The Lailashi Pool (Okronishi): An Infinity Pool in a Historic Village

In the mountain village of Lailashi in the Lechkhumi highlands of western Georgia — the country in the South Caucasus — a simple stone pool fed by a natural spring, set on a hillside high above the Lajanuri reservoir, has become one of the most widely shared images of rural Georgia online. The Okronishi pool — now widely called the Lailashi Secret Pool — is not an engineered resort infinity pool. It is a modest, functional spring-fed pool, built long ago by the village's Jewish community, that happens to sit at the edge of a hillside with a sweeping view over the forested valley and reservoir below; the spring water overflowing its edge creates, in photos and in person, the illusion of water meeting the valley horizon like a luxury infinity pool. The gap between the simplicity of the thing and the drama of what it appears to be is part of its appeal — but the pool is only the most photographed corner of a village with a genuinely remarkable history.

What is the Lailashi (Okronishi) Pool?

The Lailashi Pool, or Okronishi, is a small spring-fed stone pool in the village of Lailashi, in the Tsageri municipality of Lechkhumi, western Georgia, at about 850 meters elevation. Continuously fed by cold mountain spring water that overflows its edge, it produces a natural "infinity pool" effect against a panoramic view of the Lajanuri valley and reservoir below — which is why it has become a viral photo spot, nicknamed "Georgian Thailand" for its views. You can swim in the cold water in summer. But Lailashi is also one of Georgia's most historic multi-ethnic villages — long home to Georgians, Jews, Greeks, and Armenians together — with an old synagogue and a famous medieval manuscript, the Lailashi Bible, behind its name. It's reached by a steep mountain road from Tsageri.

The pool

The pool is stone-built and fed continuously by cold spring water flowing from the hillside above. The water is genuinely cold whatever the season — mountain spring temperature here rarely rises above what most would call bracing rather than comfortable — and swimming in summer is entirely possible for those willing to commit to the chill. In warm weather the cold plunge is a real draw after the heat of the drive up, and the combination of the cold water and the panoramic view from the pool's edge makes the stop more than just a photograph. (The spring is locally valued, and the water is traditionally regarded as beneficial — though it's best enjoyed simply as a fresh mountain spring rather than as any kind of proven remedy.)

The overflow that creates the infinity effect is a natural result of the continuous spring feed rather than a designed feature, and it varies with the season and the spring's flow. In spring and early summer, when the mountain water table is highest, the overflow is most pronounced and the effect most complete; in drier late summer the flow may ease, though the pool itself stays full.

Lailashi: a village of remarkable history

The pool is the village's most photographed feature, but Lailashi's deeper story is what makes it memorable. Set at around 850 meters above the Lajanuri valley, Lailashi was for centuries a genuinely multi-ethnic community — Georgians, Jews, Greeks, and Armenians living side by side — a rare and notable example of long interfaith coexistence in the Georgian highlands, commemorated today by a Friendship Obelisk raised in the village in 2013.

Its Jewish heritage is especially significant. Lailashi was home to one of Georgia's notable Jewish communities — by some accounts well over a thousand Jewish residents in the early 20th century, still dozens of families into the 1970s — and the Lailashi synagogue, built in the 1860s and active until the 1970s, still stands (now largely disused, a listed cultural monument, and the subject of recent restoration efforts by Georgian-Jewish supporters). The Okronishi pool itself was built by this community. Most remarkably, the village gives its name to the Lailashi Bible (the Lailashi Codex) — a medieval Hebrew biblical manuscript of great scholarly value, among only a handful of its kind known in the world, discovered here and now preserved at Georgia's National Centre of Manuscripts in Tbilisi. How it came to this small mountain village remains, intriguingly, unknown.

The village also holds an old Armenian church (now ruined), a hall-type church and bell tower in its cemetery, and an active Jewish graveyard with readable inscriptions nearby — and its deep past reaches further still: a hoard of ancient bronze axes found at Lailashi (now in the Hermitage Museum) ties the village, like much of Lechkhumi, to the Bronze-Age Colchian metalworking culture. In August 2025 the Tsageri municipality held a festival celebrating Lailashi's century-long multi-ethnic coexistence, drawing Georgian Jews back from Jerusalem for the occasion — a sign that this heritage is being actively remembered and revived. For travelers, this means the pool is best understood not as an isolated photo stop but as the gateway to a village whose layered history rewards a slower, more curious visit.

Getting there

The road to Lailashi from the main valley road ends with a steep, unpaved final section of roughly 3–4 kilometers, best suited to a vehicle with good ground clearance and four-wheel drive. Its condition varies with the season — spring snowmelt and autumn rain make it considerably harder — so drivers without a suitable vehicle should either arrange a local taxi from Tsageri (or Ambrolauri) with a driver who knows the road, or park lower down and walk the final stretch (around 30–40 minutes on foot). Once at village level, the pool is a very short walk from the nearest parking — no real hiking is needed once the road section is managed. The drive up, along the mountainside with the reservoir opening up below, is part of the experience.

Atmosphere and seasons

Lailashi has the quality of a long-storied place only recently "discovered" by the wider travelling world — the village keeps its authentic rural character and the pool sits in its original functional context, but the photos circulating online have brought visitors who would not otherwise have known it existed. The site does not yet have developed tourism infrastructure, so arriving still feels like finding something rather than visiting something — a quality that grows rarer as Georgia's natural sites become better known. (It's worth visiting with awareness that this is a living village with a sensitive heritage, not a staged attraction — the synagogue and graveyards in particular deserve respect.)

Summer brings green landscapes and the possibility of swimming, the most popular season. Autumn is the most visually dramatic, when the forested valley turns through its full range of color and the low October light sets off reflections in the reservoir below. Winter closes the village road for extended periods and the pool surface may partly freeze — striking, with ice-edged stone against the snow-covered valley, but access is unreliable and should never be attempted without local confirmation of current road conditions.

Practical information

• Location: Lailashi village, Tsageri municipality, Lechkhumi (Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti region), western Georgia; ~850 m elevation, above the Lajanuri reservoir. About 2.5–3 hours from Kutaisi; ~40 km from Ambrolauri. Tsageri is the nearest regional center and practical base.
• Access: The final 3–4 km of road need a 4x4 or high-clearance vehicle; standard cars aren't recommended for this section. A taxi from Tsageri or Ambrolauri with a driver who knows the road is a practical alternative, or park below and walk up (~30–40 min).
• Hours / Admission: Freely accessible; no fee.
• Best time: June–September for swimming and green landscapes; October for autumn color; winter access is unreliable — check road conditions locally before attempting the drive.
• Combine with: The wider Lechkhumi circuit — the Ghvirishi Waterfall, the Kulbaki lakes, Khvamli Mountain, the Tvishi and Usakhelouri wine villages, and Tsageri (with its museum and the St. Maxime the Confessor church).