Petra Fortress

Petra was a fortress-city founded under the Byzantine emperor Justinian in the 6th century to control Lazica, the kingdom of western Georgia on the Black Sea. Its ruins sit on two rocky hills above the sea at Tsikhisdziri, about 23 km north of Batumi and 9 km south of Kobuleti. Stretches of the walls, the remains of a large three-aisled basilica with a mosaic floor, a bathhouse and a water cistern survive on the citadel, and the site is protected as the Tsikhisdziri-Petra archaeological museum-reserve.

Most visitors come for the history and the view. From the top you look south along the coast toward the Green Cape and Batumi, and north toward Kobuleti. The climb from the road is short but steep on stone steps and paths. Below the hill is the pebble beach of Tsikhisdziri, and the fortress makes an easy stop between the Botanical Garden and Kobuleti.

A decree of Justinian I dated 535 mentions Petra, which was built by the official John Tzibus, probably on the site of an earlier Roman fort, and named Petra Pia Justiniana. During the Lazic War between Byzantium and Sasanian Persia it changed hands several times: the Persian king Khosrow I captured it in 541, a Byzantine and Lazic siege failed in 549, and the general Bessas took it in 551 after a long siege and demolished its walls. Archaeology shows the site was occupied into the 7th century and later.