💧 Shaori Reservoir: A Lake Where a Karst River Once Ran, in the Racha Mountains

Shaori Reservoir sits by the town of Tkibuli, on the border of Imereti and Racha-Lechkhumi, and at first glance it looks like an ordinary mountain lake. In reality it's a mid-20th-century engineering project with unusual hydrology: its water comes not just from the Shaori River, but from underground karst springs that appear and vanish through sinkholes in the caves around it.

Worth clarifying right away: don't confuse this reservoir with Shaori Fortress in Samtskhe-Javakheti, an entirely different region and an entirely different place that just happens to share the name.

⚡ Why the Reservoir Was Built

Construction of a hydroelectric plant in the Shaori river basin began in the 1950s. The Shaori River runs through heavily karstified terrain and periodically vanished into sinkholes, so engineers decided to divert its flow into the Tkibula River, a tributary of the Kvirila, and dam the Shaori itself. That's how the reservoir came to exist.

Shaori Hydro Power Plant became the upper stage of the Shaori-Tkibuli cascade, and its first unit came online in 1955. It's a derivation-type plant with a regulating reservoir, and by design it's considered Georgia's highest-head hydroelectric station.

🕳️ Underground Water From Karst Caves

Here's what makes Shaori Reservoir unusual among Georgian lakes: it's surrounded by karst caves and underground pools, and part of the water feeding the reservoir rises from below ground rather than arriving purely from the surface. That's a direct result of the region's geology: the terrain around it is heavily karstified, and before the dam was built, the Shaori River itself would periodically "disappear" into karst sinkholes.

By rough estimates, the reservoir stretches around 7 km in length, up to 2.7 km wide, with depths reaching 14 to 15 metres at its deepest point. A forested mountain ridge surrounds it, home to trees not typically seen on the plains, and mushrooms in abundance.

🍷 A Folk Explanation for the Name

The reservoir takes its name from the Shaori River, but locals also tell a lighter story about where that word itself comes from. According to legend, two men from Racha were on their way to sell wine in Kutaisi and stopped for the night right on this spot. They lit a fire, had dinner, and one asked to try the other's wine. His companion refused, since it was meant for sale: "If you want a taste, pay a shauri," a shauri being an old five-kopeck coin. That, the story goes, is where the place got its name.

🎣 What to Do at the Reservoir

Shaori Reservoir is popular for fishing, picnics and mountain walks in summer, and for skiing and snowboarding in winter. Its scenic setting and unusual hydrology draw visitors from across the country and beyond.

🚗 Getting There

The reservoir is about 275 km from Tbilisi. Tkibuli, the nearest sizeable town, is your best base for planning the route. From Kutaisi it's roughly an hour's drive.

Have you been to Shaori Reservoir? Leave a review on Madloba: tell us whether the fish were biting, what winter conditions were like, and what first-timers should know.

Information is current as of July 2026. Water levels and road conditions vary by season, check details before you go.

Read also

• Mchishta Underground River: Karst Cave System in Georgia
• Tskhrajvari Mountain in Racha: Temple and Active Outdoor Route
• A Guide to the Rivers, Waterfalls and Lakes of Racha-Lechkhumi