Guria is one of the most beautiful regions of Georgia. According to area, it is much smaller then other Georgian regions; 2042.4 km total. The very small territory is significantly vivid and attractive and exactly there, in the heart of Guria there is situated health resort Shekvetili.
The Lord gifted Guria plentifully with various types of fruitful lands soil, ecologically clean rivers and springs, mixture of mountainous and see climate, natural sightseeing like forest reserve, forests, valleys, small waterfalls, alps (picks of the mountains), see shore with 18 km distance, magic views…
And at the same time, spiritual subsistence as well _ historical monuments; oldest settlements, ancient time villages and population rich with humor, hospitality traditions and folk, temples, churches, museums describing oldest history of the nation… the modern achievements of the spiritual treasure…
The border of Guria lies on the river Cholokhi by south and then _ to Guria-Adjaria mountain ridge, Black See coast by west, River Rioni separates it with Samegrelo by north and Imereti borders Guria by east. From the southern side of the Guria-Adjaria Mountains follow Big Ridge of Nigoiti, that at the beginning separates Imereti region from Guria and then turns west, nearly at the see and divides Guria in two parts.
At the lowland, at the see coast there is humid, subtropical climate and so, there are soft winters and worm summers there. Clearness of the air is characterized to mountainous climate and treatment intensity of solar radiation; and as a result, it becomes biologically more active. The climate especially is good in lower mountainous (500-1000 M) and middle mountainous (1000-1500 M) zones. Originality of the climate _ special treatment characteristics _ is the result of combination of see and mountain climates.
Not fertilized vine and diversity of fruits is significant with its aroma, juiciness and lots of vitamins. There are plant evergreen plantations of plants, as profitable as decorative forests are presented with majority of platyphyllous as evergreen trees and bushes. Majority of plants are medical and is used for food, especially berry-fields and mountain chestnuts.
Lots of rivers and abundance is characterized to Guria region. Mouth of river Supsa are: Bakhvis Tskali, Kalasha, Gubazouli; and Mouth of the River Natarebi are: Achistskali, Agidakva, Bzhuzhi. Both they together with their months of rivers start their way in Guria-Adjaria Mountains and joins to the Back See.
Valleys of mountainous cold and odor, clean, transparent, fast rivers make magic oasis during summertime. Both them have quiet flow at the see issue. They are full of various types of fishes; there are plenty of trout in the upper waist of the River. Different are lowland rivers Sepistskali and Pichori. The last one begins nearby Lanchkhuti and joins Paliastomi Lake. According to very famous legend about Paliastomi, Pichori River is called as “water comes from the back side of the Paliastomi”. The flow of the river is so quiet that one can imagine that the river do not move at all.
Special attention have to be paid to quality of drinking water as their content is the best (spring water and well water as well). Medical waters in Ozurgeti are: “sour water” of Nasakirali”, Ozurgeti and Shemokmedi treatment waters; mineral treatment waters in Chokhatauri _ “Sanislia Bath House” and “Supsa Bath House” (or bath house of Kikvadzes’).
Very famous in Georgia mineral water “Nabeghlavi” is especially very helpful for health.
Guria region is rich with material cultural memorials. Unfortunately, they are less researched at the moment.
Toponym “Guria” appears in historical sources since VIII century. According to the “Life of Qartly”, hordes of Marwan II (Marvan ibn Muhammad ibn Marwan, Georgian people name him as Marwan the Deaf) in their back way passed the “way of Guria”. Vakhusti Batonishvili was the first who described oldest memorials of the region. The researched named important fortresses and churches. Famous Georgian researchers _ Tedo Sakhokia, Eqvtime Takaishwili and Dimitri Bakradze provided very interested historical stories about past of the Guria.
Neolith, Bronze and Antic Age materials gathered during archeological excavations took place in Guria evidenced that predecessors of Gurian were settled in this area since ancient time.
Other resorts of Guria
Ureki (distance from Shekvetili is 3 km) situated in the south-west part of the Kolkheti Lowland. The Black See is neighboring the resort from the West and from East it is bordered by mountains, at North and South there are located lowlands of the rivers Supsa and Natanebi. The history of the resort counts more then 100 years, but officially the resort exists since 1971. Because of small magnetic send of the beach, the resort is the best treatment place.
Bakhmaro (distance from Shekvetili 87 km) is known not only in Georgia but in abroad as well. The resort is located in 2100 m above see level. From the west there is the worm air flow of the Black See, from the North there is situated alpine ridge of Caucasus, which protects hole Caucasian regions from the cold flows of the air, which makes warm, humid and subtropical climate.
Bakhmaro is very good for medical reasons but not only as there is developing tourism and mountainous sport. The resort today is active for only 3-4 months in summertime, but in the future there is planed to expand the time to entire year and serve about 3000 tourist at the same time all the seasons. At the perspective, it is quite realistic to connect the resort with the Black See resorts for making excursions for tourist.
Architectural memorials
From Ancient time the Guria was situated in the middle of two great cultures: European and Asian. It is oldest Christian place, which clearly shown in architectural memorials researched in this territory.
The olds archeological materials gathered in the territory, ruins of the oldest historical temples, churches and monasteries prove very rich historical past of the Guria. There are found memorials of the Early-Neolith, Neolith age materials. Important work was done in the territory of Vashnari monument. The monument is situated in the territory of the village Gurianta, Ozurgeti municipality. In the territory of the village Khvarbeti, Ozurgeti municipality there was found materials of the Late-Bronze –Early Iron age. There are also plenty of memorials in Lanchkhuti and Chokhatauri municipalities, especially by numismatic material. There are found Antic, Byzantine, Turkish and European coins there. Also, there are plenty of paleo-metal and iron production materials as well.
There were more then 200 monasteries and churches in Guria region, which shows the highest level of spiritual culture of the region. Majority of the temples are situated on hills; Djumati monastery, Shemokmedi monastery have to be admitted.
Archeological excavations
1. Village Khvarbeti _ Mestia age monuments, about 250 000 years old.
2. Anaseuli, Mamati, Gurianta, Nagomari _ New Iron Age Neolith monuments, about 8 000 years old;
3. Bronze age monuments _ nearby Ureki_Tsvermaghala, villages Vakidjvari, Melekeduri, Qorbude;
4. Late Bronze and Early Iron age monuments _ Urenki, Tsvermahkala, Kaprovani.
