Georgia's cave city — 3,000 chambers cut into volcanic rock by Queen Tamar, hanging above a river gorge at the edge of the Armenian highlands
Vardzia is a cave monastery complex cut into the volcanic rock of the Erusheti Mountain above the Mtkvari river in southern Georgia — the most extraordinary medieval monument in the Caucasus. Founded by King George III in the 12th century and expanded massively by his daughter Queen Tamar (r. 1184–1213) into a city of over 3,000 chambers, 13 storeys of galleries, a throne room, wine cellars, and the Church of the Assumption (with its original frescoes of Queen Tamar still intact). An earthquake in 1283 sheared off the mountain's outer cliff face, exposing the previously hidden city to the out…
Vardzia was carved as a defensive city-monastery during the reign of King George III (1156–1184) as a refuge against Mongol and Turkish raids on Georgia's southern borders. Queen Tamar — Georgia's most celebrated ruler, who presided over the 'Georgian Golden Age' — expanded the complex to its maximum extent, adding the throne room and the Church of the Assumption. The monastery was a functioning religious and administrative centre for the Kingdom of Georgia until the Mongol invasions of the 13th century devastated the surrounding region. Ottoman forces sacked it in 1551; the monastery fell in…