Borjomi Gorge
Encyclopedia
Canyon
A canyon or gorge is a deep ravine between cliffs often carved from the landscape by a river. Rivers have a natural tendency to reach a baseline elevation, which is the same elevation as the body of water it will eventually drain into. This forms a canyon. Most canyons were formed by a process of...
of the Mtkvari
Kura
Kura may refer to:* Kura River in Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan* Kura River, Russia in Russia* Kura Test Range in Kamchatka Krai, Russia, a major ICBM testing site during the Cold War* Kura, Nigeria, a Local Government Area of Kano State...
(Kura
Kura
Kura may refer to:* Kura River in Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan* Kura River, Russia in Russia* Kura Test Range in Kamchatka Krai, Russia, a major ICBM testing site during the Cold War* Kura, Nigeria, a Local Government Area of Kano State...
) River in central Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
. The Gorge was formed as a result of the Mtkvari River cutting its path through the Lesser Caucasus Mountains
Caucasus Mountains
The Caucasus Mountains is a mountain system in Eurasia between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea in the Caucasus region .The Caucasus Mountains includes:* the Greater Caucasus Mountain Range and* the Lesser Caucasus Mountains....
where the Trialeti
Trialeti Range
Trialeti Range is an east-west mountain range of the Lesser Caucasus Mountains in the central part of Georgia. The eastern edge of the Range runs along the western border of Tbilisi, while the western edge lies along River Mtkvari to the southwest of Borjomi. The length of the Trialeti Range is...
and Meskheti
Meskheti Range
Meskheti Range is a part of the Lesser Caucasus mountain range in Meskheti region, in southwestern Georgia....
Ranges meet. A significant portion of the Borjomi Gorge is covered by mixed and coniferous forests made up of oak
Oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
, maple
Maple
Acer is a genus of trees or shrubs commonly known as maple.Maples are variously classified in a family of their own, the Aceraceae, or together with the Hippocastanaceae included in the family Sapindaceae. Modern classifications, including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system, favour inclusion in...
, beech
Oriental Beech
Fagus orientalis, the Oriental Beech, is a deciduous tree in the beech family Fagaceae. The natural range extends from southeast Bulgaria's Strandja mountain through northwest Turkey east to the Caucasus and Alborz Mountains of Iran. It is restricted to mountain forests, at 500-2,100 m altitude...
, spruce
Caucasian Spruce
Picea orientalis, commonly known as the Caucasian Spruce or Oriental Spruce, is a spruce native to the Caucasus and adjacent northeast Turkey. It is a large evergreen tree growing to 30–45 m tall , and with a trunk diameter of up to 1.5 m .The shoots are buff-brown, and moderately pubescent...
, fir
Nordmann Fir
Nordmann Fir is a fir native to the mountains south and east of the Black Sea, in Turkey, Georgia, Russian Caucasus and northern parts of Armenia. It occurs at altitudes of 900-2,200 m on mountains with a rainfall of over 1,000 mm.It is a large evergreen coniferous tree growing to 60 m tall...
, and pine
Scots Pine
Pinus sylvestris, commonly known as the Scots Pine, is a species of pine native to Europe and Asia, ranging from Scotland, Ireland and Portugal in the west, east to eastern Siberia, south to the Caucasus Mountains, and as far north as well inside the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia...
. A large portion of the Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park
Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park
The Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park is a protected area in central Georgia, situated in the Lesser Caucasus, southwest to the nation’s capital of Tbilisi....
as well as the towns of Borjomi
Borjomi
Borjomi is a resort town in south-central Georgia with a population estimated at 14,445. It is one of the districts of the Samtskhe-Javakheti region and is situated in the northwestern part of the region in the picturesque Borjomi Gorge on the eastern edge of the Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park...
and Likani
Likani
Likani is a townlet in Georgia’s Samtskhe-Javakheti region, located at the west end of the town of Borjomi in the Borjomi Gorge, some 160 km west of Tbilisi, capital of Georgia...
itself lie within the Gorge.