UKC

Matthew Shipton writes about the competing narratives that have sought to define the Caucasus mountains – of imperial ambition, of adventure, and of climbing. But also as a place where climbing technique began to change and mountain literature styles were influenced...

On a barren outcrop in the foothills of the Caucasus the Russia-Georgia Friendship Monument sits like a magic lantern made concrete. Constructed to mark the bicentenary of the 1783 Treaty of Georgievsk, its psychedelic, constructivist reliefs present images from Russian and Georgian mythologies, flanking a mother figure holding a dove and child. Guarding the southern approach to the Javri Pass and the Terek River beyond, or the road down the valley to Tbilisi, it's a relic of a past age and faded kaleidoscope of long dead ideologies.

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So let me get this straight, archie duke ferdinand shot a hungry ostrich......

Thank you for such an excellent and well written article.   

We visited Georgia in 1996, not long after independence.  Having had a failed attempt on Mt Ushba (due to civil unrest) we went to climb Kazbegi.   It was a wild place at the time, no formal accomodation in the town. We participated in a festival at the church on the hill which also included obligatory drinking of the fire water, slaughtering of several sheep whilst inside an orthodox christian service with incense continued.  Thanks for evoking these and other memories.

A fascinating article bringing mountaineering, literature and the history of the region together to comment on contemporary issues.