Samegrelo

Samegrelo is a historic province in the western part of Georgia, formerly also known as Odishi. In English it has also been historically known as Mingrelia, based on the Russian exonym rather than the Georgian endonym.It is inhabited by the Megrelians, an ethnic group of the South Caucasia.Geography and climateSamegrelo is bordered by the secessionist region of Abkhazia to the north-west, Svaneti to the north, Imereti to the east, Guria to the south and the Black Sea to the west.Administratively, the historic province of Samegrelo is incorporated joined with the northern part of the neighboring mountainous province of Svaneti to form the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region, the capital of which is Samegrelo's main city, Zugdidi.As it is the case with most Black Sea coastal areas of Georgia, Samegrelo's climate is subtropical with frequent rains. The coastal areas have many marshlands despite the Soviet Georgian authorities' efforts to dry them up. These marshlands contain many rare birds and animals not found in other parts of the country. For this reason, substantial part of the territories is protected by the Georgian law as part of the Colchetian Nature Reserve.HistoryIn ancient times Samegrelo was a major part of the kingdom of Colchis (9th-6th centuries BC) and its successor Egrisi (4th century BC-6th century AD). In the 11th-15th centuries, Samegrelo was a part of the united Kingdom of Georgia. From the 16th century to 1857, the independent Principality of Samegrelo was under the rule of the House of Dadiani.