Excursion: Mtskheta + Uplistsikhe + Borjomi

"A few years ago,
Where, merging, make noise,
Having embraced, like two sisters,
The streams of Aragvi and Kura,
There was a monastery"
These famous lines were written by M.Yu. Lermontov about the cross monastery - Jvari, our first stop. Jvari is a cross monastery of the 7th century.
Next we will go to Mtskheta, the ancient capital of Georgia and visit the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, where, according to legend, many Orthodox treasures are located, such as: the tunic of Christ, the mantle of Elijah the Prophet, the heel of Andrew the First-Called.
The next stop awaits us in the cave city of Uplistsikhe, 10 km from Gori, on the banks of the Kura River there is one of the rarest monuments in the world - the ancient city-fortress Uplistsikhe, carved into the volcanic rocks of the Kvernaki ridge. It was first mentioned in the chronicle of the 1st century. BC, and reached its peak in the 9th-10th centuries.
Even from afar, this bizarre rock city captivates with its unusual appearance. Like giant pores on the rocks, cave grottoes gape, inside which life was once in full swing. Here once were huge majestic halls, temples, dwellings, connected to each other by winding streets-corridors. It is hard to believe that this grandiose titanic work of creating an entire city from stone is the creation of human hands.
Our last stop will be the famous balneological resort - Borjomi. The city of Borjomi is a resort in the center of Georgia, famous throughout the post-Soviet space for its springs with healing mineral water. The name of the city has two Georgian roots: "borzh" - "fortress, wall" and "omi" - "war, battle". In ancient times, the city of Borjomi was a natural fortress, the walls of which were the Caucasus Mountains. We will visit the famous Borjomi Park with you and try water from the Catherine Spring.