Kutaisi

Saturday, 29 December 2012

Kutaisi Open Air __June 11.2011__ By DGGEO

FC DINAMO TBILISI 3:2 FC TORPEDO KUTAISI

Military Parade in Kutaisi, Georgia - Independence Day - May 26th, 2012

New Parliament of Georgia - The Building | Kutaisi

Torpedo Kutaisi - Dinamo Tbilisi 2-2 (Georgian Premier League 2012) Matchday 13 04/11/2012

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Abasha
Abasha (Georgian: აბაშა) is a town in western Georgia with a population of 6,400 (2002 census). It is situated between the rivers of Abasha and Noghela, at 23m above sea level and is located some 283 km (176 mi) to the west of Tbilisi. The settlement of Abasha acquired the status of a town in 1964 and currently functions as an administrative center of the Abasha District within the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region. The headquarters of the Georgian Orthodox Eparchy of Chkondidi is also located in Abasha.
The modern history of Abasha is primarily associated with a resonant Soviet-era economic experiment introduced by the Georgian Communist party chief Eduard Shevardnadze in the 1970s. In 1971, Shevardnadze grouped all regional agricultural institutions, including the kolkhoz, into a single management association. At the same time, those who worked on the land received material and financial preference. The move facilitated local initiative and coordination and led to a rapid increase in agricultural production in the hitherto very poor Abasha District. It had been the first private enterprise in the Soviet Union since Lenin. Early in the 1980s, the "Abasha experiment" was expanded, with varying degrees of success, to other regions of Georgia.

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Abastumani
Abastumani (Georgian: აბასთუმანი) is a small town (daba) and climatic spa in Adigeni Municipality, Samtskhe-Javakheti, Georgia. It is located on the southern slopes of the Meskheti Range (Lesser Caucasus), in the small river valley of Otskhe, 25 km northeast of Adigeni and 28 km west of Akhaltsikhe. As of the 2002 census, it had a population of 1,368. The Georgian National Astrophysical Observatory is located at Abastumani.
In medieval Georgia, the area of modern-day Abastumani was part of the district of Odzrkhe so named after a fortress whose ruins survive near the townlet. In the 16th century, it fell to the Ottoman Empire under whose rule the area was deserted, but its hot springs were appreciated and frequented by locals. Under the Russian rule, a short-lived German colony of Friedenthal (Russian: Фрейденталь) emerged there in 1842. In the 1850s, it was recolonized by the Russians under the patronage of Viceroy Mikhail Vorontsov. The new settlement acquired the name Abbas-Tuman after a nearby located village and became popular for its climate and thermal waters. Its development as a resort is chiefly associated with Grand Duke George Alexandrovich (1871–1899), a member of the Russian imperial family, who had retired there due to his ill-health. Abastumani acquired the status of a urban-type settlement (Georgian: daba) under the Soviet Union in 1926. Tourism infrastructure has been renovated since the mid-2000s.

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Abkhazia
Abkhazia (Abkhaz: Аҧсны́ Apsny, IPA /apʰsˈnɨ/; Georgian: აფხაზეთი Apkhazeti; Russian: Абхазия Abkhaziya) is a disputed territory on the eastern coast of the Black Sea and the south-western flank of the Caucasus.
Abkhazia considers itself an independent state, called the Republic of Abkhazia or Apsny. This status is recognised by Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Nauru, Tuvalu and Vanuatu and also by the partially recognised states of South Ossetia, Transnistria and Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Georgian government and the majority of the world's governments consider Abkhazia a part of Georgia's territory. Under Georgia's official designation it is an autonomous republic, called the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia, whose government sits in exile in Tbilisi. On 28 August 2008, the Parliament of Georgia passed a resolution declaring Abkhazia a "Russian-occupied territory".
The status of Abkhazia is a central issue of the Georgian–Abkhazian conflict. The wider region formed part of the Soviet Union until 1991. As the Soviet Union began to disintegrate towards the end of the 1980s, ethnic tensions grew between Abkhaz and Georgians over Georgia's moves towards independence. This led to the 1992–1993 War in Abkhazia that resulted in a Georgian military defeat, de facto independence of Abkhazia and the mass exodus and ethnic cleansing of the Georgian population from Abkhazia. In spite of the 1994 ceasefire agreement and years of negotiations, the status dispute has not been resolved, and despite the long-term presence of a United Nations monitoring force and a Russian-dominated Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) peacekeeping operation, the conflict has flared up on several occasions. In August 2008, the sides again fought during the South Ossetia War, which was followed by the formal recognition of Abkhazia by Russia, the annulment of the 1994 cease fire agreement and the termination of the UN and CIS missions.^{[citation needed]}

