Kutaisi. Journey to the Land of the Golden Fleece – Ancient Colchis (2 days)

Dear friends... We want to offer you an interesting excursion to the ancient capital of the Colchis Kingdom, Kutaisi. It was here that the Argonauts came in search of the Golden Fleece more than two millennia ago. The daughter of the Colchis king Aeta was the beautiful Medea, whose name was named the science of healing.

A city with a rich history, magnificent temples, natural monuments is waiting for you!!! But everything in order...

Kutaisi, formerly known as Kutaisi, is a small town that is the capital of Western Georgia. And in the course of history it turned out to be the second capital of the country as a whole. A city with a developed industry, a rich and long history, which speaks with the voice of the bell of the Bagrat temple, which is more than a thousand years old. What else does it take to be seduced and come to this breathable ancient, living its own special life place? A little history will never hurt.

And it begins already in the Bronze Age, and maybe even earlier, when the oldest place in Kutaisi – on the hill of Ukemerioni supposedly there was a settlement, which later became known to us Kutais. The temple of Bagrat was built on the hill.

Bagrati is a place marked for a mandatory visit for every self-respecting tourist. And although it is not necessary to look for it at all in Kutaisi, it is visible from anywhere in the city center, as it is built on a hill.

About the modern Kutaisi can be said, and do not be surprised that it is the temple of Bagrat, in which the coronation of the most holy and faithful King David the Builder took place long ago. This grandiose ancient structure was destroyed by the Turks, raving Kutaisi twice in 1691. And the second time, when the gunpowder exploded, which was stored in the temple by the Turks, the Bagrat temple received serious damage, the roof and the dome collapsed. The historical architectural masterpiece was restored again, although not quite in its former form, in 2012. Bagrati played a very important historical role in the fate of Georgia. It is still the largest temple in the whole country. If you were lucky enough to get to this city, then you can not ignore the Motsameta Church, which is located in the most beautiful canyon of the Tskaltsela River (Red River) The surroundings of the city are famous for their karst caves and dinosaur traces... . I want to offer you, dear friends, excursions to this wonderful city.

1. Tskaltubo. Prometheus Cave in the village of Kumistavi...

Prometheus Cave is also known as Kumistavi Cave, Tskaltuba Cave or Tskaltuba-Gliana-Karst Cave in the west of Georgia, in the vicinity of the city of Tskaltubo, a natural monument (category III according to the classification of the International Union for Conservation of Nature). The total length of the cave is about 11 km of which 1060 m are open to visitors.

2.Motsameta

Motsameta is a small, very beautiful monastery with round turrets topped with pointed tent domes. The monastery stands above the Tskalcitela River and is immersed in the greenery of coastal vegetation. According to legend, the monastery was built on the place where Muslim invaders executed Georgian princes David and Konstantin Mkheidze, who refused to convert to Islam. In the small hall of the monastery on the hill stands a large rectangular ark with the relics of pious princes, numbered among the saints of the Georgian Church. Motsameta attracts crowds of tourists with an ancient belief: if you crawl under the ark three times and, having attached to the relics, ask Princes David and Constantine for something, they will definitely help. King Bagrat III rebuilt the church in the X century. The building was reconstructed again in the XIX century.

3. gelati

The Gelati Monastery of the Virgin near Kutaisi is the most significant medieval monastery in Georgia. The center of church and cultural life, the residence of the Catholicos from the 2nd half of the XVI century to 1814, a World Heritage Site (1994).

The monastery was founded by King David the Builder in 1106 and became his tomb. The cathedral church was built before 1125 and for another five years was decorated with mosaics, which are revered as the best in the whole of Transcaucasia. At that time, the monastery was the seat of the Gelati Academy, whose members were keenly interested in ancient Greek philosophy.

4. Bagrat Temple

Bagrat Temple... . This majestic cathedral towers over Kutaisi and can be seen from anywhere in the city. The greatest monument of culture and architecture of Georgia Bagrat temple was built in the X-XI centuries, during the reign of the Georgian king Bagrat III (975-1014) - the founder of the great family of princes Bagrationi. To this day, only the ruins of the temple have survived, stretching on the hill of Ukimerioni near Kutaisi. The temple, consecrated in honor of the Assumption of the Most Holy Mother of God, was a whole palace and temple complex, a cultural and religious center of its time, in which all significant events of that time were celebrated, the entire intellectual life of the state was concentrated. The cathedral had not only a spiritual purpose, but was also a symbol of the united Georgian people. And this, too, there is an explanation: in the XI century, David the Builder was crowned in the temple of Bagrat - the king who united the whole of Georgia into one centralized state.

2 DAY.

1. Sightseeing tour of Kutaisi.

(a) Central Square

(b) Cableway (funicular)

Summer residence of Imeretian kings Okros Chardahi (Golden tent)

(d) Former classical high school

(e) Parliament of Georgia

(e) Market

Return to Tbilisi in the evening