KARTVELIAN TOPONYMS IN AFRICA

The story of Kartvelian ties with Africa doesn't look incredible once you remember about Herodotus' account of the warriors of pharaoh Sesostris who on their way back from Europe decided to settle in Colchida (modern Megrelia). Another Herodotus' story tells us about Egyptian warriors who abandoned the Egyptican  motherland and moved to Nubia. Exactly in Nubia (right on the site of the ancient Kush kingdom) we find on Ptolemy's map the first absolutely astounding toponym of Sacolca (Sacolcha), the root of which almost fully coincides with that of Colchida, plus the word has the Kartvelian Sa-prefix. Thus, Sacolcha means 'land of Colchs' Besides, a little down by the Nile there was another remarkable toponym of Satachta that also has the Sa-prefix and also has a Kartvelian root tachti meaning throne. Thus, Satachta means 'land of throne'. Finally, even further down the Nile you'll find an isle called Argo, that contains the Megrelian ethnonym Arg (Mergelians call themselves Margal, where M- is a personificating prefix).

To the west of the Niles there used to live a tribe of Megabarii, which translates from Kartvelian as 'friend" - megobari. Another tribe of Macurebi also used to live in the Lybian deserts. The name in fact is the plural form of the noun macuri meaning '(big)-eared person'. Compare it to the adjective macurebeli from the dictionary of Rayfield which means member of audience, witness. The third Kartvelian-sounding tribe bore a name of Sabarbaros, where a Kartvelian toponymic Sa-prefix was combined with already Romanic root.

The ancient Egyptian city of Aswan, which on Ptolemy's map is mentioned as Soene, in fact used to bear a name of Swenet in ancient times, which makes it almost identical to the Georgian province of Suaneti. Besides, on the opposite bank of the Nile Ptolemy places the city of Photis, which again almost fully coincides with the city of Photi in Colchida. Funnily, the land across the mountaneous ridge from the Nile is called Scythica regio.

An absolutely inbelieveable place to find a Kartvelian toponym is Gambia. Here there is a village named Sanyang. It not only starts with the Kartvelian toponymic Sa-prefix, but also uses nyang as the root, which in Kartvelian (as well as in African languages) means 'crocodile', making thus Sanyang the 'place of crocodiles'.

Egypt itself should be considered in the Kartvelian paradygm as well just for having et-ending in the Ukrainian/Russian rendering: EGIPET(I). The more exact spelling of the root would be AIGUPET(I) (Αἴγυπτος) - 'land of aigupi'. The meaning of the root might be clear from another Greek word of Αἰγυπιός (AIGUPIOS) meaning 'vulture'. So, a daring interpretation of Egypt from Kartvelian point of view would be 'land of vultures'.

And of course, Lybia which contains the already famous Lub-root (see the corresponding entry). Very few people are aware of the city of Lasica somewhere on the border of the modern Tunisia and Algeria, next to 'Ionian mountains'.  For those who are not so much into the Georgian history, Lazica used to be a historical city on Colchian Black Sea coast, the reconstruction of which is among the main priorities of the Georgian goverment.