Mtskheta - Jvari monastery - Shio Mghvime -Gori (stalin museum)- Uplistsikhe

Mtskheta is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It has been inhabited since before 1,000 BC and was once the capital of the early Kingdom of Iberia (today’s Eastern Georgia).

N2 Jvari monastery

The masterpiece of Early Christian Orthodox architecture Jvari Monastery is dated 585-604 cc AD. Located on the hill top near the town Mtskheta, it is listed in UNESCO World Heritage Site list in 1994. The name is translated as the Monastery of the Cross.

N3 Shio Mghvime

The Shio Mgvime monastery is located in a beautiful forest place on the left bank of the river Kura in Georgia. The road follows a narrow limestone canyon from the main square in the town Mtskheta. The medieval monastery consists by several buildings from different periods: The oldest one is the Monastery of St. John the Baptist (dated 560-580) - the simple cruciform building with octagonal dome; The Upper Church Theotokos (12th c) was a domed church destroyed by invasion and in 1678 was restored as Basilica; Refectory (12th -17th cc); the Cave of St. Shio (6th c ) and a small chapel (12th c) adorned with medieval murals stands separately on a nearby hill.

N4 Gori city , Stalin Museum

This impressively designed museum makes no serious attempt to present a balanced account of Stalin's career or deeds. It remains, much as when it opened in 1957, a reverent homage to the Gori boy who became a key figure of 20th-century history – although displays do now at least refer to the purges, the Gulag and his 1939 pact with Hitler. The Dzhugashvili family's wood-and-mud-brick house where Stalin lived for the first four years of his life is reverentially preserved outside.

N5 Uplistsikhe

Uplistsikhe, literally ‘Fortress of God’, is an ancient rock-hewn town which played a significant role in Georgian history over a period of approximately 3,000 years.  Archaeological excavations have revealed extraordinary artifacts dating from the late Bronze Age all the way up to the late Middle Ages.