When I was in Gori, I was talking to a fellow traveller about which areas we had both visited in Georgia. We had mostly visited, or planned to visit, the same areas. But there was one area he mentioned that I was unaware of. The region of Panski Valley.
Pankisi Valley is a small community made up of 8 small settlements. The majority of its people are Kists, descendents of Chechen immigrants who moved to the region in the mid 19th century. They have their own language, cuisine and customs, making it unlike any other region in Georgia.
After the Chechen crisis in the 90s, thousands of refugees made their way to Georgia. Many of them settled in Pankisi Valley. A small number of them were alleged to have left Pankisi to join ISIS and the valley soon gained a worldwide reputation for violent extremism. It became known as ‘The Valley of Terror’. It was even claimed that Osama Bin Laden was hiding out in the valley.
In 2007, a woman named Nazy left her job as a lawyer in Tbilisi and returned to her home town in Pankisi Valley. Her mission was to improve the reputation of the valley through tourism. She opened the first guesthouse in the region and encouraged and helped others do the same.
Join me as I visit the most misunderstood region in Georgia!
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2 Comments
Another brilliant video Scott great guesthouse £13 a night! Respect 👍
That was a brilliant video, I’ll be in Georgia in September and I was wondering about where to visit that’s close by Tbilisi.
Was that area easy to get to?