Historical Locations and Notes of the Trip:

Monument of the Battle of Didgori

The Monument to the Battle of Didgori was a beautiful sight to see, having many sword like statues placed into the ground on the hill as well as one larger monument. There was also a stage and seats lower on the hill where a yearly memorial occurs. The Battle of Didgori was important enough to get such a beautiful Monument because of the odds overcame in the battle. The battle was Georgia against Turkey, where the Georgians were outnumbered in a five to one ratio, so to win in a battle like that is a very big achievement. I was the only one to climb the stairs to get up to the actual Monument and the view was beautiful, an incredible view to celebrate an incredible win.

Stalin Museum

We went to see the Museum for Joseph Stalin in Stalin's hometown of Gori. It was an amazing museum where everything there was about Stalin. We saw pictures of Stalin, documents he had written, a mold of his face when he died, his first house, pictures of his family, and a train he lived in when he needed to travel a lot. While Stalin may be frequently seen as a bad leader in America, many of the things we learned about him were described from a perspective that seemed like Georgians belived he was a good leader.

Uplistsikhe

Uplistsike was an old mountain town that consisted of homes being caves carved into the rocks. This was a very interesting location that I had a lot of interest in. This was a very populated location with many other tourists there. It was very interesting to see there was one actual building in that 'town' that was not a cave, and that was the church, yet again showing how much religion actually matters to the Georgians. While most cave homes were similar in size and options, there was one home that was much bigger than all the others which was for the leader of the town. That larger cave had beautiful pillars, and even a carved throne in the center. There was also a prison like area that was just a large pit where prisoners would be kept.

Ethnographic Museum

On one of the last days in Georgia we visited a Museum in the mountains. This museum was formerly a mosque, but when the area was taken over and practice of their religion was banned, the people needed a way to still follow their beliefs in secret. This Mosque, while not appearing as a Mosque had many things hidden in it, whether they were hidden symbols, or colors being used. In current days the whole building is a museum, where the bottom floor shows models of old buildings used for farmers, and the second floor holds the area used for prayer as well as many other historical items used in Georgian history.