Because of the love of the ancient Greeks to transfer the names of cities from one place to another, there was a real confusion. For example, the history of Sukhumi contains the fact that this city for some time was called Sebastopolis, so reminiscent of the name of the modern Crimean city of Sevastopol.
Where did the name of the city come from?
Historians have managed to "put everything on the shelves", starting from even more ancient times, when in this place there was Dioscuriada - an ancient colony.
According to one of the versions, the current name of the city is associated precisely with this Greek toponym denoting the twins - the legendary brothers of the Dioscuri, who took part in the campaign of the Argonauts. If we assume that the current name is of Georgian origin, then “tskhum” is precisely the “twins”.
If we are based on the Turkish version of the origin of the toponym, then the word “Sukhum-Kale”, which became the name of the fortress founded in 1724, should be laid out literally in syllables: “su” - water, “hum” - sand. Well, “kala” is a city or a fortress, which was the same on the sea coast in those years - cities could not exist without a reliable fortification from the sea, since from there one should be afraid of pirate invasions or enemy campaigns of conquest. However, the name Tskhum is older than the Turkish toponym, and it could be a simple analogy.
Sukhumi of the Russian period
When the Caucasus became Russian, the city was named Sukhum. Abkhazians called the city Akua (isn't it, it looks like the Latin word "aqua" - "water"). The Georgians adhered to the name "Sokhumi". Already in the Soviet period, the official name of the city began to be read as Sukhumi, however, with the recognition of the Republic of Abkhazia by Russia in 2008, the city returned to its old, still known in tsarist Russia, the name Sukhum.
The Soviet period in the life of the city is both its resort and industrial significance. There was a large railway center, Babushar airport (the name translates as "Grandfather's Road"), and a seaport. Naturally, the airport is located at some distance from the city, as well as from the village of the same name, built in Georgian architecture.
This is the history of Sukhumi briefly, but this is only a superficial look at the last centuries of the city's existence. And archaeologists find here objects that indicate the development of these lands about 300 thousand years ago. The city itself has a history of over 2500 years.
