The Caucasus is one of the most beautiful and historically diverse regions on earth.

Dominated by huge mountains,   its landscape has preserved many languages and nationalities in close proximity. During numerous invasions its peoples have fought beside and then against each other many times.

Relative stability arrived with the Bolshevik conquest in 1920,   only to end with the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Wars between Armenians and Azeris,   Georgian and Ossetians,   then Georgians and Abkhaz resulted in over a million displaced people,   ruined economies,   and destroyed towns right across the region.

Today as fighting continues in the north,   the southern Caucasus remains trapped within an uneasy stalemate,   poverty increasing.   As usual,   it is the children who remain on the psychological front line.

• More images of the Caucasus