Samshvilde

Why go

The site runs for about 2.5 km along the promontory, naturally protected on three sides and reinforced by a wall 4–5 metres thick and some 2 km long. Within it are the remains of a citadel, several churches, palaces, houses, water cisterns and baths, much of it moss-covered and still being excavated. Inscriptions on the Sioni cathedral name the Byzantine emperors Constantine V and Leo IV, which dates it to between 759 and 777. People settled here from the fourth to third centuries BC; the city was devastated in 1440 and lay in ruins by the eighteenth century. Expect a large ruin field explored on foot.