Georgia Off The Beaten Path

Dzikr — a traditional Sufi prayer of the Kists

by Nuaga

Every Friday at around 11 am, a women's Sufi fraternity, belonging to the Kunta-haji Kishiev wird, meets in an old mosque in Duisi. Under the guidance of Alcani, leader of the fraternity, they perform the dzikr ecstatic prayer. They pray in Arabic, Chechen and Georgian — and often in the Kist dialect, intermediate between Chechen and Georgian, spoken by the majority of Georgian Chechens.The women welcome to their mosque everyone who is interested in Sufi traditions. This is one of the greatest attractions of the Pankisi Gorge, comparable to the famous whirling dervishes of Turkey. Women are allowed to watch the prayer inside the mosque, while men may take a peek through the door.The Pankisi women persist in their hope that their prayers will bring peace to northern Caucasus. As in the nineteenth century, when a scarf thrown by a woman on the battlefield interrupted fighting. Alas, no one...

pankisi gorge

by Elenoide

In the pankisi gorge, some kilometres of the border with Chechenia, there are more than four thousand chechens refugees waiting to return one day to their homeland.The war in Chechenia is not over. Some people would like to return, but they are afraid. The stories of the survivors are terrifying: they escaped from Chechenia through the mountains of the Caucasus with bombs falling around it, the assaults of the Russian troops, where the children, the elder people, women and men were also murdered.

South Ossetia: the breakaway basketcase

by tommy_oostende

We went to South Ossetia and i can confirm you that's quite off the beaten path, in fact we were the only tourists or non-Russian foreigners around in the entire "republic". The republic broke away from georgia around 10 years ago and ever since it acted as if it was already a part of Russia. They use the Russian flag, pay in Rubles, write and read in Russian and even have t-shirts with "Russia" written on them, as if anyone would still doubt so. Most also have the Russian nationality and Russian "peacekeepers" controll the area (that is, if they're not too busy extracting money from travellers and in the meanwhile drinking vodka) Ever since the war the infrastructure decayed but still it seems like the Soviet-Union never really stopped to exist. In the capital Sxinkvali you'll still see bulletholes everywhere. The big hotel "alana" is not very expensive (2$) yet you have to deal with a...

All of Georgia is off the beaten path!

by maykal

The whole of Georgia is off the beaten path, but wherever you go in Georgia, you'll be faced with the unexpected. On a day trip in Kakheti region, we came upon this odd statue by the village of Nukriani. If anyone could fill me in as to who it is and why it is there, then please let me know...even my Georgian friends are not entirely sure what it is!

General tip about ioff trips

by Tobias_Plieninger

I think your whole trip to Georgia is entire off trip.If you want to be really of than you should go in the caucasus mountains.Or you can visit some rural destinations near the border to Armenia.

IngaA's Off The Beaten Path Tip

by IngaA

vysnaite's Off The Beaten Path Tip

by vysnaite