Tusheti

Tusheti National Park was established in 2003 at the north-eastern tip of Georgia, on the southern flank of the Greater Caucasus and next to the borders with Russia — Chechnya and Dagestan — and protects some 835 km².

It is one of the most isolated territories in Europe. The only road access is the Abano pass, at 2,850 metres, an unsurfaced mountain track regarded as one of the most dangerous in the world and closed by snow for between eight and nine months a year, during which the valleys are cut off except by helicopter.

That isolation has preserved an exceptional landscape and culture. The Tush people built stone villages with multi-storey defensive towers, such as those of Shenako, Diklo and Dartlo, raised against incursions from the north, and they keep up a seasonal transhumance with flocks of sheep that come down each autumn to the plains of Kakheti and go back up in spring. The vegetation combines pine and birch woods with extensive subalpine and alpine meadows, and the wildlife includes the East Caucasian tur, endemic to the range, brown bear, lynx and bearded vulture. Near-total winter depopulation and the ageing of the population are the territory's main challenges.