Mtskheta - Jvari - Gori - Uplistsikhe full day private tour from Tbilisi
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Mtskheta - Jvari - Gori - Uplistsikhe full day private tour from Tbilisi
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Mtskheta - Jvari - Gori - Uplistsikhe full day private tour from Tbilisi

1 day
Private
Full Day
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Itinerary
This is a typical itinerary for this product

Stop At: Jvari Church, Mtskheta Georgia

The masterpiece of Early Christian Orthodox architecture Jvari Monastery is dated 585-604 cc AD. Located on the hill top near the town Mtskheta, it is listed in UNESCO World Heritage Site list in 1994. The name is translated as the Monastery of the Cross.

According to traditional accounts, in the early 4th century Saint Nino stayed here to pray and erected a wooden cross on Mtskheta’s highest hill. The church was built on the crest of a cliff at a confluence of the rivers Mtkvari and Aragvi. It is a representative of the tetra conch architectural type that was popular not only in Georgia but also in Byzantine world.

Jvari served as a model for many other churches in the country. Unusual and varied relief sculptures decorate its façades. The importance of Jvari complex increased over time and attracted many pilgrims. According to the legend pilgrims visiting the site shed tears while praying and the nearby natural lake was named the Lake of tears.

The harmonious relationship between the landscape, architectural forms and divisions, the well-thought-out disposition of decorative elements and splendid relieves carved on big slabs of a stone give the south and east walls special expressiveness. Among the reliefs of the east wall are found the portraits of the kings who built the church. Included in UNESCO world heritage sights, the monument is still used for major celebrations.

Driving distance from Tbilisi is 19 km (20 min)

Duration: 1 hour

Stop At: Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, Arsukidze, Mtskheta 383400 Georgia

This grand (and for its time, enormous) building dates from the 11th century, early in the golden age of Georgian church architecture. It has an elongated cross plan and is adorned with beautiful stone carving outside and in. Christ’s robe is believed to lie beneath the central nave, under a square pillar decorated with colourful if faded frescoes of the conversion of Kartli.

The story goes that a Mtskheta Jew, Elioz, was in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus' Crucifixion and returned with the robe to Mtskheta. His sister Sidonia took it from him and immediately died in a passion of faith. The robe was buried with her and as years passed, people forgot the exact site. When King Mirian built the first church at Mtskheta in the 4th century, the wooden column designed to stand in its centre could not be raised from the ground. But after an all-night prayer vigil by St Nino, the column miraculously moved of its own accord to the robe's burial site. The column subsequently worked many miracles and Svetitskhoveli means ‘Life-Giving Column’.

In the 5th century Vakhtang Gorgasali replaced Mirian’s church with a stone one, and the present building was constructed between 1010 and 1029 under Patriarch Melqisedek. It's still one of the most beautiful churches in the country.

Several Georgian monarchs are buried here. The tomb of Erekle II, king of Kartli and Kakheti from 1762 to 1798, lies before the icon screen (marked with his birth and death dates, 1720 and 1798). Vakhtang Gorgasali’s tomb is behind this, with his sword-holding image carved on a raised flagstone.

Duration: 1 hour

Stop At: Stalin Museum, 32 Stalin Avenue, Gori Georgia

The museum makes no serious attempt to present a balanced account of Stalin's career or deeds. It remains, much as when it opened in 1957, a reverent homage to the Gori boy who became a key figure of 20th-century world history – although guides do now at least refer to the purges, the Gulag and his 1939 pact with Hitler. As well as the halls of memorabilia, the visit includes the tiny wood-and-mudbrick house where Stalin lived for the first four years of his life.

The house, where Stalin's parents rented a single room, stands in front of the main museum building, under its own temple-like superstructure.

The museum charts Stalin’s journey from the Gori church school to leadership of the USSR, the Yalta Conference at the end of WWII and his death in 1953. The first hall upstairs covers his childhood and adolescence, including his rather cringeworthy pastoral poetry, and then his early revolutionary activities in Georgia, his seven jail terms under the tsarist authorities (six of them in Siberia), the revolution of 1917 and Lenin’s death in 1924. The text of Lenin’s 1922 political testament that described Stalin as too coarse and power-hungry, advising Communist Party members to remove him from post of General Secretary, is on display.

One room is devoted to a bronze copy of Stalin’s eerie death mask, lying in state. The next has a large collection of gifts from world leaders and other Bolsheviks. Off the staircase is a reconstruction of his first office in the Kremlin, plus personal memorabilia such as his pipes, glasses, cigars and slide rule. One small two-room section beside the foot of the stairs deals with political repression under Stalin.

To one side of the museum is Stalin’s train carriage, in which he travelled to Yalta in 1945 (he didn’t like flying). Apparently bulletproof, its elegant interior includes a bathtub and a primitive air-conditioning system.

Duration: 1 hour

Stop At: Uplistsiche Cave Town, Kvakhvreli 15 km Eastwards to Town Gori, Gori Georgia

This fascinating and once enormous cave city sits 10km east of Gori above the north side of the Mtkvari River, with expansive views along the Mtkvari valley. Between the 6th century BC and 1st century AD, Uplistsikhe developed into one of the chief political and religious centres of pre-Christian Kartli, with temples dedicated principally to the sun goddess. After the Arabs occupied Tbilisi in AD 645, Uplistsikhe became the residence of the Christian kings of Kartli and an important trade centre on a main caravan road from Asia to Europe. At its peak it housed 20,000 people. Its importance declined after King David the Builder retook Tbilisi in 1122 and it was irrevocably destroyed by the Mongols in 1240. What you visit today is the 40,000-sq-metre Shida Qalaqi (Inner City), less than half of the original whole. Almost everything here has been uncovered by archaeologists since 1957.

Duration: 1 hour

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Included
  • 1 bottle water
  • Transportation by private car
  • Guide service
  • Hotel pick up and drop-off
  • Bottled water
Not included
  • Food and drinks (optional)
  • Entrance fee to Museum of Stalin in Gori (5 USD per person) (optional)
  • Entrance fee to Uplistsikhe (2,5 USD per person)
  • Entry/Admission - Stalin Museum
Additional
  • Confirmation will be received at time of booking
  • Not wheelchair accessible
  • Vegetarian option is available, please advise at time of booking if required
  • Infants must sit on laps
  • Not recommended for pregnant travelers
  • Most travelers can participate
  • This is a private tour/activity. Only your group will participate
Features
Tourism
95%
Cultural
70%
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