Georgia

Overview

Georgia is a country in Eastern Europe. It lies at the eastern end of the Black Sea, with Turkey and Armenia to the south, Azerbaijan to the east, and Russia to the north, over the Caucasus Mountains. Georgia is an old state in the Caucasus, with a beautiful coast, great mountain scenery and towns. Due to civil problems following independence after the break up of the Soviet Union, Georgia has suffered a lot. The infrastructure has taken a severe blow; parts of the "Georgian Riviera" are hard to access as a result. Still, Georgia makes a great destination for the resourceful traveler. Since Georgia claims to be the oldest Christian nation, there are many impressive churches and cathedrals dating back to a time when most of Western Europe was still pagan. The capital Tbilisi and nearby Mtskheta are nice cities with many important monuments. The Gelati Monastery is unique in its kind. In Vardzia you will also find interesting examples of Christian art. Things in Tblisi and the surrounding countryside have calmed down a lot in the last 2 years or so. Tblisi sometimes suffers from an unjust reputation for street crime but muggings are rare. Some caution must be taken in the mountainous areas bordering Russia (close to Chenchnya, Dagestan etc). However tourists do not even figure in most people's thinking and thus no culture of targeting tourists (scams etc.) exists. Some minor crimes such as theft, drug...more

History

Georgia is a land filled with magnificent history and unparalleled natural beauty. Archaeologists found the oldest traces of wine production (7000-5000 BC) in Georgia. For those of us in the West, we unfortunately get precious little exposure to this stretch of land between the Black and Caspian seas. However, this is changing drastically. Georgians are not Russians, Turks or Persians, nor do they have any ethnic connection with other people. However, there are theories which link Georgians to Basque, Corsican and North Caucasian people. Georgians are very proud of their own language, which is in its own language group, completely unrelated to Indo-European, Slavic languages, Semitic or any other languages (there have been suggestions that Georgian and Basque are related but there is little evidence for this other than their mutual status as language isolates). Georgians have been embroiled in struggles against world’s biggest empires (Scythian, Roman, Byzantine, Mongol, Persian, Ottoman, Russian, etc) for centuries. This little country was invaded thousands of times and destroyed as many. However, Georgians have managed to preserve their cultural and traditional identity for 5,000 years. The countryside is covered with ancient towered fortifications, many of which house ancient churches (including one of the oldest in Christendom) and monasteries. Georgians gradually became a Christian nation in the first century, and Christianity officially became a state religion in the fourth century (one of the first Christian states in the world) with the evangelism of St Nino of Cabadocia....more