Abastumani

Also known as Abbas Tuman

Abastumani () is a small town (daba) and climatic spa in Adigeni Municipality, Samtskhe-Javakheti, Georgia. It is located on the southern slopes of the Meskheti Range (Lesser Caucasus), in the small river valley of Otskhe, 25 km northeast of Adigeni and 28 km west of Akhaltsikhe. As of the 2014 census, it had a population of 937. The Georgian National Astrophysical Observatory is located at Abastumani.

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Place details

Locality: აბასთუმანი
Region: სამცხე-ჯავახეთი
Country: საქართველო
Population: 0

via OpenStreetMap · GeoNames

Key facts

Settlement.official_name: Abastumani
Settlement.native_name: აბასთუმანი
Settlement.native_name_lang: ka
Settlement.settlement_type: Borough
Settlement.image_skyline: Romanovs Bath, Abastumani.jpg
Settlement.imagesize: 300
Settlement.image_caption: Romanovs Bath
Settlement.pushpin_map: Georgia (country)#Samtskhe-Javakheti
Settlement.pushpin_label_position: bottom
Settlement.pushpin_mapsize: 300
Settlement.pushpin_map_caption: Location in Georgia
Settlement.subdivision_type: Country
Settlement.subdivision_type1: Region
Settlement.subdivision_name1: Samtskhe-Javakheti
Settlement.subdivision_type2: Municipality
Settlement.subdivision_name2: Adigeni
Settlement.population_as_of: 2014
Settlement.population_total: 937

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Official name: აბასთუმანი
Population: 664
Area: 19.54
Elevation: 1340
Image: Alexander Nevsky Church, Abastumani 1.jpg
Dialing code: 366

Show 3 more facts

Commons category: Abastumani
postal code: 0301
native label: აბასთუმანი

Sources (5)

via Wikidata · CC0

Travel guide

Understand

Relatively undiscovered by foreign tourists, Abastumani was a thriving spa and resort town during the last decades of the Russian czars. Today it sits quiet for most of the year waiting for the summer rush of Georgian tourists who come to breathe it's clean air and walk in the pristine forests.

Get in

Abastumani is reached by either taxi or marshutka (mini-bus) from the Akhaltsikhe bus station. The drive takes approximately 30 minutes in a taxi or around 50 minutes in the marshutka depending on how many stops it makes.

Get around

The lower town is 7 km from one end to the other and relatively flat so it is easily walkable. The observatory is 4 km above the town. To reach it you can either take a cable car which has a sporadic schedule, or walk one hour up a trail or a little longer by road.

See

There are many wooden, mostly abandoned, Czarist-era buildings to view and photograph. Visit the Czar's Bath that is now under renovation but the guard will probably let you look around. Ride up the cable car and walk around the surreal and seemingly abandoned astrophysical observatory complex. The Romanov palace complex was probably once a great site but it barely warrants the walk out of town to visit them. Of the three original buildings only one remains in its former state and lies fenced off, without any windows and is slowly deteriorating. Several years ago one building caught fire and is being rebuilt. The main house was sold to private owners who have altered the original appearance beyond recognition.

Buy

There is a small bazaar on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday from 08:00-12:30 where you can buy local products such as fresh cheese, milk, vegetable, wine, and honey.

Travel guide from Wikivoyage (CC BY-SA 4.0)

~5 min read