The Village of Tchorchokhi in the Early Nineteenth Century

Abstract

Tchorchokhi is a village of Karchokhi gorge on the upper reaches of Ksani. It is one of the oldest settlements in Georgia and, along with several other villages in the Ksani gorge, is mentioned in the tenth century Georgian ecclestiastical document. Representatives of the then South Ossetian Autonomous Region (Soviet officials) tried to change this historical toponym several times. Fortunately, they failed to do so, but after the August 2008 war, the toponym under the consideration, along with names of other Georgian villages in Akhalgori municipality, was occu - pied. The paper reviews the geographical environment of the village of Tchorchokhi, its past and present, the avaiable churches. The special attention is paid to the description of demographic and economic situation in the nineteenth century. It is compared with beginning of the XXI century and shown how the village has been emptied after the occupation.