Enguri Dam and Jvari Reservoir

The Enguri dam is the first genuinely large thing you meet on the road from Zugdidi up to Mestia. It stands roughly 271 metres high, which places it among the tallest arch dams in the world. Construction began in the 1960s and the structure reached its final form in the 1980s; it remains one of the most important elements of Georgia's power system.

There are two quite different things to look at. First, the structure itself — a thin curved concrete wall plugging a narrow gorge between two rock faces, with a genuinely vertiginous drop below. Second, the Jvari reservoir: a long, branching lake behind the dam whose water turns intensely turquoise in summer because of suspended limestone silt.

In practice you will see:

• The viewpoint on the dam crest — the main shot, reachable straight from the road
• The shore road toward Mestia, where the view over the water keeps changing
• Jvari settlement with small cafes and a fuel station

This is not a half-day destination; thirty to sixty minutes is normal. But as a first stop on the long drive into Svaneti it is natural and well placed, and it gives a sense of the scale of the gorge you are about to spend three hours driving through.