Uplistsikhe

Uplistsikhe, 'the fortress of the lord', is a rock-cut town on a ridge above the left bank of the Mtkvari River, about 10 km east of Gori. Across roughly 8 hectares its builders carved halls, houses, cellars, streets and steps into the soft rock. It is considered one of the oldest urban settlements in Georgia, with traces of people from the end of the 2nd millennium BC. A 9th to 10th century basilica of stone and brick stands at the top of the site.

A visit takes you up a main street cut into the rock, past large halls, some with ceilings carved to look like wooden beams, to the church and views over the river valley. On the way back you can walk down through a tunnel that once served as a hidden water supply and entrance from the river. The site has almost no shade, so in summer go early in the morning or late in the afternoon.

Medieval Georgian tradition credits the founding to Uplos, a mythical ancestor, and the site grew into a major political and religious centre of pre-Christian Kartli. It declined after Kartli adopted Christianity in the 4th century, then revived in the 8th to 10th centuries as a key Georgian stronghold while Tbilisi was under Muslim rule. After the Mongol invasions it was largely abandoned. It has been on UNESCO's tentative list since 2007.