Verkhniy Lars is located at the narrowest point of the Darial gorge of the Terek river—a place where fortifications have been built since ancient times.
According to Georgian chronicles, in the II century BC, one of the Georgian kings ordered the narrowest part of the gorge to be filled with stones.
Later, in the I century BC, a fortress was built on a high cliff, and wooden gates reinforced with iron were hung on the granite rocks nearby.
In the last quarter of the XVI century, routes of the Moscow embassy to Georgia passed through Lars.
On September 25, 1589, the embassy of Semyon Zvenigorodsky passed there.
On August 3, 1604, another Moscow embassy traveled through the village, which was attacked “on the first stop at night by mountain people with gunfire”.
At the beginning of the XIX century, the local landowner Makhamat (Magomet) Dudarov ceded the Lars settlement, which belonged to him, for a military fortification—the old fortifications in the village were destroyed.
Only the Dudarov Tower has survived to the present day. About 6 meters tall, the tower was built in the XVIII century from well-fitted river stones using a limestone mortar.
Lars became the second staging post on the route from Vladikavkaz and a military redoubt equipped there with two mortars and a company of soldiers.
Around that time, the first modest hotel with a buffet was built here.
At the time, only 17 Ossetian families lived in the area (mainly the Dudarovs), along with several Georgian families.