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Adjara
Adjara (Georgian: აჭარა [at͡ʃʼara] ( listen)), officially the Autonomous Republic of Adjara (აჭარის ავტონომიური რესპუბლიკა [at͡ʃʼaris avtʼɔnɔmiuri rɛspʼublikʼa] ( listen)), is an autonomous republic of Georgia.
Adjara is located in the southwestern corner of Georgia, bordered by Turkey to the south and the eastern end of the Black Sea. Adjara is a home to the Adjar ethnic subgroup of Georgians.
Adjara is also known as Ajara, Adzhara, Ajaria, Adjaria, Adzharia, Achara, Acharia and Ajaristan. It was the Adjarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Adjar ASSR) under the Soviet Union.
Adjara has been part of Colchis and Caucasian Iberia since ancient times. Colonized by Greeks in the 5th century BC, the region fell under Rome in the 2nd century BC. It became part of the region of Egrisi before being incorporated into the unified Georgian Kingdom in the 9th century AD. The Ottomans conquered the area in 1614. The people of Adjara converted to Islam in this period. The Ottomans were forced to cede Adjara to the expanding Russian Empire in 1878.

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Akhalkalaki
Akhalkalaki (Georgian: ახალქალაქი for New City; Armenian: Ախալքալաք) is a small city in Georgia's southern region of Samtskhe-Javakheti with a population of 60,975. Akhalkalaki lies on the edge of the Javakheti Volcanic Plateau. The city is located about 30 km from the border with Turkey. 90 percent of the city's population are ethnic Armenians after expulsion of Meskheti Turks in 1944. The city was passed from Ottomans to Russians after Russo-Turkish War (1828–1829). On January 4, 1900, an earthquake destroyed much of the town and killed 1,000 people in the area.
Akhalkalaki was founded in 1064. in 1066 the city was destroyed during the Seljuq invasions of the Kingdom of Georgia. In 11th century Akhalkalaki became political and economical centre of Javakheti. In 16th century the city came under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and became a sanjak centre in Çıldır Eyaleti. Under the Ottoman rule, the town was known as "Ahılkelek". The city was passed from Ottomans to Russians after Russo-Turkish War in 1828–1829. After the establishment of a Russian regime, Georgian Muslims were deported to Turkey and Armenians were settled down from the Vilayet of Erzurum.Meskhetian Turks are the former Turkish inhabitants of Meskheti (Georgia), now part of Samtskhe-Javakheti, along the border with Turkey. They were deported to Central Asia during November 15–25, 1944 by Joseph Stalin and settled within Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. Of the 120,000 forcibly deported in cattle-trucks a total of 10,000 perished. Today they are dispersed over a number of other countries of the former Soviet Union.

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Akhaltsikhe
Akhaltsikhe (Georgian: ახალციხე, literally new castle; also known as Lomisa) is a small city in Georgia's southwestern region (mkhare) of Samtskhe-Javakheti. It is situated on the both banks of a small river Potskhovi, which separates the city to the old city in the north and new in the south. The name of the city translates from Georgian as "new fortress".
The city is first mentioned in the chronicles in the 12th century. In the 12th - 13th centuries it was the seat of the Akhaltsikhelis, dukes of Samtskhe, whose two most illustrious representatives were Shalva and Ivane Akhaltsikheli (of Akhaltsikhe). From the 13th up to the 17th century the city and Samtkhe were governed by the feudal family of the Jaqelis. In 1576 the Ottomans took it and from 1628 the city became the centre of the Samtskhe Eyalet of the Ottoman Empire. In 1828, during the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829, Russian troops under the command of General Paskevich captured the city and, as a consequence of the 1829 Treaty of Adrianople (Edirne), it was ceded to the Russian Empire as part of first Kutaisi and then Tbilisi governorates. In the old part of the city one can see an old fortress, castle and mosque, the old fortress of the Jakelis (13th-14th century), and St. Marine's Church. The hills nearby the city harbour the Sapara Monastery (10th - 14th centuries).

