Kolkheti National Park

Kolkheti National Park
IUCN category II (national park)
Location	Georgia
Coordinates	42°6′39″N 41°41′46″E / 42.11083°N 41.69611°E / 42.11083; 41.69611Coordinates: 42°6′39″N 41°41′46″E / 42.11083°N 41.69611°E / 42.11083; 41.69611
Area	28,940 hectares
Established	1998-1999
Visitors	13,747 (in 2015)
Governing body	Agency of Protected Areas

Kolkheti National Park is a national park located in the historical region of Colchis in western Georgia. It lies on a coastal plain on the Black Sea, between the mouths of the Tikori and Supsa and spanning the districts of Zugdidi, Khobi, Lanchkhuti, Senaki and Abasha. The park was established during 1998 and 1999 as part of Georgia’s Integrated Coastal Management Project, which was backed financially by the World Bank (WB) and the Global Environmental Facility (GEF). Kolkheti National Park covers an area of 28,940 hectares, incorporating the land of the former 500-hectare Kolkheti State Nature Reserve, which had been established in 1947, and its surrounding wetlands, including the lake Paliastomi.

Kolkheti National Park was once part of the tropical and partly subtropical zone of the Tertiary period that stretched over the continent of Eurasia. Around 2000 BC, the first Georgian state, Kolkheti, better known as "Colchis," was created here and was the place in which the first Georgian coinage, “Kolkhuri Tetri,” was minted. Colchis features in Greek mythology as the rim of the world, and has been mentioned in historical chronicles across western Asia and eastern Europe since ancient times. Colchis appears in the myth of Jason and the Argonauts and his pursuit of the Golden Fleece. Colchis was also the land where the mythological Prometheus was punished by being chained to a mountain while an eagle ate at his liver for revealing the secret of fire to humanity. Amazons also were said to be of Scythian origin from Colchis. The main mythical characters from Colchis are Aeëtes, Idyia, Pasiphaë, Circe, Medea, Chalciope and Absyrtus.