Mestia is a highland townlet in northwest Georgia, at an elevation of 1,500 metres in the Caucasus Mountains.
Mestia is located in the Svaneti region of Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti province. Mestia and the adjoining 132 villages form Mestia District (raioni). Its area is 30,444 square kilometres and its population is 14,248 (2,600 in the town itself), according to the 2002 Georgia census. It was granted the status of a townlet (Georgian: daba) in 1968.
Historically and ethnographically, Mestia has always been regarded a chief community of Zemo, or Upper Svaneti province. The population is mostly Svans, a cultural and linguistic subgroup of the Georgians. Despite its small size, the townlet was an important centre of Georgian culture for centuries and contains a number of medieval monuments, such as churches and forts, included in a list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
The townlet is dominated by stone defensive towers of a type seen in Ushguli ("Svan towers"). A typical Svan fortified dwelling consisted of a tower, an adjacent house (machub) and some other household structures encircled by a defensive wall.
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