Landmarks

The fortress and the old town

Narikala has stood above Tbilisi since roughly the 4th century, rebuilt by nearly everyone who has held the city since. A cable car runs up to it from the river, and the walk down through the old town is the single best introduction to the place. On the ridge above stands Kartlis Deda, the Mother of Georgia: a twenty-metre figure raised in 1958 for the city's 1,500th anniversary, holding a sword in one hand and a bowl of wine in the other — the sword for those who come as enemies, the wine for those who come as guests.

Why the city is called Tbilisi

Below the fortress is Abanotubani, the bath district, where hot sulphur springs surface under a cluster of low brick domes. The name Tbilisi comes from the old Georgian word for warm, and the founding legend explains why: King Vakhtang Gorgasali's falcon brought down a pheasant that fell into a hot spring, the king found the water steaming, and moved his capital here. The baths are still working baths, not a museum.

A few streets away stands the Juma Mosque, built in the 1890s and the only mosque in central Tbilisi — unusual in that Sunni and Shia congregations have long prayed in the same building.

Newer, and further out

Sameba, the Holy Trinity Cathedral, was consecrated in 2004 and is one of the tallest Orthodox churches anywhere; the glass-and-steel Bridge of Peace, designed by the Italian architect Michele De Lucchi, opened over the river in 2010. The two sit within sight of each other and tell you most of what you need to know about how the city builds.

Twenty minutes out is Mtskheta, Georgia's old royal capital, where Jvari Monastery and Svetitskhoveli Cathedral have been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1994. Further north, the church at Gergeti stands alone on a shoulder of Mount Kazbek at around 2,170 metres.