The Georgian Military Highway

This road runs between Tbilisi to Vladikavkaz (always just rolls off the tongue!) just over the border in Russia.  Although the route was known since ancient times (Pliny apparently mentioned it), the present road dates from the 1800s when the Russians built it as the main route through the region.  It was a major project at the time, and when it was finally completed in 1863 had cost £4 million at that time, which was a staggering cost.

The road  run down the right side of this valley…

Georgia/Caucasus appears to feature quite heavily in 19^th century Russian literature – one book I read (and I forget which) compared the image of Georgia in Russian literature as being akin to the Wild West in Hollywood – a completely romanticised image of wild untamed nature full of men trying to make their mark and survive in this harsh landscape.  Many of the greats of Russian literature travelled to this region (in fact served as soldiers during Russian campaigns in the 19^th century) and fell in love with and wrote about the region – this includes both Pushkin and Tolstoy.  However, the writer who is really connected to this region is Lermontov – I’d never heard of him until I booked the holiday, but his novel ‘A Hero of our Time’ – which according to the blurb on the back of the book is viewed as the First Great Russian Novel, is set entirely in the region.   I mention this now because the first chapter of the book is set on the Georgian Military Highway as the narrator of the story travels north along it…  The book is a bit like a Russian version of Dangerous Liaisons if you’re interested, and it seems Lermontov’s life progressed in a form scaringly similar to its central character, down to his death in a duel over a woman (in the Caucasus).

The importance of the road has declined over the years, but it still remains one of the main routes in the region.  Our tour guide told us that it was particularly important for Armenia – and they had particularly struggled when it was closed during the 2008 War.

The road starts to get interesting at around Ananuri, a beautiful 18^th century castle that now perches above the deep blue of the reservoir of the nearby Gadauri dam – yeah, that lake isn’t natural.  The area was flooded in the 1950s on the orders of Stalin, flooding the original Military Highway, and the Castle only narrowly escaped the same fate.

From here the landscape becomes much more dramatic, and the road condition also becomes a lot worse!

However, it was the final stretch we did to Kazbegi (see previous entry) that was slow due to the road condition; there is a lot of swerving large potholes and drives through what look like not particularly safe snow tunnels – which is always fun when you have find a massive truck coming the other way.   Delays happen on a regular basis here, either due to accidents or to roadworks, and some of the driving is utterly and selfishly insane, but the road doesn’t get closed that often – even in winter it’s kept open for at least some of the day.  Well, or night, as the road can actually be safer then as avalanches are less likely to happen in the cold darkness.

The Military Highway with one of the tunnels…

This huge colourful monument is the Soviet Monument to commemorate 200 years of ‘friendship’ between Georgia and Russia – I use the inverted commas because our tour guide let out a snort when telling us this.  But it was built in 1983 to commemorate the 200^th anniversary of the first formal alliance between Georgia and Russia – a treaty the Georgian signed in order to get Russian military assistance against the Persians and Turkish invasions.  Not that it helped, as the Persians utterly destroyed Tbilisi in 1795… but there you go…  It was the start of Georgia’s absorption into the Russian Empire.  I loved it!

Full of symbolism that I really don’t understand…

The last two photos are from a short walk we did from the Georgian Military Highway, close to the Russian border (or more correctly close to the 3km no man’s land that exists between the Georgian and Russian border).  Beautiful landscape.

The ruined tower above is one of a chain of towers build by King David the Builder in the 12th century.  The towers served as a warning device should the region be in trouble invaded.  A fire was lit in the tower to relay a message to the next tower… etc., etc.  Most of the towers are now in various state of ruins: either pillaged by locals for stone, or destroyed by the invading Mongols in the 13th century.  They litter the landscape of this part of Georgia.

Mount Kazbek and Gergeti, Georgia

I have not written in some time.

Back in June, I went on holiday to Georgia, and my intention was to write a bit about my time there, but in all honesty, it’s taken me this long to be able to process my photos, and in some ways mentally make sense of the time I was there.  In fact, I’m off on my next holiday (well, actually adventure, because I can’t imagine that this will in any way be a ‘break’) on Friday…

Where to start?

Well, firstly I went on a walking tour – it wasn’t just walking and we did cover many cultural stops (which meant loads and loads of churches) between the walks, but primarily it was about walking up near Mount Kazbek and then in Svaneti.

I think I’m going to start with a few of my favourite things from our time near Mount Kazbek…

This was the first area we went to from Tbilisi, driving North up the Georgian Military Highway until Kazbegi – a town in the area which takes its name from a local nobleman turned poet.  He went to Saint Petersburg to be a poet, before returning to the area to become a shepherd – he actually met Dumas whilst he was traveling in the area, who was a little bit surprised to find a shepherd who could speak fluent French. The town is now reverting to its original name of Sepantsminda.

We stayed in the former University building in Kazbegi, which gave me the most beautiful views of Mount Kazbek – the third highest mountain in Georgia.  Honestly, I have loads and loads of photos of this view at all times of day and in all states of cloud cover.  Mount Kazbek is one of the mountains which is cited as the possible place where Prometheus was chained to a mountain to have his liver eaten by an eagle on a daily basis.   This is partly because it’s such a perfect shape, and partly because there is a local myth which bears a very striking resemblance to the Prometheus myth.  Whichever, the Mountain was meant to be pretty sacred to the locals who rose up and tore down the cable car that the Soviets attempted to build to the top a few decades ago.  And left it in ruins just as a reminder to not try it again.

So here are a few photos of Mount Kazbek in all her glory!

See perfect mountain!

The mountain seemed close enough to touch, the perfect image of everything a mountain should be, its great cone topped with a cupola of snow, brilliant white and tinged around the edges with pink in the evening sun.’

 Fab quote from p163 of Peter Anderson’s ‘Bread and Ashes: A walk through the Mountains of Georgia’ – great book.

And lastly, for drama:

 

The Church on the hill in front is Gergeti Church.  Walking to the Church (which we did) is a very popular activity in the area, especially when we went as the schools had just closed for the summer.  Well, you can get a 4×4 up to the Church if you are lazy (which as far as I could tell was how the Russian and Israeli visitors got up there), but if you want to work for your view then you puff your way up to the Church. It makes that view worth it.   The Church dates to the 14th century.  Due to it’s location it was apparently a favourite place for precious objects to be brought and hidden during times to troubles.  It was very small, very crowded and watched a bunch of very strict monks.