By the conventional definition of the Europe-Asia boundary as following the watershed of the Greater Caucasus, Tusheti is geographically a European part of Georgia.

[2] Located on the northern slopes of the Greater Caucasus Mountains, Tusheti is bordered by the Russian republics of Chechnya and Dagestan to the north and east, respectively; and by the Georgian historic provinces Kakheti and Pshav-Khevsureti to the south and west, respectively.

In the 8th century, together with the Khundzakhi community, it was included in one administrative unit - the Saeritavo(Duchy) of Tsuketi and this time is considered to be the Christianization period of Tushetians.

The right to use the pastures of the Alvani Valley for the Tushes was subsequently legalized by the deeds of the kings of Kakheti - Teimuraz II and Erekle I.

Many Tush families began to move southwards from Tusheti during the first half of the nineteenth century and settled in the low-lying fields of Alvan at the western end of Kakheti.

During the German invasion of the Soviet Union, a minor anti-Soviet revolt took place in the area in 1942-1943, seemingly linked to the similar but more large-scale events in the neighbouring Ingushetia.

[8] Figures from the Russian imperial census of 1873 given in Dr. Gustav Radde's Die Chews'uren und ihr Land — ein monographischer Versuch untersucht im Sommer 1876 (published by Cassel in 1878) divide the villages of Tusheti into eight communities:[9] 1873 TOTAL: 50 villages, 1,131 households, consisting of 2,548 men and 2,555 women, in all 5,103 souls.