Georgian Military Road

城市概覽

History

Known since antiquity, this route following rivers up through the mountains became vital to Russian Imperial expansion in the late eighteenth century. The Russians improved and maintained the road well, and by 1799 the military engineers had made the road in its current form. Russian control of the Georgian Military Highway was essential to her victories in the Caucasian War (1817–1864) and thus to establishing imperial control of the whole region. After the Kingdom of Georgia was officially annexed by the Russian Empire in 1801, Tsar Alexander I ordered General Yermolov, commander-in-chief of Russian forces in the Caucasus, to improve further the road to facilitate troop movement and communications. In 1817, the completed highway was heralded as the “Russian Simplon”. However, work continued until 1863 at a cost of £4,000,000 (a staggering sum in the 1860s). A British observer in 1876 noted the road's high quality with two or three lanes and "iron bridges over the torrents", something he considered astonishing given that within Russia proper at this time decent roads were virtually non-existent. The Georgian Military Road played an important role in the economic development of Transcaucasia and remains an important trade route to this day, despite the turbulent politics of the twenty-first century.

如何抵達

The ends of the road, Vladikavkaz and Tbilisi, are well connected to the outside world.

Vladikavkaz is 15 km from Beslan airport, which has flights to Moscow, Saint Petersburg and the Armenian capital, Yerevan. It is also well served by trains to Moscow, Rostov-on-Don and other cities in southern Russia. Tbilisi is a regional hub for the Caucasus and has trains and planes around the region and beyond.

Border, visas and permits

No special permits are needed for third-country nationals to use the Upper Lars border. Visa information for each country is given in the Russian and Georgian country articles. While much of the more remote parts of Russia's North Caucasus require special permission to visit, the highway itself and the border can be used without any preliminary bureaucracy. There also no restrictions on the Georgian side. Relations between the two countries are not very friendly, and either country may close the border out of political spite. If you arrive to find the border closed, it might only be for a couple of hours: once it opens again things will start moving. Such unpredictability is an inherent part of crossing this border. Harsh weather can also force the border shut in winter. Things move very slowly on the Russian side, but clearing the Georgian formalities is painless. The border must be crossed in a vehicle, but the checkpoints can be approached on foot. In fact, the best thing to do to avoid waiting for several hours is to get a taxi to take you as close to the border as possible, then walk as close to it as you can before asking any driver with spare seats to get you across the border (it will also be cheaper). They will probably also give you a lift to the next town, as that's where they'll be going too!

順遊推薦

In the north the road ends in Vladikavkaz, a major hub of the North Caucasus region. In the south it ends in the Georgian capital Tbilisi.