💧 Eight Lakes of Mtskheta-Mtianeti: Which Are an Hour from Tbilisi and Which Need a Trek

The lakes of Mtskheta-Mtianeti come to eight bodies of water, and they have less in common than you'd expect. The region stretches more than a hundred kilometres north to south: it starts at the edge of Tbilisi and ends against the Greater Caucasus ridge. The water at those two ends differs in everything, in origin, in colour, in season, and in what it takes to reach it.

Down low, on the Bazaleti plateau and in the valleys, sit Tsodoreti, Chili, Bazaleti, and the Sioni and Zhinvali reservoirs. These are day trips: drive out, eat, swim, drive back. Up high, in Khevsureti at 2,600 metres, sit the three Abudelauri lakes, reached by a mountain trail whose access road isn't passable in just any car.

What follows runs south to north, and bottom to top.

🚗 Tsodoreti and Chili: Lakes Below Mtskheta

Both sit in Mtskheta Municipality, both are half an hour from Tbilisi, and both are considerably more modest than the photos suggest.

Tsodoreti (41.76573, 44.63070) lies beside the village of the same name, 12 km from Mtskheta. A small, isolated lake in a quiet spot with hills around it. Here's the thing guidebooks leave out: depending on the season and rainfall, the lake can dry out to the bottom. Locals who come here for picnics say the same thing every time: it's no good for swimming, but the surroundings are lovely. So if you're making a special trip, check recent photos or ask on arrival whether there's water. Details and pictures on the Tsodoreti lake page.

Chili (41.81241, 44.67865) is closer to Mtskheta, just 5 km, and the same distance from Tbilisi as Tsodoreti. We have a separate piece on Lake Chili covering how to get there and what's around.

Neither is a destination, honestly. They're a pleasant stop. Their strength is elsewhere: from central Tbilisi they're closer than many parts of Tbilisi itself at rush hour.

🌋 Bazaleti: A Volcanic Lake with No Inlet and No Outlet

The only lake in the region with its own legend, its own battle and its own sanatorium.

It sits at 879 metres, 5 km from Dusheti and about 40 from Tbilisi (42.03808, 44.67911). Area 1.22 km², maximum depth just 7 metres. The origin is volcanic, and its defining feature is total isolation: no river flows in and none flows out. A source is known to exist, but nobody has found it.

The history here is dense. A medieval town stood around the lake. The Battle of Bazaleti was fought nearby in 1626. In the Soviet period they farmed fish here, mostly carp. Today it's a resort: a sanatorium, therapeutic mud, boat and pedalo hire, a developed shoreline.

And the legend it's remembered for goes like this. On the bottom, in a cradle of pure gold, sleeps a golden-haired infant, and the lake itself formed from the tears of his mother, weeping on the shore. There's a second, more down-to-earth version: a well stood here, a bull fell into it, the water splashed out and spread. More on the resort side in Lake Bazaleti.

💧 Sioni Reservoir: A Village on the Bottom

The region's largest body of water after Zhinvali, and the only one with a village underneath it.

Created in 1963 on the Iori river, between Sioni settlement and Lelovani village in Tianeti Municipality (41.99798, 45.00656). The numbers are serious: 12.8 km² of surface, 67 metres at its deepest, 25.4 on average, over 325 million cubic metres of volume, a catchment of 587 km². The altitude is around 1,000 metres, it's 45 km from Tbilisi, the Tbilisi–Tianeti road is scenic, and even a marshrutka makes it in about an hour.

Filling the basin meant flooding several old villages. Part of Sioni village still lies on the bottom, along with an old church. Hence the local nickname, the Sioni Sea.

The banks differ: the right one is steep and rocky with landslide scars, the left is gentler, with deciduous forest higher up the slopes. Water peaks in July and bottoms out in March; temperatures run from 2.7°C in February to 23–24°C in August. People come to fish, swim and take a boat out. The area counts as a climatic resort, where lake, mountain and forest air meet in one place, covered in our piece on the Sioni climatic resort. The site page is Sioni Reservoir.

🏞️ Zhinvali Reservoir: That Turquoise You've Seen

If you've seen a photo of Georgia with vividly turquoise water and a fortress on the shore, it's almost certainly Zhinvali.

It sits on the Georgian Military Road, 40 km north of Tbilisi, in Dusheti Municipality (42.14974, 44.77239). Six kilometres away stands Ananuri fortress, the vantage point every photo is taken from. The basin lies where the White Aragvi and the Pshavi Aragvi meet.

