After 19 years, Google Street View has finally added a ‘beautiful’, long-awaited country — and Geoguessr fans are calling it a ‘great addition’ to the geography game

after-19-years,-google-street-view-has-finally-added-a-‘beautiful’,-long-awaited-country-—-and-geoguessr-fans-are-calling-it-a-‘great-addition’-to-the-geography-game
After 19 years, Google Street View has finally added a ‘beautiful’, long-awaited country — and Geoguessr fans are calling it a ‘great addition’ to the geography game
A Street View image from Georgia next to the Google Street View camera
Google ‘Dustbuster’ camera (above right), also known as Small-Cam, was used to take photos like the one on the left of Georgia’s Jvari Pass. (Image credit: Google)

  • The country of Georgia has finally arrived on Google Street View
  • Google has highlighted several major sights worth seeing
  • The imagery is available in Google Maps and Google Earth

Street View is still expanding, almost 20 years after Google first launched it, and the East European country of Georgia is the latest to be added to the platform — with some spectacular sites and landmarks included, besides all the roads and highways.

“Georgia is a country defined by the scale of its history and the dramatic diversity of its landscapes,” says Google, who worked with the Georgian government to get the country on the Street View map.

Some 13,000 kilometers (8,078 miles) of roads have been added, and can be found in Google Maps and Google Earth. You can check out the Jvari Monastery (part of an UNESCO World Heritage Site), the medieval stone towers of Ushguli, and the Bridge of Peace that crosses the Kura River in the capital Tbilisi.

There’s also Telavi in the Kakheti region, the center of a wine-making tradition in Georgia that goes back 8,000 years. Grapes from these vineyards are still fermented in traditional clay jars called qvevri, which are buried underground.

Another GeoGuessr level

Google Street View

The Ushguli medieval villages can now be accessed via Street View (Image credit: Future)

Another sight worth seeing: the Jvari Pass, high up in the mountains, part of the Greater Caucasus range. Spend a few minutes clicking around on the new Street View images and you’ll find plenty of fantastic views.

Of course, you don’t have to check out the biggest tourist spots or the most well-known roads. In Google Maps on the web, just drag the little yellow pegman (lower right) into the map somewhere — as you hover with your mouse cursor, Street View roads will turn blue, and that now includes Georgia.

As well as checking out potential spots to travel to, the new imagery is also a boon for GeoGuessr players trying to name the country from a Street View picture. One poster calls it a “beautiful country” that’s a “great addition”.

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While many of us will be well used to Street View imagery in our part of the world, it isn’t everywhere yet. Countries including Cyprus and Paraguay were only added last year, while it’s missing in China and many African and Middle Eastern nations.


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Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you’ll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.

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