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When the playwright Chekhov visited Abkhazia he described it as 'maddeningly beautiful.' Lush, sub-tropical, bordering a balmy Black Sea, it boasted twice the world average of centenarians. 
The climate and air of its capital Sukhumi was regarded as the best in Europe by the 19th century Russian doctors who created an elegant small city, building many large sanatoriums and villas on its hillsides. 
Today, after the war, the whole region lies in a state of abandonment. Embargoed, with borders mined, it suffers high levels of unemployment, crime and de-population. Its people live in isolation, cut off from the rest of the world. |
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