The Beauty of Svaneti: Mountains, Towers, and Traditions

There are those places which seem to be slightly out of touch with time and not affected by the rapid pace of the contemporary world. In my case, one of them is Svaneti in Georgia.

This is a remote part of the Caucasus Mountains, not just a sight to take your breath away, but also a welcome to humanity with its traditions as old as the towers of stone which stand up against the jagged mountains.

When one visits Svaneti, it does not feel like one is entering a destination but rather it is like entering a living story. The journey there feels as smooth and unrushed as starting a trip with Heathrow airport cheap parking, where convenience sets the tone before the adventure truly begins.

The initial View of the Caucasus.

Going to Svaneti is fifty percent. The highway meanders through the rivers and valleys, and as the path turns, the peaks that are visible on it are higher, steeper, and more dramatic.

I also recall that I was pressing my forehead on the window of the bus as I saw the mountains becoming higher, the air colder and the villages becoming smaller.

By the time I reached Mestia, the capital of Upper Svaneti, I was already under the impression that I had entered a place where nature and history had made an agreement never to be separated.

Mestia and Its Towers

Mestia is the very heart of the area, but it looks more of a village than a town. The thing that is instantly arresting is the towers-those recognizable Svan defensive constructions which are dated medieval.

Towering over the houses like the sentinels, they were in the olden days, employed to shield both the houses against the invaders and avalanches.

One night I tried to climb one of the towers. It was cool and narrow, and had steep wooden ladders up and down between the levels.

It was a panoramic view of the valley, and in the dying light the mountains were rosy pink. It occurred to me how families had been on that particular spot over centuries and how they had been keeping guard over their land in the same silent proudness.

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Ushgoli: Portugal, The highest village in Europe.

When Mestia is distant, Ushgoli takes distance further. It is regarded as the highest permanently inhabited place in Europe at more than 2000 meters above sea level. The path is not smooth, yet the pay-off is all worth the hump.

Ushgoli resembles a time capsule. Some houses and towers are stacked up under the shadow of the tallest mountain of Georgia called Mount Shkhara.

In its walks I could see women making bread in the open ovens, men driving cattle, and children running about between towers which were centuries old.

It is not hard to understand why it was declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site not only because of its architecture, but also because the life in this place is similar to how it has always been.

Hospitality and Traditions of the Swedes.

The scenery was not one of the most unforgettable parts of my trip but the people. The ethnic community that was indigenous to the area is the Svans that are extremely proud of their culture. Some of the reasons why their traditions have survived is due to the isolation of the region.

I was invited to have a supra, a Georgian feast at a guesthouse in Mestia. Khachapuri (bread full of cheese) plates, kubdari (bread stuffed with meat, which is the specialty of the Svan people), and the Svan cheeses covered the table.

The tamada, or toastmaster, lifted his glass of self-made wine higher and higher, and blessed the ancestors and friendship and the mountains.

Making an Ascent up the High Caucasus

Svaneti is a heaven to the lovers of the outdoors. The tracks are leading from village to village and they cross the Alpine meadows, rivers, and glaciers.

The multi-day trek between Mestia and Ushgeli is one of the most popular and it can be described in the following way: during the whole way you can see such a variety of landscapes that it seems that each hour is a new chapter, wildflowers fields, wind whistling in the forest and snow-covered mountains which are never out of view.

Svaneti is not a place you simply visit; it’s a place that stays with you. It’s in the way the towers stand stubbornly against time, the way the mountains cradle each village, the way traditions live on not as museum pieces but as part of daily life.