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Akhmeta
Akhmeta (Georgian: ახმეტა) is a town in the Kakheti province of Georgia. It is the home for Zurab Zviadauri, gold medalist in judo.
In some parts of southern Germany the term 'Achmeta!' has become a common interjection for expressing disappointment or frustration.^{[citation needed]}

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Akhmeta District
Akhmeta is a district of Georgia, in the region of Kakheti. Its main town is Akhmeta.
Population: 41,641 (2002 census)
Area: 2,208 km²
Coordinates: 42°16′39″N 45°29′56″E / 42.2774°N 45.4988°E / 42.2774; 45.4988

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Ambrolauri
Ambrolauri (Georgian: ამბროლაური) is a town in western Georgia which serves as a regional capital of Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti and the center of the homonymous district. As of the 2002 census, it had a population of 2,500.
Ambrolauri is known from the 17th century when it served as one of the residences of the kings of Imereti. Of this royal complex, only the ruins of a church and a tower have survived. In 1769, the Imeretian king Solomon I granted this locale to the prince Zurab Machabeli who erected a tower there, which is now known as the "Machabeli tower". Ambrolauri was officially granted the status of town in 1966. It was damaged by the 1991 Racha earthquake.

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Anaklia
Anaklia (Georgian: ანაკლია) is a town and seaside resort in western Georgia. It is located in the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region, at the place where the Enguri River (Inguri) flows into the Black Sea, near the administrative border with Abkhazia.
The earliest settlement on Anaklia's territory dates back to the mid-Bronze Age and is typical to the Colchian culture. It is the Classical Heraclea of Colchis, Anaclia of later authors, and Anarghia of Archangelo Lamberti and Jean Chardin (both the 17th-century travelers). After the fragmentation of the Kingdom of Georgia in the 15th century, it was an important fortified town, sea port and fishing station within the Principality of Mingrelia. In 1723, the town was captured by the Ottoman Empire and converted into its maritime outpost and slave-trading locale. Western Georgian kingdom of Imereti regained control over Anaklia in 1770, seizing the opportunity of Ottoman empire being at war with Russia (Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774)). Solomon I, the king of Imereti, was supposed to be supported in this endeavor by a small Russian contingent under General Totleben, but the Russian troops retreated before a clash against the Turks.

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Ashkelon
Ashkelon (also Ashqelon and Ascalon; Hebrew: אַשְׁקְלוֹן‎‎ (audio) (help·info); Arabic: عسقلان (ˁAsqalān)‎; Latin: Ascalonia; Akkadian: Isqalluna) is a coastal city in the South District of Israel on the Mediterranean coast, 50 kilometres (31 mi) south of Tel Aviv, and 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) north of the border with the Gaza Strip. The ancient seaport of Ashkelon dates back to the Neolithic Age. In the course of its history, it has been ruled by the Canaanites, the Philistines, the Israelites, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Phoenicians, the Romans, the Persians, the Egyptians and the Crusaders, until it was destroyed by the Mamluks in 1270. The Arab village of al-Majdal (Arabic: المجدل‎, Hebrew: אל-מג'דל, מגדל‎), was established nearby in the 16th century, under Ottoman's own rule.
In 1918, Ashkelon became part of the British Mandate for Palestine. In the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Majdal was the forward position of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force based in Gaza. The village was occupied by Israeli forces on November 5, 1948, by which time most of the Arab population of 11,000 had been forced to leave. In 2010, the population of Ashkelon was 112,900.

