By Prof. Giorgi Pkhakadze, MD, MPH, PhD · 15/09/2026
The road from Mestia to Ushguli is 45 kilometres and takes two hours, most of it on gravel that follows the Enguri upstream between slopes of birch and rhododendron, past villages with their towers, through the gorge at Kala, and out at last onto a high open valley where the river is a stream and the mountain at the end is Shkhara — Georgia’s highest, 5,193 metres, a wall of ice and rock that fills the sky. In front of it, on both banks, are the four villages that make up Ushguli: Murkmeli, Chazhashi, Chvibiani and Zhibiani. Together they are the highest permanently inhabited settlement in Europe.
The place
Chazhashi, the lowest, is the museum village, a UNESCO site with its towers and houses preserved as a group — the best surviving example of a medieval Svan settlement, with a small ethnographic museum in one of the towers. The others are lived in: stone houses, towers still attached to them, cattle in the lanes, satellite dishes on medieval walls. Above Zhibiani, alone on a hill, is Lamaria, the church of the Virgin, 12th-century, with frescoes inside and the best view in Svaneti from the wall around it. Everyone photographs it against Shkhara. Everyone should.
Life
About 200 people live in Ushguli year-round — the number has grown with tourism after decades of decline. They keep cattle and pigs, grow potatoes and barley in a short summer, and, since the road improved, run guesthouses. From November to April the road is closed by snow, sometimes for weeks at a stretch; a helicopter brings the post. Winter is the real Ushguli, and a handful of guesthouses stay open for those willing to arrive by 4×4 when the road allows, or on skis. The village school has a dozen pupils.
The walk
From Zhibiani a track follows the river towards the mountain: two hours of easy walking across meadows to the foot of the Shkhara glacier, where the Enguri begins as meltwater from under the ice. There is no better half-day in Georgia. In July the meadows are knee-deep in flowers; in September they are gold and the first snow is on the summit. Go early, before the cloud builds on the mountain.
Practical
Ushguli is a day trip from Mestia by 4×4 — Mestia’s taxi drivers and GTour’s driver do it daily from June to October; the road is not for ordinary cars. Allow the full day: two hours each way, Lamaria, the museum, and the walk. Or stay the night in a guesthouse for the stars and the silence, and see Shkhara at dawn. Warm clothes in every month; the valley is 2,100 metres and the wind comes off the ice.
See it with GTour
Ushguli is the second day of the Mestia & Ushguli three-day tour and day eight of Georgia in 10 days; a night in the village can be added to either.
This story in Georgian — ქართულად: shenidasveneba.ge
ქართულად: უშგული — ცხოვრება 2100 მეტრზე, მთელი წელი
