Uplistsikhe was a town on the Mtkvari River along the Silk Road. It thrived in pre-Christian times. It was carved into sandstone with an amphitheater, worship chambers (with pits for animal sacrifices) and apothecary (with stone niches for different herbs.) Some of the chambers were carved to look like they were wood plank inside. Portals were carved into the stone to make entering the caves seem like entering a building. The nobility lived up on the hill, the commoners lived on the river flats. From the top you get a good view of the abandoned stone houses below. There is a “secret” tunnel from near the top of the town to the river for escape and to enable them to bring water and fish up to the city if it were under siege. This was an important city of 20,000 people, pretty big for 3,000 years ago. The climb up the hill was steep and coming down the steep sandstone was difficult. I was wearing jeans so I sat down and slid until I got to the tunnel, which now has stairs inside, and walked down to the river.
