Sights in Samtskhe Javakheti
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Borjomi Museum of Local Lore
The Borjomi Museum of Local Lore is housed in the former Romanov offices.The collection includes china, glass and other articles from the Romanov palace, photos and documentation about the Borjomi mineral waters, some exhibits of local flora and fauna, and a papier-mâché map of Borjomi made in 1917.
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Tmogvi Castle
Two kilometres further along the road from Tsunda, but atop a high rocky hill on the other side of the river (which flows far below in the gorge), is the near-impregnable Tmogvi Castle, which was already an important fortification by the 10th century.
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Vanis Qvabebi
About 1.5km past Tmogvi Castle, up on the left of the road, are the remains of Vanis Qvabebi, a cave monastery that predated Vardzia by four centuries, with a maze of tunnels inside the rock.
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Khertvisi Fortress
After the unremarkable town of Aspindza, you reach to the impressive 10th- to 14th-century Khertvisi Fortress, where the road to Akhalkalaki and Turkey diverges from the Varzia road. Inside the impressive walls is a square keep with rounded corners. According to legend, Queen Tamar held a competition to see who could build the best tower. A master stonemason and an apprentice were the contestants.
The apprentice outdid his master, who jumped like a bird from the tower and died impaled on the knife in his belt. From the eastern wall two tunnels lead down to the river: one served the castle's inhabitants for water, the other for communication.
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Church of the Assumption
At the heart of the cave complex is the Church of the Assumption, with its two-arched portico. The façade of the church has gone, but the inside is beautiful. Frescoes portray many New Testament scenes, and on the north wall depict Tamar before she married (shown by the fact that she is not wearing a wimple) alongside her father Giorgi III. These were painted between 1184 and 1186, the period of the church's construction. The door to the left of the church door leads into a long tunnel (perhaps 150m) which climbs steps inside the rock and emerges well above the church.
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Rabati
A wander around Akhaltsikhe's rabati (old town), with its multicultural architecture, is well worthwhile. This district is on a hill on the north side of the Potskhovi, just west of the bridge. Rare examples of darbazebi (traditional Georgian houses) cluster around the castle, which was built in the 12th century and houses a mosque from 1752 and the ruins of a medrese (Islamic school). The rabati also has a synagogue, an Armenian church and a Catholic church.
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Tsunda
Opposite the slave market is the turning to the village of Nakalakevi, whose name means 'a city used to be here'. The city in question was Tsunda, which until the 9th century was the capital of Javakheti. Tsunda's remains are just east of the north end of the next village, Tmogvi, 1km further along the road: it's worth stopping to see Tsunda's beautifully ornamented 12th-century Church of St John the Baptist, with, curiously enough, a medieval stone lavatory next to it.
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Mineral Water Park
Borjomi’s Mineral Water Park dates from 1850 and is a lovely place to walk. This was where the original water spring was discovered, and named Yekaterinsky Spring after the governor’s daughter, who was cured here. Mineral water flows from taps in a pavilion straight in front of the entrance, and a modern cable car (down/up 1/2 GEL) carries you above the park to a hilltop Ferris wheel.
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Vardzia
The cave city of Vardzia is a cultural symbol with a special place in the hearts of Georgians. In the 12th century Giorgi III built a fortification at the site. His daughter, Queen Tamar, established a monastery here, which grew into a virtual holy city housing perhaps 2000 monks, renowned as a spiritual bastion of Georgia and of Christendom’s eastern frontier.
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Ivane Javakhishvili Samtskhe-Javakheti History Museum
The fine Ivane Javakhishvili Samtskhe-Javakheti History Museum has interesting exhibits including a 16th-century manuscript of Rustaveli’s The Knight in the Tiger Skin and a large collection of Caucasian carpets.
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Rustavi
Thirty-two kilometres from Akhaltsikhe is the village of Rustavi, from where Georgia's national bard Rustaveli hails.
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slave market
Nine kilometres from Khertvisi you come to a stone enclosure beside the road, which is an old slave market.
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Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park
The website has information on the main attractions of Samtskhe-Javakheti.
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