Абхазия – это теплое море, ласковое солнце, субтропический лес, бурные горные реки, многочисленные водопады, таинственные пещеры, прибрежные скалы и захватывающие дух виды на горы Кавказа. На протяжении столетий Абхазия привлекает множество туристов.
Ancient temples and architectural monuments, parks with exotic vegetation, eucalyptus and boxwood groves, dolmens and caves with stalagmites, fantastically beautiful lakes and mountain gorges, the unique modern style of Sukhum and the uniqueness of New Afon. It's impossible to list all the attractions. They are better seen in person. Every year, the number of tourists wishing to visit Abkhazia grows. In addition to beach or wellness holidays, you can visit all the sights of Abkhazia and choose excursions to your taste.
Gagra, along with Pitsunda and New Afon, is one of the most famous resorts on the Abkhazian coast. This small cozy city is located on a narrow strip of coastal land stretching for 15 km along the seashore between the Psou and Bzyb rivers. Gagra is immersed in subtropical greenery, known for its picturesque embankment and beautiful parks, the most notable of which is the seaside park. Gagra is conventionally divided into new and old city. In New Gagra, life is bustling, and if you want to enjoy romance, head to Old Gagra, to the beautiful park with its tranquility and fountains.
New Afon is one of the most popular places in Abkhazia, attracting tourists and pilgrims from around the world. It's a small cozy town located in the gorge of the Psyrtskha River at the foot of two picturesque mountains - Apsarskaya (345m above sea level) and Afon (500m above sea level). New Afon welcomes guests with a beautiful park rich in subtropical vegetation and ponds where swans live.
In New Afon, you can see several fascinating sites that are monuments of nature, history, and architecture. These include the New Afon Cave – a majestic creation of nature that amazes with its beauty and scale, a picturesque waterfall and the ancient temple of Simon the Canaanite, the New Afon Monastery complex on top of Mount Afon, the ancient Anakopia fortress on Mount Apsar, from whose tower you can see New Afon and most of the coast. A walking tour in the gorge of the Psyrtskha River is also interesting, where, according to legend, the holy apostle Simon the Canaanite prayed in a cell.
The city of Sukhum (Abkhaz: Akua), capital of the Republic of Abkhazia, is one of the oldest cities in the world. It is comfortably spread out in a spacious bay and reliably protected by mountain ranges from the northeast, so the climate in Sukhum is milder than in other areas of the Black Sea coast. The average temperature of the coldest month – January – is +6 degrees, and the warmest – July – is +24 degrees. Autumn and winter here are warmer than on the French Riviera, and there are about 220 sunny days per year – more than in the Swiss resort of Davos.
Sukhum is the administrative, political and cultural center of Abkhazia, the country's main transport and industrial hub. It houses legislative and state governing bodies, the Academy of Sciences, Abkhazian State University, National Library, State Museum, Philharmonic, Abkhazian State TV and Radio Company, drama theaters (Abkhazian and Russian), colleges, schools and other educational and cultural institutions. Sukhum has several active temples of different confessions - an Orthodox cathedral, a Catholic church, a Lutheran church, a synagogue, and a mosque. The city has hotels and sanatoriums, numerous cafes and restaurants. The city's population is about 80 thousand people.
Lake Ritsa occupies part of the Lashipse River valley. It was formed as a result of tectonic subsidence of the river valley at the junction of two geological structures: limestones and porphyrites. The lake is about 2000m long with a maximum depth of 150m. The water in the lake never freezes, with maximum water temperature recorded in August at +17 to +20 degrees. Only one fish species inhabits the lake - brook trout. Local hunters and shepherds had long known about the lake's existence, but it was first mapped by an unknown author in 1865.
Despite its small size, the lake influences the climate of the entire basin. The dominant mountain-valley winds blowing from the Lashipse River gorge to the Yupshara River gorge collide with local breezes. Sometimes on the lake, you can observe an unusually rare phenomenon when, in bad weather, torn clouds race back from the Yupshara gorge to Lashipse, barely touching the lake's surface.
