Cities of Georgia (country of Caucasus)

Tbilisi is the capital of Georgia since centuries. You’ll find here the gate to this South-Caucasian country and enjoy the rhythm and religion tradition of Georgia. (Tbilisi თბილისი ) The capital of Georgia is lying on the banks of the Kura (Mtkvari) river, at 41°43′N 44°47′E. Tbilisi is still sometimes known by its Turkish name of Tiflis. This main city of Georgia has more than 1.345 million inhabitants. Tbilisi is an industrial, social, and a cultural center of Georgia and is emerging as a major transit route for global energy/trade projects. The city is along one of the historic Silk Road.

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Batumi (ბათუმი, formerly Batum or Batoum) is a seaside city on the Black Sea coast and capital of Adjara, an autonomous republic in southwest Georgia. Batumi has a population of 122 000 inhabitants. Batumi, has a large port and is a commercial center, is also the last stop of the Trans-Caucasian railroad. It is situated some 20 km (12 mi) from Turkey.

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Kutaisi (ქუთაისი; ancient names: Aea/Aia, Kutatisi, Kutaïssi) is Georgia's second largest city and the capital of the western region of Imereti. It is 221 km to the west of Tbilisi, with a population of about 186 000 inhabitants

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Sukhumi (სოხუმი, Sokhumi; Abkhaz: Аҟəа, Aqwa) is the capital of Abkhazia, independent republic, which is internationally recognized as being an autonomous republic within Georgia. This nice city is usually avoided by travel agency in Georgia.

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Gori (გორი) is an industrial city in the Shida Kartli province of Georgia. The city was founded by one of the greatest kings of Georgia, David the Builder (1089–1125). It has a population of 60,000. Home town of Stalin.

Poti is a city in the Samegrelo province in the west of the Republic of Georgia. It is situated on the east coast of the Black Sea and therefore serves as one of the three Georgian ports on that sea. The major river of Western Georgia, Rioni enters the Black Sea. Poti was founded as a Greek colony in the 7th century BC and named Phasis.

Kutaisi, the second largest city of Georgia

Sokhumi

Gori

Poti

Kutaisi is Georgia's second largest city and the capital of the western region of Amoretti. It is 221 km to the west of Tbilisi, with a population of about 185,965 It was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Colchis. Archeological evidence indicates that the city functioned as the capital of the kingdom of Colchis as early as the 2nd millennium BC. It is widely believed by historians that when Apollonius Rhodius was writing about Jason and the Argonauts and their legendary journey to Colchis, Kutaisi/Aia was the final destination of the Argonauts and the residence of King Aeetes. In 975-1122 Kutaisi was the capital of the united Georgian Kingdom, and in the 15th century-1810 the capital of the Imeretian Kingdom. In 1810 the Imeretian Kingdom was occupied by Tsarist Russia. Before Georgia's independence in 1991, followed by the country's economic collapse, Kutaisi was a major industrial centre. Today, many inhabitants of the city have to leave and work abroad in order to make a living. Small-scale trade prevails among the rest of population.

Kutaisi is located along both banks of the Rioni River. The city lies at an elevation of 125-300 meters (410-984 feet) above sea level. To the east and north-east, Kutaisi is bounded by the Northern Imereti Foothills, to the north by the Samgurali Range, and to the west and the south by the Colchis Plain.

The climate in Kutaisi is humid subtropical with a well-defined on-shore/monsoonal flow (characteristic of the Colchis Plain) during the Autumn and Winter months. The summers are generally hot and relatively dry while the winters are wet and cool. Average annual temperature in the city is 14.5 degrees Celsius. January is the coldest month with an average temperature of 5.2 degrees Celsius while July is the hottest month with an average temperature of 23.2 degrees Celsius. The absolute minimum recorded temperature is -17 degrees Celsius and the absolute maximum is 44 degrees Celsius. Average annual precipitation is around 1530mm (60.2 inches). Rain may fall in every season of the year. The city often experiences heavy, wet snowfall (snowfall of 30cm/12 inches or more per single snowstorm is not uncommon) in the winter, but the snow cover usually does not last for more than a week. Kutaisi experiences powerful easterly winds in the summer which descend from the nearby mountains.

Kutaisi is surrounded by deciduous forests to the northeast and the northwest. The low-lying outskirts of the city have a largely agricultural landscape. Because of the many gardens in the city centre and the high leafy trees alongside the sidewalks of its streets and boulevards, Kutaisi is painted in bright green in the spring and in yellow-red in the autumn. In the spingtime, when the snow starts to melt in the nearby mountains, the storming Rioni River in the middle of the city is heard far beyond its banks.

