Georgia Uplistsiche Caves

The Georgia Uplistsiche Caves are kind of an unusual set of caves and that they were not created for people to live in a community permanently. They were used for very temporary purposes and very much for ritual and religion. As opposed to the caves in Cappadocia, Turkey, you will find probably no opportunity to go very deep inside since they were not made for permanent dwelling. But it is very much worth the trip to go see these caves a couple hours away from Tbilisi. The stories and the history of the area is very interesting.

Worship cave Georgia Uplistsiche Caves
One of the deeper places of worship
Restaurant menu Georgia Uplistsiche Caves
This was our menu at the restaurant.
Area map Georgia Uplistsiche Caves
Map of the whole area and the caves layout
Sewer line Bill Smale
The path leading up to the cave is actually the open sewer line used many hundreds of years ago
Climbing up Bill Smale
It’s a little bit of a climb up, not too bad
Not too crowded Bill Smale
It wasn’t too crowded but there were a number of people visiting
Ritual bowls Bill Smale
Were they used to do some rituals
Church on a temple
The church was built on top of another religious site. The Georgians will tell you Christianity came here in the late 300s which seems pretty early but it is well documented
Nice view
it it’s a beautiful view all around
Proof I was here
Decorations
There is some fairly intricate decoration in the sides and the ceiling
Fires in the caves
You could see in various places the rock is darkened where they used to have some fires for keeping warm or for cooking
The queen’s hall
The history of the queen is a very popular story and this is where she came to perform rituals
Again, the darkened areas where they had fires going
Red halls
Fallen down structures
You can see where there were some structures that have fallen down over the centuries
You can ruins in the valley below
Throne hall
This is the throne hall where, of course, royalty performed ceremonies

the Chronicles of Georgia

overlooking the major lake near the capital and the capital in the distance a recent structure was built to graphically describe the history of Georgia which goes back many thousands of years. The figures are very interesting and while this is a new complex structure it’s worth a visit partly because of the beautiful view of the area. The lake is actually a reservoir. What you will notice is many of the figures are of religious significance. As you probably know this is a Greek orthodox influenced religion.

The Chronicles of Georgia
Small chapel
This is a small chapel on the complex
Big lake
The big lake
a place for entertainment
Georgian style church
A typical Georgian style church in the distance