Diklo

Diklo is the easternmost village of Tusheti's Chaghma community, about 10 km by track beyond Omalo and close to the border with Dagestan in Russia. A small group of stone houses with slate roofs stands on a slope at roughly 2,150 m, and in summer a few families come back to graze sheep and open simple guesthouses. This is the end of the road in this direction, and after the bustle of Omalo the silence is the first thing you notice. Clouds pour over the border ridges to the north, and the Alazani gorge falls away below towards Dagestan.

The main sight is Diklo fortress, the ruin of a defensive tower complex on a narrow rocky spur a short walk beyond the houses. From its walls you look straight down into the gorge and back across Tusheti to Omalo and the towers of Keselo. Most visitors come on a long day hike from Omalo via Shenako, or by 4x4 on the dirt track, then walk the last stretch. A night here gives you sunset and sunrise on the spur with almost nobody else around.

Diklo guarded the eastern gateway to Tusheti, where the valley opens towards Dagestan, and its fortress was built to watch for raiders coming up the gorge. Local stories tell of repeated sieges and fights with mountain raiders from the north. Like the rest of Tusheti, the village emptied during the 20th century as families settled for good in the Alazani lowlands, and today it is lived in mainly between June and September.