Archaeological site · Ninotsminda Municipality, Samtskhe-Javakheti
Shaori Fortress
შაორის ციხე
A megalithic stronghold of the second millennium BCE on the summit of Mount Shaori, 2,752 metres up north-west of Paravani Lake, built of large basalt blocks laid without mortar.
Where it is
41.4851, 43.7458
Why go
The national tourism administration includes Shaori on a hiking route that starts in Patara Samsari, passes Levani Lake and finishes at Tambovka on the shore of Paravani Lake, and that is the right frame for a visit: a high-country walk with a Bronze Age ruin as its goal. The fortress is split between two neighbouring peaks, and its central enclosure is entered through a single narrow gate on the eastern side. It suits hikers and anyone curious about the cyclopean hillforts of the South Caucasus; Abuli, a comparable stronghold, stands in the same Paravani area.
Near Shaori Fortress
Archaeological site
Avranlo Fortress
A cyclopean fortification of huge dry-laid stones on the Tsalka plateau, rising in three tiers above the Ktsia river beside the village of Avranlo and dated to the first millennium BC.
23 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Fortress
Tmogvi Fortress
The ruined walls of a medieval fortress-town on a steep height above the Mtkvari gorge downstream of Vardzia, which once guarded the route between the Javakheti plateau and the river valley.
37 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Fortress
Khertvisi Fortress
A tenth-century citadel and ring of walls on a rocky cape where the Paravani meets the Mtkvari, on the valley road between Akhaltsikhe and Vardzia.
38 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Monastery
Vardzia
A cave monastery cut into the cliffs of Erusheti mountain above the left bank of the Mtkvari, laid out mainly in the twelfth century under Giorgi III and his daughter Queen Tamar.
40 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