03Cities and regions
The Black Sea
Batumi
Batumi is Georgia's second-largest city, with about 246,000 people, and the capital of Adjara on the Black Sea, 20 kilometres from the Turkish border. Its climate is humid subtropical, and with about 2,435 millimetres of rain a year it is the wettest city in the Caucasus, which keeps its parks green all year. Along the shore runs the seaside boulevard with its white colonnades and gardens, and nearby rises the Alphabetic Tower, a 130-metre structure wrapped by two bands carrying the 33 letters of the Georgian alphabet. Restored 19th-century buildings stand beside glass towers, and the Italian-style Batumi Piazza has a 106-square-metre marble mosaic underfoot. Nine kilometres north, the botanical garden spreads over 108 hectares above the sea, and 15 kilometres south the Roman fortress of Gonio guards the mouth of the Chorokhi River. Summer is the swimming season; autumn is the rainiest time of year.
- About 246,000
- Population
- 0 m
- Height of the Alphabetic Tower
- 0 ha
- Area of the botanical garden
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- Average annual rainfall
Highlights
- Batumi PiazzaAn Italian-style square ringed by cafés and hotels, with a 106-square-metre marble mosaic at its centre.
- Gonio fortressA Roman fort by the sea at the mouth of the Chorokhi, 15 kilometres south of Batumi.