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Caption: Queen Tamar of Georgia (aka Tamar the Great) was totally kick ass. (The Georgian language doesn’t have grammatical genders, so she is sometimes described as “the King of Kings.”) She was the first woman to rule Georgia, from 1184 to 1213, taking power at age 24 amidst fractious politics best described as ... Byzantine ... in the region.
She reigned over the apex of the country’s Golden Age, which saw a flourishing of the arts and culture (including Rustaveli's epic poem The Knight in the Panther's Skin, revered as the greatest achievement of Georgian literature and still taught in the country’s schools in the classic Georgian language, somewhat like our continuing study of Shakespeare).
Not insignificantly, she also also kicked Muslim conquerers out of the region and established an empire from the Black Sea to the Caspian (including Ganja in what is now Azerbaijan ... but I digress). She even divorced her first husband - a total loser - and took another First Dude - a successful general. Her legend was further bolstered, by comparison, after the subsequent fall of the country to Mongol invaders two decades after her death at age 50-something (it was a rough neighborhood - still is).
Why do I recount this history? Well, I woke up yesterday morning in a region bearing an uncanny resemblance to the American Mountain West, a short distance from the cave monastery of Vardzia, a vast complex carved out of volcanogenic-sedimentary rock largely under Queen Tamar. Legend has it she departed from Vardzia during her campaign against the Muslims, and her ensuing victory is celebrated in another Georgian epic poem, the Hymns in Honour of the Virgin of Vardzia.
That’s a long way of saying, this is a pretty cool place. The caves stretch along the cliff for some five hundred meters and in more or less nineteen tiers. (It’s a good stair workout.) Its center is the Church of the Dormition, dating to Tamar’s Golden Age, which still bears the wall paintings of that era. The complex consists of six hundred spaces, give or take (who’s counting?), including royal chambers, residential halls, monastic cells, kitchens, stables, wine cellars (they were really into wine), water pools, and even a water system drawing from the river below. And it has some super cool hidden spaces and tunnels - day-to-day and escape (kids would love it). It was pretty impregnable and managed to evade the 13th Century Mongol invaders (did I say this was a rough neighborhood?).
Because of the pandemic-induced lack of tourism, we were the only visitors yesterday morning - where typically there might be hundreds. (Ruins are really meant to be explored alone with the haunting sound of the wind. And giggling with a great guide.)