Georgia

The patriarchal cathedral of the Georgian Orthodox Church in the ancient capital of Mtskheta, built between 1010 and 1029 by the architect Arsukisdze over the site of the 4th-century church founded by St. Nino, traditionally revered as the burial place of Christ's Robe. Its name means the Life-Giving Pillar, and together with the other Historical Monuments of Mtskheta it was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994.

UNESCO World Heritage Site (Historical Monuments of Mtskheta, 1994)Trung tâm thị trấn Mtskheta, vùng Mtskheta-Mtianeti

Photo: Maesi64, CC0, Wikimedia Commons

The supreme mother cathedral of the Georgian Orthodox Church and the tallest Eastern Orthodox sanctuary in the South Caucasus, crowning Elia Hill in the historic Avlabari quarter above the Kura (Mtkvari) River in Tbilisi, conceived in 1989 by Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II, designed in monumental neo-medieval Georgian cross-in-square style by architect Archil Mindiashvili, begun on November 23, 1995, and consecrated on November 23, 2004 with an 87-meter conical golden dome, a 7.5-meter gilded cross, and nine integrated chapels across its upper and subterranean levels.

Principal Mother Cathedral of the Georgian Apostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church (Patriarchate of All Georgia) and Tallest Eastern Orthodox Sanctuary in the South CaucasusElia Hill, Samreklo Street, Historic Avlabari District (Isani), Left Bank of the Kura (Mtkvari) River, 0103 Tbilisi, Georgia

Photo: Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

The principal synagogue and spiritual heart of Georgian Jewry in the historic Old Town of Tbilisi along Kote Abkhazi Street, constructed of red brick between 1895 and the early 1900s by Georgian Jewish families from Akhaltsikhe in an eclectic Moorish-Romanesque Revival style, renowned for its richly frescoed vaulted prayer hall, twin Torah Arks, and enduring testimony to 2,600 years of peaceful coexistence between Jews and Christians in Georgia.

National Cultural Heritage Monument of Georgia and Historic Spiritual Center of the 2,600-Year Georgian Jewish Community (Intangible Cultural Heritage of Georgia)45-47 Kote Abkhazi Street (formerly Leselidze Street), Old Tbilisi (Dzveli Tbilisi), 0105 Tbilisi, Georgia

Photo: 91, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

The crowning architectural and intellectual monument of the Georgian Golden Age (inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994, Ref. 710), founded in 1106 by King Saint David IV the Builder on a wooded ridge above the Tskhaltsitela River near Kutaisi as both a royal monastery and the celebrated Gelati Academy ('a New Hellas and a Second Athos'), famed for its 2.5-million-piece twelfth-century apse mosaic of the Virgin and Child, royal frescoes, and the humble tomb of King David IV beneath the southern entrance gate alongside the captured 1139 iron gate of Ganja.

UNESCO World Heritage Site (Inscribed 1994, Ref. 710) and Immovable Cultural Monument of National Significance of GeorgiaGelati Village, Tkibuli Municipality, overlooking the Tskhaltsitela River Gorge, 11 km northeast of Kutaisi, Imereti Region, Georgia

Photo: Marcin Konsek, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

Georgia's most iconic high-mountain sanctuary perched in solitary majesty at an elevation of 2,170 meters above the town of Stepantsminda (Kazbegi) directly beneath the 5,054-meter glaciated volcanic peak of Mount Kazbek in the Greater Caucasus, constructed of local porphyry stone in the fourteenth century with a freestanding two-story bell tower and fifteenth-century elders' council chamber (Sabcheo), and revered for centuries as the alpine stronghold where the Cross of Saint Nino and the treasures of Svetitskhoveli were safeguarded during foreign invasions.

Immovable Cultural Monument of National Significance of Georgia and Supreme Sacred Alpine Landmark of the Greater CaucasusGergeti Hill (elevation 2,170 m) above Stepantsminda (Kazbegi) and the Chkheri River, at the foot of Mount Kazbek, Kazbegi Municipality, Mtskheta-Mtianeti Region, Georgia

Photo: Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons