Akhalkalaki

Akhalkalaki, 'new town', is the centre of Javakheti, a windswept volcanic plateau at about 1,700 m in the far south of Georgia. Most of its roughly 8,000 residents are ethnic Armenians, and you will hear Armenian on the street more often than Georgian. The town stands on the edge of a deep basalt canyon where the Paravani river is joined by a smaller stream, and the ruins of the old fortress sit on the cliffs above the confluence. Winters are long and harsh, summers short, bright and fresh.

Akhalkalaki is not a sightseeing town as such, but it is the natural break when you cross the plateau between Vardzia and Tbilisi. Walk out to the fortress for views into the canyon, browse the market for cheese, honey and potatoes, and drive 15 minutes west to Kumurdo's 10th-century cathedral. The Baku–Tbilisi–Kars railway, opened in 2017, runs through the town, and Lake Paravani is under an hour away.

Akhalkalaki grew up as a fortified town in the 11th century and was soon sacked by the Seljuk Turks, then rebuilt. Over the following centuries it changed hands between Georgian, Persian and Ottoman rulers, until Russian forces took it in 1828. Armenian families from eastern Anatolia were settled here in the years that followed, shaping the town's character today. A Russian military base stayed in Akhalkalaki until 2007.