Imereti ( Georgian: იმერეთი, ) is a

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

situated in the central-western part of the republic along the middle and upper reaches of the

Rioni River The Rioni ( ka, რიონი ; , ) is the main river of western Georgia. It originates in the Caucasus Mountains, in the region of Racha and flows west to the Black Sea, entering it north of the city of Poti (near ancient Phasis). The city ...

. Imereti is the most populous region in Georgia. It consists of 11 municipalities and the city of

Kutaisi Kutaisi ( ; ka, ქუთაისი ) is a city in the Imereti region of the Georgia (country), Republic of Georgia. One of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, it is the List o ...

, which is the capital of the region.

Subdivisions

The Imereti region has one self governing city (

) and 11 municipalities with 163 administrative communities (temi), totalling to 549 populated settlements: * Eleven cities:

Baghdati Baghdati ( ka, ბაღდათი, tr ) is a town of 3,700 people in the Imereti region of western Georgia, at the edge of the Ajameti forest on the river Khanistsqali, a tributary of the Rioni. Geography The town is located at the edge of ...

Chiatura Chiatura ( ) is a city in the Imereti region of Western Georgia. In 1989, it had a population of about 30,000. The city is known for its system of cable cars connecting the city's center to the mining settlements on the surrounding hills. The ci ...

Khoni Khoni ( ka, ხონი ) is a town in the Western Georgia (country), Georgian region (mkhare) of Imereti with a population of 7,756 as of January 2024. It is situated on the left bank of the Tskhenistsqali, Tskhenistsqali River in the north-we ...

Sachkhere Sachkhere ( ka, საჩხერე ) is a town at the northern edge of the Imereti Province in Western Georgia. It is the center of the Sachkhere Municipality. Farming is a major contributor to the economy of Sachkhere. Alva LLC estimates tha ...

Samtredia Samtredia ( ka, სამტრედია ) is a town in Imereti, Georgia (country), Georgia, lying in a lowland between the rivers Rioni River, Rioni and Tskhenis-Tsqali, west of the capital Tbilisi, and west of Georgia's third largest city K ...

Terjola Terjola ( ka, თერჯოლა ) is a town in Imereti, Georgia (country), Georgia, serving as an administrative center of the Terjola district, homonymous district. Terjola is situated in the Imereti Lowlands in western Georgia, on the right ...

Tkibuli Tkibuli or Tqibuli ( ka, ტყიბული ) is a town in west-central Georgia (country), Georgia of 8,130 residents (January 2024). located in the Imereti region at the foot of the Racha Range and the Nakerala limestone cliff, which marks ...

Tsqaltubo Tskaltubo or Tsqaltubo ( ka, წყალტუბო ) is a spa resort in west-central Georgia. It is the main town of the Tsqaltubo Municipality of the Imereti province. It is known for its radon-carbonate mineral springs, whose natural temp ...

Vani Vani ( ka, ვანი ) is a town in Imereti region of a western Georgia (country), Georgia, at the Sulori river (a tributary of the Rioni river), 41 km southwest from the regional capital Kutaisi. The town, with a population of 3,744 as of 201 ...

and

Zestaponi Zestaponi ( ka, ზესტაფონი, tr, ) is the administrative center of Zestaponi District in Western Georgia (country), Georgia. Zestaponi is the center of an ancient, historical part of Georgia – Margveti, which is a part of Im ...

; * Three dabas:

Kharagauli Kharagauli ( ka, ხარაგაული ) is an administrative center of Kharagauli district in Georgia. It is situated on both banks of river in a narrow and deep gorge, 280-400m above the sea level. Founding It was founded as a railway ...

Kulashi Kulashi ( ka, კულაში ) is a small town (''Daba (settlement), daba'') in Imereti, Georgia (country), Georgia with a population of around 1,702 as of 2014. It is located 5 km from the town of Samtredia. It first appears in the 16th cent ...

and

Shorapani Shorapani ( ka, შორაპანი ) is a small Georgian town, situated in the Zestaponi District, part of the region of Imereti. Founded in the 3rd century BC, it served as a residence of the ''eristavi'' (dukes) of Argveti (also known as ...

; * Villages: 535

Economy

Aside from the capital

, significant towns and regional centres include

(manganese production centre),

(

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

mining centre),

(known for metals production),

, and

. Traditionally, Imereti is an agricultural region, known for its

mulberries ''Morus'', a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae, consists of 19 species of deciduous trees commonly known as mulberries, growing wild and under cultivation in many temperate world regions. Generally, the genus has 64 subordinate ...

and

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began approximately 8,0 ...

Demographics

The 800,000 Imeretians speak the Imeretian dialect, one of the Northwest dialects of the

Georgian language Georgian (, ) is the most widely spoken Kartvelian language, Kartvelian language family. It is the official language of Georgia (country), Georgia and the native or primary language of 88% of its population. It also serves as the literary langu ...

. It is itself subdivided into Upper and Lower Imeretian. They are one of the local culture-groups of the ethnically subdivided

Georgian people Georgians, or Kartvelians (; ka, ქართველები, tr, ), are a nation and Caucasian ethnic group native to present-day Georgia and surrounding areas historically associated with the Georgian kingdoms. Significant Georgian diasp ...

