Touring Georgia Outside Tbilisi (Part III of III): Uplistsikhe

Uplisstsikhe is not ADA compliant. Maybe that's why it was abandoned by all but the tourist horde.

The third stop on the day's roadtrip was not far from Gori. It was Uplistsikhe, an ancient cave city carved into the stone hills around Gori. I would call it "Stone Mountain," but that's a different Georgia with a different purpose.

And here is the cave city, carved in stone, from an ancient era.

That's the lowland along the river, in the park with the cave city.  This is real, true, city of stone:

It's a long climb up there to the City of Rock. Back in 600 B.C. or so when people first started living here, they did not have elevators. Even the escalator would not be invented for another 2500 years or so and, even if they did, they didn't have the electricity to keep in running.

So climb we must do.

 

And we reach our first cave home.

And we meet our first cave dog:

Yes, even the cave city, carved in stone, with a steep climb up, has the Georgian dogs laying about.

How high about is he (or she) (don't know his or her pronouns)?

Only about half way up.

And we reach our first gaggle of tourists:

Lots of tour buses in the parking lot.  Lots of tourists in the archaeological park.

And dogs:

This is the front door to someone's private residence back in the day:

Shall we have a look inside?

Minimalist design, I see.

The ancient people of Uplistsikhe must have been practicing Georgian Orthodox.  Here's the church to prove it:

At this point, I've climbed high enough to start looking down on the lower rungs of Uplistsikhe.

 

It's not quite time to visit the Georgian Orthodox church high atop the rocks.

Let's look at more cave and stone dwellings.  This one has a touch of the Flintstone house to it:

Outside was this sign, which I found confusing.

The "no martinis" sign at the bottom right corner I understand.  The rocks are at varying angles and can be slick and steep.  So no drinking martinis when climbing on the rock.  The "no dogs" warning was being ignored.  By the dogs.  No smoking.  No hammering the rocks, I understand.  But, looking at the top row, second one in from the right, why is falling off the rocks OK?  I would think that would be something you would want to ban.  And sliding down the stairs on your butt?  Yeah, it's fun, but, again, why would that be encouraged while dogs and martinis are banned?

No dogs or martinis in this house:

Just us tourists.

That Georgian Orthodox church seems to be beckoning.

 

But there are more rock houses to explore:

Not a dog or a martini in sight.

I am actually surprised at the number of tourists who've climbed this close to the summit, walking up rocks, the stairs not being found at this point in the climb.  And I wasn't even close to being on old end of the spectrum among the tourist guests here in the City of Stone.

Let's head to the church:

It's small.  But it is the old "modern: structure up high in a city of caves.

The interior was simple.  Of course, compared to how the cave homes are furnished in this neighborhood, this is Palace of Versailles opulence and extravagance.

That's St. George.  Slaying a dragon.  First time in Georgia I've seen St. George doing what we know him best for doing:  slaying dragons.

One problem with continuing climb ever upward in the cave city, is that just when I think I'm about to reach the summit, I see even more cave houses, up higher.  And I think an accursed thought:  I've climbed this high -- might as well keep climbing.

At this point, I must have reached the upscale part of Uplistsikhe.

A gated community.

Let's have a look inside:

Looks a little fancier, but, still, minimalist.

I'm soon at the point where it the highest tourists are allowed to climb.

I guess this photo spot was taken.

And once you've reached the top, there is nowhere to go but down.  I am overjoyed that first the time all day, the sun had come out.  It's not just that outdoor pictures look so much better lit by natural sunlight, it's just that I would not want to climb (or walk down) steeply angled wet rocks.  The climb was tough enough when the rocks were bone dry.

Once I reached the bottom, I took a wrong turn and saw a sign marked "tunnel."  Against my better judgment, I decided to check out the tunnel:

Stairs!  As if I had not climbed enough at Uplistsikhe.

Touring Georgia Outside Tbilisi (Part II of III): Gori

The awesome Memorial to Georgian Warrior Heroes sits in a nondescript park off the city center in Gori 

Within Georgia, the City of Gori is known for one thing. It is the City of Stalin. That Stalin. One of history's greatest monsters. And it all started in the City of Gori. Stalin may not have been the main reason for me wanting to visit Gori, but I took in the Stalin sights when I was here.

