Vashlovani National Park
Encyclopedia
National park
A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...
located in the eastern part of Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
, and was established in 1935 to preserve its unique shallow forests. In April 2003 the Reserve's area was expanded to 84.80 km² and Vashlovani National Park (251.14 km²) was made. The area is characterized by its dry climate sitting only 150-50 meters above sea level.
Vashlovani State Reserve is notable for its unique, bad-land-like areas of desert and semi-desert steppe vegetation and arid and deciduous forests. It's also home to the great cliffs-of-the-canyons, known in the area as the "Sharp Walls", and the magnificent Alazani flood plains and forests.