Why go
Perched at 2,384 meters on the Georgian Military Highway, this 1983 Soviet-era monument was commissioned to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Treaty of Georgievsk and the 'friendship' between Russia and Georgia. Its semicircular concrete arc shelters a vibrant mosaic depicting scenes from both nations' histories—Georgian wine-making, Russian ballet, shared wartime sacrifice. The irony is palpable: built as propaganda, it now stands as a bittersweet relic of an unequal union, especially after the 2008 war. Yet the monument endures, not for politics but for its staggering setting above the Devil's Valley gorge, where the Caucasus ranges unfold in theatrical scale.