Sulphur Baths That Named the City, 8,000 Years of Qvevri Wine & The 14th-Century Church at 2,170m Below Mount Kazbek
📍 Tbilisi, Georgia📅 3-day itinerary
The South Caucasus capital where 1,500 years of natural sulphur springs at 42°C gave the city its name (Tbili = "warm" in Georgian), where the carved wooden balconies of Abanotubani and the Narikala Fortress above the Kura River gorge define the most organic urban landscape between Istanbul and Delhi, where Georgia's 8,000-year qvevri winemaking tradition (UNESCO 2013) produced the world's oldest wine culture with 525 indigenous grape varieties, and where 2.5 hours north by car, the Gergeti Trinity Church sits at 2,170m directly below the snow-capped 5,047m summit of Mount Kazbek.
The Domed Brick Bath Houses Whose 42°C Hydrogen Sulphide Springs Have Given Tbilisi Its Name for 1,500 Years — and the 4th-Century Fortress That Was Strengthened by the Arabs, the Georgians, the Mongols, the Turks and Finally Destroyed by a Russian Ammunition Explosion in 1827
The Kakheti Valley Where 8,000 Years of Qvevri Fermentation Produced 525 Indigenous Grape Varieties and the Amber Wine Colour That the Rest of the World Is Only Now Discovering & The 14th-Century Estate Where Prince Chavchavadze Made the First Modern Georgian White Wine and Lermontov Played Piano Before Imam Shamil's Raid
The Georgian Military Highway Through the Dariali Gorge — the Mountain Pass That Has Been the Only Land Route Through the Greater Caucasus for 2,000 Years — to the 14th-Century Church on a 2,170m Promontory Where the Snow-Capped 5,047m Kazbek Peak Is the Backdrop for the Most Photographed Building in the South Caucasus