Anaklia

Anaklia is the oddest stretch of coast in Georgia: half a built resort, half an empty shore, at the point where the Enguri meets the sea. People either leave disappointed or fall for the emptiness and the wind.

The beach itself is good. Dark, almost black sand and fine shingle run for kilometres, the slope into the water is gentle, and it is nearly always empty. Unlike Ureki there are no rows of umbrellas and no music. The surf is stronger than further south and the current near the river mouth is real, so small children need watching.

What you see from a distance is the building programme of 2011 and 2012: a boulevard, an amphitheatre, hotels, and a suspension footbridge over the Enguri more than half a kilometre long, at the time reckoned among the longest in Europe. After 2012 the project lost its momentum. Some buildings were never finished, others are shut, and the concrete is spalling in the salt air. For a few summers a large electronic music festival was held here; that stopped too.

The other story is the deep-sea port. Construction began in 2016, the contract was cancelled in 2020, and in 2024 the project was handed to a new consortium. The practical effect is that heavy plant and worker traffic move through the village. This is not the frozen ghost town some accounts describe.

The name is far older than the boulevard. In the seventeenth century this was one of the harbours through which Mingrelian rulers sold captives into the Ottoman slave trade, a part of the coast's history that the new promenade does not mention. The dark colour of the sand is not accidental either: the Enguri carries down volcanic sediment from the mountains and drops it here.

The estuary is also good for birds. In autumn ducks, gulls and waders gather along the last bend of the river, and scarcer species turn up regularly. Binoculars earn their place here as much as a swimming towel.

North of the river is the de facto boundary with Abkhazia, and Anaklia is the last settlement on the road. Walking the beach is fine, but you cannot go north beyond the river mouth and should not try.

Historically an Ottoman and Mingrelian fort stood here, strengthened under Levan II Dadiani. Almost nothing of it survives above ground, though the ground around the village and the estuary is thick with archaeology.