# Kelasuri Wall
- URL: https://explore-georgia.ge/en/places/kelasuri-wall
- Type: place to visit
- Region: Abkhazia
- Coordinates: 42.966556, 41.069139

The Kelasuri Wall, also called the Great Abkhazian Wall, is a system of defensive works east of old Tskhumi. It begins at the mouth of the Kelasuri, where the ruins of a large tower remain, follows the left bank of the river, then turns east, crosses the Kodori near the Tsebelda fortress, passes Tkvarcheli and ends on the right bank of the Enguri near the village of Lekukhona. Its total length is put at up to 160 kilometres, more than the wall of Derbent in the Caucasus.

The wall was never continuous: its builders used steep slopes and gorges as natural obstacles and fortified only the narrow passes with masonry. 279 towers of the wall have been identified, of which about a hundred still stand; most of the works lie on the western stretch between the Kelasuri and the Mokvi, where some sixty kilometres carry more than two hundred towers, while between Tkvarcheli and the Enguri there are only four. The towers usually stand 40–120 metres apart, and where there was no wall 300, 500 or even 1,000 metres. All are rectangular, 7 by 8 or 8 by 9 metres and 4–6 metres high, with shallow foundations; each has a door in its south wall framed by massive stone beams, sometimes with a narrow staircase, and embrasures usually in the north and west walls on the second floor. The masonry is of cobbles and rubble in lime mortar.

## History

The date of the wall is unsettled and ranges from antiquity to the seventeenth century. In the Georgian chronicles Juansher mentions, in connection with events of the eighth century, the "wall of Klisura" that guarded the road from the North Caucasus along the Black Sea coast into western Georgia; according to the Georgian Soviet Encyclopaedia this wall lost its importance after the Kingdom of the Abkhazians formed at the end of the eighth century, and fell into ruin. From the early nineteenth century, when the monument was first studied scientifically, several hypotheses were advanced: Frédéric Dubois de Montpéreux held it to have been built by the Greeks in the last centuries BC to protect Dioscurias; Mikhail Ivashchenko in 1926 took it for a Byzantine work of the fourth century and linked the river's name with the Byzantine "kleisoura".

Yuri Voronov, who examined the wall in 1966–1971, concluded that Levan II Dadiani, prince of Odishi, built it between 1628 and 1653 to protect his principality from the raids of the Abkhazian lords: its embrasures are made for firearms, and both Vakhushti Bagrationi and the Italian missionary Arcangelo Lamberti, who lived in Colchis from 1635 to 1653, write of a wall built by the princes of Mingrelia against the Abkhazians. By Vakhushti's account Levan obliged every lay and clerical lord to keep guard on the wall with his own horsemen for one month a year; after Levan's death the wall was abandoned, and the Abkhazian princes extended their power to the Enguri. Zaza Aleksidze holds that the wall was built of stone in the age of Justinian, in the sixth century, to protect the country from the tribes of the North Caucasus, and that Levan Dadiani only added wooden works in the seventeenth century; the most recent studies lean towards the sixth century.

## Visit info

The ruins of the rectangular Kelasuri tower stand just beyond the eastern boundary of Sukhumi, by the mouth of the Kelasuri. Most of the other towers lie between the Kelasuri and the Mokvi, and many of them are badly ruined; near the Tsebelda fortress the wall crosses the Kodori.

Abkhazia is an occupied territory. Under Georgian law entry to the region is lawful only through the Enguri crossing; entry from Russia is a breach of Georgian law. Check the current conditions of movement before travelling.

## Tips

In the towers look for the door framed by massive stone beams in the south wall and the embrasures of the second floor, usually in the north and west walls; Voronov argued that the embrasures were made for firearms and dated the wall to the seventeenth century.

## Safety

The tower walls are unstable, and climbing them is dangerous. Consular assistance in the occupied territory is limited.

## Sources

- [Kelasuri Wall — Georgian Wikipedia](https://ka.wikipedia.org/wiki/კელასურის_კედელი)
- [Kelasuri Wall — English Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelasuri_Wall)
- [Kelasuri Wall — Russian Wikipedia](https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Келасурская_стена)
- [Kelasuri Wall — Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1235332)

## This page in other languages

- [ქართული](https://explore-georgia.ge/ka/adgilebi/kelasuris-kedeli)
- [Русский](https://explore-georgia.ge/ru/mesta/kelasurskaia-stena)