First stop of the day was the local market, where we tasted walnuts, smelt extra virgin sunflower oil, cheese, Georgian sweets, pickles, fruit leather, local bread and smelt loads of different spices.

We then toured the local Fortress and Royal Palace. The Fortress had a really interesting museum and we were shown around by a local guides. We then headed for the Royal Palace which was used as a royal residence in the 17th & 18th century, most notably by King Erekle II who was born (1762) and died there (1798). Beautiful stained glass windows similar to those in Sheki.

Headed for lunch at Nazy’s Guest House, in the Caucasus Mountains, home to ethnic Kists (a Muslim community with Chechen roots).

We met Nazy, who after a fabulous lunch, explained about the many years it had taken for the area to receive tourists.

A lot of this was the belief that the area contained Chetchyna terrorists and was completely lawless! It took Nazy 4 years of constant phone calls to even get the Georgia Tourist Board to visit, this was only because international tourists were complaining, that there was no info on their website about the area.

It is too difficult to explain all the issues here, but it made me think how difficult life is worldwide for persecuted communities and the local people in the Pankisi Valley have had such a difficult life for a long time. This article from the BBC explains it more – https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20250606-how-georgias-pankisi-valley-rewrote-its-story

I was interviewed by one if the local students whose project was to find out why visitors were coming to the Kist community in the Pankisi Valley.

Fatima, one of the local guides, trained by Nazy took us to see the local Christian Church, Amphitheatre, the oldest Mosque and a felt making workshop. Really interesting insight into this area of the country.