Alphabetic Tower: Batumi Travel Guide (4.3★)

Letters climbing into the sky

Look up and you’re reading. Two white steel ribbons twist around a central shaft, and fixed between them are the letters of the Mkhedruli script, the alphabet Georgians still write every day. There are 33 of them, spiralling up to a sphere that holds the viewing level and restaurant.

The tower rises about 130 metres above the waterfront in Miracle Park. It went up in the early 2010s as part of Batumi’s push to rebuild its seafront as a showpiece. Locals call it Anbanis Koshki (ანბანის კოშკი), “the alphabet tower”, and it works as a monument to a script found nowhere else on earth.

What you see from the top

A lift runs up the central shaft to the sphere. Up top the city lays itself out like a map:

• West: open Black Sea and the grey pebble beach running south along the boulevard.
• South and east: the high-rise strip of new Batumi, the old town grid behind it, and green hills behind that.
• Directly below: the port, the Batumi Lighthouse and the Ferris wheel beside it.

The revolving restaurant turns slowly, so you get the full panorama without moving from your table. Seats here are the reason many people come. If you only want the view, the observation platform alone is enough, and 20–30 minutes covers it.

After dark, the script lights up

At night the tower becomes a light show. LEDs run along the helix and the letters, and the colours shift and pulse along the structure. From the beach you can see it a long way down the shoreline.

At the moment the tower opens 11am–10pm every day of this week. Observation decks often change their hours through the season, though, so check the official listing before planning a late visit. The safest plan is to go up in the last hour of daylight and stay on the boulevard afterwards to watch the letters come on.

Getting up without the wait

This is one of Batumi’s most visited sights, and it’s busiest in the summer beach months. Here’s how the visit works and how to make it easier:

• Tickets: buy them at the desk at the base. The current price is posted there; the restaurant’s prices are on its own menu.
• Timing: a weekday visit soon after the 11am opening usually beats the evening crowd that gathers for sunset.
• Paying: cards are widely accepted along the seafront, but carry some lari in case the card machine is down.
• The lift is small. Queues form because it carries only a few people per trip, not because the deck is crowded. Waiting at the base is normal.
• Restaurant: if you want a window seat at sunset, ask about reserving ahead in high season instead of hoping a table is free.

A word of Georgian goes down well. “Gamarjoba” means hello and “madloba” means thank you.

Getting there along the boulevard

The tower stands near the northern tip of Batumi Boulevard, the seafront promenade that runs for kilometres along the shore. From Europe Square in the old town, walk west to the water and then north along the promenade. It’s a flat, easy walk of roughly half an hour.

Taxis and ride-hailing apps can drop you right by Miracle Park, and the city’s bike-share docks line the boulevard. Expect the park itself to be pedestrian-only near the tower, so allow a few minutes on foot from the road.

Pairing it with Miracle Park

The tower is the tallest of several landmarks within a few minutes’ walk of each other. Plan an hour or two for the area:

• Ali and Nino: the moving steel statue of two lovers that slide through each other. It’s best seen on the hour after dark, when it lights up.
• Batumi Lighthouse: a striped 19th-century tower right at the water’s edge.
• The Ferris wheel: a second, lower view of the same coastline.
• Batumi Boulevard: cafés, fountains and the beach, heading south towards the old town.

An evening here is easy to plan. Go up the tower before sunset, walk to Ali and Nino as the lights come on, then follow the boulevard back to the old town for dinner.