The colour has a simple explanation, and it's more interesting than "magic": the water here is very deep, the bottom drops to 75 metres, and sunlight refracts through the column so the surface reads as turquoise. Which means on an overcast day, or in the shallows, you won't get that picture: the colour needs sun and depth.

The easiest way to see it is from the E117 on the way to Kazbegi, with the reservoir on your right. Site page: Zhinvali Reservoir.

🏔️ The Coloured Abudelauri Lakes: Three of Them at 2,600 Metres

This is where the tarmac ends and a different Georgia begins.

Three glacial lakes sit at the head of the Abudelauri river gorge, in Khevsureti, Dusheti Municipality, at around 2,600 metres. They're fed by meltwater from the Abudelauri glacier and by rain. They're called coloured because each holds a different shade.

Walking up from Roshka, the order runs like this. Green comes first (42.54328, 44.83958), cupped in soft grassy slopes. Two hundred and thirty-five metres on, practically alongside it, sits Blue (42.54448, 44.83722): deep, with clear icy water fading into turquoise darkness. Another kilometre and a half brings you to White (42.54617, 44.81994), right at the foot of the Chaukhi massif. It's milky white, and that isn't a trick of the light: the colour comes from mineral suspension carried down off the glacier.

The approach works like this. The starting point is Roshka village at around 2,000 metres, roughly 3 hours' drive from Tbilisi, with the final stretch best tackled in a high-clearance 4x4. Then the trail: 6–7 km one way, about 600 metres of ascent, waymarked, hard to lose. Gentle at first, then a climb. A second option comes from the west, over the Chaukhi pass from Juta, but it's markedly harder and suits people doing a point-to-point route.

The season is narrow. The lakes freeze in November and stay under ice until May. The peak is June and July. By August, White drops sharply and all but dries out. So "a quick autumn trip to the coloured lakes" isn't a thing: you'll arrive to snow or to a puddle.

A full breakdown of the route and what's up there is in The Abudelauri Lakes. Site pages: Blue Lake and White Lake.

📅 When to Go: Top and Bottom Run on Different Calendars

The main planning mistake is assuming the region has one season. It has two, and they barely overlap.

The lower waters run on an ordinary summer-holiday schedule. Sioni warms to 23–24°C by August and drops to 2.7 in February. Its level peaks in July and bottoms out in March, so the shoreline in spring looks nothing like it does in summer. Bazaleti operates as a resort year-round, though swimming only makes sense in the warm months. Zhinvali is beautiful when the sun is out; without it the turquoise never appears. Tsodoreti depends on rainfall and can vanish in a dry summer.

Abudelauri runs on a mountain calendar, and it's unforgiving. Ice sets in November and holds until May. Realistically you can walk in June and July. By August, White has dropped sharply, because the glacier is feeding it less. Then snow again. A two-month window a year.

Which gives a simple rule: if you're in Georgia in May or September, don't plan on Abudelauri, but the lower lakes will be fine.

🗿 What Else Is Nearby

Lakes are rarely the point here, and that's fine: they slot neatly into routes you were driving anyway.

Zhinvali sits directly on the road to Kazbegi, with Ananuri fortress six kilometres away, the spot every photo comes from. Tsodoreti and Chili are half an hour from Mtskheta, the ancient capital. Abudelauri belongs to the larger Khevsureti story of stone towers and the Chaukhi pass.

If the water theme lands for you, we have a comparable breakdown for another region: the rivers, waterfalls and lakes of Racha-Lechkhumi, where the water is organised differently, around one large river.

Boil it all down and it comes to this: in Mtskheta-Mtianeti there's no such thing as "going to see the lakes." There's an hour in the car and a barbecue by the water, or there's a two-month window, a 4x4 to Roshka and six kilometres uphill. Those two scenarios share nothing but an administrative boundary. Choose honestly, based on your time and your legs, not on someone else's photographs.

Been to the lakes of Mtskheta-Mtianeti? Tell us in the comments on Madloba: which ones you reached, in which month, and whether Tsodoreti had any water in it.

Information is current as of July 2026. The water level at Tsodoreti depends on season and rainfall, and the lake can dry out. The Abudelauri lakes are accessible roughly from June to July, and the road to Roshka requires a 4x4. Check the weather and road conditions before setting off.

Read also

• Darial Gorge: the Caucasus Gates near Stepantsminda
• Gldani Lake: Natural Waters Near Tbilisi
• Guide to Dighomi Forest Park: Trees and City Walks
• Lake Erzo