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Aspindza
Aspindza (Georgian: ასპინძა) is a daba ("small town") in southern Georgia's region of Samtskhe-Javakheti with a population of 3,243 (2002 census), mostly ethnic Georgians. It is located at around 41°34′26″N 43°15′22″E / 41.57389°N 43.25611°E / 41.57389; 43.25611.
The word "Aspindza" derives from a Persian word, which meant "a hotel on a big road". The year of the foundation the town is considered to be 888, as Leonti Mroveli (Georgian: ლეონტი მროველი) tells -
The run away Nasra was caught near Samtskhe, and killed by Aspindza in the year 888

By the end of the XVI-th century Aspindza had been conquered by the Ottoman Turks. According to their census, "Aspindza was a big village, that consisted of 50 families with gardens and orchards". The village is mentioned in chronicle of Sumbat Davitisdze (Georgian: სუმბატ დავითის ძე) and Vakhushti (Georgian: ვახუშტი).

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Baghdati
Baghdati (Georgian: ბაღდათი) is a town of 4,800 people in the Imereti region of western Georgia, at the edge of the Ajameti forest on the Chanistskali River. From 1940 to 1990, it was called Mayakovsky after the Russian poet who was born there.
Baghdati is one of the oldest village in the Imereti historical region. Its name shares the same origins of the name of the capital of Iraq, Baghdad: Bag "god" + dāti "given", which can be translated as "God-given" or "God's gift" in old Persian. When Georgia was part of the Russian Empire and during the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, its name was changed in Baghdadi (Russian: Багдади). In 1940 it was renamed in Mayakovsky (Georgian: მაიაკოვსკი), after its most famous "son", Vladimir Mayakovsky, who was born there in 1893. In 1981, Baghdati was promoted to the status of city. In 1990, its original name, "Baghdati", was restored.
Baghdati is located at the edge of the Ajameti forest on the left of the Chanistskali River, about 170 kilometres (110 mi) west-northwest of Tbilisi and 25 kilometres (16 mi) south-southeast of Kutaisi.

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Baghdati District
Baghdati is a district of Georgia, in the region of Imereti. Its main town is Baghdati.
Population: 29,235 (2002 census)
Area: 815 km²
Coordinates: 42°05′N 42°50′E / 42.083°N 42.833°E / 42.083; 42.833

wn.com/Baghdati_District
Bagrati Cathedral
The Cathedral of the Dormition, or the Kutaisi Cathedral, more commonly known as Bagrati Cathedral (Georgian: ბაგრატი; ბაგრატის ტაძარი, or Bagratis tadzari), is the 11th-century cathedral church in the city of Kutaisi, the region of Imereti, Georgia. The cathedral, now in ruins, is regarded as a masterpiece in the history of medieval Georgian architecture.
A distinct landmark in the scenery of central Kutaisi, the cathedral rests upon the top of Uk’imerioni Hill. It was built in the early years of the 11th century, during the reign of King Bagrat III due to which it was called "Bagrati" Cathedral, i.e., Bagrat’s cathedral. An inscription on the north wall reveals that the floor was laid in "chronicon 223", i.e., 1003. In 1692, it was devastated in an explosion by the Ottoman troops, which had invaded the Kingdom of Imereti. The incident caused the cupola and ceiling to collapse leaving the cathedral in its present state.
The conservation and restoration works, as well as archaeological studies, which began in 1952, are still underway. In 1994, the Bagrati Cathedral, together with the Gelati Monastery, was included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site list as a single entity. In 2001, the cathedral was restored to the Georgian Orthodox Church. It is now of limited use for worship services, but attracts many pilgrims and tourists. It is also frequently used as a symbol of the whole city of Kutaisi, being one of its main tourist attractions.

