Culture and history

In the Caucasus, history is not behind glass: it is still standing. The monasteries of Georgia and Armenia have been holding mass in the same language, in the same place, for over a thousand years; the fortresses that once watched the Silk Road still crown the same gorges; and in Mtskheta, Echmiadzin or Gelati you literally walk on the foundations of the world's oldest Christianity.

This section gathers our long-form pieces: medieval cathedrals and their frescoes, cave monasteries cut into cliffs, fortresses and cave cities, the museums worth (or not worth) the ticket, and the legends wrapped around it all — from Prometheus chained to Mount Kazbek to the Golden Fleece of Colchis. Plus the recent past: the Soviet legacy, the markets, the life that goes on around the stones.

We write from the inside, with the stories we tell our travellers at the foot of each monument. To see these places with a guide, they feature across all our Caucasus itineraries.