Are you ready to go to the Caucasus Mountains?

Hi all,

     Are you ready to go to the Caucasus Mountains? Vicky and I were there earlier this month (May 2025.) We went to three countries in the Southern Caucasus: Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia, in that order. They are on the southern slopes of the Caucasus Mountains. They are bordered by Russia on the north, the Caspian Sea to the east, Iran to the south, and Turkey and the Black Sea on the west. It's not a very large area, so we got within ten miles of Russia (twice), Iran, and Turkey. We drove around 1,600 miles so we saw a lot of these countries.

     These countries are located on the border of Europe and Asia, and they have rich cultural traditions and a diverse landscape. Because of their location, they have seen many of the world's great empires pass through them, such as the Persians, Romans, Ottomans, Mongolians, and the Russians.

     They gained independence from Russia in 1991 and are still adjusting to independence. They face numerous challenges over ethnic problems and political disputes. These conflicts are real and current as Azerbaijan and Armenia have had two wars against each other in the lasts five years. Plus, Russia has been encroaching on Georgia, so this area is a world hotspot, but it was quiet and peaceful when we were there. These countries are a blend of Eastern and Western influences and a mixture of religions, so it was a very interesting place to visit.

     I'll show a couple of photos from each country just to give you an idea of what's to come from this trip.

     Azerbaijan was our first visit. Somehow, I hadn't expected to see such a modern city as Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. 

     Azerbaijan also has historical sites such as the Khans Palace, below. It was built as the summer residence and was very lavish.

     Moving on to Georgia, we were told that every place in Georgia was spring green at the start of this week. But we woke up in our hotel room in Kazbegi, looked out our hotel room window, and this was our view. On a side note, if you look at the center left in the photo below, we drove up to the church on the hilltop later this day.

     Georgia claims to be the world's first wine producers. I can tell you this, we crisscrossed the country, and we saw vineyards and wineries everywhere.  We visited the winery below and had lunch and a wine tasting. You can also notice the snow-covered mountains in the background. 

     Armenia was the first country in the world to adopt Christianity as a state religion in AD 301. Below is the Etchmiadzin Cathedral, the oldest cathedral in the world with the original cathedral finished in AD 303. The current one dates from the 1600's.

     Mount Ararat, below, is where Noah landed the Ark. We were here to visit the Khor Virap Monastery on the right side. Mount Ararat itself is in Turkey. Mount Ararat used to be in Armenia but that was when Armenia was a much larger country.

     So, if you're inclined to visit the Southern Caucasus with us, stay tuned as we are off on another adventure.

Baku, Azerbaijan

     Baku is the capital and largest city in Azerbaijan. It's also the largest city on the Caspian Sea. Oddly enough, Baku is at 92 feet below sea level. This makes Baku the lowest lying national capital in the world and the largest city in the world below sea level. Clearly, sea level is not set by the Caspian Sea. According to our guide, sea level is set by the Baltic Sea. Baku's nickname is the "City of Winds," as the wind rolls right in off the Caspian Sea.

     Baku has a population of around 2.5 million people which means that about 25 percent of Azerbaijan's population lives in the Baku metropolitan area. Baku is the cultural, scientific, and industrial center of Azerbaijan. It's also the headquarters for many Azerbaijani institutions and the venue for major international events. The Baku Sea Trade Port is capable of handling two million tons of general and dry bulk cargo every year.

     At some point, I told our guide, Togrul, how impressed I was with Baku. I noted the buildings, the traffic, the energy, and that I could not find one single piece of litter or garbage anywhere. Togrul just smiled and said, "Oil and gas."

     Azerbaijan has huge deposits of oil and natural gas and it plays a major role in their economy. In fact, Azerbaijan is ranked as one of the world's top areas for oil exploration and development. Oil exportation accounts for approximately 76 percent of the country's total exports.

     Let's have a look at some of what I found so impressive about Baku and it's architecture.

     The first photo below is simply the Hilton Hotel, which is where we stayed in Baku. It was a very nice hotel.

     I'm not sure what the next building was but it was right across the street from our hotel. It appeared to be old and stately, perhaps from the Russian era.

     The next photo is one I took from Old Town Baku. I like it because you can see some of the very old and some of the very new in Baku. The photo below was taken from the Palace of The Shirvanshahs. 

     The next building is the Heydar Aliyev Center. It's a famous building designed by world-famous architect Zaha Hadid. The center is a performance venue and exhibition space. It seemed to me to be very much like an art museum but what a building! 

     The next photo was taken from very near where Vicky is standing above. It's just another photo of Baku showing the wide variety of buildings and architecture.

     The next building is not so famous or important, but it is certainly eye-catching. It's Deniz Mall. It's a shopping and entertainment mall that sits right on the Caspian Sea. It's got seven floors of shops, cafes, restaurants, a cinema, a children's entertainment center, an amusement park, a bowling alley and much more. It visually resembles a lotus flower and our guide said it gets people confused with the Sydney Opera House, for looks.

     Lastly is a photo I took from the waterfront walk, along the Caspian Sea. This is another photo to show the variety of buildings in Baku. The buildings in the forefront are, of course, very old. But you can see the Flame Towers in the background, which are meant to symbolize the elements of fire. They hold residential apartments, a Fairmont Hotel, and lots of office space. They also light up at night and change colors and patterns.  

Baku's Old City

     We spent a morning walking around Baku's Old City, or Inner City. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site and reasonably large at 55 acres of land. It contains ancient caravanserais, mosques, bath houses, shops, restaurants, houses, public spaces, and is a real part of the city of Baku with people living inside it. The Old City has a long history, but it seemed to me to be fairly modern in terms of its operations and functions.

