The Holiest Place in Georgia

Having come off a whirlwind tour of Armenia with Jean, he invites me to join him for a couple of days on his tour of Georgia, until I reach Kazbegi (where the Georgia/Russia border has been closed for three years) and decide whether or not I cross it in a less than legal manner.

We leave Tbilisi incredibly early with Georgian guide and driver, Koba Kenkadze, one of the finest guides I’ve seen, who shares with us plenty of stories and jokes (he loves to take the piss out of Armenians). Did you know, Mt Ararat (where Noah’s ark came to rest) is the highest mountain in the world? It’s 5,000m above ground, but nobody ever counts the 5000m below the ground. (At 5,137m it is dwarfed by Qomolangma at 8848m).

Along the way to David Gareji.

After a several hour drive, along a mostly dirt road, with no passing traffic, we arrive at David Gareji Monastery, where six thousand monks were killed by Turkish armies. Although the monks were more or less hidden in the mountains, each held a lit candle during the Easter liturgy service, collectively acting as a beacon to the army that came to slaughter them.

Inside the David Gareji monastery complex.

The story goes that David Gareji is one third as holy as Jerusalem because one day David made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem but when he reached the gates, he was overcome with emotion and couldn’t enter the city. He picked up three stones and started the long journey back to Georgia. That night, the King of Jerusalem has a dream, that someone has stolen the spiritual holiness of Jerusalem and that this must be stopped. Naturally the king sends his soldiers after David. The soldiers catch David and find two of the three stones (I don’t want to think where the third was hidden…). When David returned, he placed one stone within the monastery complex, thus making it one third as holy as Jerusalem.

When I ask Koba how many trips he’s made to Jerusalem (since three to the monastery is the same as one to Jerusalem), he says “I don’t need to make trip, I live in the holy land.”

While the following photo may not appear all that beautiful at first, it is nonetheless interesting. The metal railing serves as the boundary between Azerbaijan and Georgia, for lots of the walk to the church at the top of the mountain, we are along the Azeri side of it. Contrast this to the Armenia/Azerbaijan border which consists of a neutral no-man’s land and far too many troops and tanks on either side.

The Georgia/Azerbaijan border, a result of Stalin’s careful distribution of territories of the former USSR.

A temple where John the Baptist is said to have prayed.

While the churches carved into the mountains may not look like much, the atmosphere when one visits is surreal, maybe even holy (you’ll know when you visit).