Gergeti Trinity Church above the clouds — Georgia's most iconic mountain view
Kazbegi (officially Stepantsminda) sits in a deep Terek River gorge directly below the 5,047m peak of Mount Kazbek, one of the highest summits in the Caucasus. The 14th-century Gergeti Trinity Church perched at 2,170m on a ridge above the town is the most photographed image in Georgia.
Kazbegi was a key waypoint on the Georgian Military Highway, the sole mountain road connecting Russia and Georgia through the Caucasus since the 18th century. The Terek gorge was sacred to Vainakh and Georgian mountain peoples long before Russian annexation in 1801; the Chopsian society of Mokhevians maintained autonomy here even under Tsarist rule. Soviet-era tourism established the first hostel infrastructure, but Kazbegi remained largely unknown to Western travellers until Georgian independence in 1991.