     We entered the Old City through the Twin Gates, below. The city wall dates from the 12th century.

     I found the Old City to be on the modern side in most respects as you can see below.

     We knew that we would be tempted by carpet sellers, like the one above, but we weren't ready for what we came across in the Old City. Carpets could not easily be avoided here.

     The Palace of the Shirvanshahs, a 15th century palace, was one of the highlights of the Old City. It is considered one of the pearls of Azerbaijani architecture. This ornate complex contains bath ruins, a mausoleum, burial vaults, and much more. 

Below, you can see the palace's Throne Room which was the center of state representation.

     As much as I liked the palace and other elaborate buildings, I preferred some of the small and intimate side streets that we found in the Old City. They had a great feel and ambience to them.

     Another highlight of the Old City was the Maiden Tower. Stories about the tower seem to be uncertain. It dates from sometime between the 7th and 12th centuries. It also has multiple stories about its purpose, but it was clearly a highlight of our visit. It has a museum inside about the historic evolution of the city of Baku. What I can tell you is that it's 143 steps to get to the top. Vicky and I made it to the top and were rewarded with some great views of the city. 

Heydar Aliyev Center

    We visited the Heydar Aliyev Center and spent a couple of hours inside it. The building was designed by Zaha Hadid, a noted architect. We heard many long explanations about it, its meaning, and so on. We heard things like it folds the landscape's natural topography and it represents a single continuous surface. We heard that it has this fluid form giving it cultural space and maintaining its own identity. Now I'll acknowledge that it's an incredible design, but all I could think about during our whole visit was the poor contractor that had to build this incredible design. The Center is 619,000 square feet of space.

     The design architect was appointed in 2007 and the Center had an official opening ceremony in 2012. The Center has eight floor levels, a conference center, a 1,000-seat auditorium, exhibition spaces, workshops, and a museum. I can tell you this, walking the steps from floor to floor was hazardous. The steps were all white marble and everything else like railing wall, building walls, ceilings, etc. were all the same white so where one step started and one ended was difficult to determine. It was also extremely well maintained and the steps were on the slippery side, but we managed to go up all eight floors and back down again.

     There was a huge variety of art on display and I will only show a tiny fraction of what we saw in the Center, starting with an end photo of the Center.

     The first photo is a simple one but one that really intrigued me. It's a half-finished carpet with all the threads needed to finish the carpet attached.

     I could easily do an entire blog post just on horse sculptures, but I won't. Horses were a key item of interest in the museum.

     As an alternative to horse transportation, here's a 1929 Packard, ordered in 1928 by the President of Guatemala and yes, another long story of how it got here.

     To give you an idea of how wide the variety of displays covered, here's part of the really large fruit and vegetable section.

     Just to get back to basics, here's a photo from the clothing section.

    I don't remember what section the dog below belonged in but they had lots and lots of animals in the museum.

Martyr's Lane

     We visited Martyr's Lane or Alley of Martyrs one morning. It's a cemetery and memorial in Baku dedicated primarily to those killed by the Soviet Army during the Black January uprising in 1990 and in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War of 1988-1994. There are around 15,000 people buried here with about 14,000 of them Azerbaijanis. 

     One thing that we have experienced in all countries that were formerly part of the Soviet Union has been lots of memorials, especially to wars. In this case, it's an Azerbaijan memorial and primarily for the battle against the Soviet Army in 1990 where 126 were Azerbaijanis were killed. This was considered the start of their drive to independence from Russia which they achieved in 1991.

     Fighting in Baku broke out in the closing days of World War I, in 1918. Four groups were fighting plus some British troops. During that fighting, 1130 Turks died and as part of that conflict and this first served as a Muslim cemetery, hence the Turkish-built Mosque of the Martyr's.

     Martyr's Lane is a really long lane, so I'll include several photos to give you an idea of how long.

     Towards the end of the lane are the graves of the 126 Azerbaijanis who died during Black January 1990.

     And one closeup to show that the deaths were not all men and definitely not all old, grizzled military types.

     At the end of the memorial is an eternal flame, housed in a protective structure. I took the photo to show the Soviet era radio tower in the background.

     The view from the end of this memorial, right near the eternal flame was pretty impressive, but made less so by the light rain.

Open-Air Museum of Gobustan

     We drove southwest from Baku along the Caspian Sea to get to Gobustan and an open-air museum. It's an ancient historic site that contains a large collection of petroglyphs. Petroglyphs are pictures or symbols engraved on a rock surface. The oldest petroglyphs here date from the 12th century BC. The carving fun continued with inscriptions left by Alexander the Great's cohorts in the 4th century BC and then 2,000 year-old graffiti written by the Roman legions.

     Thousands of rock engravings are spread over 62 square miles. This site is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Carvings depict people, animals, hunting scenes, ships, constellations, bullfighting, camel caravans, and celestial symbols such as the sun and stars.

     I have to say that I've been to several petroglyph sites in the USA and I often cannot see clearly what a guide tells me I'm looking at. It makes sense, in that after many thousands of years of weather, the rocks erode, stuff grows, and the petroglyphs become less distinct. The same thing happened here at Gobustan, but I'll just show you a few that were much clearer to me than many others.

     In the first photo, it wasn't clear that people had lived here for thousands of years but they do have earthquakes in this country.

     This first rock has several petroglyphs but the biggest ones appear to be a hunter (on the left) stalking two bulls.

     The next one depicts perhaps a story with a boat up top and people down below. Our guide said the boat indicates that they were near water, which this place is. The petroglyphs on the left, the guide suggested were done at a very different time so probably not part of the same story.

