Chiatura - vanishing city in Georgia

• Chiatura - vanishing city in Georgia

The small town, modestly lost in the mountain vastness of Georgia, so impressed the imagination of the traveler, photographer and the TEG Bureau founder - Pavel Makarov, he spent a few days there, riding on the city's main attractions - the many cable cars. Chiatura - mining town, located on both sides of the gorge, which contains dozens of active and broken cable cars, built in the 1950s.

Ghost town literally permeated with the spirit of the Soviet era, dilapidated houses and a sense of hopelessness. But once, in Soviet times, he predicted a great future - for the extraction of huge reserves of ore and manganese. Time takes its toll on the city forgot to ...

Funicular rides over the suburban area.

Passing over the river Kvirila. View from the roof of the existing cabins cable car.

The key attraction of the city - manganese mines, which are located throughout the neighborhood Chiatura. Anyone who came here can watch the manganese extraction process.

Chiatura manganese deposits in more than 100 years. There are six mines of manganese mining, around which develops a network of cable cars.

For more than 60 years and the locals live in Chiatura - steadily, slowly, remembering the days of the former might of the USSR. The town is a bit like today's Baikonur or Chernobyl ...

R outskirts of the valley narrows, leaving room only for roads, rivers, w / d line and cable stations. Apartment buildings are much smaller, but it is from here depart the cable cars to the mines.

Today Chiatura remains the only city in the world with the largest number of ski lifts, which are used as free public transport.

Night view of the city center, which houses the bazaar, bus / railway station and three cable stations. From the center of the road stretches in Sachkhere, along which the city is located.

cable car operator tells many interesting and tragic stories. There have been cases broken rope cableway brake failure cases fatal.

The Mechanic one of cableways shows her device. It's simple - the electric, manual and automatic brakes. In the event of a power outage, you can manually with a hand thrust to bring the trailer cable car to the destination.

Chiatura is located 220 km from Tbilisi, and you can reach it by train or car.

City continue to leave the locals. One of the many abandoned apartments of the city.

People are leaving this place in Tbilisi, in Russia, leaving belongings and documents.

In this kitchen for a long time no one is ready.

This is an apartment in a 12-storey building, in which about 60% of the apartments abandoned. Heating in the house there, people heated stove.

Abandoned railway track.

So moved mined manganese.

Chiatura - non-touristic city. Nevertheless, it is worth a visit, it's atmospheric and unique place with its laid-back lifestyle, hospitality local residents and the unbelievable beauty of the species.

Text and photos: Pavel Makarov