Pushing back the Horizon (6): Alexandre Dumas in the Caucasus
It was a challenging project: A journey made barely two hundred years ago by the writer, on his way back from Russia, invites us to take part in a very current lesson in geopolitical tourism. Read about a conflict ridden area Alexandre Dumas’ route (*), as it was put forward to the Council of Europe as a cultural route four years ago by the Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan, is a slightly embellished route which starts in Dagestan and follows the banks of the Caspian Sea reaching Baku, where the writer saw the naphtha springs, before turning off to the East towards Tbilissi and Gori, to allow time to climb the hill towards Ossetia, and then continues along the Black Sea to Poti, in Adjhara, in a subtropical climate, before returning to Turkey. It is amazing that the names of the towns and areas covered are all have links with recent conflicts. They have all made and still make the news. The route goes to within one hundred kilometres of Grosny in the Chechen Republic, leave...