     The next one appears to be three animals, each one chasing the other. The left one I can't remember, then a leopard, then a boar.

    In the next one, you can see a couple of big bulls and one horse. I think more was pointed out but I can't remember it all. There was too much going on in some of the petroglyphs.

     I saw many of these holes dug out in the rock and thought they were grinding stones, but our guide said that they were dug out to collect water.

Baku Odds and Ends

     These will just be some miscellaneous items from Baku. I'll start with the start of one lunch. For all three Causasus countries, lunches and dinners all started the same. We sat down to a table with the following already on the table. We had at least one bread but more often, two types of fresh bread. We had at least one cheese but usually two or more types of cheeses. We had one salad with fresh tomatoes and cucumbers (always fresh and delicious) and perhaps some onions and other things as well. Then we had at least one other salad but often two or three other salads on the table.

We were also always given bottles of water and could have either plain or sparkling water. The second salad at this meal was a potato and pea salad.

     Our hotel was right across the street from a large mall and the Caspian Sea. In this case, the street was a one-way street with five lanes of very fast traffic. I didn't see a crosswalk. Our guide said not to worry, just take the pedestrian underpass across the street. It was extremely nice, all marble.

    In going to the edge of Asia and Europe, we expected to be drinking tea much more often than coffee. It turns out that these countries are moving towards the West and Europe and starting to drink more coffee. Coffee shops were everywhere and often very nice, like this one on the edge of the Caspian Sea.

    One of Vicky's goals for wherever we go in the world is to dip her toes in whatever major body of water that we encounter. We talked to our guide about Vicky dipping her toes in the Caspian Sea and our guide looked alarmed! He said that it's just not done. It turns out that Baku is one of the richest oil producing areas in the world and the Caspian Sea near Baku is loaded with oil wells. For that reason, there is an oil sheen on the water, plus it's salty, and people simply do not go swimming here or even dip their toes in the Sea. Of course, he didn't know Vicky.

     We made an out-of-the-way stop as we were driving back to Baku one day. It was just on the outskirts of Baku. This stop was to see the world's first industrially drilled oil well, put into play in 1846, right here near Baku. Furthermore, Azerbaijan was the world's leading oil producer in 1901 and the company leading it was owned by the Nobel Brothers, who were richer than the Rockefellers. The Nobel Brothers were two brothers of Albert Nobel, famous for inventing dynamite and sponsoring the Nobel Prize. The Nobel brothers lived here in Baku and produced oil for 30 years until Russia confiscated their company and sent them packing.

  And as if the world's first industrial oil well wasn't enough, they also invented the world's first oil pipeline which was made of birch tree plywood.

     Now it's time to move on from Baku to other parts of Azerbaijan. The map below will show you where we went in Azerbaijan, the black lines. We eventually drove from Azerbaijan into Georgia. The entire trip was driving with no local inter-country flights. We had a nice big comfortable bus.

Juma Mosque

     We left Baku and drove to the city of Shemakhi, which was the ancient capital of Azerbaijan. Our stop here was to visit the Juma Mosque. It was the first Muslim mosque built in the Caucasus Mountains. It was built in 743 AD. Of course, other historians say that a mosque was built in Derbent a few years before this. Either way, the Juma Mosque is a very old mosque. It's also a great example of Islamic architecture with a unique design including its beautiful domes and intricate carvings.

     The current mosque is at least the fifth or so reconstruction. The mosque has been destroyed multiple times by both wars and earthquakes. I find it interesting that we are always given the date of the original construction but this mosque today looks quite new. It's also more than just a mosque. Juma mosque is a cultural center and really a very large complex.

     I think the most interesting and also the most encouraging thing we learned about the Juma mosque is that both Shia and Sunni Muslims pray here together. I'm not sure that I've ever heard of that before on our travels.

     This next photo only shows one very small corner of the complex. It's an enclosed space but really large with many rooms.

There are parts of the previous versions of this mosque still in front of this current mosque. The metal parts are the apexes of more ancient minarets. Other more ancient parts are located in the tunnels behind the minarets.

Lahic Village

     This post will be about our visit to Lahic Village. Lahic is a small village on the southern slopes of the Greater Caucasus Mountains. The population is about 850 people. It's one of the oldest settlements in Azerbaijan. Lahic gained a reputation as a center of artisans and craftsmanship some 500 years ago. It has carpet weavers, tanners, blacksmiths, engravers, painters, shoemakers, sock weavers, carpenters, and jewelers who all live and work here. But the coppersmiths and metal workers are the ones that really rose to prominence in Lahic. 

     Lahic is the sounds of tiny hammers beating metal as it skips across the cobbled streets and bounces off the hills. Artisans and tinkerers form the Lahic copper orchestra. Lahic has been famous for this since the Middle Ages in the Caucasus. It's also known as a center for crafts, shopping, and the production of cold steel and copper utensils, decorated with engraved patterns. Today, it's a tourist destination as well.

     I must say, however, that as much as I enjoyed our visit to Lahic, our drive up the mountain to get there was probably the most exciting part of the whole side-trip excursion. We had to leave our bus for small, four-wheel vehicles. We were in an extremely thick fog and then it started to rain. As we drove up the canyon into the mountain, it rained harder and then began to hail. Visibility was close to zero. Our driver, a Lahic resident, drove like we were in a road race. I had some doubts about our ability to get there, but we made it.

     I will start the photos with two photos that I took on our way back down the mountain. Why? Because nothing was visible on our way up the mountain. You can see the road that we traveled in the first two photos. Now add thick fog, rain, hail and a NASCAR driver to it.

