Khulo (Georgian: ხულო) is a townlet (daba) in Adjara, an autonomous republic in southwest Georgia, 88 km east to the regional capital Batumi, in the upper valley of Adjaris-tsqali. The town and adjoining 77 villages form the mountainous Khulo District (Rayon). Area – 710 km2; population – 33,430 (2002).
The town, formerly known as Khula, was a merchant place located on a medieval road that linked Samtskhe-Javakheti to the Black Sea coast. During the Ottoman times, Khulo was a chief settlement of Upper Adjara governed by the Khimshiashvili clan. In 1829, it was briefly occupied by the Russian force of General Osten-Sacken who sacked the Khimshiashvili residence before withdrawal.[1] Khulo's population, largely Islamized under the Ottomans, diminished dramatically under the Russian oppression of Islam in the 1870s. A series of floods and avalanches in the 1990s-2000s induced another wave of migration from the mountainous villages of the rayon.
In the district are medieval historical monuments - Khikhani Fortress (10th century) and the Church of Skhalta (13th century).
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