Several monasteries spread over a 30 km stretch of semi-desertic breath-taking landscape. The most famous, and easy to reach, monastery is Davitis Lavra, and the nearby cliff rock-cut chambers of Ubadno.

Getting there is quite easy, either with own car or with numerous day-tours organized from Tbilissi. Public transportation is limited to the daily « gareji  line» shuttle bus, which I did not experience. Google map insist to get there  through Rustavi, but this road is in extremely bad condition and not signposted at all. So do take the north road passing through Sagarejo and Udabno village, which is well signposted. It takes about 2 hours. The last 6 km is on dirt road, which are however passable by regular car. The road is spectacular, with magnificiant landscape.

Davitis Lavra (Saint David’s lavra) is the main monastery, nestled between rock cliffs. There is a church shop (only selling candles and icons). It is an active monastery, with two active churches in which Saint David is buried. It was founded in the 6th century, but most of the buildings, and the protective walls are later addition (17the century).

Ubadno monastery (not to be confused with Ubadno village) is located on a ridge above the Lavra. I really enjoyed discovering some of the rock-cut chambers forming this complex.  To get there, next to the Lavra church shop is a dirt path going up the hill. The path allows fine views over the Lavra. It can be very slipery after rain. It splits into two a few hundred meter uphill, both ways lead the top of the hill. Ubadno is on the other side of the hill edge. Technically, the edge marks the border with Azerbaidjan. There is no control, and if you enconter soldiers on the other side, there are Georgian, and here to assist tourist and insure their safety (for bad weather or paths condition, not political). The day I went, the path was extremely slippery, and the soliders were giving tourists a hand to avoid falls.

The tracks lead from the edge of the hill down under a cliff, where about fifty rock-cut cave are located. On my picture, the cliff, with a few caves, and the track following the cliff).

The rock-cut caves are churches, living quarters, refectories, and present with murals reprensenting kings, saints and scenary. Some go back to the 9th or 10th centuries. As there is no protections to the murals, some can be in bad condition, degradated by people. Lack of protection makes it feeling like Indiana Jones, and discovering ancient caves for the first time. It is easy to spent a long time exploring some of those caves. For some, a bit of (easy) rock-climbing is necessary.

As a cocnlusion, I stongly recommend a day-trip to  Davit Gareji. I believe this site has a potential. OUV is obvious to me. However, the border dispute with Azerbaidjan lessens the chance of a sucessful nomination in a near future.