The town of Samtredia was developed to the West of Kutaisi, on the right bank of river Rioni. Due to convenient geographic location it became the largest transit hub in Western Georgia and one of the most important joints in the Europe-Asia transit passageway. Transit torrent starting in the East of the nation is divided here and proceeds in the direction of Poti, Zugdidi, Batumi or Sukhumi. The

origin of the town is linked to the construction of the first railway backbone in Georgia. The spring of Samtredia hyper-thermal mineral water was accidentally discovered by geologists who had expected to find here oil deposits. During drilling works from the depths of 1450 meters, unexpectedly, thermal sulphuric water gushed out. Waters were studied and it was decided that a resort should be built here. Since 1970 spa resort has operated with full force. However, the main building of a rest-house was caught with fire and the building was extinguished. Today the resort operates with smaller capacity. Hyper-thermal waters everywhere in the world belong to fuel and energy resources. In Europe they are even called ‘red coal’, as they are used for the storage of hot water and heating purposes. In some countries, for example, in Iceland and Japan, thermal waters are used even for generation of electric power. In Georgia hyperthermal waters except Samtredia, are also available in Abkhazia, Samegrelo, Tbilisi and are used primarily in balneology and in a restricted amount.