And upon arriving in Lahic, in front of the people's house that we were going to visit, you can see the water running down the street. We got out of the cars and stepped into three or four inches of fast running water.

Next is the house of the people that we were in Lahic to visit. We had to take off our wet shoes and socks to enter the house.

It was quite a nice house and we were here to have lunch with them, followed by time with the man's coppersmithing operation.

The woman above prepared our lunch. It was somewhat unusual and really good. We had soup which was perfect for our foggy and rainy day. The soup was potatoes, mint, eggs, and plums. The combination might sound odd, but I assure you, the soup was delicious!

Our main course was Plov which was beef, apricots, and raisins over jasmine rice. It was also delicious.

Lahic Coppersmith

     After lunch, we went out to visit our host's coppersmith workshop and store. That was the main reason for our visit to Lahic. Here, they still use some ancient methods for processing copper to make everyday tools and craft items. Our host said that he learned copper-smithing from his father. He also said that he had nine siblings and with all of his kids, and his nephews, and nieces, not a single one wants to continue on with the family copper business, so it will die out with him.

     In the first photo, you can see Vicky standing there. To her left, if you go down the alley and through the wall opening, then left, you enter a courtyard and the house where they live is to the left. To her right is our host's retail copper store. Their home, workshop, and business are all right together.

We first went into our host's workshop. He does all sorts of work with copper and brass in his workshop. He demonstrated some work for us. It was a bit dusty in his workshop, to say the least. but it was fascinating to look through all the different things that he has made.

Next, we can see his retail shop with items that he makes and sells. Vicky purchased two small coasters, like the ones that you see on the shelf.

The village of Lahic is really a step back in time. It's been there for hundreds of years and is really a nice cozy little village, with friendly people. The streets also double as rainstorm runoff canals. The steep mountains send massive amounts of water down into Lahic. 

I didn't see very much of the many other crafts in town. Most were still closed after the big storm. I only saw a couple of open stores and will only include two photos. Our time in Lahic was short but we enjoyed every minute of it. My highlight sighting below was the canned walnuts (second from right). I never knew anyone to can walnuts before. The next photo will give an idea of how cold it gets here in winter.

     Our drive down off the mountain was also interesting. If you look at the first two photos of the previous post, you can understand why. The road, in places, looked like a river bottom. It was covered with small boulders, rocks, and gravel. The town already had people out with tractors and shovels clearing the road. The steep shale mountains shed rocks like crazy.

Shaki

     We continued driving in a northwesterly direction. Our next overnight stop was in Shaki, about 150 miles from Baku. Shaki was founded in the 8th century B.C. It's in the southern part of the Greater Caucasus mountain range and about 2,300 feet elevation. The town has a population of about 70,000 people. The Palace of Shaki Khans was the center of the city. The palace and the city of Shaki have unique architecture and history as an important trading center along the northern alternate route of the Silk Road.

     Shaki was an interesting city to visit. Much of the town is scattered amongst the hills in which the town is located.

Going back to the Silk Road days, the central caravanserai was probably the primary stopping point, besides the Shaki Palace. The caravanserai is still in business today. Our guide said a room for a night only costs $25. We asked why it was so cheap. He said because it had no internet and offered no food service. It still seemed like a bargain to me.

  We were in the middle of town, standing in front of the caravanserai, when we heard a fire truck coming up the road. The truck made it to where you see in the photo and then couldn't keep going. It took them five or six tries to get into gear or whatever the problem was before they finally advanced, very slowly, up the hill to whatever emergency was taking place.

Much of the walls of the old Shaki Fortress are still standing. They surrounded the Palace of Shaki Khans. It was like a small town. It was the summer residence of the Shaki Khans, built in 1797.

You can see Vicky standing in front of the Shaki Palace below. I liked that the Sycamore trees were huge. It lends credibility to the fact that the palace is a really an old palace.

Shaki Palace and Shebeke

     Our visit inside the Palace of Shaki Khans was really fascinating. I found many interesting things to consider and wonder at. For instance, they had a natural air cooling and ventilation system in place with no moving parts. Remember, this was originally a summer palace. Also, the entrance way had sand floors for both cooling and fire protection. They used all natural paints made from various plants and bugs. And our wonderful palace guide even pointed out some 300-year-old dust!! (I'm going to remember that when I give tours of my own house). The decorations in the entire palace were exceptional including elaborate frescoes, wood latticework, floral tile panels, and lots more from floor to ceiling.

     No photos were allowed inside but, of course, I found some online and will include a couple. I want you to focus on the stained-glass windows.

     These windows are unlike any I've ever seen before. They are called Shebeke. They are created by Azerbaijani folk craftsmen using colored glass and small wooden parts without any glue or nails. These shebeke were used in the palace to fill walls and windows in halls and rooms. 

     Shebeke art is an intangible cultural heritage that is an artistic constructive form of art from the Middle Eastern architecture and in their decorative arts and crafts. This has been used in the architecture of Azerbaijan since the 11th-12th centuries. The main "secret" of this art is assembling small glass pieces together with wood elements that fix each other in place without glue or nails. The wooden parts must have a ledge and indentation between which the small glass pieces are inserted.

     We had the opportunity to meet a master shebeke artist in his home and studio. I must confess that I found it fascinating. In my own plain language, these are not so much stained-glass windows as they are stained-glass puzzles. You can take them apart and put them back together. Below, you can see him beginning to take apart a window for us to see. Also, notice the photos on the wall behind him. This is not a new art.

These are some more of his artistic pieces of shebeke. They are normally done like flat latticework, but below you can see a not-flat lamp that he made.

