Vanis Kvabebi

Vanis Kvabebi is four hundred years older than Vardzia and, to be honest, a great deal wilder. The complex was founded in the 8th century, and several hundred chambers are cut into the steep tuff face, arranged on several levels and linked by narrow tunnels, cut steps and shafts. This is not one monastery but an entire vertical settlement built into rock.

At the end of the 12th century a defensive wall was raised across the face, with arched openings, set directly against the cliff. That is what you see from the road and what you meet first. Behind it the caves proper begin: refectories, cells, water cisterns and chapels.

There are two churches: St George on the lower level, and a small chapel near the very top, reached through a narrow tunnel and up an iron ladder. The upper section is the real test. The openings are low, the ledges have no railing, and there is a fifty-metre drop below. Anyone uneasy with heights should stop at the lower level, which is thoroughly worth the visit on its own.

Vardzia is the famous site, but the two were once links in a single defensive chain along the gorge together with Khertvisi and Tmogvi: from each one the next was visible, and between them they controlled the whole valley. Standing on the upper terrace here, that logic becomes obvious in a way no plan on paper can convey.

Earthquakes have brought down part of the complex, so many cells are collapsed or unreachable. A few monks live here again today, so noise and spread-out picnics are out of place.

From the top the view opens along the Mtkvari valley almost as far as Tmogvi fortress, and unlike Vardzia the site is almost never busy. Vardzia's car park holds forty vehicles; at Vanis Kvabebi yours is often the only one.