Sataplia Nature Reserve

Sataplia lies just nine kilometres from Kutaisi and is the oldest protected area in Georgia, granted reserve status back in 1935. The name means place of honey: wild bees nested in the cliff crevices and locals collected honey from them.

The reserve's defining discovery was made in 1933 by the naturalist Petre Chabukiani, who found dinosaur footprints preserved in the rock surface. Around two hundred prints have now been counted, dating to the Cretaceous period roughly 120 million years ago. Both herbivore and predator tracks are present, and the site is now protected under a covered pavilion.

Also on the territory:

• a karst cave with stalactites, of which about three hundred metres are open to visitors
• a glass-floored viewing platform cantilevered off the cliff, looking over Kutaisi and the Colchic forest
• the crater of an extinct volcano and short forest trails
• life-size dinosaur models, which children reliably enjoy more than the actual footprints

Sataplia operates on a completely different scale from Prometheus Cave — smaller and more modest — but it is interesting precisely because geology, palaeontology and Colchic forest sit together in one compact site. Both fit comfortably into a single day.