Mtskheta

City in Georgia, at the confluence of rivers Aragvi and Khura, on the Military - Georgian road. Railway station. 9,9 thousand inhabitants (1991).

Factory called "Promsvjaz", a knitting factory, the food-processing industry. Theatre. Mtshetsky museum - reserve.

Mtskheta is one of the most ancient cities of Georgia, founded in the 2nd part of the 1st thousand years up to A.D. By the end of 5 century A.D. Mtskheta was the capital east Georgian state of Kartli (Iberia). During Middle Ages Mtskheta remained a significant city, a trading-craft and especially religious centre (a residence of the chapter of the Georgian church - the Catholicos). During excavations of 1870s and especially since 1937 in Mtskheta there were discovered the rests of fortified residences, city blocks, and also the burial grounds dated from neolit up to late Middle Ages. Burial grounds, connected with settlements of farmers employed with cattle-breeding, concern to the epoch of bronze and early iron (2-1 thousand up to A.D.). On the basis of these settlements a large comfortable antique city was founded. On the right coast of the Kurah river ruins of Armaztsikh acropolis (2nd part of the 1st thousand up to A.D.) were discovered by excavation. An investigated in 1951 crypt dated the end of 1st - beginning of 2nd century A.D. concerns to the Late Antique period. Upstream of the Kurah river inArmaziskhevi there were discovered ruins of a palace complex, baths (2-3 centuries) and a necropolis (the first centuries A.D.). Among medieval monuments of Mtskheta - a complex of Samtavro monastery (main temple - a cross-dome building of 11 century with a rich sculptural decor on facades), a cathedral in Svetitskhoveli.

Nearby Mtskheta there is a temple Dzhvari, a Zemo-Avtchal' Hydro-Electric Power Station (1927, architects A.N.Kal'gin, K.A.Leont'ev, M.S.Machavariani).