Where the wild Caucasus is at its most beautiful: A brilliantly illustrated book about one of Europe’s most untouched and legendary mountain regions
For thousands of years, virtually no outsiders came to this remote mountainous region. The Svan people lived here, in one of the most beautiful areas on earth, completely isolated from the world. Carpets of the richest variety of flowers spread for hundreds of kilometers across mountain slopes of breathtaking beauty, and well over 100 glaciers stretch their icy tongues from the peaks of the High Caucasus, which reach up to over 5,000 meters, into the valleys.
They include the Ushba (“the Terrible”), a legendary double summit monster of a mountain, which Gottfried Merzbacher, one of the first mountaineers and explorers to venture into these unspoiled regions in the 1880s, wanted to climb. Merzbacher was also one of Germany’s greatest early nature writers – but his attempt to scale the mountain turned into a disaster.
In addition to Merzbacher's account, award-winning authors Anna Kordsaia-Samadashvili and Abo Iashaghashvili have contributed stories written especially for this volume. While Kordsaia-Samadashvili writes about her youth in the enchanted mythical world of Svanetia, Iashaghashvili's text is concerned with the Svan's life between the archaic and the modern. This fascinating compilation brings to life stories from 150 years of Svanetian history.
