Pankisi

Pankisi (Georgian: პანკისი) or the Pankisi Gorge (Georgian: პანკისის ხეობა, Pankisis Kheoba) is a valley region in Georgia, in the upper reaches of River Alazani. It lies just south of Georgia’s historic region of Tusheti between Mt Borbalo and the ruined 17th-century fortress of Bakhtrioni.

Administratively, Pankisi is included in the Akhmeta municipality of the Kakheti region. The area is about two and half miles wide and eight miles long.

From November 2000 until 2002, the valley played host to an armed formation led by the Chechen commander Ruslan Gelayev, who had fled the Second Chechen War. After the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, both Russian and American political figures made public allegations, which were subsequently either disproved or uncorroborated, that senior Al-Qaeda leaders were present in the Gorge, and had acquired the nerve agent ricin. The Gorge has occasionally been mentioned in subsequent reports linking it to Salafi-jihadist activity.

As of 2019, the Kist ethnic group accounted for the majority of the area's roughly 5,000 residents. The Kists are Vainakhs, usually of Chechen roots, who have moved to the Pankisi area since the 19th Century. Kist culture combines Vainakh traditions with some influences from surrounding eastern Georgia.