Tusheti

Tucked away in Georgia’s far northeast corner bordering Chechnya and Dagestan in neighbouring Russia, Tusheti is one of Georgia's most picturesque and pristine high-mountain regions. The single unpaved (and often terrifying) road to get here from Kakheti passes over the nerve-jangling 2900m Abano Pass and can only be done in a 4WD from around late May to mid-October.

Centuries-old koshkebi (stone defence and refuge towers) still stand in many villages, and evidence of Tusheti’s old animist religion is plentiful in the form of stone shrines called khatebi (singular: khati) decked with the horns of sacrificed goats or sheep.

Today most Tusheti folk only go up to Tusheti in summer, to graze their flocks, participate in festivals, cater for tourists and generally reconnect with their roots. Many have winter homes around the villages of Akhmeta and Alvani in Kakheti. Welcome to one of Georgia's least explored and most mysterious regions.