Akhaltsikhe

Akhaltsikhe is the capital of Samtskhe-Javakheti and its largest town, home to roughly 18,000 people on both banks of the Potskhovi river at about 1,000 m. Its name means 'new fortress'. The skyline belongs to the restored walls of Rabati Castle, but the streets below mix Georgian, Armenian and Ottoman-era buildings, a reminder of centuries on the frontier between empires. Around the castle, the old Rabati quarter has narrow lanes, an Armenian church and a former synagogue, while the newer centre across the river has shops, cafés, banks and the bus station.

Most visitors use Akhaltsikhe as a base. Vardzia and Khertvisi are an hour or so to the south, Sapara Monastery half an hour away in the hills, and Zarzma and Abastumani to the west. Marshrutkas leave from here for Vardzia, Borjomi and Tbilisi, and the Vale crossing into Turkey is a short drive away. Stay a night, walk up to the castle walls at sunset, and try tashmijabi in a local restaurant.

A fortress stood here by the 9th century, and from the 13th century Akhaltsikhe was the seat of the Jaqeli family, the rulers of Samtskhe. The Ottomans took the town in the late 16th century and made it the centre of a province that lasted more than 200 years. After Russian troops captured it in 1828, Armenians from the Erzurum area were resettled here. In 1944 the Soviet authorities deported the region's Muslim Meskhetian population to Central Asia.