Mountain · Akhmeta Municipality, Kakheti
Abano Pass
აბანოს უღელტეხილი
The high road pass that is the only road into Tusheti, crossed on the mountain drive from Pshaveli to Omalo and open only between late spring and autumn.
Where it is
42.2780, 45.5085
Why go
Abano is less a sight than the gateway that decides whether a Tusheti trip happens at all. The road climbs from Pshaveli over the pass and down to Omalo, a drive GNTA puts at about four hours and says needs a high-clearance four-wheel-drive vehicle; GNTA also calls it one of the most challenging stretches of road in Europe. Snow closes it from the end of October until the end of May or early June.
Getting there
Closed from the end of October to the end of May or beginning of June Requires an SUV with high clearance; about four hours from Pshaveli to Omalo
Near Abano Pass
Monastery
Ikalto Monastery
A monastery in Ikalto, a short drive from Telavi, founded in the sixth century by Zenon, one of the Syrian fathers, and home to a medieval academy until Shah Abbas I's army burned it in 1616.
39 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Historic site
Batonistsikhe
The walled residence of the Kakhetian kings in Telavi, with a royal palace, court churches and a royal bath enclosed by a five-metre battlemented wall.
40 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Monastery
Nekresi Monastery
A monastery complex among woods at about 480 metres on the northern slope of the Gombori Ridge near Shilda, with churches built between the fourth and the eighteenth centuries.
40 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Church
Kvetera Church
A small tenth-century domed church with four apses, standing on a hilltop inside the abandoned fortress town of Kvetera on the right bank of the Ilto near Akhmeta.
42 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