Ushguli

Ushguli is where Svaneti ends. Four small villages sit together in a high bowl at 2,100 metres, ringed by more than forty medieval tower houses, with the 5,193-metre wall of Shkhara — the highest point in Georgia — closing the head of the valley.

The whole community is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list, and unlike many such places it is still lived in: cattle share the lanes, hay is stacked against the towers, and winter cuts the road for months at a time.

Above the last houses stands Lamaria, a small twelfth-century church with a defensive tower of its own and frescoes darkened by centuries of candle smoke. The walk up to it, with Shkhara filling the skyline, is the reason most people make the rough journey from Mestia.