Ushguli Village with DefenseTowers
Caucasus Mountains, Georgia 2016
As we entered the Enguri gorge where the village of Ushguli is located, we saw families raking hay and forking it onto old Soviet trucks. Men and women worked on the verdant, sloping hillsides. Children flew down the hill on a home-made cart. I could hear their shrieks of joy and I imagined that in winter they flew down the hill on sleds or skis.
Here you see the defense towers, what I called vengeance towers in my recent blog. The Georgians called them defense towers so I should do the same. Not every house has a tower, but I am guessing that several families of the same clan would be entitled to use the family tower in time of need. The tower has several floors. The bottom one is for animals and the next one or two is used for storage. The family would occupy the top floor where they could see out and also rain down rocks or boiling oil on anyone who would do them harm. Similar towers are found in Albania where blood feuds carry on to this day.
When I think of the Caucasus Mountains, I think of the Russian writers Pushkin and Lermontov, whose novel, “A Hero of Our Time” takes place in these mountains. Russian men of the upper class seemed to have a fascination for the free and fierce lifestyle of the Caucasus. It was a land where “men were men”. That used to be a good thing.