"Yusufel - Trips to Dortkilise, Tekakale... " a Yusufeli Travel Page by rjaparidze

Yusufeli is an excellent stopover place if someone want to visit two of the Georgian churches Barhal (Parkhali in Georgian) and Dortkilise (otkhta eklesia).

Besides Yusufeli is a great place for rafting. Last year I've stayed in Hotel Barhal and had a chanse to acquaint with excellent folks who took us to river Choruh for rafting. On this picture above we are there with an excellent rafting instructor Syrali who may be available at the phone indicate in my hotel tip.

Rafting was an unbelievable experience. I strongly suggest to try it.

Barhal Church is about an hour drive from Yusufeli. It is a Georgian church from Xth or XIth century that has a Basilica shape. It is not really difficult to reach this place. One has to head in the direction of Barhal. The road is ok though on some places the road is unpaved.

There are several pensions in Barhal there where I never stayed because of stopover in Yusufeli.

The Church Barhal is a mosque nowadays. Thanks to this fact it has been preserved in more or less normal shape. Unlike Oshk Vank (the best Georgian church on Turkish territory), Ishan, Yeni Rabat, Bana and Dortkilise this church does not face an imminent threat of collapse.

And these is a picture from Yusufeli at night. It was a fantastic evening, I think it was around Aug. 29 when the Turks have some major holiday. A celebration in the city was fun. and then we smoked nargile. In general we spent an excellent day in Yusufeli