After all the demonstrations, including a visit to his shop, he had us put together a small shebeke creation on our own. Vicky is holding her finished project along with the artist. I did one too and both now sit in our living room, ready to take apart and put back together again. And I will tell you, that it was much harder than you might suspect.

Kish Village

     From Shaki, we took a cab ride a few miles up the mountain to the Kish Village. This village is one of Azerbaijan's most historically and culturally significant locations. Like nearby Shaki, it was part of the hub of the area's Silk Road passage. Kish offers incredible views of the Caucasus and has a serene atmosphere. Kish has cobblestone streets, traditional Azerbaijani houses, a scenic landscape, clear mountain springs, lush forests, and warm hospitality. We experienced all of this in the Kish Village.

     It started with our cab ride. Here, you can see Vicky with our cab driver and her very own cab. I'm not sure, but before driving her cab, I think she might have been a race car driver.

     Kish Village is best known for the Kish Albanian Church. It has also been known as Church of Saint Eliseus, the Holy Mother of God Church, the Caucasian Albanian Apostolic Church, the Chalcedonian church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, and the Georgian Orthodox Church.  

      At any rate, it's considered the oldest Albanian church in the Caucasus. It's thought to date back to the first century AD. Objects, however, have been found on the site of the church that date to 3,000 B.C. Some of the ancient objects can be seen buried in the ground, through glass. On a side note, Thor Heyerdahl visited here in 2000. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs funded a joint project here with the Azerbaijan Architecture and Construction University. Our guide suggested that Heyerdahl was looking for some Norwegian heritage here. 

     This church is not very large and has obviously been renovated at some recent date.

     In addition to information about the church, there were other information displays around the church area. I found some of them to be very interesting, such as the one below. Azerbaijan is no stranger to churches and monastery complexes.

     Following our visit to the Kish Church, our cab driver turned into a cook and hostess for a mid-morning snack. She made us some bread that was very pizza-like. Then, after the bread was baked, she put onto it a combination of walnuts, onions, and sour cherry syrup. It was delicious.

     In the photo below, you can see her kitchen. It was definitely not fancy but very functional. What I didn't notice until preparing this post was something in the upper left on the top of the refrigerator. You can see that it says, "USAID". USAID had a program of providing technical assistance for agrotourism to the "Old Kish" women's group and they made a matching contribution towards the purchase of kitchen and dining room equipment in 2023. The round structure on the right side is their oven, where they cooked the bread.

     I can tell you this, these people are very Pro-USA. They really like the U.S. And since they are only a few miles from the Russian border, that seems like a good thing to me, and it seems like it was a worthwhile investment by USAID.

     They served us the pizza-like bread with tea and other goodies.

Leaving Azerbaijan

     We are leaving Azerbaijan now, but I thought I would make one more post, just to add a few things about the country before we leave. I'll start with a couple of food photos. I haven't shown much food yet so I want to add a couple of main dishes that we were served in Azerbaijan.

     The first photo was our main that they served us at lunch one day in Shaki. It was lamb with potatoes, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, onion, mushrooms, and lemons. It was all very tasty.

     The next was our main dish that they served us for one of our dinners in Shaki. It was called 'shah plov' and was beef, jasmine rice, fruit, and nuts cooked for three hours in phyllo dough. It was served as a big ball and shown here is after I cut and pulled it open.

     As we live on a farm and are part of the agricultural community, I always have my eye out for agriculture on my trips. As we neared Georgia, I saw some bigger ag in terms of the size of the herds of animals and the size of the fields of crops, as you can see.

     While Azerbaijan definitely seems like a first-world country to me, agriculture and all that goes with it was still very evident. One thing I noticed was that very few fields have fences around them. But the country is chock full of livestock, so... stop the bus!

     Azerbaijan was not notable for its wildlife, but you know how much I like wildlife. This was my first sighting, up in the Kish Village.

     As we approached the border between Azerbaijan and Georgia, it hit home to me that while the days of the Silk Road are long gone, this whole area of the world is still very much a crossroads of commerce. Our guide said that one traveler on one trip had counted the trucks waiting to cross the border and she counted 2,000 trucks. Fortunately, we didn't have to wait in the truck line.

      It was an experience crossing from Azerbaijan into Georgia. The area between the borders was something like 600 yards long that we had to drag and carry our luggage. We also had to cross the bridge over the river that separates the two countries. Some people hated it but for whatever reason, I find it thrilling to find myself in "no man's land." Here, we were waiting to get inside in order to exit Azerbaijan. And yes, that's a border-crossing dog. But for the most part, Azerbaijan was more of a cat country, with cats all over the place.

Tbilisi, GEORGIA

We are now in Georgia. Yes, there is a European country named Georgia, or to be more specific, The Republic of Georgia. Georgia has been inhabited since prehistory and contains the world's earliest known sites of winemaking, gold mining, and textiles. They have one of the world's original alphabets and languages. It had many kingdoms in past ages. Georgians officially adopted Christianity in the early fourth century and are primarily Eastern Orthodox Christians. They had the usual empires flow through such as the Persians, Mongolians, Ottomans, Romans, and Russians. They are an official candidate for entry into the European Union but face some difficult obstacles, mainly due to Russian incursion that is still unsettled to this day.  