And here is Stalin:

Here is a tourist taking a picture of Stalin:

I can't judge.  Someone could've snapped a picture of me as a tourist taking a picture of one of history's great monsters.  But just snapping a photo of a statue of Stalin is not what weirded me out at this museum.  More on that to come.

This is Stalin's train car, parked at the museum:

I can't go in just yet, since I need to go into the museum to get the ticket to get into the train,

Here's how you know the train was a communist train:

The communist logo.

Time to go to the museum:

This is what I found most disturbing.  Tourists posing next to Stalin smiling and laughing, sometimes giving the thump's up.

This particular tourist seemed to be part of a tour group from China.  PRC I presume.  So my thought was this?  Were these tourists merely clueless?  Or did they think Stalin was some sort of hero?  As bad as the first would be, the second is even worse.

There were plenty of portraits of Young Stalin:

Good-looking young man who had not yet become a monster.

I did not get much of sense of the history or upbringing of Stalin since very little of the museum text was in English.  The Stalin-themed carpets did have English language captions, however:

That one was woven in Baku, Azerbaijan.

This one, below, is from Turkmenistan, which I believe is ruled by a Stalin-like family dictatorship:

This is general communist-style art:

And here is my favorite section of the museum:

Dead Stalin.

The only good Stalin is a dead Stalin.

On the right side of the display, note the bust:

Here is another picture.  Different bust.  Same person:

Recognize him?  Maybe this will help:

Those are busts of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  In the Stalin museum.  In Gori.  In Georgia.

And here's a Stalin vase:

And Stalin's accordion, I presume:

I was asking this of other people.  There are depictions in the museum of Stalin and his mother.  But no wife.  Did he have a wife?  Was she completely unimportant?  Or Stalin just keep her shielded from the public eye?  I don't know.

After exiting the museum, it was time for a train walk:

I am guessing this was for Stalin's entourage.  I can't imagine Stalin sleeping in bunk beds.  Unless it was with Lenin.  And they would fight over who got the top bunk.  And Lenin would complain because Stalin snored.  You can just tell that Stalin was a snorer.  History's monsters can be like that.

And was this Stalin's throne?

And at the end was a dining car?  Meeting space?  Both?  Neither?

Onto Stalin' childhood home because, yes, it is on the museum grounds.

You can't go in.  Not open to the public, even if you bought your ticket for the museum.  That does not stop lots of people from taking pictures on the steps outside the house.

Why?

And next to the museum grounds is a non-Stalin-themed park.

There is no Stalin in the park.

One last look at the house and museum before heading to the next stop in Gori:

Which is:

Not the church, although this is where my guide and driver parked.  Quick peek inside:

This is the stop to see the Memorial to the Georgian Warrior Heroes.

But first, a Gulf station:

There are Gulf stations all over Georgia, with the familiar orange ball logo.  The oil company that was based in Pittsburgh.  Gulf stations disappeared from the U.S. when the company was acquired several decades ago by Chevron.  But Gulf Oil did not disappear.  It just relocated to Georgia.

Anyway, back to the Warriors.  I knew they were on a hill in Gori, so this sight scared me:

I was afraid that they were way up on the grounds of that fortress way up that hill.  Turns out, no, they were on lower ground.

Then I saw them.  The Warriors.  In all their metallic glory:

But there were behind a chain-link fence and the gate was locked and there was no signage as to how to get closer.

Eight giant metal statues who appear to be medieval-style warriors.  They are arranged in a circle so there was no way for me to get one definitive picture of all eight.

The Memorial to Georgian Warrior Heroes.  Yes, that song at the link was playing on a loop inside my head when I was here.

Each of the warriors are broken human forms.  Missing limbs.  Gashes.  The Warrior on the right is missing all four limbs and a head.

There was an English language tour guide who appeared when I was wandering among the Warriors, explaining to her group that the memorial was meant to convey an anti-war message on the horrors of war, and how even the strongest of warriors is left damaged by war.

I think the word is:  evocative.

A gash in his chest. A missing arm and the other arm missing a hand.  I don't think there is any way this could be considered triumphant.

I believe these were first done at the tail end of the communist era.

All of this unmarked, in a non-descript park, off to the side of the center of the City of Gori:

And a dog:

And a selfie in front of the Warrior who reminded me of the Ghost of Christmas Future:

Better to have someone take my picture than try to do a selfie:

Yes, even in the midst of horrors, whether from war or from politics (Stalin, I am talking about YOU), there is always time for the frivolity of photo-taking.