Our City & Region

We've been in Akhaltsikhe now for more than 2 weeks. So far we've climbed this hill to the north of the city with a nice view of the city and we've been to the historical museum of the region, which is located next to the big fort/castle built in the 9th century and a mosque-converted-to-church building also. This region spent several hundred years in the hands of the Turks, which is why the mosque; we didn't use to be the most southern region of Georgia, this is just the most southern part of Georgia that Georgia got back from Turkey. The museum had a special exhibit, in fact, on Georgian Orthodox churches in Turkey that was quite interesting; apparently, 5 million Georgians live in Turkey (as much or more than live in Georgia), which is fascinating. They keep an older Georgian language (our guide said it was understandable, but there are words they use which are archaic in modern Georgian) and all the Georgian religious holidays. We also got more insight into customs like the altar sacrifices (which the Georgian Orthodox church is officially against)—apparently, especially in the mountains, many other rituals dating back to the pagan times are still common, and those are areas that although they “officially” converted to Christianity, it never really took hold, and families there still pass on these traditions over the years. It's such an interesting dynamic, to be in a country so shaped by having an official religion, and how that leads to the intermingling of religious traditions and beliefs. Our guide also said that in mosques in Turkey in Georgian-populated places, they have found wooden panels with crosses on them hidden inside the mosques; once again, these secrets were passed down for generations within a family. We also learned that there are a number of Georgian Catholics—our guide guessed it was something like 10% of the population. Akhaltsikhe was on the Old Silk Road, and it is quite multicultural; in the old days, the Old City area (near the museum and fortress) was divided into districts, largely based on ethnicity and religion, and according to our guide, there were about 20 districts (Georgian Orthodox, Catholic, Jewish, Armenian, and so on). Here is the view of the city from the hill to the north of the city and a picture of what lies to the north of the hill (out of Akhaltsikhe proper), followed by photos of the park in Borjomi, the big map in Borjomi, the train ride from Borjomi to Bakuriani, & Bakuriani, all mentioned in the last post:










Here is our region as displayed on the map in Borjomi: Akhaltsikhe is the white flag to the far left of the map. Borjomi is at the top center of the map, next to the aqua-colored building, and you can see to the right (and a little bit below it) is Bakuriani, next to the cable cars. The yellow line is the border with Turkey, by the way.