Walls and towers
A near-complete fort.
dkowi — CC BY-SA 3.0 · BRUTE — CC BY-SA 3.0 · კოლხი — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Alexey Komarov — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Soghomon Matevosyan — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Kober — CC BY-SA 4.0 · The coffe girl — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Soghomon Matevosyan — CC BY-SA 4.0
A Roman fortress on the Black Sea coast at the mouth of the Chorokhi river, about fifteen kilometres south of Batumi and a few kilometres from the Turkish border. Known in antiquity as Apsaros, its name was linked with the myth of Medea and her brother Absyrtus in the tale of the Argonauts. The earliest mention comes from Pliny the Elder in the first century AD, and by the second century it was a well-fortified Roman city in Colchis, known for its theatre and hippodrome. It later came under the Byzantines, briefly hosted a Genoese trading post, and was taken by the Ottomans in 1547, who held it until 1878. High stone walls with eighteen towers enclose the site, and inside are the remains of the Roman camp, its baths and clay water pipes, with a small museum of archaeological finds. Tradition holds that the Apostle Matthias, one of the Twelve, is buried here, though this cannot be verified because digging near the supposed grave is not allowed. Tickets are 15 GEL for foreign visitors and 10 GEL for Georgian citizens, and it opens from 10 am to 6 pm, per Adjara's official tourist guide; guided tours and an audio guide cost extra. It pairs well with nearby Gonio beach.
A near-complete fort.
And water pipes.
By tradition.
Gonio village near the mouth of the Chorokhi, about fifteen kilometres south of Batumi
By taxi or minibus south along the coast road in about twenty minutes; the road continues to Sarpi beach near the border.