Sights in Tbilisi
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Synagogue
Tbilisi’s main synagogue is a very welcoming place built in 1904.
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Norasheni Church
Next door to the Jvaris Mama Church is the disused Armenian Norasheni Church, dating from 1793.
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Shahtakhti Fortress
Beyond Mother Georgia you pass the ruins of the Shahtakhti (Shah's Throne) fortress, which housed an Arab observatory.
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Kus Tba
A sporadically operating cable car sails up to woodland-surrounded Kus Tba, a popular summer spot for sunbathing, swimming, boating and strolling.
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Vardebis Revolutsis moedani
Just after the post office building made from glass and yellow stone comes Vardebis Revolutsis moedani which has views towards the Caucasus mountains.
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D
National Pantheon
Just below the Mamadaviti Church, the National Pantheon contains graves of writers and public figures including Ilia Chavchavadze and Zviad Gamsakhurdia.
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Mamadaviti Church
At the halfway stop on the funicular up to Mount Mtatsminda is the Mamadaviti Church, an 1850s construction on the site of a hermitage of St Davit Gareja.
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Sharden
Sharden and parallel Bambis rigi, along with Erekle II a little further north, are narrow pedestrian streets lined with fashionable galleries and cafés.
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Botanical Gardens
It’s easy to wander for two or three enjoyable hours in these extensive, waterfall-dotted gardens, which were opened in 1845 on what had earlier been the royal gardens.
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Tbilisi History Museum
The Tbilisi History Museum, housed in an old caravanserai, includes some wonderfully evocative photographs of pre-Soviet Tbilisi and montages of old artisans’ workshops.
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Echmiadzin Cathedral
Historically the Avlabari area housed Tbilisi's large Armenian population, one that has traditionally been focused around the Echmiadzin Cathedral, which is currently closed for restoration.
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Tbilisi State University
Vake's main claim to fame is Tbilisi State University, near the start of Chavchavadzis gamziri. The main university building, circa 1906, is elegant, white and neoclassical. It was originally a school for the nobility.
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Business Centre
The modernistic complex that looks like a space station is actually a new business centre built by the Georgian-Russian multi-billionaire Boris Ivanishvili. Beyond here the road loops down to the Sololaki neighbourhood.
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State Concert Hall
North from Rustavelis moedani, Kostava leads up to the State Concert Hall and Vere Park. The musical fountains outside the concert hall are a favourite with Tbilisi kids wanting to cavort and cool off in the heat of summer.
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Tavisuplebis moedani
Tavisuplebis moedani, with the city hall on its south side and a Marriott hotel on the west, was Lenin Square in Soviet times. Georgia's last Lenin statue, toppled in 1990, stood where a golden St George now spears his dragon.
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Jvaris Mama Church
The Jvaris Mama Church has been a church since the 5th century. The current structure dates from the 16th century; its frescoes were recently restored in striking reds and blues, and the atmosphere is exquisitely pious and calm.
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Rustavelis moedani
Rustavelis gamziri (Rustaveli Avenue), the main artery of modern central Tbilisi, runs 1.5km northwest from Tavisuplebis moedani to Rustavelis moedani. The square is easily identified by a 1937 statue of the poet himself (and a McDonald's restaurant).
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School Number 1
School Number 1 was gutted in the 1991-92 fighting, but was reconstructed soon after. It was founded in 1802 to prepare sons of the Georgian nobility for the Russian Civil Service. In front of the school are statues of the 19th-century writers and reformers Ilia Chavchavadze and Akaki Tsereteli.
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Presidential Palace
Not far below the Tsminda Sameba Cathedral, Georgia's large new presidential palace is under construction between Tsutskiridze and Abdushelishvili. It's an equally unmissable landmark given that it's topped by a large, egg-shaped glass dome equipped with neon lights of constantly changing colour.
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Museum of Money
Off the opposite corner of Tavisuplebis moedani is the well-presented Museum of Money, set up by the National Bank of Georgia next door. You can see Georgian money from the 6th century BC to the present day, including the Monopoly-style coupons used in 1993–94 before the lari was introduced.
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Mosque
A short distance uphill behind the baths is the mosque, built in 1895 and the only mosque in Tbilisi that survived Lavrenty Beria’s antireligious purges of the 1930s. Unusually, Shiite and Sunni Muslims pray together here. The interior is prettily frescoed and visitors are welcome to enter (after removing shoes).
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Q
Gorgasalis Moedani
A good place to get your initial bearings is Gorgasalis moedani, now a rather bland, traffic-infested junction but once the setting of Tbilisi's bustling bazaar. From here the Metekhi Bridge crosses the river to the Metekhi Church, busy Gorgasalis qucha heads off southeast along the riverbank, and Leselidze and Sharden dive into the maze of streets to the north.
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Abanotubani
The social hub of the area is further south – Tbilisi’s famed sulphur baths, the Abanotubani. Alexanders Dumas and Pushkin both bathed here, the latter describing it as the best bath he’d ever had. Abano (Bath St) is full of subterranean bathhouses with beehive domes rising at ground level, most dating back to the 17th century
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Statue of Kartlis Deda
From outside the Narikala Fortress entrance, you can follow a path west in front of the walls along to the statue of Kartlis Deda. As attractive as a 20m aluminium woman can be, this symbol of the city holds a sword in one hand and a cup of wine in the other - a perfect metaphor for the Georgian character, warmly welcoming guests and passionately fighting off enemies.
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Mount Mtatsminda & Mtatsminda Park
Mtatsminda is the hill topped by the 210m-high TV mast looming over central Tbilisi from the west. You can get up there by a steep funicular railway from Chonkadze.
At the top of the hill, Mtatsminda Park spreads over more than 1 sq km, with wonderful views and a new amusement park that includes what Georgians consider Europe's highest roller coaster (60m high).
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