Truso Gorge
Truso Gorge, a gorge in Kazbegi Municipality. It is located in the upper reaches of the Terek River, between the northern slope of the Main Caucasian Range and the Khokh Range, from the Truso Pass to the village of Kobi (length 25 km). The lowest part of the gorge is 2000 m above sea level (near the village of Kobi). Truso Gorge is built of strongly folded layers of Lower and Middle Jurassic shale-sandstones, Upper Jurassic carbonate rows. Upper Pliocene-Pleistocene-Holocene effusives (andesites and others), travertines precipitated from mineral waters, glacial and fluvial layers are widespread. There are modern glaciers on the surrounding ridges (Suatisi, Mna, Resi and others). Truso Gorge is rich in hydrocarbonate mineral waters. It is covered with subalpine grass. There are andesite quarries. The villages of the Kazbegi municipality are located in the gorge: Abano, Ketrisi, Zemo and Kvemo Okrokana, Jimara, Suatisi, Mna, Burmasigi, etc.
Due to the diversity and beauty of nature, the Truso Gorge is called a “geological museum”.
At the beginning of the 14th century, Vakhtang III granted the Truso Gorge, along with other estates, to the Ksani Eristavi Shalva Kvenipnevel for his merits. In the 16th–18th centuries, the Truso Gorge was owned by the Eristavi of Aragvi, and in the 19th century it was part of the Ananuri and later Dusheti Uezds.
The oldest population of the Truso Gorge is Georgian (Tsanars). In the 13th–15th centuries, Truso was inhabited by Dvali people, some of whom merged with the Ossetian population in the 17th–18th centuries.
Source: ქართლის ცხოვრება, ს. ყაუხჩიშვილის გამოც., ტ. 4, თბ., 1973; ქართლის ცხოვრება, მთ. რედ. რ. მეტრეველი თბ., 2008.
Literature: გვასალია ჯ., აღმოსავლეთ საქართველოს ისტორიული გეოგრაფიის ნარკვევები, თბ., 1983.
L. Maruashvili
J. Gvasalia
