We’ve been travelling along the route of the ancient Silk Road through Central Asia and the Caucasus countries with our last stop being in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. Then we moved further into Georgia, heading west, to see some UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The first of these was an amazing cathedral.
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| Svetitskhoveli Cathedral (UNESCO), Mtskheta, Georgia |
The 11th century Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, is one of Georgia’s oldest and largest Orthodox churches, and its UNESCO status is evident. It sits in the centre of the historic town of Mtskheta, is surrounded by an impressive stone wall, and is full of amazing frescoes. Many of the frescoes are very worn by time, while others have been beautifully restored.
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| Mtskheta township, Georgia |
The small town of Mtskheta (pop 7,584) has a huge history in its own right. It is one of the oldest towns in Georgia as well as one of the oldest continuously inhabited towns in the world. It was the capital of Georgia from the 3rd century BCE to the 5th century CE, home to the first church built in the 4th century, the place where Christianity was proclaimed as the official religion of Georgia in 337, and is still the centre of the Georgian Orthodox Church.
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| Mtskheta township, Georgia |
This small and ancient city is also a centre for tourism and its narrow cobblestone streets are dripping with tourist shops. We wandered around pondering how people could make a living when pretty-well every store is selling the same stuff. Leaving the cathedral, we jumped back into our taxi and drove to the next ancient marvel.
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| Samtavros Convent (UNESCO), Mtskheta, Georgia |
Our next stop was Samtavros Convent, a Georgian Orthodox Christian monastery complex that combines Samtavro Transfiguration Church and the Nunnery of St. Nino. Built in the 4th century and reconstructed in the 11th century, this ancient and beautiful church is known for its intricate stone carvings and is also a UNESCO site. Visiting the Cathedral and monastery reminded us that Georgia and neighbouring Armenia, were the world’s first two Christian kingdoms.
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| Uplistsikhe City Caves, Gori, Georgia |
Leaving Mtskheta, we arrived at another UNESCO site, but this one was quite different - it was the Uplistsikhe Cave City near the town of Gori. This ancient complex of residential caves is built into a mountain and dates back to somewhere between 1,000-2,000 BC. We braved the blistering heat of the day to climb to many of the cave sites and it really was fascinating. But it was far too hot to be out in the sun for long so we soon moved on.
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| Ancient frescoes in Gelati Monastery (UNESCO), Kutaisi, Georgia |
Finally, we arrived in the town of Kutaisi in western Georgia where we had planned to spend a few days. Once in Kutaisi, we visited the 12th century Gelati Monastery. This medieval monastic complex sits on a wooded hillside above Kutaisi and was one of the first monasteries in Georgia. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its importance as an educational and scientific centre in medieval Georgia. It also has some beautiful frescoes that are currently being restored.
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| School kids singing at Bagrati Cathedral, Kutaisi, Georgia |
Leaving the monastery, we drove into Kutaisi township to visit the 11th century Bagrati Cathedral, considered one of the four Great Cathedrals of the Georgian Orthodox world. Standing inside this cathedral, we heard some singing so went outside to find a group of school kids singing in the church grounds. We were reminded that churches are often the oldest building in continuous use in an area and it seems that Bagrati still has an active role in its community.
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| Marg on our quaint Parisian hotel balcony, Kutaisi, Georgia |
After a long day in the taxi seeing some amazing sights, we finally reached our Kutaisi hotel which was a small boutique hotel in a restored mansion in the Kutaisi city centre. We were warmly welcomed by the manager Sofia, who proceeded to make our stay a pleasure. Although a little cramped, our hotel room, as with the rest of the hotel, was beautifully decorated in Parisian style and had a French balcony overhanging the footpath. We loved staying there.
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| Colchis Fountain, Kutaisi, Georgia |
The next morning, we went out and looked around Kutaisi, a city of 175,000 people and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Europe. The first thing that caught our eye was the attractive Colchis Fountain. Its decoration consists of 30 large-scale copies of some famous gold jewellery discovered at archaeological sites in Georgia. It is on a roundabout, right in the middle of the main roads.
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| Riverside restaurant, Kutaisi |
Heading out for dinner that night, we found an interesting restaurant right on Kutaisi’s Rioni River. It had a medieval theme to the decoration, but sitting beside the river was delightfully cooling after the heat of the day. The next day walking further, we found lots of interesting coffee shops, modern restaurants, and some upmarket clothing shops. Kutaisi turned out to be quite a vibrant town and we really liked it.
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| Wall into, and inside the market (top). Bronze boy and a street, Kutaisi, Georgia |
On another walk, we found the Green Bazaar, and accessed it through a wall covered in a beautiful bas-relief that depicts historical figures and local Kutaisi people. The market itself is big, with all of the usual foodstuffs. We also saw more evidence of Kutaisi’s artistic bent, with our favourite being the bronze boy on the bridge. Known locally as the “Picasso Boy”, he is based on a screenplay by Georgian writer Rezo Gabriadze. As Kutaisi unfolded before us, we found it more and more interesting.
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| The Drama Theatre – home to the giant screen soccer game in Kutaisi, Georgia |
Later, walking home, we heard a huge crowd-roar. We rushed toward it to find out what was happening to discover a giant TV screen set up in the town square, and many, many people watching soccer. Georgia had made it to the world cup for the first time and just got a goal. It was a very serious matter to all Georgians. It’s the same with their music. Georgia is known for its polyphonic music which is folk music sung as two clear melodies that intertwine with each other. We heard some on the radio and loved it.
