This area, Mtskheta, the ancient capital of Georgia, has housed human civilization since before the beginning of recorded time. It served as capital until the 5th century, when they moved the capital a few miles down the road to Tbilisi.
The Georgians are an amazingly resilient people. Due to their extremely valuable location between Europe and Asia at the base of the Caucasus Mountains, the most attractive overland trade route, they have been invaded over 40 times since the beginning of recorded history, yet, every time, they pick themselves back up and rebuild.
This entire area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
One of the things that fascinates me is that this is the same place that the legendary Russian poet Mikhail Lermontov has been to almost two hundred years before us. It inspired him to write one of his most famous poetic works called Mtsyri, which we studied in school and parts of which I learned by heart. I’m so happy we went there!
Where merge Aragva and her twin,
Kura, and fast rush onward, in
Times past, a lonely cloister stood;
By fields, a dense and o’ergrown wood
Encircled ’twas…. A wayfarer,
Toiling uphill, will see what were
A gate and gateposts once and, too,
A church…. To-day, no incense to
Its round dome coils, nor do a prayer
The humble monks chant, hoarse-voiced, there.
Alone, forgot by death and men,
A bent old greybeard, denizen
Of these remote and desolate hills,
Over the ruins watches still
And daily wipes the dust that clings
To tombs, of which the letterings
Of glories past speak and of things
Of like note. Of a tsar one such
Tells who by his gold crown was much
Weighed down, and did of Russia gain
The patronage o’er his domain.
Twas then God’s love descended on
The land, and Georgia bloomed, and gone
Her old fears were and old suspense:
Of friendly bayonets a fence
Did, bristling, rise in her defence.
…
http://www.friends-partners.org/friends/literature/19century/lermontov/lermontov38.html