History

In ancient times, the region was a part of the Kingdom of Colchis, until it was conquered by the

Kingdom of Pontus Pontus ( ) was a Hellenistic kingdom centered in the historical region of Pontus in modern-day Turkey, and ruled by the Mithridatic dynasty of Persian origin, which may have been directly related to Darius the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty. ...

. After the

Third Mithridatic War The Third Mithridatic War (73–63 BC), the last and longest of the three Mithridatic Wars, was fought between Mithridates VI of Pontus and the Roman Republic. Both sides were joined by a great number of allies, dragging the entire east of th ...

, Colchis was under loose Roman control, and unsuccessfully revolted in 69 AD under Anicetus. After the collapse of Colchis, the kingdom of

Lazica The Kingdom of Lazica (; ; ), sometimes called Lazian Empire, was a state in the territory of west Georgia in the Roman era, Georgia in the Roman period, from about the 1st century BC. Created as a result of the collapse of the kingdom of Colc ...

was established in 131 AD as a Roman vassal. Tzath I was the first Christian king of Lazica, being baptized in

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

in 523 AD, and fighting alongside

Eastern Roman The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

emperor

Justinian I Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...

in the

Iberian War The Iberian War was fought from 526 to 532 between the Byzantine Empire and the Sasanian Empire over the eastern Georgian kingdom of Iberia—a Sasanian client state that defected to the Byzantines. Conflict erupted among tensions over tribut ...

. In 541 AD, the region became the theatre of the

Lazic War The Lazic War, also known as the Colchidian War or in Georgian historiography as the Great War of Egrisi, was fought between the Byzantine Empire and the Sasanian Empire for control of the ancient Georgia (country), Georgian region of Lazica. The ...

between

and Sasanian Persian emperor

Khosrow I Khosrow I (also spelled Khosrau, Khusro or Chosroes; ), traditionally known by his epithet of Anushirvan ("the Immortal Soul"), was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 531 to 579. He was the son and successor of Kavad I (). Inheriting a rei ...

. Between 750 and 985, Imereti was ruled by a dynasty of native princes, but was devastated by hostile incursions, reviving only after it became united to Georgia. After the

Mongol invasions of Georgia The Mongol invasions of Georgia ( ka, მონღოლთა ლაშქრობები საქართველოში, tr), which at that time consisted of Georgia proper, Armenia, and much of the Caucasus, involved multiple invasi ...

, Imereti was intermittently part of the independent

Kingdom of Western Georgia The Kingdom of Western Georgia ( ka, დასავლეთ საქართველოს სამეფო, tr) was a late medieval '' de facto'' independent fragmented part of the Kingdom of Georgia that emerged during the Mongol invasi ...

, until being reunited in 1415 as the

Duchy of Samokalako The Duchy of Samokalako, also known as the Duchy of Imereti or the Duchy of Kutaisi, was a duchy of the Kingdom of Georgia from the 15th century. Created by King Alexander I of Georgia upon the reestablishment of royal control over the Kingdom of ...

under the united Georgian Kingdom. Since that kingdom's disintegration in the 15th century, Imereti was an independent kingdom from 1466 onwards. In the 17th–18th centuries, the kingdom of Imereti experienced frequent invasions by the

Turks Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic of Turkey * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic lang ...

and paid patronage to the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

until 1810, when it was invaded and annexed by the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. The last King of Imereti was

Solomon II Solomon II (born as David) ( ka, სოლომონ II; 1772 – February 7, 1815), of the Bagrationi dynasty, was the last king (''mepe'') of Imereti (western Georgia) from 1789 to 1790 and from 1792 until his deposition by the Imperial Russ ...

(1789–1810). From 1918 to 1921, Imereti was part of the independent

Democratic Republic of Georgia The Democratic Republic of Georgia (DRG; ka, საქართველოს დემოკრატიული რესპუბლიკა, tr) was the first modern establishment of a republic of Georgia (country), Georgia, which exist ...

. Within the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, the region was part of the

Transcaucasian SFSR , image_flag = Flag of the Transcaucasian SFSR (variant).svg , flag_type = Flag(1925–1936) , image_coat = Emblem of the Transcaucasian SFSR (1930-1936).svg , symbol_type = Emblem(1930–1936) ...

from 1922 to 1936, and part of the

Georgian SSR The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as Soviet Georgia, the Georgian SSR, or simply Georgia, was one of the republics of the Soviet Union from its second occupation (by the Red Army) in 1921 to its independence in 1991. Cotermin ...

from 1936 to 1991. Since Georgian independence in 1991, Imereti has been a region of Georgia with Kutaisi as the regional capital.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

Imereti.com - The Guide to Imereti, Georgia, Sakartvelo

Official website

Civil.GE
{{coord, 42, 10, N, 42, 59, E, display=title, region:GE_type:adm1st_source:GNS-enwiki Regions of Georgia (country) Former provinces of Georgia (country) Historical regions of Georgia (country)