Culture and History

Many legends exist about Tbilisi. One of them tells about:

Mtskheta city was capital of Georgia in 5th century and a dense forest grew up where Tbilisi burst out. Once King Vakhtang Gorgasali hunted in this forest; his servants released a pheasant and a hawk. They both disappeared. After a long search, they were found in hot water. The king liked the place with hot springs, and decided to build a city on this place. They called it Tbilisi, which means warm waters. Soon Tbilisi became the capital of Georgia.

Today Tbilisi is a modern, beautiful city with beautiful historical monuments - ancient Narikala, Sioni Cathedral, Anchiskhati, Sameba and many others. The city is buried in greenery; noisy streets are filled with buses, microbuses, taxis. We have a subway. Museum and art galleries, theaters and stadiums are visited with interest by Guests of Tbilisi. The streets and houses of the old part of the city amazes especially.

Wonderful parks are in the city. Children love the park Mushtaid where there are many attractions. But most of all they like to ride on the railway. This road was built by the schoolchildren eighty years ago. They also worked as conductors, machinists, and even superiors. This is the world's first children's railway.

According to the opinion of archaeologists, the city was inhabited back in the III-IV centuries AD. As a city Tbilisi was first mentioned in chronicles in the IV century. Already in a century the city turned into one of the largest shopping, craft and cultural centers of the Middle East. During the next millennium, the city was repeatedly incinerated and blossomed again, passing from hand to hand. Since VIII century the city was under the rule of the Arabs (Tbilisi Emirate); the Christian-born Baghdad native, the martyr Abo of Tbilisi, the heavenly patron of the city was injured in Tbilisi.

In 1122 the city was conquered by the Georgian king David IV the Builder and since that time until the collapse of Georgia (1466) it was the capital of the Georgian kingdom. Further, Tbilisi was the victim of an attack by the Persians and the Turks-Osmal. From the second half of the seventeenth century, the development of the city was initiated by a relatively peaceful period. In 1795 Tbilisi was subjected to the last cruel rout by the ruler of Iran, aga Mohammed khan Kajar. In 1801, Eastern Georgia was annexed to the Russian Empire, and the city became the administrative center of the Tiflis province and the whole of the Caucasus governorship (in the years of its existence).

In 1918-21, Tbilisi was the capital of an independent Georgian republic. In 1921 Georgia became Soviet, and the Bolsheviks, having proclaimed Soviet power, made the city the capital of the subway. After the collapse of 1991, the city became the capital of an independent Georgia.