The Svanetian Towers Of Georgia

Svaneti is the highest area in the Caucasus mountain system where people have settled. In a land dominated by mountains divided by deep gorges, the Svan people settled this historic Georgian province almost two millennia ago and here they flourished.
Yet towards the end of the European Dark Ages, at around the end of the ninth century, the Svan found themselves in conflict with the northern Caucasian tribes on the other side of the mountains and with the Ossetians to the east. Their solution to tribal raids has endured the centuries.