Bazaleti Lake

Bazaleti Lake is a small lake in the hills of Dusheti municipality, about 65 km north of Tbilisi and a short detour from the Georgian Military Road. It covers about 1.2 square kilometres at 878 metres and is no more than 7 metres deep, so the water warms up quickly in summer. On hot weekends Tbilisi families come out to swim, hire boats, fish and eat at the lakeside cafes, and the shore stays lively into the evening. On weekdays and outside the summer months it is calm, with reeds, grassy banks and low wooded hills around the water.

Georgian legend says a golden cradle with a child lies at the bottom of the lake, and the story has inspired poems and songs. The lake also gave its name to a battle in 1626, fought in the surrounding hills. Bring a towel and sun cream in summer, and combine the lake with Ananuri and the Zhinvali Reservoir further north for an easy day out of the capital.

In 1626 the hills around the lake saw the Battle of Bazaleti, in which King Teimuraz I and his allies defeated the army of the rebel commander Giorgi Saakadze, ending his bid to control eastern Georgia. Saakadze fled to the Ottoman Empire, where he was executed in 1629. The battle and the lake's legend of the golden cradle both became favourite subjects of Georgian writers and singers.