David Gareja

Out on the semi-desert frontier southeast of Tbilisi, where Georgia meets Azerbaijan, lies David Gareja — a monastery complex of cave cells and chapels carved into a striped, sun-baked ridge in the 6th century.

Founded by one of the thirteen Assyrian Fathers who spread Christianity across Georgia, the complex grew into hundreds of cells spread over a wide area of empty, beautiful terrain. The main Lavra monastery is still active, its courtyards and springs sheltering beneath the rock.

A climb over the ridge leads to Udabno, a line of caves whose walls hold faded but extraordinary frescoes, looking out over a vast plain that stretches into Azerbaijan. The sense of remoteness and silence here is unlike anywhere else in the country.

The drive out crosses semi-desert grazed by shepherds, often combined with the wine country of Kakheti on the way back to Tbilisi.

Join us at David Gareja to find solitude, frescoes and horizon in Georgia’s wild southeast.