"Svanetia? Are you kidding us? does this country really exist? It sounds like some fantasy-book country name, that's what my friends told me when heard that I go to Svanetia" - said Thomas, the guy from Germany. We have met on the Zugdidi train station - him and his girlfriend, Anya from Moscow, and me. The driver, grey Georgian named Georgy (Zhora for short), have picked us to get to Latali, a village in Upper Svanetia.
His green Mercedes had carried us through valley and the mountain road had begun.
We looked around and felt envy to spiders for their eight eyes. Svaneti was beyond description. It was not just sounding like some fantasy-book country, it was looking like that.
We stayed on the bank of Enguri river, and its muddy foamy stream roared like hell under us. I was looking at the HPP dam, almost expecting for the ents.
The road twisted and turned between mountains and abysses, from time to time driver Zhora stopped to let us admire the views. At this conflux of two rivers my cell phone battery finally gave up. This was the last picture it could take:
It had taken three hours to drive from Zugdidi to Latali, a Svani village, the final point of our destination.
Yes, Svanetia (or Svaneti, as locals say) does really exist. It is the North-Western part of the Georgia, on the Russian border. The border runs over the mountains, through the zone of eternal snow, 3-5 000 m over the sea level, so svani could feel safe during the war of 08.08.2008. Their towns are too small and insignificant from the military point of view, they were not bombed, and it would take a long and bloody guerilla suppressing to advance along the Enguri river (and there is no oher way to Svaneti by land). So, not likely Putin could have succeed where Zhengis-khan and Tamerlan had retreated. Svaneti wasn't ever conquered, by no one.
That doesn't mean that Svani enjoyed peaceful life. On the contrary, their history is a history of constant internal strives, local wars and blood feuds.
That's why the name of Svaneti is associated with towers (for the people who knows at least something of this country). Towers are dominating over the every village. It is not towers of nobles (svani were tended to kill their nobles-wannabes), it were commoners who built those towers for their families. For the svani, ''my house is my fortress" is more than just a saying. Many of those towers are above millenium old. The newest ones in Latali are 600 years.
Nowadays, those towers are but the tourists attractions, or storages, or museums and local places of interest. Some of them are in goog repair, some are semi-destroyed.
Laleta itself turned up to be a friendly-looking house nearby the road.
The bigger building is a hotel, the lesser one - hosts' house, under construction for now.
Next time I'll tell more about what 'Latali' and 'Laleta' means.
His green Mercedes had carried us through valley and the mountain road had begun.
We looked around and felt envy to spiders for their eight eyes. Svaneti was beyond description. It was not just sounding like some fantasy-book country, it was looking like that.
Yes, Svanetia (or Svaneti, as locals say) does really exist. It is the North-Western part of the Georgia, on the Russian border. The border runs over the mountains, through the zone of eternal snow, 3-5 000 m over the sea level, so svani could feel safe during the war of 08.08.2008. Their towns are too small and insignificant from the military point of view, they were not bombed, and it would take a long and bloody guerilla suppressing to advance along the Enguri river (and there is no oher way to Svaneti by land). So, not likely Putin could have succeed where Zhengis-khan and Tamerlan had retreated. Svaneti wasn't ever conquered, by no one.
That doesn't mean that Svani enjoyed peaceful life. On the contrary, their history is a history of constant internal strives, local wars and blood feuds.
That's why the name of Svaneti is associated with towers (for the people who knows at least something of this country). Towers are dominating over the every village. It is not towers of nobles (svani were tended to kill their nobles-wannabes), it were commoners who built those towers for their families. For the svani, ''my house is my fortress" is more than just a saying. Many of those towers are above millenium old. The newest ones in Latali are 600 years.
Nowadays, those towers are but the tourists attractions, or storages, or museums and local places of interest. Some of them are in goog repair, some are semi-destroyed.
Next time I'll tell more about what 'Latali' and 'Laleta' means.
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