(Which has more syllables in it than I’d thought) is GORGEOUS. Go there now before the Ryan Air stag party flights find it and turn it into Prague.

This was a country visited by Alexander Macedonian, as they call him; the Romans, where they could get a foothold; and wonderful kings with names like Vakhtang Wolveshead. Lots of mountain Highlanders. In long black felt coats and tall black fur hats. With swords and watchtowers, and kidnapped brides and fortresses. Churches on peaks with hidden rooms to protect the relics from the Persians and the intermittently unfriendly Russians

But Tbilisi itself was conquered and ruled by the Persians for 100’s of years. And it still feels very Persian.

Very silk road. There are old hammam bath houses and caravan serai. There’s the ‘hay market’ where the camels were fed and the donkey bridges were across the river to carry the merchandise to the caravan serai to store.

A smaller caravan serai still in use, and original condition.

The Persians, like the Ottomans were very happy for anyone to practice their own religion, so long as they paid tax. So there were always a very mixed society. Armenians were the traders and business people. And lots of Jews – this was the second Jerusalem once – where they bought the cloak of Elijah. But when the Russians invaded the Persians burnt the city down (1800-ish) so there isn’t very much in the way of very old buildings other than a fortress on the hill behind and some churches. Most of the city is late 19^th C, but very elegant and sweet. With a sprinkling of wild, Eurovision song quest style new stuff.

The city runs both sides of a river and has an old part, with wooden, Ottoman looking buildings and a lovely late 19th century Belle Epoch area.

Tbilisi in the evening.

A lovely vignette of Ginger Catte, generic vehicle and incomprehensible alphabet (most similar to Ethiopian).