Tour Destinations:

Tbilisi

+ Tbilisi, capital city of Georgia, founded in the 5th century by King Vakhtang Gorgasali. A center of trade and conflict for centuries, Tbilisi has been sacked forty times by various invaders but survives today as the modern hub of the South Caucasus. Nevertheless, the downtown area is full of winding cobblestone streets, small shops and restaurants, as well as the churches, synagogues, and mosques that celebrate the diversity of this unique country. As we tour monasteries in the ancient capital region, a comfortable downtown Tbilisi hotel will serve as our home-base, affording a chance to sample the best of Tbilisi's dining and evening entertainment, and visit the wealth of museums, spas, and cultural delights in the "Old Town."

Mtkvari River Valley

+ The Mtkvari River originates in Klarjeti (now NE Turkey) and flows some 400 miles north and east before emptying into the Caspian Sea. The watershed of this river, together with the parallel Araxes River to the south, formed the locus of an advanced neolithic society in 3000 BC, attested to in numerous archeological sites where evidence of trade, urbanization, religion, and agriculture have been located. Currently, this area crosses from the Eastern Anatolian steppe into what is today Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. While in Georgia, we will visit the 12th century cave city of Vardzia on the Upper Mtkvari River, as well as the 9th century Sapara Monastery on one of its tributaries. Near where the Mtkvari River flows through Tbilisi, capital city of Georgia, we visit the 11th century Cathedral of the "Living Cross," and a Roman bridge built in 65 AD. It was in this town, Mtskheta, where St. Nino the Enlightener managed to convert the local monarchs to Christianity in 326 AD, working miracles that saved the life of Queen Nana.

Path of St. Nino, Enlightener of Georgians

+ St. Nino, a woman from central Anatolia, traveled overland through the Tao-Klarjeti region, following the Mtkvari river. She lived with Jewish communities, being an Aramaic speaker. She stayed for a time at Lake Parvan before continuing over the highland steppe country near the town that is called today Ninotsminda (Saint Nino), arriving at the palace of King Mirian and Queen Nana in the year 320 AD. There she worked miracles and converted first the queen and then the king. On this tour, we follow this route from Tao-Klarjeti back to Tbilisi-Mtskheta.

Tao-Klarjeti

+ Tao-Klarjeti is the mountainous region in contemporary North-Eastern Turkey that was once the birth of the medieval Georgian "Golden Era" that lasted from the tenth to the twelfth centuries. The high-plateau topography is criss-crossed with deep canyons, which offered both fertile farmland and easily defensible positions against Georgia's numerous enemies. Evidence of the cultural and political importance of the area is seen in the ruins of more than three hundred cathedrals, chapels, bridges, fortifications. During the tenth century, ruler Davit Kuropalates assisted the Byzantine Emperor Basil II with auxiliary troops to defeat an uprising, an alliance which strengthened the position of Tao against a weak Persia. Read more on the history of the region here. The Orthodox Church flourished, and the monasteries of Tao-Klarjeti became famous for their illuminated manuscripts, unique chanting schools, and deep connections with monasteries in Palestine, Syria, Egypt, and Greece.

Kars - Ani

+ Kars is a city at the far Eastern edge of Turkey, and as such has lost some of its former luster and importance. But during the nineteenth century, Kars was a major hub of the Russian Tsarist Empire, at the center of a geographical region which encompassed the high steppe country spanning what is today southern Georgia, western Armenia, and eastern Turkey. During this period, the building of the transcaucasian railroad from Erzurum to Tbilisi traversed this plateau at Kars, leading to a vibrant commercial center populated with an extremely diverse ethnic population of migrant workers and their families. In former centuries, Kars was an important Eastern stronghold of the Ottoman Empire, seeing its share of epic battles as the Turks gained and lost territory to Persians, Georgians, Armenians, and Mongols. The focus of our visit will be the medieval metropolis of Ani, just a few kilometers from Kars, which was once the capital of feudal Armenia. In the 11th-12th century, Ani was administered by the Georgian monarchy, but later fell into ruin under the Seljuk Turks. Now, only a field of ruins remain, yet these are not mere stone walls. Giant arches and cathedral domes protrude from the plain, speaking volumes of a city that once boasted spectacular opulence. Kars is famous for its cheeses, and for some, as an important home to the mystic George Gurdjieff.

Trabzon

+ Trabzon was once an important Greek outpost, and for a time was a wealthy independent state. Many Greek monasteries dot in the canyons and steep forested mountains around this part of the coast line, most of them in ruin. The Sumela monastery is among the most iconic of these, a six story stone building impossibly perched in a vertical cliff face. We'll stay in the city center, enjoying Turkish urban culture, while taking daytrips to the mountain monasteries in the area.