Borjomi National Park

Borjomi National Park

Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park is one of the protected areas in the central part of Georgia, in the Lesser Caucasus, located southwest of the capital Tbilisi, in the Caucasus Mixed Forest Ecoregion. With a total of six villages, Borjomi, Kharagauli, Akhaltsikhe, Adigeni, Khashuri and Baghdati, it is one of the largest national parks in the country. The total area is 851 square kilometers, more than 1% of Georgia's territory, including the neighboring Borjomi Nature Reserve. The park was established in 1995, and its official inauguration took place in 2001. It is unique because of its diversity of geographical and ecological areas, scenery, historic buildings, and plant and animal life. In addition, the Park has a rapidly developing tourist infrastructure, and play a significant role in the development of ecotourism. The Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park has a network of 12 marked and well-maintained tourist trails, which allow for one-day and multi-day trekking. There are tourist shelters, picnic and camping sites along the trails, as well as places to light fires. Most of the park is intact and the vegetation is diverse due to the botanical-geographical location. 75% of the park is covered with primeval forest, and a quarter of the park is covered with alpine and subalpine meadows. There are 64 mammal species on the territory, eleven of them are Caucasian endemic and 8 species are on the Georgian "Red List". The area is home to deer, roe deer, brown bear, wolf and lynx, wild boar, wolf, wild cat and 20 species of bats.