Vale, Georgia
Encyclopedia
Vale is a town in southwestern 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...

, 12 km (7 mi) from the city of Akhaltsikhe
Akhaltsikhe
Akhaltsikhe is a small city in Georgia's southwestern region of Samtskhe-Javakheti. It is situated on the both banks of a small river Potskhovi, which separates the city to the old city in the north and new in the south. The name of the city translates from Georgian as "new fortress".- History...

, Samtskhe-Javakheti region, at the border with Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

. Its population is 5,031 (2002 Georgia census).

The town is situated on the right bank of the Potskhovi River (a tributary to the Mtkvari), on the slopes of the Lesser Caucasus
Lesser Caucasus
Lesser Caucasus is one of the two main mountain ranges of Caucasus mountains, of length about 600 km....

 at 1,000-1,200 m above sea level.

Vale is first recorded as a village in the 10th-century. It emerged as a center of lignite
Lignite
Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, or Rosebud coal by Northern Pacific Railroad,is a soft brown fuel with characteristics that put it somewhere between coal and peat...

 industry in the Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 era and acquired the town's status in 1962.

Vale houses a medieval Georgian church originally built in the 10th century, but reconstructed as a three nave basilica in the 16th century. The town is a home to a sizable Armeno-Georgian Catholic
Georgian Catholic Church
The Georgian Catholic Church , since the 11th century East-West Schism, has been composed mainly of Latin Rite Catholics; Georgian Catholic communities of the Armenian Rite have existed in the country since the 18th century....

community.
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