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| Cars banked up along the narrow mountain road to Mestia, Georgia |
After a few days in Kutaisi, we took a taxi north to the village of Mestia, in the Caucasus Mountains. The drive was wonderful with beautiful scenery all the way, on a very winding, narrow and rough mountain road. But when coming out of a bend, we pulled up quickly as there was a long queue of traffic in front of us. We parked, got out of the car, and walked to the front of the queue to check it out.
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| Protesters on the road to Mestia, Georgia |
We learned that protesters had blocked the road. They were the parents and supporters of some teenagers who died in a car accident at that very spot a month or so ago, due to the road being seriously potholed. They were protesting because they wanted the government to fix the road as they had promised. So while we were held up for over an hour, we also sympathised with the protestor’s cause.
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| Marg on the road to Mestia, Georgia |
After a while, we thought we would have to do a U-turn, skip Mestia and go back to Kutaisi. However, our driver found another driver among the cars queued up on the other side of the protest area, and the two drivers swapped passengers. We were put into a car that was on the Mestia side of the protest and drove on to Mestia, while our driver took his swapped passengers back to Kutaisi. The drivers worked out the costs so it was a great arrangement.
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| The village of Mestia, Georgia |
We eventually arrived in Mestia a small village (pop. 2,600) sitting at an elevation of 1,500 metres in the Svaneti Region of northwest Georgia in the Caucasus Mountains. Our driver easily found our hotel, and after unpacking, we booked a trip into the mountains with him for the next day, then walked around this quaint little village. Because it is the main village for the region, it has plenty of shops and restaurants, and it was buzzing.
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| The restaurant band in Mestia, Georgia |
That night, we found a village restaurant with live Georgian music, and had a lovely, albeit loud, night. The performers sang in their own Svan language in a polyphonic three-part harmony, using instruments such as a 3-string panduri, a garmoni (piano-accordion), and a drum. It was great fun with really toe-tapping music. For dinner we had the local favourite of Kubdari (flat bread stuffed with meat), and Tashmijabi (potato mashed with local cheese). Yum!
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| Leigh at a Sventi tower house, Ushguli, Georgia |
The next morning, we went on a day-trip to Ushguli, north of Mestia. Ushguli is a collection of five small and isolated villages sitting at an altitude of 2,100 m making it the highest permanently inhabited settlement in Europe. We were there to see Ushguli’s traditional defence towers, built over the 9th to 12th centuries, that kept the Svans safe from invasion. The traditional architecture of the towers uniquely reflects the Svan culture, and has given Ushguli UNESCO status.
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| Marg walking down into Ushguli villages (UNESCO), Georgia |
Once in Ushguli, we were dropped at a point above the villages, and directed to walk down through the villages to a café at the bottom, where we would be picked up for the journey back to Mestia. So off we went through the beautiful rolling green meadows and ancient villages. Our first stop was the simple 12th century Lamaria Church, then we stopped a lot along the way to photograph the towers. They are incredible in their age, design, and condition.
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| Tower-houses in Ushguli (UNESCO), Georgia |
A tower can be freestanding or attached to a residential house. They have 3-5 stories with the upper levels used for defence and the lower levels for accommodation of people and animals. Inside, the floor of each level is like a raft of logs wedged into the tapering tower, and accessed by a wooden ladder. They are small but cosy. After a wonderful day wandering around Ushguli, we returned to Mestia.
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| The fortress at Khertvisi, Georgia |
We left Mestia the next morning and returned to Kutaisi for one night before moving on again. This time we were heading to southern Georgia. We had several hours of taxi ride on this trip, and we passed many interesting sights along the way. The best one was Khertvisi Fortress, one of the largest and oldest fortresses in Georgia, dating back to the 10th century. After a quick look, we carried on and eventually arrived at our guest house in the tiny village of T'mogvi, in the Vardzia area of southern Georgia.
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| Caves cut into the rock at Vardzia, Georgia |
The guest house family was lovely and we hired the owner Aleksandre, to drive us 5 minutes up the road from his guest house, to our next highlight which was the Vardzia Caves. This is an amazing man-made cave system hewn out of a sheer rock wall, that was inhabited in the bronze age and is still connected to an active monastery. It covers a huge area with 641 separate caves spread over 13 levels in the cliff face.
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| Caves cut into the rock at Vardzia, Georgia |
The caves are connected by a maze of tunnels, staircases and walkways cut into and through the rock. To see it, we had to follow a set route for safety-sake. So we walked up and down via steep stairs and through little tunnels and were there for hours. It was fascinating. After a great afternoon, we returned to Aleksandre’s guest house and enjoyed a lovely home cooked meal.
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| Leigh at bottom of steep tunnel steps at Vardzia Caves, Georgia |
The next morning, Aleksandre drove us to the bus stop as we'd planned to cross the border into Armenia. But finding no buses, he kindly negotiated a good price for a taxi. As we said our goodbyes to Aleksandre, we said goodbye also, to Georgia. We've really enjoyed Georgia with its amazing sights, lovely people, European-ness, great food, cleanliness, and vibrancy, and are sad to be leaving. But we have to move on, and our next stop is in Armenia.
This blog is one in a series about our travels along the Silk Road of Central Asia.