Artvin, Turkey Tourism

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countryside in search of some of the province's many ruined Early Christian and ninth-11th century churches. These often lie off the beaten track, accessible only on foot or along dirt roads.

Located in the very heart of Turkish Georgia, this charming old town is also known as Çoruh (from the Çoruh Nehri) or Lazin (from Lazistan i.e. land of the Laz). Ascending in a series of southwest facing terraces, it clings to a steep hillside above the mouth of the Çoruh gorge.

Despite the steepness of its mountain slopes the area around Artvin - the "rain-covered Kolchis" of the Argonaut legend - is blessed with conditions ideal for the cultivation of a wide variety of fruit, vines, olives, hazelnuts and tea.

The history of Georgia

Relatively little is known about Artvin's past. Although the Muslim Laz (Chani) who inhabit the Black Sea coastal region form a distinctive ethnic group, they nevertheless share a common history with the other Caucasian peoples of Georgia. Once fought over by Romans and Sassanids (Persians), the area was conquered by the Arabs in the seventh century; it remained under Arab rule for nearly three hundred years.

Turkish Georgia was the homeland of the Bagratid dynasty, who came from Ispir. In the 10th century the Armenian branch siezed control of parts of Armenia and the Transcaucasus; in the 12th and 13th centuries the Georgian Bagratids left an indelible mark on the whole of Christian Georgia.

The Arab invasions signalled the start of a lengthy period of decline, following which the Persians, Turks and Russians each sought to dominate the region. In 1071 the Artvin area, which from the ninth century onwards, under the Bagratids, had became the political and cultural heartland of Georgia, fell to the Seljuk Alp Arslan. After the Seljuks had been driven out it became, under David the Restorer (David III, 1098-1125), the flourishing Bagratid kingdom of Georgia. This period of prosperity was cut short by the Mongols who laid waste the land in 1386. In the 15th century Tao Georgia became part of the Ottoman Empire. Following the Turko-Russian War of 1877/78 Artvin was in Russian hands until 1918.