Batumi

The first information about Batum comes from the work of the Greek philosopher Aristotle in the 4th century BC. Aristotle mentions a city called “Batusi” in the Kingdom of Kolkheti (Egrisi) on the Black Sea coast. Roman writer Flavius ​​and Greek geographer Flavius ​​Arrianus also knew Batum by the same name. “Batusi” is a Greek word meaning deep. Indeed, Batum has the deepest and most convenient port in the Black Sea after Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula.

Archaeological excavations carried out at the eastern entrance of the city, around Korolistzkali, show that people lived in these areas between the end of the 2nd millennium BC and the beginning of the millennium BC and that they had close trade relations with neighboring peoples. The hill named Tamaris Tsikhe/Tamar Castle in the Tamaris Dasakhleba district, which was an economic and cultural center in the Korolistzkali Valley, was considered the center of ancient Batum.