Geological feature · Kazbegi Municipality, Mtskheta-Mtianeti
Truso Travertines
თრუსოს ტრავერტინები · Truso Travertines Natural Monument
White and pinkish travertine fields still being shaped by carbonate-rich spring water on the floor of the Truso valley, protected as a natural monument about two kilometres from Keterisi.
Where it is
42.5834, 44.4275
Why go
The protected-areas agency (APA) describes these as white and pinkish calcareous formations and travertine 'fields' that water is still actively modelling, so their shapes keep changing. The natural monument covers 20 hectares at about 2,200 metres on the floor of the Truso gorge, near the seasonal villages of Keterisi and Abano. APA measures the approach as 32 kilometres from Stepantsminda, the last 12 unpaved, and about two kilometres from Keterisi. The national tourism administration asks visitors not to climb on the travertine, because it damages the structure. Abano Mineral Lake, a separate natural monument, is about 700 metres away.
Near Truso Travertines
Lake
Abano Mineral Lake
A tiny protected lake in the Truso gorge, Kazbegi, whose surface bubbles as carbon dioxide rises from Upper Jurassic carbonate rock beneath it. Not the Abano Pass in Tusheti.
1 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Valley
Truso Valley
The high upper valley of the Tergi west of Kobi in Kazbegi Municipality, with mineral springs, travertine, abandoned villages and the Zakagori fortress along its floor.
2 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Monument
Russia–Georgia Friendship Monument
A circular stone-and-concrete monument of 1983 on the Georgian Military Highway between Gudauri and the Jvari Pass, lined inside with a tiled mural of Georgian and Russian history above a deep valley.
10 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Monument
Stone Heads of Sno
An open-air gallery of monumental stone portraits carved by self-taught sculptor Merab Piranishvili into granite boulders on a hillside at the edge of Sno village, Kazbegi Municipality, begun in 1984 and still growing today.
17 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