Georgian village true meeting point of East, West
By Messenger Staff
Tuesday, April 1
Pick up any guidebook on Georgia, and within a few sentences you’ll be informed that this is where East truly meets West.
Unfortunately, other guidebooks cite nearly anywhere east of Paris and west of Bombay as the spot where Orient and Occident collide in a melting point of culture and history.
But now geographers have pinpointed the exact location where East meets West: the tiny village of Kulikauri in Georgia’s Shida Kartli province.
On March 29, a research team led by University of Colorado geographer Carter Sheehan announced that two years of calculations ruled out all other possible meetings points for East and West.
Kulikauri residents were bemused to learn of their sudden fame as television crews and travel writers began trickling into Kulikauri, an overnight tourist destination.
“We always knew this village was special,” said local resident Giorgi Kakaladze. “But what’s more important is that Georgians have always had a special ability to take the best from both the West and the East. And this is one of the reasons why our culture is so multi-sided and colorful.”
Kakaladze, who lives twenty meters west of the meeting point, added that he is changing his name to George Kay.
Peace Corps volunteer Max House, who was deployed to Kulikauri in February, said he was excited to learn about Georgia and put to use four years of English lit studies in the rural village.
“I thought they were sending me to Atlanta!” House quipped. “But seriously, this is such a once in a lifetime opportunity to really, really help these people.”
He plans to teach English and start a blog.
Both government and opposition leaders traveled to Kulikauri yesterday to vie for public support in the now-symbolic village before May’s parliamentary elections.
Holding aloft a pebble he picked off the road, President Mikheil Saakashvili extolled the virtues of the Georgian countryside.
“This is not just a rock,” he declared. “This is the ultimate product of combining two great hemispheres in one miraculous village. But neither East nor West will ever be as great, or as full of potential, as Georgia is today. So give us a MAP.”
The president promised to hire Cream to play “Crossroads” at Kulikauri.
But oppositional Labor Party leader Shalva Natelashvili dismissed both Saakashvili’s praise and the geographers’ conclusions.
“They were probably drunk when they did this,” he scoffed. “It’s not up to foreign geographers to tell us where East meets West—what matters is the will of the Georgian people, and they say it’s in Dusheti.”
Others came to Kulikauri to sightsee and pick up a sure anecdote.
One long-term expat in Georgia, a self-described “guitarist, writer and admirer of the female form” who pens a column for a weekly newspaper, spoke of relief at finding something new to cover.
“Finally, something important to write about,” the columnist said. “I’ve been making crap up for the last two years.”
But the revelation is causing headaches for guidebook writers, who have for years pegged the East-West confluence in now-discredited locations.
An employee of major guidebook publisher Lonely Planet, reached via email at their Melbourne headquarters, said their office is working overtime to revise the guidebooks.
“This is a disaster,” the employee said. “We have to redo Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Ethiopia, Algeria and Canada.”
Carter Sheehan, the geographer, said his team’s next project would be locating the true heart of Europe.
Unfortunately, other guidebooks cite nearly anywhere east of Paris and west of Bombay as the spot where Orient and Occident collide in a melting point of culture and history.
But now geographers have pinpointed the exact location where East meets West: the tiny village of Kulikauri in Georgia’s Shida Kartli province.
On March 29, a research team led by University of Colorado geographer Carter Sheehan announced that two years of calculations ruled out all other possible meetings points for East and West.
Kulikauri residents were bemused to learn of their sudden fame as television crews and travel writers began trickling into Kulikauri, an overnight tourist destination.
“We always knew this village was special,” said local resident Giorgi Kakaladze. “But what’s more important is that Georgians have always had a special ability to take the best from both the West and the East. And this is one of the reasons why our culture is so multi-sided and colorful.”
Kakaladze, who lives twenty meters west of the meeting point, added that he is changing his name to George Kay.
Peace Corps volunteer Max House, who was deployed to Kulikauri in February, said he was excited to learn about Georgia and put to use four years of English lit studies in the rural village.
“I thought they were sending me to Atlanta!” House quipped. “But seriously, this is such a once in a lifetime opportunity to really, really help these people.”
He plans to teach English and start a blog.
Both government and opposition leaders traveled to Kulikauri yesterday to vie for public support in the now-symbolic village before May’s parliamentary elections.
Holding aloft a pebble he picked off the road, President Mikheil Saakashvili extolled the virtues of the Georgian countryside.
“This is not just a rock,” he declared. “This is the ultimate product of combining two great hemispheres in one miraculous village. But neither East nor West will ever be as great, or as full of potential, as Georgia is today. So give us a MAP.”
The president promised to hire Cream to play “Crossroads” at Kulikauri.
But oppositional Labor Party leader Shalva Natelashvili dismissed both Saakashvili’s praise and the geographers’ conclusions.
“They were probably drunk when they did this,” he scoffed. “It’s not up to foreign geographers to tell us where East meets West—what matters is the will of the Georgian people, and they say it’s in Dusheti.”
Others came to Kulikauri to sightsee and pick up a sure anecdote.
One long-term expat in Georgia, a self-described “guitarist, writer and admirer of the female form” who pens a column for a weekly newspaper, spoke of relief at finding something new to cover.
“Finally, something important to write about,” the columnist said. “I’ve been making crap up for the last two years.”
But the revelation is causing headaches for guidebook writers, who have for years pegged the East-West confluence in now-discredited locations.
An employee of major guidebook publisher Lonely Planet, reached via email at their Melbourne headquarters, said their office is working overtime to revise the guidebooks.
“This is a disaster,” the employee said. “We have to redo Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Ethiopia, Algeria and Canada.”
Carter Sheehan, the geographer, said his team’s next project would be locating the true heart of Europe.