Adishi

Adishi is among the highest permanently inhabited settlements in Svaneti, at about 2,040 metres in the Adishchala valley, roughly halfway between Mestia and Ushguli. Only a handful of families live here all year.

The village kept its shape because almost nothing was added after it was built: a dozen towers, stone houses, hay barns and a church. Tourist infrastructure amounts to a few guesthouses.

Adishi holds a particular place in Georgian culture. It was here, in the village church, that the Adishi Gospels were kept for centuries: a manuscript of 897 and one of the oldest dated Georgian books, written in Tao-Klarjeti and sent up into the mountains for safekeeping. It is now in the Mestia museum but keeps the village's name.

Adishi is the classic third day of the Mestia to Ushguli trek. From here the path crosses the Adishchala, a glacial river with no bridge, and local men ferry walkers across on horseback. This is not a novelty ride: after midday the meltwater rises and the crossing becomes genuinely dangerous. Cross in the morning.

Up the valley, an hour and a half to two hours from the village, lies the Adishi glacier, a broad tongue descending below Tetnuldi. It is one of the most accessible large glaciers in Svaneti and needs no technical skill, provided you stay off the ice.

The position of Adishi is itself the history. The village is a dead end: the last kilometres are steep and avalanche-prone in winter. That isolation is what preserved both the towers and the manuscript, and the same isolation emptied the village during the twentieth century, when families were resettled in the lowlands.

Today tourism is the only reason anyone lives here at all, and it is a fair bargain both ways: the guesthouses are basic and not cheap, but the money stays with the households that have not left.

Honestly about conditions: guesthouses are simple, there is no shop and no cash machine, so cash is essential. The power cuts out and internet often fails.

The road deserves a paragraph. From the Mestia–Ushguli road it is about seven kilometres of deeply rutted gravel track. An ordinary car cannot get up, and after rain even a four-wheel drive struggles. Many people walk instead, a little over two hours and far more pleasant.

The season runs from mid-June to the end of September; in winter snow closes the track and the remaining families often move down. Three hours covers the village, and the glacier needs a full day.