Nokalakevi

Nokalakevi, known to Greek and Byzantine writers as Archaeopolis, is one of the most important archaeological sites in western Georgia. The ruins lie in a loop of the Tekhuri River, about 16 km from Senaki, where the river and steep slopes formed a natural defence. Stone fortification walls climb from the lower town by the river to a citadel on the hill above. Within the site you can see the remains of Roman-style baths and the 6th-century Church of the Forty Martyrs, one of the oldest churches in Samegrelo. The whole site covers about 20 hectares.

A small on-site museum displays finds from the excavations, the oldest dating to the 8th and 7th centuries BC. Archaeologists still dig here in summer, and since 2001 an Anglo-Georgian expedition has worked alongside Georgian specialists. Some local tradition links the site to Aia, the city of the Golden Fleece legend, though most scholars place Aia elsewhere. Climb to the citadel for views over the river and countryside, and allow time for the museum before you leave.

People lived here from at least the 8th century BC, and the stone town grew between the 4th and 6th centuries AD, when it was a leading fortress, and by many accounts the capital, of Lazica, the late antique kingdom of western Georgia known in Georgian as Egrisi. During the mid-6th-century Lazic War between Byzantium and Sasanian Persia, the Persians failed to take it, a defeat that helped cost them the region. Excavations began in 1930 to 1931 and have continued since 1973.