Poti ფოთი |
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Poti city center
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Location of Poti in Georgia | |||
Coordinates: 42°09′0″N 41°40′0″E / 42.15000°N 41.66667°E | |||
Country | Georgia | ||
Mkhare | Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti | ||
Established | 7th century BC | ||
Elevation | 0 m (0 ft) | ||
Population (2012) | |||
• Total | 47,900 | ||
Time zone | Georgian Time (UTC+4) | ||
Website | www.poti.ge (eng) |
Coordinates: 42°08′31″N 41°40′35″E / 42.14194°N 41.67639°E
Poti (Georgian: ფოთი [pʰɔtʰi]; Mingrelian: ფუთი; Laz: ჶაში/Faşi or ფაში/Paşi) is a port city in Georgia, located on the eastern Black Sea coast in the region of Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti in the west of the country. Built near the site of the ancient Greek colony of Phasis and deriving its name from the same, the city has become a major port city and industrial center since the early 20th century. It is also home to a main naval base and the headquarters of the Georgian navy. Adjacent to the Poti port area is the RAKIA owned Free Industrial Zone. Inaugurated in April 2008, it has registered a number of businesses, including those from Iranian businesspeople trying to evade sanctions against Iran.
The name Poti is apparently linked to Phasis, but the etymology is a matter of a scholarly dispute. "Phasis" (Greek: Φάσις) is first recorded in Hesiod's Theogony (c. 700 BC) as a name of the river, not a town. Since Erich Diehl, 1938, first suggested a non-Hellenic origin of the name and asserted that Phasis might have been a derivative of a local hydronym, several explanations have been proposed, linking the name to the Georgian-Zan *Poti, Svan *Pasid, and even to a Semitic word, meaning "a gold river".