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
Lake
Paravani Lake
One of Georgia's largest lakes, a shallow volcano-tectonic lake at 2,073 metres in the north-east of the Javakheti volcanic plateau, Samtskhe-Javakheti.
7 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Lake
Tabatskuri Lake
A high lake at 2,000 metres in Samtskhe-Javakheti holding some 221 million cubic metres of water, with Tabatskuri village built out on a small peninsula along its shore.
20 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
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
Bridge
Diamond Bridge (Tsalka Canyon)
A 240-metre glass suspension footbridge across Tsalka (Dashbashi) Canyon in Tsalka Municipality, with the diamond-shaped Diamond 360 café-bar at its centre.
34 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