     From my perspective, I find it interesting that Georgia was part of Russia between 1801 and 1918, and then from 1921 to 1991. From my own perspective, I would think that after being part of Russia for some 187 years, you would consider yourselves Russians. But not a chance. These people are Georgians all the way. Even today, the two countries are at odds with each other. Russians have incurred into Georgia recently and have established military bases within Georgia's borders, in South Ossetia. That's one of the conflicts to joining the EU because to join the EU, you must have clear, established borders. At any rate, Georgia is moving onward from their Russian hangover and seems to be making good progress. My guess is that had Russia taken over the Ukraine in five days (the current war), like Putin thought he would, Georgia would now be part of Russia again. One other very interesting item is that Georgia fought in WW II on the side of Russia and the Allies. They still feel like they contributed a lot to the war effort, and lost a lot of men, but were given no credit for their fighting on the side of the Allies by Russia. 

     Our first and longest stop of our trip was in Tbilisi. Tbilisi is the capital and largest city of Georgia. It has around 1.2 million people in a country of around 3.7 million people. Tbilisi is located on the banks of the Kura River and was founded in the fifth century AD. It served as the capital of various Georgian kingdoms and republics before being overtaken by Russia. On a side note, we drove into Tbilisi on George W. Bush Street, as George Bush visited here when he was our President.

     Tbilisi is at the crossroads of Europe and Asia and was a key location on the northern alternate route of the Silk Road. Tbilisi remains in a key location today and is an important transit route for energy and trade projects. I'm guessing that due to being a crossroads, Tbilisi and Georgia are home to people of diverse cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds, though still primarily Eastern Orthodox for religion. In the same vein, Tbilisi has a wide spectrum of architecture which is a mix of medieval, neoclassical, Beaux Arts, Art Nouveau, Stalinist, Russian, and Modern. I found it impressive. Tbilisi is a big city, and you will only see glimpses of it. 

     I'll start our tour of Tbilisi with some overview photos to give a general idea of the landscape, architecture, and history. I chose the first photo for multiple reasons. You can see the old Narikala Fortress walls on top of the hill, and a variety of buildings below. You can see several churches which are a common site in Georgia. You can see a cable car going up to the top of the mountain. We took the cable car and the next several photos were taken from the top of Sololaki Hill. I also thought that Tbilisi had a good look and feel to it.

The next two photos just show more of the extended town with a variety of architecture, the mountains, and the Kura River.

Georgia is chuck full of churches, like most of Europe, but I found the Holy Trinity Cathedral particularly impressive. We never got to visit it however.

The next photo is just to show a glimpse of some of the modern buildings in Tbilisi.

I don't, however, want to give anyone the wrong impression. Georgia was under Russia for a long time. Some of the older Russian buildings, from the Russian Empire period, were very nice buildings. But when the likes of Khruschev and Brezhnev came to power, it was function over form.

The next photo is the Mother of Georgia statue, from atop Sololaki Hill. It was originally built in 1958 to commemorate Tbilisi's 1,500th anniversary. But it was rebuilt in the 1990's. It's now a 65-foot tall, aluminum coated woman in traditional Georgian dress. She holds a bowl of wine in one hand and is brandishing a sword in the other. The wine is for those who come as friends, and the sword is for those who don't come to Georgia as friends. We most definitely came to Georgia as friends, and we enjoyed plenty of their wine!

The next building is the Music Hall. It was designed by Massimiliano Fuksas and sits in Rike Park. I was really fascinated and impressed by many of the buildings in the Caucasus and this was one of them. On a side note, and along musical lines, Azerbaijan was really taken by American Jazz music back in the 1970's. They expanded and developed their own Azerbaijani jazz, but American jazz music was their starting point.

     On the lower left above, you can see one end of the Peace Bridge. This bridge stretches 490 feet over the Kura River and opened in 2010. The bridge connects Old Tbilisi and Rike Park. It was designed by Italian architect Michele De Lucchi. It's a nice walking bridge and also offers some great views of the river and town. It's also an all-weather walking bridge and very popular.  

     The ancient Tbilisi district of Abanotubani contains a cluster of dome-roofed brick bathhouses, built over the sulfur hot springs that gave Tbilisi its name, "warm place" in Georgian. Our guide offered to make us a reservation but when we asked about the smell, he said it was terrible. We opted to not go down into the bathhouses.

     We visited the Zion Cathedral, or the Sioni Cathedral of the Dormition. It bears the name Mount Zion of Jerusalem. The cathedral is on the right bank of the Kura River. It was originally built back in the sixth century but there have been many re-buildings since then. Our guide went in first and found out that there was a funeral service underway, but the Orthodox priest told him that we could come in anyway, so we did. After we had viewed the church, we could see that others in our group were looking more extensively, so Vicky and I sat down on a bench in the back of the church. Before long, an Orthodox priest came up to Vicky and scolded her for crossing her legs as she sat on the bench. Vicky uncrossed her legs, but we never did understand the problem.

    I have photos of other major buildings and streets, but like in other cities, I liked some of the side streets the best and Tbilisi had some nice ones.

     You can't go to a former Russian country but that monuments and statues are major landmarks. The War Memorial in Vake Park is on the edge of Tbilisi center. The park has a long and uncertain history. It might have been a park already but in 1946, it became Victory Park, and a war memorial was installed to commemorate the Great Patriotic War (WW II). Many Georgians fought and died in the war. There was a major reconstruction project from 1981 to 1985 involving cascades and fountains plus the installation of the Mother of the Place (Victory Lady) statue at the top of the monument. Also added were eight Georgian Warrior Heroes, guarding the tomb. Now, it's undergoing another renovation, so the fountains were all empty. It was still an impressive monument. 

Georgian Food

     This will be an introduction to Georgian food. It was not very different from Azerbaijan or Armenia, but we did have a few different dishes in each country. The first photo was at lunch on our way to Tbilisi, at the Lago Guest House. It was right along the highway and got lots of traveler business.

