Uplistsikhe
Rock-hewn town above the Mtkvari river, with carved halls, streets and a later basilica on top.
Uplistsikhe occupies a sandstone shelf on the left bank of the Mtkvari, some fifteen kilometres east of Gori. Cutting began in the early first millennium BC and the settlement grew into a caravan town on the route between the Black Sea and the Iranian plateau. It served as a stronghold of the Kartlian kings and, after the conversion of Georgia to Christianity, declined in importance before reviving in the ninth and tenth centuries when Tbilisi was in Arab hands. Mongol raids in the fourteenth century emptied it, and an earthquake later brought down part of the cliff.
About five of the sixty hectares of the reserve have been excavated and can be walked. Visitors follow a paved processional way past chambers whose ceilings are carved to imitate coffered timber, among them the hall known as Tamar's Hall, a theatre-like space, wine cellars and cisterns, and a long tunnel down to the river that served as an escape route. A brick basilica of the ninth or tenth century stands on the crest of the rock. The site was made a museum-reserve in 1988 and is administered by the national heritage agency.
Highlights
- Carved rock ceilings imitating coffered timber roofs
- Tamar's Hall, the largest of the cut chambers
- Tunnel from the town down to the Mtkvari river
- Ninth- or tenth-century brick basilica on the summit
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