The Open-Air Museum of Ethnography on the slopes of Turtle Lake hill is one of Tbilisi's less-visited but more rewarding attractions. Traditional buildings from across Georgia — wooden houses from Svaneti, tower-houses from Kakheti, farmsteads from Adjara — have been dismantled and reassembled here in a forested hillside setting, creating an open-air architectural survey of the country's regional building traditions.
The scale of the site means most visitors see only part of it. The Svanetian tower complex is the highlight — the stone towers and adjacent fortified houses convey the distinctive defensive architecture of the high Caucasus valleys. Combine the visit with the walk through Vake Park to Turtle Lake, as the museum is on the same hillside. Allow two hours for a thorough visit.