoria was the largest ancient Greek city on the ___MASK44___ , spread over two plateaus along the eastern shore of the Cimmerian Bosporus . The city was a large emporium for all the traffic between the ___MASK2___ of the Maeotian marshes and the countries on the southern side of the Caucasus . It was the eastern capital of the Bosporan Kingdom , with Panticapaeum being the western capital . Strabo described it as a noteworthy city which was renowned for its trade . Shortly a Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese while a medieval Genosese colony under the name Matrega , it remains a Latin Catholic titular see . Today the site is located at a short distance to the west of Sennoy in Krasnodar Krai , Russia . Another ancient Greek city , Hermonassa , lies to the west , on the shoreline of modern Taman . Perekop is an urban - type settlement located on the Perekop Isthmus connecting the ___MASK64___ to the Ukrainian mainland . It is known for the Fortress Or Qapi that served as the gateway to Crimea . The village currently is part of Armyansk Municipality . Population : The Isthmus of Perekop ( translit . " Perekops ' kyy pereshyyok " translit . " Perekopskiy peresheek " ) is the narrow , wide strip of land that connects the ___MASK64___ to the mainland of ___MASK48___ . The isthmus is located between the ___MASK24___ to the west and the Sivash to the east . The isthmus takes its name from the Tatar fortress of Perekop . The ___MASK44___ (" Tamanskiy poluostrov "), a peninsula in the present - day Krasnodar Krai of ___MASK58___ , borders on the north with the Sea of Azov , on the west with the Strait of Kerch and on the south with the ___MASK24___ . The area has evolved over the past two millennia from a chain of islands into today ' s peninsula . In ancient times the Pontic Greek colonies of Hermonassa and Phanagoria stood on the peninsula , as did the later city of Tmutarakan . Kherson Oblast ( translit . " Khersons  ka oblast "; also referred to as Khersonshchyna  "") is an oblast ( province ) in southern ___MASK48___ , just north of Crimea . Its administrative center is Kherson . The area of the region is 28 , 461 km² , its population ( as of 1 January 2012 ) is 1 , 083 , 367 . Kuban is a geographic region of Southern ___MASK58___ surrounding the Kuban River , on the ___MASK24___ between the Don Steppe , the Volga Delta and the Caucasus , and separated from the Crimean Peninsula to the west by the Kerch Strait . Krasnodar Krai is often referred to as " Kuban ", both officially and unofficially , although the term is not exclusive to the krai and accommodates the republics of Adygea , Karachay  Cherkessia , and parts of Stavropol Krai . The ___MASK76___ is a major and prominent geographic peninsula located at the eastern end of the ___MASK64___ . Tmutarakan or Tmutorakan was the name of a Mediaeval Kievan Rus ' principality and trading town that controlled the Cimmerian Bosporus , the passage from the ___MASK24___ to the Sea of Azov . Its site was the ancient Greek colony of Hermonassa , situated on the Taman peninsula , in the present - day Krasnodar Krai of Russia , roughly opposite Kerch . The Khazar fortress of Tamantarkhan ( from which the Byzantine name for the city , Tamatarcha , is derived ) was built on the site in the 7th century and became known as Tmutarakan when it came under Kievan Rus control in the 10th and 11th centuries . The ___MASK24___ is a body of water between Eastern Europe and Western Asia , bounded by Bulgaria , Georgia , Romania , Russia , Turkey , and Ukraine . It is supplied by a number of major rivers , such as the Danube , Dnieper , Rioni , Southern Bug , and Dniester . The ___MASK24___ has an area of ( not including the Sea of Azov ), a maximum depth of , and a volume of . It is constrained by the Pontic Mountains to the south and by the Caucasus Mountains to the east , and features a wide shelf to the northwest . The longest east - west extent is about . Old East Slavic , " Old Russian , Old Rusian " was a language used in the 10th  15th centuries by East Slavs in Kievan Rus ' and states which evolved after the collapse of Kievan Rus '. Dialects of it were spoken , though not exclusively , in the area today occupied by ___MASK20___ , central and northern ___MASK48___ , and parts of western Russia . Old French (', ', ""; Modern French ) was the Gallo - Romance dialect continuum spoken from the 9th century to the 14th century . In the 14th century , these dialects came to be collectively known as the " langues d ' oïl ", contrasting with the " langue d ' oc " or Occitan language in the south of ___MASK7___ . The mid - 14th century is taken as the transitional period to Middle French , the language of the French Renaissance , specifically based on the dialect of the Île - de - ___MASK7___ region .