During my first week here I was offered a last minute spot on a trip up to Kazbegi. Apparently some friends of friends were going up to the mountains and only had three people to rent out a four-bedroom room in a bed and breakfast and were looking for someone to join and bring the costs down.
The whole weekend trip was going to cost around 50 lari or $30 including transportation and food, so I gladly hopped aboard.
It ended up being a great time, I am not exaggerating when I say I have never seen such astounding natural beauty in my life.
Twenty years ago, Kazbegi was a prime tourist destination for Soviet citizens. The small town nestled in the shadow of Mount Kazbek (16,558 ft) even applied to be a site for the Winter Olympics. But, as the Soviet empire disintegrated so did Kazbegi’s prestige.
Although the natural beauty of the mountains that rise on all sides of the town has not diminished, these towering walls of rock and ice now hold new significance. Kazbegi is now bordered on all sides by the Russian autonomous republics of North Ossetia and Chechnya and the Georgian break-away republic South Ossetia.
Ilina and Valera
As Georgia’s relations with its Northern neighbor have plummeted, so too did the local economy. The highway from Tbilisi to Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia, which used to course with trade in both directions — wine and cheeses from the South, Russian processed goods from the North — now ends at Kazbegi, as the border has now been closed. Hundreds of Georgians who made a living driving truckloads of goods North and South are now out of work. Dozens of old stone homes in the town have been abandoned and gutted.
From the left, Ilina, yours truly and Andro. Not pictured -- Valera, the enthusiastic photographer.
As Russia made war in Chechnya throughout the 1990’s and 2000’s, streams of Chechen refugees flowed into the area. And as the South Ossetia gained de facto independence through ethnic-based conflict culminating in the August war between Russia and Georgia, Kazbegi now faces a new threat.
Although for years the livelihood of the town depended on trade and tourism with Russian cities in the North, Kazbegi residents today hope the border remains closed.
Andro thinks wearing a pancho in a waterfall will keep him dry.
Ossetians are a sizable minority in Kazbegi and many of the other nearby towns. Since the August war, these minorities have been clamoring to be incorporated into the territory of South Ossetia, which Russia and Nicaragua have recognized as an independent country. If the border is reopened Georgian residents fear more Ossetians will pour into these towns to constitute a voting majority, and the conflict would spread to their doorsteps.
Nonetheless, Kazbegi residents continue to run bed-and-breakfast guest houses and charge low fees to drive visitors up to the waterfalls and various other sights around town. In a quiet and cautious way, the residents of this beautiful, yet troubled town continue on.
Unfortunately I can’t yet post more of the many great photos I got up in Kazbegi, as I’m still trying to pitch a magazine story about the place, and those photos may be end up being used.
Very interesting article about a part of the world that few westerners know about. The photos were great, too.
Sherry Clayton
July 2nd, 2009 at 10:43 ampermalink
Beautiful. I don’t think you missed the mark at all when you described it. Just the few pictures you have up so far make me wish I could be there with you. Absolutely breathtaking. I hope your trip is productive, and the magazine article would be great! Let us know what happens so we can go pick up a copy when it’s published!!
Eddie Saldanha
July 7th, 2009 at 8:10 pmpermalink