Gori - Uplistsikhe, ancient city, Borjomi

On the tour we will visit:
City of Gori. One of the main attractions of Gori is the complex of the State Museum of J.V. Stalin.
In the very center of the city, against the backdrop of old buildings, a huge palace in the original Gothic style stands out as a bright spot. This is the Stalin House Museum, built in the 50s of the last century. The museum was built next to the house in which on December 21, 1879. The great J.V. Stalin was born into the family of shoemaker Vissarion Dzhugashvili.  The Stalin Museum is dedicated to all aspects of the life of the famous leader. It has three departments displaying rare exhibits: original letters and notes, photographs, military chronicles, maps, battle diagrams, Stalin’s personal belongings, photographs of the sons Yakov and Vasily, letters, the generalissimo’s uniform, and a death mask. The museum also stores the archives of the leader, including poems for children and youth. Gifts to Stalin are collected in a separate room. Everywhere – Busts of Stalin made of stone, wood, plaster. A special exhibit – Stalin's personal armored comfortable carriage with a luxurious interior for that time: Venetian glass mirrors, carved furniture.
The carriage was installed next to the museum relatively recently – transferred to the North Caucasus Railway in 1985.  The carriage has been preserved almost in the same form in which Stalin used it during his trips to the Yalta and Tehran conferences. Nothing was altered or restored inside the carriage. Everything is as it was during Stalin’s life: an office with a table, a telephone and a sofa, a bathroom, a security compartment.

 

Uplistsikhe city in the rock - Translated as “Uplistsikhe” means “the fortress of the ruler,” and for good reason: the walls and ceiling are pretentiously decorated with beams, plinths and columns, and in the main part of the city the rich, the nobility and clergy used to live. Uplistsikhe — one of the first Georgian cities, which was founded in the 10th century BC. Such ancient caves no longer exist – the oldest dates back to the 3rd century BC.  In the 8th-10th centuries the city was the capital of the Kingdom of Kartli. A little later, the city began to expand towards the river, this can still be seen from the remains of ruins under the rock. Initially, the cave complex consisted of about 700 caves. But after the Mongol invasion and large-scale earthquakes, the number of caves decreased to 150 and the city was empty.  Uplistsikhe – these are not just caves. This is a whole era. This is home to millions of people who lived here and went to war. These are huge halls that are simply – simply carved into the rock by the hands of people unknown to us. This is a tunnel that connected the residents of Uplistsikhe with the Kura River, which is important in the life of the local population.  Today, not all of these caves can be seen. For example, in the west of this steep cliff there are cave passages that are now simply impossible to reach, and only imagination helps to imagine what might be hiding behind the rock walls.
 
Borjomi Park has become the hallmark of Georgia thanks to its amazing mineral water. Its healing properties were known back in ancient times. It is important to note that this water is of volcanic origin. It is pushed to the earth's surface by natural carbon dioxide from a depth of about 8-10 kilometers. The uniqueness of Borjomi is that, unlike many other mineral waters, it does not have time to cool underground, so it comes out warm, enriching itself during its journey with many minerals contained in the Caucasus Mountains. Borjomi Park was officially called a nature reserve only in 1935. However, attention was first drawn to the extraordinary beauty of these places back in the Middle Ages. The unique power of water and natural beauty attracted the aristocracy here. A small town quickly grew up in the gorge near natural springs. Members of the Imperial House of the Russian Empire also came to relax in Borjomi, improve their health and breathe the purest mountain air. Later, during the reign of the Russian Emperor Alexander II, his brother Prince Mikhail, who was the governor of the Transcaucasian region, built himself a summer house there for relaxation and work in the lap of nature. And a little later he completely fenced off most of the land, prohibiting hunting without special highest permission. Already in the 20th century after the declaration of independence of Georgia, in 1995, the Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park was created on the basis of the reserve, the official opening of which took place only six years later, in 2001