Khevsureti

Khevsureti lies on the northern side of the main Caucasus ridge, and for most of the year it is cut off entirely. The road climbs over the Datvijvari Pass at 2,676 metres and drops into the Argun gorge, which continues north into Chechnya a few kilometres beyond the last village.

Shatili is the reason people come: a single interlocking mass of some sixty stone towers built into the cliff, part fortress and part village, with roofs of one house forming the terrace of the next. It was inhabited continuously until the twentieth century.

Further up the gorge stand Mutso, a ruined tower village restored over the past decade, and the crypts of Anatori, where families struck by plague are said to have walked in to die rather than infect their neighbours. The Khevsurs kept chainmail, straight swords and a code of blood feud into living memory.