Lonely Planet Georgia, Armenia & Azerbaijan , livre ebook

Georgia, Armenia & Azerbaijan

Contents

Plan Your Trip

Welcome to the Caucasus
Caucasus' Top 9
Need to Know
What's New
If You Like...
Month by Month
Itineraries
Countries at a Glance

On The Road

Georgia
Georgia Highlights
Tbilisi
City Walk
Around Tbilisi
Mtskheta
Gori
Around Gori
Western Georgia
Kutaisi
Around Kutaisi
Zugdidi
Abkhazia
Sukhumi
Northwest of Sukhumi
Adjara
Batumi
Around Batumi
Great Caucasus
Svaneti
Georgian Military Highway
Khevsureti
Tusheti
Kakheti
Telavi
Around Telavi
Sighnaghi
Around Sighnaghi
Davit Gareja
Lagodekhi Protected Areas
Samtskhe-Javakheti
Borjomi
Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park
Bakuriani
Akhaltsikhe
Vardzia
Understand Georgia
Georgia Today
History
Arts
Food & Drink
Survival Guide
Armenia
Armenia Highlights
Yerevan
Around Yerevan
Northern Armenia
Ashtarak
Around Ashtarak
Byurakan & Around
Mt Aragats
Gyumri
Around Gyumri
Stepanavan & Around
Vanadzor
Debed Canyon
Dilijan
Around Dilijan
Ijevan
Lake Sevan
Around Lake Sevan
Tsaghkadzor
Southern Armenia
Pokr Vedi (Khor Virap)
Areni
Noravank
Yeghegnadzor
Around Yeghegnadzor
Yeghegis Valley
Vayk
Jermuk
Sisian
Around Sisian
Goris
Around Goris
Tatev
Kapan
Meghri
Understand Armenia
Armenia Today
History
Arts
Food & Drink
Survival Guide
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan Highlights
Baku (Bak)
City Walk
Around Baku
Abseron Peninsula
Baku to Qobustan
Northern Azerbaijan
Baku to Quba
Quba
Around Quba
Northwestern & Central Azerbaijan
Baku to Ismayll
Lahc
Qbl
Ski
Qax & Ilisu
Zaqatala & Car
Balakn
Central Azerbaijan
Gnc
Southern Azerbaijan
Bilsuvar
Lnkran
The Talysh Mountains
Astara
Understand Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan Today
History
Arts
Food & Drink
Survival Guide
Nagorno-Karabakh
Stepanakert
Shushi
Southern Karabakh
Northeast Karabakh
Northwest Karabakh
Kelbajar
Understand Nagorno-Karabakh
Survival Guide

Understand

Understand Georgia, Armenia & Azerbaijan
Georgia, Armenia & Azerbaijan Today
History
People of Georgia, Armenia & Azerbaijan
Landscape
Architecture

Survive

Directory AZ
Accommodation
Children
Climate
Electricity
Embassies & Consulates
Gay & Lesbian Travellers
Insurance
Internet Access
Legal Matters
Maps
Money
Photography
Safe Travel
Telephone Services
Time
Toilets
Travellers with Disabilities
Visas
Women Travellers
Transport
Getting There & Away
Getting Around
Health
Before You Go
In Georgia, Armenia & Azerbaijan
Languages
Behind the Scenes
Our Writers
Welcome to the Caucasus

Breathtaking natural beauty, deeply hospitable people, quaint rural backwaters and cosmopolitan capitals together make the South Caucasus region a thrilling, offbeat discovery.


Cultural Cornucopia
The region is smaller than the UK yet takes in three distinct countries (two Christian, one Islamic), three breakaway territories and at least 16 local languages. This is a cultural crossroads where Europe meets Asia and tomorrow mingles with yesterday. Russian, Persian, Turkish and other influences have been absorbed into proudly distinctive local cultures where social attitudes remain traditional, with family networks supreme. Travel weaves you between rapidly modernising capitals and slow-paced countryside where most families still live off their land.

A Feast for the Senses
Astonishing natural beauty is in your face throughout the Great Caucasus, soaring mountains that stride from the Black Sea to the Caspian in a sequence of dramatic peaks fronted by green river valleys and quaint, remote villages. The Lesser Caucasus and Talysh ranges have glories of their own, while at lower altitudes terrain incorporates idyllic patchworks of farms and woodland plus arid semi-deserts and rocky gorges. Savour all this with deep-rooted hospitality, fresh fruity cuisine and wines from the world's original home of viniculture.

The Great Outdoors
The mountain regions are strung with spectacular walking and riding routes with ruined castles, towers and ancient churches often perched in achingly picturesque locations. Each country has great day-trip hikes but high in the Great Caucasus, Georgia’s Svaneti, Kazbegi and Tusheti regions are particularly ideal for longer distance village-to-village treks. Each of the nations has ski resorts. Rafting and paragliding are possible in Georgia where climbers can scale Mt Kazbek and other 5000m peaks. Delve underground in Armenia’s many caves, or explore Azerbaijan's Caspian hinterland where natural curiosities include mud volcanoes and fire phenomena.

