VLADIKAVKAZ  , a

town and fortress of Russia in northern Caucasia, the capital of the province of Terek . Pop . (1900) 49,924 . It strnds on a plateau, at an altitude of 2345 ft., on both banks of the Terek, where that river issues from the Darial gorge . It is 434 M. by rail S.E. from Rostov-on-the-Don, and has regular communication with Tiflis (133 m.) by coach through the Darial Pass (Georgian military road) of the Caucasus . Moreover, a line of tailway, running eastwards to the Caspian ports of Petrovsk and Baku, connects Vladikavkaz, or rather the station Beslan, 14 M . N. of it, with the Transcaucasian railway, i.e. with Tiflis, Poti and Batum . Russians, Armenians and Jews constitute the bulk of the population, which also contains Ossetes, Chechens, Ingushes and others . There are distilleries and a number of smaller factories . The fort, around which the town has grown up, was built in 1784 . The town is an episcopal see of the Orthodox Greek Church .