Navenakhevi Cave

Navenakhevi is the cave where you do not queue. It lies in Terjola municipality in the Okriba karst massif at about 235 metres, and is run by the Agency of Protected Areas as part of the Imereti Caves Protected Areas, together with Sataplia and Prometheus.

It was declared a natural monument in 2007, and the visitor works were finished in 2017: a concrete path, a handrail and lighting. The cave is cut into Cretaceous limestone, has two levels and takes in four large halls. The entrance is deliberately tight — an opening about sixty centimetres high and two metres wide, beyond which the space suddenly opens out.

Inside are the standard karst forms, but well preserved: stalactites, stalagmites, curtains and petrified waterfalls. The set piece is near the exit, a stalactite column seven metres thick running from roof to floor.

An honest comparison: Navenakhevi is far smaller than Prometheus, has no boat and no music-and-colour lighting, and one circuit takes about fifty minutes. In return the groups are small, there is no noise, and the guide often takes you round personally. If Prometheus is full of coaches or you have already seen it, this is a sensible alternative — and it is twenty minutes from Gelati.

The temperature holds at 13–15 °C all year with high humidity, which in the summer heat of the Rioni lowland is a welcome contrast.

The cave sits in the Okriba massif, a block of limestone riddled with cavities. Sataplia, Prometheus, Tsutskhvati and Navenakhevi all belong to the same system of dissolved rock, which is why so many of Georgia's accessible caves are concentrated in this small corner of Imereti. Above ground the approach runs between walnut trees and vine plots, and the walk from the car park to the entrance takes about five minutes on a made path.