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Bakuriani
Bakuriani (Georgian: ბაკურიანი) is a skiing resort in the Borjomi district of Georgia. It is located on the northern slope of the Trialeti Range, at an elevation of 1,700 meters (5,576 feet) above sea level.
The region around Bakuriani is covered by coniferous forests (mainly made up of spruce). The resort lies 30 km (19 mi) from Borjomi and is located within the so-called Bakuriani Depression/caldera. The resort is connected with Borjomi by an electrified narrow-gauge railway. The present-day area of the town was built up by the lava flows from the Mukheri volcano. The highest mountain of the resort used for skiing is called Mount Kohta at around 2,200 meters (7,216 feet) above sea level.
The climate of Bakuriani is transitional from humid maritime to relatively humid continental. The winters are cold and experience significant snowfall while the summers are long and warm. Average annual temperature of the town is 4.3 degrees Celsius. The average temperature in January is -7.3 degrees Celsius while the average August temperature is 15 degrees Celsius. The annual precipitation is 734 mm (28.9 in). The depth of snow from December to March is 64 cm (25.2 in). Bakuriani is also home to the Botanical Garden of the Georgian Academy of Sciences.

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Batumi
Batumi (Georgian: ბათუმი) is a seaside city on the Black Sea coast and capital of Adjara, an autonomous republic in southwest Georgia. Sometimes considered Georgia's second capital, with a population of 180,000 (2008 census), Batumi serves as an important port and a commercial center. It is situated in a subtropical zone, rich in agricultural produce such as citrus fruit and tea. While industries of the city include shipbuilding, food processing, and light manufacturing, most of its economy revolves around tourism.
Batumi is located on the site of the ancient Greek colony in Colchis called Bathus or Bathys – derived from the Greek phrase bathus limen or bathys limin meaning "deep harbour". Under Hadrian (r. 117–138 AD), it was converted into a fortified Roman port later deserted for the fortress of Petra founded in the times of Justinian I (r. 527–565). Garrisoned by the Roman-Byzantine forces, it was formally a possession of the kingdom of Lazica until being occupied briefly by the Arabs who did not hold it; in the 9th century it formed part of the Bagratid monarchy of Tao-Klarjeti and at the close of the 10th century of the unified kingdom of Georgia which succeeded it.

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Bayonne
Coordinates: 43°29′37″N 1°28′30″W / 43.4936°N 1.475°W / 43.4936; -1.475
Bayonne (French pronunciation: [bajɔn]; Gascon and Basque: Baiona) is a city and commune in south-western France at the confluence of the Nive and Adour rivers, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. It belongs to both vernacular cultural regions of Basque Country and Gascony.
Together with nearby Anglet, Biarritz, Saint-Jean-de-Luz, and several smaller communes, Bayonne forms an urban area with 178,965 inhabitants at the 1999 census, 40,078 of whom lived in the city of Bayonne proper (44,300 as of 2004 estimates).
The communes of Bayonne, Biarritz, and Anglet have joined into an intercommunal entity called the Agglomération Côte Basque-Adour (formerly Communauté d'agglomération de Bayonne-Anglet-Biarritz (BAB) prior to 2010).
In the 3rd century AD, the area was the site of a Roman castrum, named Lapurdum. It was a military site, but not a port. In 840, the Vikings appeared before Lapurdum. In 842, with their chieftain Björn Ironside they launched a large-scale inland offensive and settled outside the city on the river bank^{[citation needed]}. Lapurdum was an oppidum and they needed a port. Bayonne (from Basque ibai, "river") became a key place on the route between the Adour and Ebro Rivers, which served as a kind of link between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.^{[citation needed]} This commercial route was the main goal of Danish invaders in France. By this route, they could easily reach Muslim-controlled Tortosa, which was the main marketplace in Europe dealing with slaves.^{[citation needed]}

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Bediani
Bediani (Georgian: ბედიანი) is a town in Kvemo Kartli region of Georgia, in the south-East part of Tsalka region, on the right bank of the Khrami River, at approx. 850 m above sea level.
Bediani Borough is situated in the narrow gorge of the river Khrami and stretches from Northwest to Southeast. The climate of Bediani has quite cold winters (temperatures sometimes fall to -20 degrees Celsius in January) and relatively hot summers. Bediani and its surroundings are mostly covered with forests of oak, nut, hornbeam, pine and birch. There are a lot of different wild fruits; there is also an evergreen pine in the high zone of the forest. There are also rich fauna in the area, including roe deer, wild boar, hares, foxes, hedgehogs, bears, wolves, and lynx. It is too important the recreational potential of Bediani and its surroundings, which is created by the magnificent natural landscape and lots of historical monuments. Bediani is app. 30 km. far from regional centre (Tsalka) and town Tetri Tskaro.

