Abandoned village of Akarmara, Abkhazia: description, history and interesting facts

Akarmara is worthy to become a point of the traveler's route, decided to look at the non-tourist, but not less beautiful Abkhazia. Annually dozens of fans of atypical travel are eager to visit this abandoned place in one of the picturesque and colorful canyons of the republic, until time erased it from the face of the earth.

The face of Akarmara

Akarmara in Abkhazia is an abandoned mining community, a suburb of Tkuarchala. Call it a ghost town today is a bit wrong, because here continue to live several dozen residents in dilapidated houses. Among other abandoned settlements, he stands out as an architectural solution of his buildings, atypical for a modest workman. Attracts tourists here and a stunning view, opening from the shelter of an abandoned village gorge.

The abandoned village of Akarmar in Abkhazia is not only a dozen residential buildings with a height of 4 floors built for miners and their families. These are the buildings of the hotel, hospitals, schools, houses of culture, a cinema, a restaurant, a market, and even one's own boarding house. Near the city you can find the "skeleton" of the railway station, which, apparently, will never wait for new passengers.

The only thing reminiscent of civilization here is a lone food stall near the road, hung clothes on one or two balconies and curtains on several windows.

How to get to the abandoned city of Akarmar in Abkhazia

Akarmara is located on the territory of the autonomous republic of Abkhazia, in the Tkuarcheli district, one kilometer east of the city of Tkuarchal. Its coordinates on the map are: 42.8438 North Latitude, 41.8298 East Longitude.

You can get from Tkuarchal to Akarmara both by road and by dismantled railway. The last walking route will be appreciated by fans of thrills and unique charm of ghost-places: your path will pass through several underground railway tunnels, impressive mountain bridges. As a result, you will find yourself in a deserted and destroyed colorful railway station, which has preserved its balustrades and columns. From there, across the bridge, crossing the river called Aaldsga, you will go directly to Akarmaru.

History of Akarmara in Abkhazia

Now the abandoned village was built after the end of the Great Patriotic War by German prisoners - architects, designers, builders, hence the atypical "imperial" beauty and the veracity of its buildings. Akarmara was considered one of the elite areas of nearby Tkuarchala, and the queue for apartments here were several years long.

In the late eighties of the last century in the village of Akarmara in Abkhazia lived about 5 thousand miners and members of their families. The well-being of this settlement, like hundreds of thousands of others, violated the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict. The population, fleeing the consequences of hostilities, was forced to leave Akarmar and settle in safer places. In the dilapidated village after the end of the war, a significant part of the refugees did not return.

Attractions Akarmara

Inspection of the whole village-town will not take more than one or two hours - during this time you can not only wander through its streets, make colorful photos, but even go into abandoned buildings, apartments. Fascinatingly beautiful view of the mountain ranges from the last floors of buildings. However, you should not manage here either - as already mentioned, people live in Akarmar, occupying ten apartments on strength.

Wandering around the settlement, you can see with your own eyes the buildings destroyed during the war, which cut short the well-being of this place, rusty skeletons of cars at the curb. The buildings of the House of Culture, the covered market, the cinema are impressive for tourists - the half-ruined plaque in front of him is also interesting.

On the way to civilization, you can supplement your collection of unusual points of the route with a couple of points - hot radon baths and the city of Tkuarchal.

Interesting in the vicinity: Tkuarchal

Unlike Akarmara, Tkuarchal does not seem so desolate. Here the industry (coal mining) functions, the larger population lives, but it is also referred to the ghost towns of Abkhazia. It is also interesting because the natural relief divides it into the upper and lower parts, which are connected by a cable car and a long staircase to hundreds of steps.

As in the village of Akarmar, the appearance of this city before the military conflict of 1992-1993. Sharply contrasts with modern reality. Throughout Tkuarchal you can find skeletons of abandoned enterprises and residential buildings. Attracts tourists built in a pseudo-antique style railway station, littered with coal mined here, rare locomotive columns and arrows, the destroyed building of the state district power station. The state of abandonment perfectly conveys an unused cable car - several cabins-hangul and hang in the air, exacerbating the sense of the time that has stopped in these parts.

Interesting in the vicinity: hot tubs

If with Tkuarchalom the traveler can get acquainted directly before Akarmaroy, then the next point awaits after a walk on it. Nowadays, abandoned hot baths in Soviet times were highly appreciated by both local miners and tourists. This monumental structure, erected over an impressive abyss, is able to receive visitors today. But there are very few people who want to buy in its mossy concrete coupels, and the paths lined with ceramic tiles are covered with grass. It is worth saying that even in January (here at this time, mostly around zero degrees Celsius), the water temperature in the baths does not drop below 30 degrees. And not far from them you can find a beautiful mountain waterfall.

Akarmara in Abkhazia is a vivid example of what a war can do with a prosperous small settlement. More than a successful location, developed infrastructure, fantastic mountain views, architectural compositions, atypical for the working village, it all turned out to be in the past. Today, several dozen people live on the ruins of the prosperous Akarmara, connected with civilization only by a roadside kiosk, and tourists wander about trying to capture the rapidly destroying beauty of this place.