Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti is Georgia's most dramatic vertical journey. In the humid lowlands of Samegrelo, I walk the ancient territory of Colchis, the legendary kingdom where the Golden Fleece hung in a sacred grove and where, even today, shepherds use sheepskins to trap gold from mountain rivers. This is the land of the Dadiani dynasty, whose Neo-Gothic palace in Zugdidi holds one of only three death masks of Napoleon Bonaparte—a relic of aristocratic ties to the Bonaparte family that brought French refinement to the edge of the Caucasus.
Here, the Mingrelian people speak their own Kartvelian language, distinct from Georgian, and their cuisine is a revelation: the molten, stretchy Elarji (cornmeal and Sulguni cheese), the fiery Kupati sausages, and the legendary spicy Ajika paste that defines the region's bold culinary identity. The landscape is equally dramatic—Martvili Canyon's emerald waters carve through Jurassic limestone, while the Enguri Dam, a 271.5-meter concrete arch marvel, stands as one of the world's highest and most powerful hydroelectric structures.
Then, the road climbs. Following the Enguri River into the Greater Caucasus, I enter Zemo Svaneti (Upper Svaneti), a UNESCO World Heritage landscape frozen in medieval time. Here, the Svan people—guardians of their own ancient language and polyphonic hymns that predate Christianity—live among iconic koshki, stone defensive towers built between the 9th and 12th centuries to withstand invasions, avalanches, and blood feuds. Ushguli, at 2,200 meters, is Europe's highest continuously inhabited settlement, a cluster of stone villages dwarfed by the colossal wall of Mt. Shkhara (5,193m). To trek to the Chalaadi Glacier, to witness the 'sea of clouds' at Tobavarchkhili Lakes, or to hear the haunting Lile hymn echo through the valleys is to step into a living epic where stone, snow, and song have endured for millennia.
