Archaeological site · Uplistsikhe, Gori Municipality, Shida Kartli
Uplistsikhe Cave Town
უფლისციხე · Uplistsikhe · Uplistsikhe Cave Town-Fortress
A cave town hewn into a rocky massif on the left bank of the Mtkvari east of Gori, where halls, streets and a basilica were cut straight into the living rock.
Where it is
41.9667, 44.2075
Why go
What you walk through here is carved rather than built. Footpaths link living quarters and communal spaces spread over almost eight hectares of cliff; most chambers are plain, but the central hall with its coffered, tunnel-vaulted ceiling shows how elaborately the stone could be worked. A three-nave basilica was hewn from the rock in the 6th century, with a brick three-church basilica added beside it in the 9th–10th. The town flourished in the 9th–11th centuries and was ravaged by the Mongols in the 13th. A tunnel leads down towards the river. It pairs with Gori and the Ateni valley.
Base yourself nearby
city
Tbilisi
Georgia’s capital is a layered city of old balconies, sulfur baths, hillside neighborhoods, contemporary restaurants and centuries of history along the Mtkvari River.
Historic town
Mtskheta
Mtskheta was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Iberia and is the place where Georgia adopted Christianity in the fourth century. Today it is a small, walkable town twenty kilometres from Tbilisi holding Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, the hilltop church of Jvari, the working convent of Samtavro and the archaeological remains of the pre-Christian royal city, inscribed together on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It is simultaneously Georgia's most important pilgrimage destination and its most accessible serious historical site.
Near Uplistsikhe Cave Town
Museum
Joseph Stalin Museum
A museum complex in central Gori built around the small house where Joseph Stalin was born, with a main exhibition building opened in 1957 and his personal railway carriage displayed alongside.
8 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Fortress
Gori Fortress
An oval citadel on a rocky hill in the middle of Gori, ringed by walls up to ten metres high and anchored on its western side by the Tskhrakara, the 'nine-door' structure.
9 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Church
Ateni Sioni Church
A 7th-century church of green-grey sandstone on a cliff above terraced vineyards in the Ateni valley near Gori, built to a design that resembles Mtskheta's Jvari.
12 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Archaeological site
Grakliani Hill
An excavated hill beside the highway between Igoeti and Samtavisi in Kaspi Municipality, where layers of ancient settlement were uncovered along with an inscription in a still-undeciphered script.
17 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