The landmark of the city is the ruined Bagrati Cathedral, built by Bagrat III, king of Georgia, in the early 11th century. The Bagrati Cathedral, and the Gelati Monastery a few km east of the city, are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Poti is a city in the Samegrelo province in the west of the Republic of Georgia. It is situated on the east coast of the Black Sea and therefore serves as one of the three Georgian ports on that sea. It is a port that ships manganese (from Chiatura), corn, lumber, and wine. The region around Poti is the swampy Colchis lowland. Nearby the city, the major river of Western Georgia, Rioni, enters the Black Sea. Poti was founded as a Greek colony in the 7th century BC and named Phasis. It later became a Turkish fortress and was taken by the Russians in 1828. The present fortress was built in 1578 by Sultan Murad III. of Turkey at the time of a war with Persia. In 1640 it was destroyed by the Imeretians (Georgians), but it was restored and enlarged. The town was a great slave market. It was captured by the Russians in 1812 and 1829. The white walls of the fortress contrasts with the green trees which surround them, and Poti’s famous lighthouse which towers at 117 ft. high.

Poti is also a home to a main naval base and headquarters of the Georgian navy.

The legend about the Golden Fleece (the Argonauts, Jason and Medea) is geographically set in the town of Poti and the river Rioni.

There is a Bulgarian consulate in Poti.

In Middle (Shadi) Kartli where the Liakhvi flows into the Mtkvari a town of Gori is spread among the picturesque hills. Gori is one of the most ancient towns in Georgia. According to some historical records Gori was founded by King of Georgia David the Builder (1089-1125) at the beginning of the 12th century. Nevertheless, archeological excavations discovered a township settlement dated from the end of ancient and down of new epochs. In 1946 the landslip of mountain slope revealed the cultural layer of the antique period. Ruins of clay-walls, thin-walled jugs, plane and gutter-shaped tiles painted in red, pieces of clay utensils burnt to red and glittering black appeared before the archaeologists' eyes.

The ancient Goristsikhe Fortress crowns the mountain rising up in the center of the town. Who knows how many attacks this constantly ruined fortress has repulsed. Who can enumerate those Georgian heroes who gave their lives for the independence of the fortress-town.

The city of Gori is an administrative and cultural centre of a large agricultural region, an industrial town with population of more than 60,000. It has a railway station. Among its enterprises are a large textile mill, an instrument-marketing factory, a cannery, an institute of research into the automation of industrial processes and a fruit-and-vegetable selection station. The town also has a teachers' training college and several specialized secondary schools. Its cultural amenities include a theatre, the Museum of Martial Glory and the Stalin Museum. The town was largely destroyed during the 1920 earthquake.

Under a protective pavilion made of marble and glass is the small flat-bricked house where Stalin (Joseph Jugashvili) was born (1878) and spent his childhood. His name is closely associated with the history of former Soviet state, especially during the years of the Second World War. One of the last standing statues of Stalin in the former Soviet Union is situated outside the Town Hall.

A karavan route leading from the Black Sea coast into the depth of Asia passed here for many centuries and the town witnessed many fierce battles against various invaders. The medieval fortress of Goristsikhe, situated on a hill, dominates the locality. However, its top part is only the fortress's "head". Crenellated walls and towers, like the body of a huge dragon, go down the slope of the hill, forming several defence levels. No wonder Gori was the stronghold of Georgian Kings, and the Goristsikhe, a trusted guardian of Kartli's frontiers, one of the most impregnable fortresses in Central Kartli.

Sukhumi is the capital of Abkhazia, a independent republic, which is internationally recognized as being an autonomous republic within Georgia. The city has a long and eventful history. It heavily suffered during the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict in the early 1990s. Sukhumi is a Russian transliteration of the city's official Georgian name which has entered English. Another Abkhaz variant of the city's name when they speak or write Russian is Sukhum (Russian: Сухум, a spelling once preferred in Imperial Russia).

Sukhumi is located on a wide bay of the eastern coast of the Black Sea and serves as a port, rail junction and a holiday resort. It is known for its beaches, sanatoriums, mineral-water spas and semitropical climate. Sukhumi is also an important air link for Abkhazia, as the Sukhumi Dranda Airport is located nearby the city. Sukhumi contains a number of small-to-medium size hotels serving chiefly the Russian tourists. The city also maintains historic botanical gardens, established in 1840. Until 1992, it remained a multi-cultural city, where nine different languages were spoken.

The city has a number of research institutes, the State University of Abkhazia and the Sukhumi Branch of the Tbilisi State University (currently functioning in Tbilisi). In Soviet times, it contained a renowned ape breeding station. From 1945 to 1954, the city's electron physics laboratory was involved in the Soviet program to develop nuclear weapons.

