Fortress · Aspindza Municipality, Samtskhe-Javakheti
Tmogvi Fortress
თმოგვის ციხე · Tmkaberd
The ruined walls of a medieval fortress-town on a steep height above the Mtkvari gorge downstream of Vardzia, which once guarded the route between the Javakheti plateau and the river valley.
Where it is
41.3946, 43.3148
Why go
Tmogvi suits travellers content with a ruin rather than a restored monument. Its position explains its history: the river guards two sides and deep gorges the others, and the Georgian chronicles record repeated attempts to take it that rarely succeeded. Earthquakes in 1088, 1283 and 1319 each brought damage, and it was rebuilt more than once before the Ottomans took it in 1578. The medieval writer Sargis Tmogveli came from here. It stands on the same stretch of valley as Khertvisi and Vardzia, which is how most people fit it into a day.
Near Tmogvi Fortress
Monastery
Vardzia
A cave monastery cut into the cliffs of Erusheti mountain above the left bank of the Mtkvari, laid out mainly in the twelfth century under Giorgi III and his daughter Queen Tamar.
3 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Fortress
Khertvisi Fortress
A tenth-century citadel and ring of walls on a rocky cape where the Paravani meets the Mtkvari, on the valley road between Akhaltsikhe and Vardzia.
10 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Monastery
Sapara Monastery
A working monastery screened by forest and yellowish cliffs near the village of Ghrele outside Akhaltsikhe, where the domed thirteenth-century Church of St Saba stands beside a tenth-century Dormition church.
33 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Archaeological site
Shaori Fortress
A megalithic stronghold of the second millennium BCE on the summit of Mount Shaori, 2,752 metres up north-west of Paravani Lake, built of large basalt blocks laid without mortar.
37 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