Liakhvi river basin on the Shida Kartli map

The Great Liakhvi ( ''Didi Liakhvi'', , ''Styr Lewakhi'') is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

in central

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, which rises on the southern slopes of the Greater Caucasus Mountain Range in the de facto independent region of

South Ossetia South Ossetia, ka, სამხრეთი ოსეთი, ( , ), officially the Republic of South Ossetia – the State of Alania, is a partially recognised landlocked state in the South Caucasus. It has an officially stated populat ...

and flows into the Kura (Mtkvari). It is long, and has a drainage basin of .Большая Лиахви

Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; ) is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya e ...

The cities of

Tskhinvali Tskhinvali ( ka, ცხინვალი ) or Tskhinval ( os, Цхинвал, Чъреба, Tskhinval, Chreba, ; rus, Цхинва́л(и), r=Tskhinvál(i), ) is the capital of the disputed ''de facto'' independent Republic of South Ossetia, in ...

and Gori lie along the banks of the Great Liakhvi. The river is mainly fed by the melting snows and glacier runoff of the Caucasus Mountains as well as by underground water sources. The Liakhvi reaches its highest water volume in the spring and summer while the lowest volume is recorded in the winter, when some segments of the river freeze over. The Little Liakhvi is a tributary.

References

Rivers of Georgia (country) Rivers of South Ossetia Tributaries of the Kura (Caspian Sea) {{SouthOssetia-geo-stub