Gori has long been synonymous with Joseph Stalin, who was born and went to school here. During his rule of the Soviet Union, the town’s center was rebuilt to his neoclassical tastes, and even today, much of the downtown area is defined by its Stalinist architecture. Although the...
We made a short stop in Borjomi – a tranquil resort town in south-central Georgia. It lies on the eastern edge of the Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park, surrounded by thickly forested hills. The town is famous for its salty-sour mineral water, well known in former Soviet Union countries...
We drove 60 kilometers from Akhaltsikhe to the fascinating cave city of Vardzia along the upper Mtkvari River, passing through narrow canyons into the wilderness of a beautiful green valley set between arid, rocky hillsides. The cave city of Vardzia (🎫 15 GEL, 🚐 2 GEL) is both a cultural...
Sapara Monastery has a dramatic position clinging to a cliff edge. It is a Georgian Orthodox monastery near the village of Ghreli, about 12km southeast of Akhaltsikhe (🚕 30 GEL/return, incl. stops and waiting). The largest of Sapara’s 12 churches, St Saba’s, with outstanding frescoes, was...
Our first stop in southwest Georgia, not far from the border of Turkey, was a little town with a millennium-long history – Akhaltsikhe. It is situated on both banks of a small river, Potskhovi, which divides the city between the old town in the north and the new one in the south...
Once we left Çoruh Valley, we made a short detour to visit the majestic ruins of the tenth-century Georgian monastery of Oshki. It is considered one of the four Great Cathedrals of the Georgian Orthodox world. It was built during the reign of David III Kuropalates, the ruler of Tao...
We drove from Trabzon to the Georgian border, roads in Turkey are perfect, but these two days were challenging for us and our truck. On the first day, we left Uzungöl lake in the afternoon and drove in the rain on good roads through Kaçkar Mountains with steep rocky peaks (the highest...
A one-hour drive from Trabzon to the south, in Kaçkars Mountains, you will find a lakeside mosque and forested mountains that recall Switzerland. The “hidden valley” of Uzungöl is not idyllic anymore. The tourist boom of recent years and the growing number of visitors from the Gulf States...
We drove to the parking of the Greek Orthodox monastery dedicated to the Theotokos located near Trabzon in the Karadağ Mountains, part of the Pontic Mountains. From there is mandatory to take the minibus to the monastery (🚌 18 TRY/return, 🎫125 TRY). Sümela Monastery, founded by Greeks in...
Trabzon lies on a wide bay of the Black Sea, backed by high ranges of the Pontic Mountains. Trapezus, one of the most easterly of ancient Greek settlements, was probably founded in 756 BC by traders from Miletus. It has been handballed down the years between Cimmerians, Medes, Hellenes...