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Sunday, March 20, 2016

Vardzia and Khvertsi

Please note that if you click on the pictures, they do enlarge and you can run through all of them.






Today was an awesome day in the mountains. I loved the nature, as they call it here in Georgia. Vardzia was fascinating. These underground caves made in the 12th centuries as a place of refuge for Georgians to fleeing the Mongols. There 13 stories of caves. They were able to hold 50,000 people!  The caves even had clay plumbing and chimneys. In 1283, there was an earthquake that exposed the caves. I wish I could repeat all of the history of these caves, but I was just in awe of being in something this cool and this old. My imagination ran wild with scenes from Lord of the Rings.

There a currently monks who live in these cave.  

 I will put a bad picture up, just to prove that I was there and that I did not pull the photos of the web.

Seats and a table.



A monk.

A tunnel that went up five stories.

Wine cellar.

Our Guide.

Afterwards we visited another set of caves with a church nestled in the cliffs of the cave. Hiking up to this was an adventure in and of itself and a little horrifying as one misstep would have spelled disaster. This was awesome.

Looking up at the church.

Looking across at the church.

Monks still live in the mountain and the proof is in the windows .

An alter just before the church.

The alter in the church.

View from the top.
Then we went to Khertvisi which was a castle that started out as a walled city in 400-300 B.C. The walls witnessed Alexander the Great in Battle. Then it became a castle during the middle ages and was a part of the Silk Road.

Not the best picture, but the people in the picture show the size of the castle.

Our awesome drive. Super nice, super courteous,  and he drove us through snow and over boulders.



For Whom the Bell Tolls

9 comments:

  1. Joe, your pictures are excellent and informative. Keep up the good work. Would love to know some of the language you've learned so far too, if it makes sense/fits in your posts. Wishing the best for you. Cheers.

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    1. All I have learned is how to say Hello, Good bye, Thank you, and Thank you very much. These words are helping me get by just fine. But it is very helpful that I am with someone who speaks the language 90% of the time. If I stay here for two more weeks I may know up to 10 words.

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  2. These are some amazing pictures. I can't help but think about how quiet and peaceful it must be in these mountaintop places of worship. I feel humbled just looking at the pictures. How many monks live up there? Thank you for sharing your adventure with us!

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    Replies
    1. I did not ask how many monks lived up there, but we did see a bunch of nuns coming down as we were going up.

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  3. These are some amazing pictures. I can't help but think about how quiet and peaceful it must be in these mountaintop places of worship. I feel humbled just looking at the pictures. How many monks live up there? Thank you for sharing your adventure with us!

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  4. I really enjoy all the pictures of the ruins, churches, and countryside. Are there suburbs outside of the cities or are the urban areas pretty contained?

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    1. Tbilisi is very big. Obviously it has suburbs, but it does not take long before you are in the middle of the "nature" as the Georgians like to call it. Many of the villages raise their own cattle and grow their own crops. It is not unusual to have to drive around cattle around here.

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  5. Joe... I'm enjoying your blog. Can you comment on student familiarity with social media? I noticed one student displayed a cell phone. Do the students have TVs , cell phones, etc.?

    George Slusser

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    Replies
    1. The students and teachers all have Facebook. I have "friended" many of the students on Facebook as a way to help connect them to the Milton students. The Georgian students we met were very good at taking selfies and posting them on Facebook. Some of them have heard and use Twitter, Instagram, Snap Chat, etc., but Facebook is the most popular. Many of the students in the town I was in do have cell phones and TVs. On an earlier post, I listed some of the students favorite shows.

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