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Nobel Technological Museum
This interesting museum takes you back a century to when the city was in the vanguard of the international oil business, with investment from the Nobels and Rothschilds spawning technological innovations here. It also looks at the tea industry that grew up at the same time. It’s 4k
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Zurab Tsereteli Museum of Modern Art
The art here is, apart from the odd temporary exhibition, all the work of one man – the museums founder Zurab Tsereteli. This now Moscow-based Georgian is one of those lucky artists who becomes a financial success in his own lifetime, and the sculptures and paintings here are chara
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6 Maisi Park
Sixth of May Park contains a lake, a modern dolphinarium (45min show adult/child 12 GEL/free; noon, 3pm & 6pm Tue-Sun) and a small zoo (adult/child 2 GEL/free; 11am-8pm) of Georgian and international wildlife. At the dolphinarium you can also swim with dolphins (per 15min adult
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Jvaris Mama Church
Little Jvaris Mama stands on a site where a church has stood since the 5th century. The current incarnation dates from the 16th century and its interior is covered in recently restored frescoes in striking reds, golds and blues. Entered from same courtyard/garden is the large Armen
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Nokalakevi
Some 60km from Zugdidi via Senaki, Nokalakevi is a picturesque and historic ancient Colchian royal town and fortress. A tunnel leads down to the Tekhura River from the grassy grounds, and admission includes an interesting archaeological museum. Excavations are ongoing (see www.noka
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Monkey Nursery
Sukhumi’s Monkey Nursery was renowned in Soviet times for training monkey astronauts (eight from here made space flights in the 1980s) and as a medical research centre. At its peak about 5000 monkeys were kept here, but it now has only around 300 African and Asian monkeys in sad, s
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Tmogvi Castle
Eleven kilometres past Khertvisi Fortress towards Vardzia, atop a high rocky hill across the river (which flows far below in a gorge), the remains of the once near-impregnable Tmogvi Castle date back at least a millennium. You can walk to it in an hour or so (4km) up the west side
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Martvili Monastery
Martvilis monastery, a medieval Georgian cultural centre, sits on a serene hilltop overlooking the town and the surrounding valleys and hills. Its church dates from the 7th century, with its original design based on the Jvari Church near Mtskheta. The interesting frescoes inside in
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Batumi Botanical Garden
Batumi’s Botanical Garden, 8km northeast of town at Mtsvane Kontskhi (Green Cape), is well worth a trip. With many semitropical and foreign species, the 1.13-sq-km gardens cover a hillside rising straight out of the sea. It takes about 1½ hours to walk the main path at a leisurely
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Palace
The ruined palace-citadel immediately east of the Bagrati Cathedral dates back to the 6th century. It was ruined in 1769 by bombardment from the forces of Solomon I of Imereti and the Russian General Todtleben as they fought to take Kutaisi from the Turks, and is now somewhat overg
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Winery Khareba
Whats special here is the 7.7km of wine tunnels, dug out of a hillside in the early 1960s for storing and ageing wine at constant temperatures. Today the tunnels store over 25,000 bottles of the Khareba companys European and qvevri wines. Tours go into part of the tunnels (where ta
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Lavra
The Lavra monastery is on three levels, with buildings from many periods. You enter by a gateway decorated with reliefs illustrating stories of the monks’ harmony with the natural world. Inside you descend to a courtyard with the caves of Davit and his Kakhetian disciple Lukiane al
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Walls
Most of Erekle II’s 4km defensive wall still stands, with 23 towers and each of its six gates named after a local village. Part of the wall runs along Chavchavadze on the hilltop on the northwest side of town, where you can enter the tiny Stepan Tsminda Church inside a tower. Anoth
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Gonio Apsaros Fortress
Gonios fortress, an impressive piece of Roman-Byzantine military architecture, covers 47,000 sq metres within a rectangle of high stone walls with 18 towers. Built by the Romans in the 1st century AD, it was occupied by the Byzantines in the 6th century and by the Ottomans in the 1
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Abanotubani
A short walk south from Meidan, a collection of strange brick domes rises from the ground behind a small park. These are Tbilisi’s famed sulphur baths, the Abanotubani. Alexanders Dumas and Pushkin both bathed here, the latter describing it as the best bath he’d ever had. The domes
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Juta
The Sno valley runs southeast off the Georgian Military Highway from Achkhoti village, 4km south of Kazbegi. The small village of Juta (2150m), an outpost of the Khevsur people from over the mountains to the east, is about 15km along the mostly unpaved valley road and a starting po
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Vanis Qvabebi
About 4km south of Tmogvi village and 2km before Vardzia, a track heads 600m up from the road to this cave monastery that predated Vardzia by four centuries. It’s almost as intriguing as Vardzia itself and far less visited. A handful of monks have reoccupied the caves at the bottom
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Sioni Cathedral
Sioni was originally built in the 6th and 7th centuries, but has been destroyed and rebuilt many times, and what you see today is mainly 13th century. It is of special significance for Georgians because its home to the sacred cross of St Nino which, according to legend, is made fro
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Botanical Gardens
With 50,000 sq metres of plants from around the world, the well-maintained botanical gardens, founded in 1840, are well worth a wander.
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Tobavarchkhili
The picturesque, remote mountain lakes of Tobavarchkhili, at around 2650m altitude, are best visited on a camping trip, as they’re reached by a 33km jeep drive north from Mukhuri, followed by a 12km walk to the lakes. A natural staircase climbs to the top of Mt Tsashqibuli (3017m),
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