The first photo was what was on the table when we sat down to eat. The soup was chicken, eggs, and vinegar. Like other soup combinations, I found them peculiar, but the soup was very good. We also had tandoor bread, cornbread, pinto beans, chicken, eggplant, a tomatoes and cucumber salad, and cherry juice.

     Below is another salad that was mostly tomatoes and cheese, with mint, cilantro, and peppers in the center.

     These cheese stuffed mushrooms were excellent.

     The bread below was a khachapuri or a Filled Bread. Khachapuri is the national dish of Georgia. It is normally cheese, herbs, and eggs on or inside the bread. These breads are a mainstay of Georgian cuisine. All of them were very tasty.

     We were served plenty of meat in Georgia, but I would say that it was normally in smaller portions. In this case, we got platters of BBQ'd meat: pork, beef, and chicken. Each one was very good and we cleaned our plates.

     Below is the much more classical Khachapuri. This was how it was normally served and again, it was really good. I would say that the bread, cheese, herbs, and eggs were all good and together, it was delicious. It was also very rich and filling.

     The last photo was in Tbilisi near the Zion Cathedral, but we saw these stands in many places in Georgia. I was very impressed to see a sort of fast food, quick snack place selling fruits: watermelon, blueberries, strawberries, plums, etc.

Tbilisi Old City

     We have already seen much of the Tbilisi Old City so far. But our guide took us on a walk that he called “visiting the Old City”. Our walk took us to some of the less traveled neighborhoods and non-touristy sections of the Old City. I supposed that he wanted us to see some of the areas that most tourists never visit. After an hour or so, I came to the conclusion that he was presenting us with one of Tbilisi's problem areas. The problem is that many of these ancient streets have houses and buildings that have outlived their usefulness. Some people want to protect their architectural heritage in the old buildings while others want to tear them down and build new buildings to improve the area. This problem exists in many parts of the US as well and I've heard all the arguments before. It was still interesting to view these streets and see the issue first-hand.

     The first building was very near our hotel. The contractors had destroyed the entire building with the exception of the front wall. We have seen this exact thing in other areas of Europe. But Vicky and I took several good looks at the front of the old building and we couldn't see any structural items of note. If there was something redeeming in the architecture, it eluded our understanding. You can't see it because of the net, but we walked under the net and still could not see anything of particular value.

     The next photo will give you a view of what many of the streets in this neighborhood looked like. It was clearly run-down and in need of upgrading.

     But it was a real surprise to see a church that had been abandoned. That is much more unusual and especially in an area with so many churches as Tbilisi.

     I took the next photo to show the difference in a partially upgraded street. The right side of the street has not been improved while the left side of the street had been completely renovated.

     Our guide said that the cost for major renovations or destruction and rebuilding was extremely expensive. Some people, however, had made that commitment as you can see in the next photo. Our guide said some people loved it and some people hated it which was no surprise.

     My lasting memory of walking these Old City neighborhoods will be in the next two photos. In the first, you can see an old building that is not in terrible shape, but could definitely use a little work. It didn't look to be super fancy but clearly had been impressive at one point in time.

     Then our guide let us into the building, and you can see in the following photo that it was owned by royalty at some point back in time.

Tserovani

     We drove north of Tbilisi to visit the village of Tserovani. It's the home of about 8,000 internally displaced people (IDP's) from South Ossetia. South Ossetia is part of Georgia, OR the independent Republic of South Ossetia or the State of Alania, depending on who you ask. While most of the world considers it part of Georgia, five members of the UN recognize it as a sovereign state, Russia being the primary country to do so. 

     In August 2008, South Ossetian forces and Russia sought to do an ethnic cleansing of the Georgian-populated areas of South Ossetia. They expelled the Georgians living there, mostly back to Georgia. The numbers of displaced Georgians from South Ossetia was somewhere between 20,000 and 60,000 but no one seems to know for sure exactly how many. Our guide put the number at up to 60,000 displaced people.

     Georgia's answer to the IDP's was to build twelve small settlements to house the people temporarily, until they could return to their homes in South Ossetia. Seventeen years later, the people are still here in Tserovani and all the other temporary villages. Tserovani is a makeshift functioning village. It has an administrative building, grocery store, small health clinic, and a school, but not much else. These people have no idea if they will ever be able to return to their homes in South Ossetia.

     Tserovani has over 2,000 cottages to house about 8,000 people. The cottages are all three-bedroom, single story, simple white cottages with red roofs and originally, each one was exactly the same. The cottages were all arranged in an orderly grid. They came with only a washing machine and a water heater. Tserovani lacks agricultural lands, has next to no jobs, has communal fees, water problems, and many other issues. Heating in winter is an extreme problem for their thin-walled cottages and very cold winters. Most locals struggle to afford to pay their gas and electricity bills. And of course, over the seventeen years, each household has modified their structure, color, yard, and so forth.

     Our visit here was to the headquarters of 'For Better Future', a non-governmental organization (NGO) and The Youth House of Tserovani. Their mission is to: 1. Employ women IDP's and youth; 2. Promote the technique of traditional Georgian craft, and 3.  Reinvest revenues into implementing the mission of the Organization. We heard a lecture about Tserovani, and the ethnic cleansing that led to the construction of Tserovani, and the people who ended up here and their plight here since 2008. The NGO foundation hopes to serve as a link between these wayward South Ossetians and the rest of Georgia.

     We also did a craft project here as part of our visit. It was an enamel workshop. We were shown a slide show about how it's done and given help with our project. We got to make an enamel pendent of our own.

     Below, you can see one street of Tserovani. If you look towards the back, you can see that the town just goes on and on and it's all the same, or at least it was originally all the same. It was laid out on a grid pattern.

