Aunts (Albania)

Aunts ( Tet ; Alb. Thethi ) - a village in the community of Shala in the mountains of Prokletiye ( Albania ). It is located in the highest part of the trough valley of the Shala River, surrounded by several two-thousand-meter high peaks, such as Radokhima (2568 m) in the west, Arapi (2217 m) in the north and Pollukes (2578 m), as well as Ezerets ( 2694 m) in the east.

Kula

Tet Church

Tet is a settlement located at an altitude of 750 to 950 m and extends for several kilometers along the valley. It consists of several smaller settlements, some of which lie on steep slopes. This territory in winter for weeks or even months is cut off from the mainland or is reachable only by walking in the snow over rough terrain ^[1] . A dirt road running through the Tertorya pass located at an altitude of 1630 m is covered with snow until the end of spring. The road south to the valley of Cyrus is even worse and barely passable ^[2] .

Due to poor infrastructure and lack of economic prospects, most of the residents left this village. Today there are very few houses where people live all year. It is estimated that around 80 people live here permanently ^[2] . Schools and medical facilities are closed.

Motorcyclists on the background of Radokhima and Arapi

With the help of the German GTZ society, several private houses were adapted to accommodate tourists, hiking trails were expanded and equipped, signposts, orientation maps, etc. for the Peaks of the Balkans hiking route were installed. In 2010, there were already 130 beds in the private sector - 100 more than in 2007 ^[3] . A small hotel reopened, new cafes and rooms appeared ^[4] . Getting there is still difficult, but not as much as in previous years, so more and more tourists come here every year in the summer. Between 2006 and 2009, the number of tourists increased from approximately 300 to 7,500 per year ^[3] . Compared to the rest of Albania, mainly foreign tourists come here. The aunts' income from tourism increased to about € 150,000 ^[3] .

2630 hectares around the village in 1966 ^[5] became the territory of the Teti National Park. Among the natural attractions of the region, in addition to the mountain peaks, the Grunas Gorge and the Grunas and Gyecay Waterfalls .

The oldest traces of human settlements were found in the upper part of the Shala valley and belong to the Paleolithic ^[6] . The valley was inhabited by Illyrians ^[7] . The first written record dates back to 1688. The first church was built in 1892. In 1936, a road was laid in Aunts and the hotel opened. In the communist period, a holiday home for workers was also opened ^[8] . In the late 1980s, about 7,000 people lived in Aunts ^[7] .