The Abasha (Georgian: აბაშა, Mingrelian: აბაშა), also known as the Abashistskali (Georgian: აბაშისწყალი) or Abashatskari (Mingrelian: აბაშაწყარი) is a river in western Georgia, running for 66 kilometres (41 mi) in the municipalities of Martvili and Abasha, Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region.

[1] The Abasha river begins at the confluence of the mountain streams Rachkhitskali and Toba, near the village of Baldi, at 325 metres (1,066 ft) above sea level, and meets the Tekhuri as its left tributary.

In July 2010, the Ilia State University expedition discovered footprints of the herbivorous dinosaurs as well as ammonites, brachiopods, and sea urchins dating from the Late Cretaceous (100.5–65.5 Ma).

[3] The legendary etymology of the hydronym "Abasha" is found in the 11th-century History of King Vakhtang Gorgasali, part of the Georgian Chronicles, which, relating the story of the Arab invasion of 735, claims that the flooding river afflicted the "Abash" contingent of the invading army, being subsequently named Abasha after this event.

[4] Modern scholars see the hydronym as a compound of the male given name Aba and the adjectival suffix -shi or, alternatively, the Persian-derived word, ab (آب, "water") plus the diminutive -cha.