05The story

Built for defence

Towers and walls of stone

In Georgia's mountains and valleys people built their homes and strongholds in stone, made to last. The most striking are the towers of Svaneti: defensive houses three to five storeys high whose walls thin as they rise, giving them a tapering look, with the upper floors used only for defence behind machicolated parapets and loopholes. Most date from the 9th to the 12th century, and some are joined to two-storey houses whose ground floor is a single hall with a hearth shared by people and livestock. In Chazhashi, in Ushguli, more than 200 towers are preserved as an open-air museum. On the road to Kazbegi stands Ananuri: two castles joined by a crenellated wall, the upper one with a large, well-preserved square tower, the lower one with a round tower now mostly ruined, and inside a brick church from the first half of the 17th century. In Kakheti, 18th-century walls ring Sighnaghi, and in Tbilisi the ramparts of Narikala run along the ridge. All can be visited, and morning light suits them best.

3 to 5

Storeys of a Svan tower

More than 200

Towers in Chazhashi