The Lagodekhi National Park (Georgian: ლაგოდეხის სახელმწიფო ნაკრძალი lagodechis sachelmzipo nakrdsali) is a national park in the Kakheti region in eastern Georgia. It lies at an altitude of 300 to 3000 m in the Greater Caucasus, in the border triangle of Georgia, Russia and Azerbaijan. The park has been included in the UNESCO list of natural monuments.
Lagodekhi National Park is the oldest in the Caucasus and the former Soviet Union. It was founded in 1912 by decision of the Russian Academy of Sciences on 3,500 hectares in the Lagodekhi and Shromishev Gorges. The proposal for this came from the Russian botanist Nikolai Kuznetsov (1864-1932), who wanted to protect the rich Caucasian flora present there. Since then, use as pasture land, hunting and felling of trees has been prohibited. In 1934 the national park was expanded to 17,688 hectares.
The weather in the national park varies between humid subtropical at lower elevations and moderate weather at higher elevations. The summers are warm with an average of 20 to 23 °C in July, the winters are mild but snowy with 0 to -4 °C in January. The average rainfall is 1,070 mm per year, the relative humidity is 75 to 80%.
The park is divided into different vegetation zones: The vegetation zones up to and including the subalpine between 300 and almost 2500 m above sea level are characterized by ice-age lakes, sulfur springs and dense deciduous forests with owls, peregrine falcons, ture, wolves, lynxes and brown bears. Steppes with alpine herbs dominate in the alpine zone from 2,500 to almost 3,500 m. Chamois, golden eagles and bearded vultures are at home there. The largest lake in the national park is Schawiklde Lake, which is 14 meters deep and covers an area of 21 hectares. Near the Azerbaijani border, in the Mazimi Gorge, lies the medieval Tamara Fortress (also Machi Fortress).
A total of almost 1500 different plant species grow in the park. There are also almost 40 different mammalian, 120 bird, 13 reptile, 4 amphibian and 1300 insect species.
Lagodechi, Georgien