Svan Tower Architecture

Svan towers are tower houses built as defensive dwellings in Svaneti, a historical mountain region of Georgia. Most were built between the ninth and twelfth centuries, during the Georgian Golden Age, though their origins are thought to reach back to prehistoric times, and roughly three thousand five hundred still stand in Svaneti today. The towers typically rise three to five stories, with walls that taper toward the top, and their upper levels carry machicolated parapets and embrasures that let defenders cover the approaches while throwing projectiles, a purely defensive function. Where a tower is attached to a residential house, the connected dwelling holds two further floors, a ground-level machub housing people and animals together, and an upper darbazi level used for summer living and storage.