Khulo

Khulo ( _ka. ხულო) is a townlet in Adjara, an autonomous republic in southwest Georgia, 88 km east to the regional capital Batumi. The town and adjoining 77 villages form the mountainous Khulo District (Rayon). Area – 710 sq. km; 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. Khulo's population, largely Islamized in the Ottoman era, 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).