Monument · Batumi, Adjara
Alphabetic Tower
ანბანის კოშკი
A 130-metre tower in Miracle Park on Batumi's old boulevard, wound with two spiral bands carrying the 33 letters of the modern Georgian alphabet.
Where it is
41.6559, 41.6394
Why go
The design borrows the double helix of DNA: the letters, each about four metres high and lit by built-in LEDs, climb the shaft in two strands towards a sphere at the top. That sphere is the reason to go up rather than photograph it from the promenade. It holds an observation deck with an open terrace and a restaurant whose floor turns a full circle in an hour, with the city, the Black Sea and the Adjaran mountains in view. Designed by the Spanish architect Alberto Domingo Cabo and completed in 2011, it is a modern city landmark rather than a historic monument, and it also houses a tourist information centre.
Near Alphabetic Tower
Church
Batumi Cathedral of the Mother of God
A neo-Gothic basilica in old Batumi with two tall bell towers, built as a Catholic church by the Zubalashvili brothers and now a cathedral of the Georgian Orthodox Church.
1 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Fortress
Gonio-Apsaros Fortress
A rectangular walled fort near the mouth of the Chorokhi River south of Batumi, recorded in Roman times as Apsaros, with 18 of its towers still standing along the circuit wall.
11 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Waterfall
Mirveti Waterfall
A twenty-metre waterfall on the cliffs beside Mirveti village in Khelvachauri municipality, reached through Colchic boxwood forest about twenty kilometres from Batumi.
15 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Waterfall
Makhuntseti Waterfall
A fifty-metre waterfall dropping into a wide natural pool at Upper Makhuntseti in Keda municipality, a five-minute walk from the main road up the Acharistskali valley.
20 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