Food for the Mind
Antique forts, monasteries, mosques, churches and excavations pepper the region. History buffs can delight in disentangling their Bagratids from their Bolsheviks. The cities boast well-presented museums, splendid galleries and a rich theatrical heritage. Tourism infrastructure can seem modest by European standards but linguistic and logistic challenges help push visitors to interact with friendly locals – ideal for those who want to go well beyond the beaten path.

Khor Virap Monastery, Armenia, with Mt Ararat (Ağrı Dağ, Turkey) in the background ERIC NATHAN/GETTY IMAGES ©

Why I Love Georgia, Armenia & Azerbaijan
By Alex Jones, Writer
In 1995 I stumbled off a train into a Tbilisi still bruised by the recent civil war and with barely functioning basic amenities. Northern Armenia hadn't fully recovered from the 1988 earthquake and Baku had yet to show a glimmer of the future oil boom. Yet, while poverty seemed to reign in each country, I was constantly enveloped by the most extraordinary hospitality. Despite unsolved conflicts, I've watched the Caucasian states transform themselves beyond belief in the last 20 years. But disarming hospitality remains a core defining feature of each of the three remarkable nations that comprise this ever-fascinating region.
Caucasus' Top 9

Tbilisi Old Town
Nowhere better blends the romance of Georgia’s past with its striving for a new future than Tbilisi’s Old Town . Winding lanes lined by rakishly leaning houses lead past tranquil old stone churches to shady squares and glimpses of the ultra-contemporary Peace Bridge spanning the Mtkvari River. Casual cafes and bohemian bars rub shoulders with trendy lounge-clubs, folksy carpet shops, new travellers’ hostels and small, quirky hotels. The aeons-old silhouette of Narikala Fortress supervises everything, while Georgia’s 21st-century Presidential Palace, with its egg-shaped glass dome, looks on from over the river.

AARON GEDDES PHOTOGRAPHY/GETTY IMAGES ©

Top Experiences
21st-Century Baku
Hot on the heels of Dubai, Baku has been rapidly transforming its skyline with some of the world's most audacious and spectacular new architecture. Counterpointed with the city's medieval Unesco-listed Old City core is a trio of 190m-tall skyscrapers shaped like gigantic glass flames that really appear to burn at night once the remarkable light show comes on. The majestic white curves of Zaha Hadid's Heydar Ә liyev Cultural Centre form a similarly thrilling spectacle. And along the Caspian Sea waterfront a series of new projects is soon destined to add an otherworldly crescent-moon-shaped mega-hotel.

JANE SWEENEY/GETTY IMAGES ©

Top Experiences
Svaneti
The mysterious mountain valleys of Svaneti sit high in the Caucasus, surrounded by spectacular snowy peaks, alpine meadows and thick forests – a paradise for walkers in summer. Long isolated and insulated from the outside world, Svaneti has its own language and a strongly traditional culture, symbolised by the 175 koshkebi (ancient stone defensive towers) that stand picturesquely in its villages, and the 1000-year-old frescoes in its churches. Accessible only by a long road trip until recently, Svaneti also has daily small-plane flights from Tbilisi.

MAYA KARKALICHEVA/GETTY IMAGES ©

Top Experiences
Davit Gareja
Set in remote, arid lands near Georgia’s border with Azerbaijan, these much-revered cave monasteries were carved out of a lonely cliff-face long, long ago. They became a cradle of medieval monastic culture and fresco painting. Saints’ tombs, vivid 1000-year-old murals, an otherworldly landscape and the very idea that people voluntarily chose – and still choose – to live in desert caves all combine to make visiting Davit Gareja a startling experience today. Though remote, the site makes an easy day trip from Tbilisi, Telavi or Sighnaghi.

SALAJEAN/GETTY IMAGES ©

Top Experiences
Armenian Monasteries
Armenia’s rich collection of ancient churches and monasteries is a world treasure that has developed over thousands of years of architectural tinkering. At first glance their general layout seems almost identical, each with a conical roof representing Mt Ararat. However, closer inspection reveals that each monastery has its own unique character and design variation. Location also differentiates Armenia’s monasteries, ranging from Tatev’s mountaintop perch to Noravank’s desert canyon and the iconic Khor Virap with the backdrop of Mt Ararat itself.

EKATERINA_MARORY/GETTY IMAGES ©

Top Experiences
Şәki
Embodying the Caucasus' cultural contrasts and provincial charms, the small city of Ş ә ki (Sheki) features heavy fortress bastions, two mural-walled palaces of former khans and several historic brick mosques, while up the road in Kiş (Kish) is one of the region's oldest and best-preserved Christian churches. You can stay in a genuine caravanserai that dates back to Silk Route days and visit an archaeological site displaying graves from the Bronze Age. The whole setting is majestic with lushly wooded hills backed by high snow-dusted peaks.

JOSE FUSTE RAGA/GETTY IMAGES ©

Top Experiences
Kazbegi Area
Just a couple of hours’ drive from Tbilisi, the small town of