Next is a slide from our enamel workshop, where we learned what we would be doing. We then each made our own small pendent. Cloisonne' is an ancient art technique used for decorating metal objects, typically with enamel. It uses thin wires to create compartments to contain the enamel. Once the compartments are filled, the object is fired until the enamel melts and fuses into a smooth, colorful surface.

I chose a simple pendent, an apple, and finished quickly. I then set off exploring the area outside of the workshop. I found this bus parked behind the workshop building in an open area. I went in and introduced myself. They had books, movies, tapes, maps, and all sorts of things, all in English. The woman was very nice and very informative. I suspect this was more money-well-spent by the US as these people also seem to love the US.

As part of our visit to Tserovani, we had a home-hosted lunch with one of the families. There was one woman, her sister, their father (Grandpa), and one daughter, or niece. The daughter was our translator, and she spoke very good English. The father came home around the end of our meal. In the first photo, you can see our cook in her very small kitchen. And this is her entire kitchen. 

I'll just include two photos from lunch. We had khachapuri (bread, cheese, and spices), cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, lobiani (bread and beans), preserved figs, rose hip jam, and cupcakes for dessert.

I sat next to Grandpa and across from his granddaughter, our interpreter. He makes his own wine from vines growing around their house. You can see him pouring me my first glass of wine. It was very mild but very tasty. As I was sitting right next to Grandpa, (yes Grandpa to Grandpa), every time my wine glass got empty, he filled it back up. You are looking at the first of ten glasses of wine for me at this lunch. After all, I didn't want to offend him by not drinking his wine. And of course, no more photos were taken from this location....

Jvari Monastery

     Moving on from Tbilisi, we made a stop at the Jvari Monastery. It's an early medieval Georgian church and a rare one in that it has survived to the present day almost unchanged. The church became the originator of its type, the Jvari type of church architecture, prevalent in Georgia and Armenia. It is one of the holiest sites in the Caucasus. The church was built between 590 and 650 AD. There is a lot of history and a lot of stories attached to this church but I won't go into all that.

     The church is built on a rocky mountaintop at the confluence of the Kura (or Mtskheta) and Aragvi rivers. It overlooks the ancient capital of Mtskheta which was the capital of the Kingdom of Iberia from the 3rd century BC up to the founding of Tbilisi in the 5th century AD. They say that the old capital is Georgia's spiritual heart of the country.

     It was nice to see an ancient church that hadn't been rebuilt over and over. On the other hand, the interior of the church was all under a huge reconstruction project so there wasn't much to see inside the church. 

     While I definitely liked the Jvari Monastery, I really liked the views that we got from the church. The first one is looking down at the ancient capital of Mtskheta and the confluence of the two rivers. Our guide said that this was where the two rivers readily mixed together. I looked down and saw where the two rivers joined each other but I didn't see any ready mixing going on. It's a beautiful area.

     In the photo below, you can also notice the large cathedral in Mtskheta, which will be our next stop.

     The second photo is just looking to the right of the first photo, further up another canyon area.

     This monastery is now quite a tourist site, so it was very busy. For that reason, we wandered around the back side to enjoy a more quiet and peaceful time with the site. 

     As the importance of the Jvari complex increased over time, the complex was fortified in the late Middle Ages by a stone wall and gate, remnants of which still survive today. The Soviets preserved this as a national monument which is partly why it's in such good shape today. Since independence, Georgia has restored the building to active religious use.

Svetitskhoveli Cathedral

     We visited the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in the historic Capital town of Mtskheta. A church was originally built here in the 4th century, but the cathedral dates to the 7th century. I think that most of the current structure was built between 1010 and 1029. Svetitskhoveli has survived a variety of adversities including many of its priceless frescoes being lost from being whitewashed by the Russians. I would add that even today, the outside needs some work done to it. The cathedral is a cross-in-square structure which features a square center with an internal structure shaped like a cross, topped by a dome. Svetitskhoveli is considered one of the great cathedrals of the Georgian Orthodox world. The cathedral sits inside a walled complex and the wall is a very substantial wall.

     One of the things that makes this such a sacred place is that Christ's robe is said to be buried here. According to a Georgian tradition, a Georgian Jew bought the robe from a Roman soldier and brought it back to Georgia. A longer story goes along with this. We very much hoped to go inside and see it all but we were turned away. We had about twenty minutes and waited patiently moving up in line. But every time a handful of people left the cathedral, the priest or person in charge let some locals in and kept us standing in line. We eventually ran out of time and had to move on.

     The first photo is from outside the wall with the bell tower on the left and the church on the right. The second photo is to show how thick the wall is. I took the second photo from about half-way through the wall. You can see the crowd of people trying to get inside the cathedral.

      Svetitskhoveli Cathedral is a large structure. We walked all around it and it's a striking structure. There are lots of small details to observe if you have a knowledgeable guide to point them out.

     The churches and monasteries are tourist stops, and most were on the crowded side, or at least very busy. And true to any tourist places, the locals piggyback onto the tourist trade for customers. We own a farm that Vicky's family purchased in 1893 and we operate our winery out of a very old building, but nothing like the winery just opposite the entrance to the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral.

     The Georgians are really into wine, like no other place that I've visited. Wine is a hot selling item in Georgia and they have expanded their markets.

Check out one of the places near the cathedral. And "Yes," of course we tried the wine ice cream! It was excellent.

     They have also expanded wine beyond just grapes. At another vendor, you can buy wine from cherries, raspberries, pomegranates, and blueberries. You can see the bottles on the right side of the counter along with other types of wines.