The history of the city began in the mid-6th century BC when an earlier settlement of the second and early first millennia BC, frequented by local Colchian tribes, was replaced by the Milesian Greek colony of Dioscurias (Greek: Διοσκουριός), geographically the remotest that Miletus ever established. The city is said to have been so named for the Dioscuri, the twins Castor and Pollux of classical mythology. It became busily engaged in the commerce between Greece and the indigenous tribes, importing wares from many parts of Greece, and exporting local salt and Caucasian timber, linen, and hemp. It was also a prime center of slave trade in Colchis. The city and its surroundings were remarkable for the multitude of languages spoken in its bazaars.

Although the sea made serious inroads upon the territory of Dioscurias, it continued to flourish until its conquest by Mithridates VI Eupator of Pontus in the later second century BC. Under the Roman emperor Augustus (known in Greek as Sebastos) the city assumed the name of Sebastopolis. But its prosperity was past, and in the first century AD Pliny the Elder described the place as virtually deserted though the town still continued to exist during the times of Arrian in the 130s. The remains of towers and walls of Sebastopolis have been found underwater; on land the lowest levels so far reached by archaeologists are of the first and second centuries AD. In 542 the Romans evacuated the town and demolished its citadel to prevent it from being captured by Sassanid Iran. In 565, however, the emperor Justinian I restored the fort and Sebastopolis continued to remain one of the Byzantine strongholds in Colchis until being sacked by the Arab conqueror Marwan II in 736.

Afterwards, the town came to be known as Tskhumi, a toponym which is frequently related to the Svan for "hot". Georgian scholars sometimes explain it as meaning the "hornbeam tree" in Georgian. Restored by the kings of Abkhazia from the Arab devastation, it particularly flourished during Georgia’s "golden age" in the 12th-13th centuries, when Tskhumi became a center of traffic with the European maritime powers, particularly with the Republic of Genoa. The Genoese established their short-lived trading factory at Tskhumi early in the 14th century.

The Ottoman navy occupied the town in 1451, but for a short time. Later contested between the princes of Abkhazia and Mingrelia, Tskhumi finally fell to the Turks in the 1570s. The new masters heavily fortified the town and called it Suhumkale, with kale meaning "fort" but the first part of the name of disputed origin. It may represent Turkish su, "water", and kum, "sand", but is more likely to be an alteration of its earlier Georgian name.^[2] At the request of the pro-Russian Abkhazian prince, the town was stormed by the Russian Marines in 1810 and turned, subsequently, into their major outpost in the North West Caucasus. Sukhumkale was declared the seaport in 1847 and directly joined the Russian Empire in 1864. During the Russo-Turkish War, 1877–1878, the town was temporarily controlled by the Ottoman forces and the Abkhaz-Adyghe rebels.

Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, the town and Abkhazia in general, engulfed into the chaos of the Russian Civil War. A short-lived Bolshevik government was suppressed in May 1918 and Sukhumi was incorporated into the Democratic Republic of Georgia as a residence of the autonomous People's Council of Abkhazia and the headquarters of the Georgian governor-general. The Red Army and the local revolutionaries took the city from the Georgian forces on March 4 1921, and declared Soviet rule. Sukhumi functioned as the capital of the "Union treaty" Abkhazian Soviet Socialist Republic associated with the Georgian SSR from 1921 until 1931, when it became the capital of the Abkhazian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within the Georgian SSR. By 1989, Sukhumi had 110,000 inhabitants and was one of the most prosperous cities of Georgia. Many holiday dachas for Soviet leaders were situated there.

Sukhumi was a centre of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict from 1989 to 1993 which damaged much of the city. During the Abkhaz siege of Sukhumi (1992-1993), the city and its environs suffered almost daily air strikes and artillery shellings, with heavy civilian casualties. The battle for Sukhumi was concluded by a full-scale campaign of the ethnic cleansing against its majority Georgian population in the fall of 1993. Although the city has been relatively peaceful and partially rebuilt, it is still suffering the after-effects of the war, and it has not regained its earlier ethnic diversity.

Sukhumi houses a number of historical monuments, notably the Beslet arcaded bridge built during the reign of queen Tamar of Georgia in the 12th century. It also retains visible vestiges of the defunct monuments, including the Roman walls, the 11th-century castle of Bagrat III, several towers of the Great Abkhazian Wall constructed by the early modern Mingrelian and Abkhazian princes amid their territorial disputes; the 14th-century Genoese fort, and the 18th-century Ottoman fortress. The 11th century Kaman Church (12 km from Sukhumi) is erected, according to tradition, over the tomb of Saint John Chrysostom. Some 22 km from Sukhumi lies New Athos with the ruins of the medieval city of Anacopia. The Neo-Byzantine New Athos Monastery was constructed here in the 1880s on behest of Tsar Alexander III of Russia. Northward in the mountains is the Voronya Cave, the deepest in the world.