Akhaltsikhe, Georgia

The Melting Pot of Georgia

June 29, 2012

- Mumford and Sons

Once again I find myself back in Georgia, courtesy of the discord between Iran and the United States. Since I was going to be so close to Iran when traveling to southern Armenia I decided to drop into the Iranian embassy in Yerevan to see if I could get a transit visa to travel through Iran to Turkey. I happened to meet a Korean traveler who wanted to visit Iran as well so we went together. I’m fairly certain that an American and a Korean have never walked into the Iranian embassy in Yerevan because everyone there was quite surprised.

I walked up to the window to speak with the clerk and explained that I wanted to apply for a transit visa to travel to Turkey via Iran. She asked for my passport and said she would have to go check if it was possible. After a few minutes she returned and told me that it wasn’t possible and that I needed to visit a travel agency and make arrangements with them first in order to apply. Then the Korean guy asked if he could apply for a transit visa. Again the woman went back to check if it was possible. She came back with an application form and told him he needed to fill out the form, submit a copy of his passport, a passport photo and the visa would be ready the next day. Seeing this I again asked the woman why I could not apply for a visa and she told me, very apologetically, “Sorry, not for Americans.” I guess that is what happens when national governments hate each other.

The end result meant backtracking about 14 hours to get to Akhaltsikhe, Georgia, due to the on-going dispute between Armenia and Turkey and their sealed border. Other than being near a border crossing Akhaltsikhe itself wasn’t the destination, but it turned out to have more substance than most border towns. To begin with it is dominated by an old castle set high on a mountain overlooking the rest of the city. This castle is somewhat unique in that it contains a gold-domed mosque. The town around it also contains a Georgian church, an Armenian church, and a Catholic church. At one time there was even a Jewish synagogue too. You could say it is a bit of a melting pot, or at least used to be. Today only a handful of Jewish families remain and the population is overwhelmingly Georgian. A melting pot would also be inaccurate in that there wasn’t a lot of mixing going on. The respective churches are located in opposite parts of the city and there are still three separate cemeteries, one each for the Jews, Georgians, and Armenians.

Two hours away in relative seclusion there is the cave city of Vardzia. This intricate complex of over one hundred caves is carved into the stone mountainside in the southwestern wilderness of Georgia. The caves span multiple levels on the mountainside and in the heart of the complex is the Church of the Dormition. The church features a beautiful array of faded paintings covering the entire interior. From behind the church long and narrow tunnels burrow through the mountain to reach the different levels of caves. Walking through these dark tunnels is very disorienting; finally you see a small light that eventually leads to a cave at the forefront of the mountainside, somewhere far above or below the church. While most of the caves are bare, some showcase carved arches and even rows of shelves like an organizational system. Perhaps the best aspect of these caves is that they seemed to be functional; on a warm rainy day, I stayed cool and dry, at least when I was inside the caves. Sadly the same can’t always be said for some of the more modern hotels I’ve stayed in on this trip; progress is relative after all.