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Bolnisi
Bolnisi (Georgian: ბოლნისი), is a city in the country of Georgia, located in the Kvemo Kartli region and capital of the Bolnisi district. Currently has an estimated 13,800 inhabitants.
In 1818 the colony Katharinenfeld was founded in Bolnisi by 95 German colonist families from Swabia. After the occupation of the Red Army in 1921, it was renamed to Luxemburg after the German communist Rosa Luxemburg. In 1941 all the Germans descendants who were not married to Georgians were deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan. In 1944 the town was once again renamed as Bolnisi.
The economy is mostly agrarian with the notable exceptions of a winery, brewery, and a gold mine in the nearby village of Kazreti.
Bolnisi is the home of the oldest dated Christian structure in Georgia and the Caucasus. It is known as Bolnisi Sioni (Sioni being Georgian for Zion and a designation used by many of their churches). This three-nave basilica church dates to the 5th century AD and features some pagan elements in its stonework. The original roof is missing but has been replaced with a modern covering.

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Borjomi
Borjomi (Georgian: ბორჯომი) is a resort town in south-central Georgia with a population estimated at 14,445. It is one of the districts of the Samtskhe-Javakheti region and is situated in the northwestern part of the region in the picturesque Borjomi Gorge on the eastern edge of the Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park. The town is famous for its mineral water industry (which is presently the number one export of Georgia), the Romanov summer palace in Likani, and the WWF-site Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park. Borjomi mineral water is particularly well known in those countries which were a part of the former the Soviet Union; the bottling of mineral water is a major source of income for the area. Because of the supposed curative powers of the area's mineral springs, it is a frequent destination for people with health problems. Borjomi is also home to the most extensive ecologically-themed amusement park in the Caucasus.
In the Middle Ages, the area of what is now Borjomi was part of the Tori province. It was populated by a series of forts guarding the strategic crossroad of routes leading to the western, eastern, and southern provinces of Georgia. Three important forts – those of “Gogia”, “Petra”, and “Sali” – still overlook the town from nearby hills. From the 16th century into the 19th, the area belonged to the noble family of Avalishvili, but was largely depopulated as a result of Ottoman inroads.

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Chakvi
Chakvi (Georgian: ჩაქვი) is a resort town in Georgia by the Black Sea coast.
In July 2007 the $600,000 Chakvi radar station was constructed through oversight of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Europe District. It serves both the commercial and military port.
Coordinates: 41°44′N 41°44′E / 41.733°N 41.733°E / 41.733; 41.733

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Chiatura
Chiatura (Georgian: ჭიათურა) is a city in the Imereti region of Western Georgia. In 1989, it had a population of about 30,000.
It is inland, in a mountain valley on the banks of the Kvirila River, and since 1879 has been a major centre of manganese production in the Caucasus. There is a rail link to transport manganese ore to the ferro-alloy plant in Zestaphoni. In Chiatura are located the Tsereteli State Theater, 10 schools, Faculty of the Georgian Technical University, and the Mgvimevi Cathedral (10th-11th centuries).Manganese production rose to 60% of global output by 1905. During the 1905 Russian Revolution Chiatura was the only Bolshevik stronghold in mostly Menshevik Georgia. 3,700 miners worked 18 hours a day sleeping in the mines, always covered in soot. They didn't even have baths. Joseph Stalin persuaded them to back Bolshevism during a debate with the Mensheviks. They preferred his simple 15 minute speech to his rivals' oratory. They called him 'sergeant major Koba'. He set up a printing press, protection racket and 'red battle squads'. Stalin put Vano Kiasashvili in charge of the armed miners. The mine owners actually sheltered him as he would protect them from thieves in return and he destroyed mines whose owners refused to pay up. In 1906 a gold train carrying the miners' wages was attacked by Kote Tsintsadze's Druzhina (Bolshevik Expropriators' Club). They fought for two hours, killing a Gendarme and soldier, and stealing 21,000 roubles. The miners went on a successful 55 day strike June-July 1913. They demanded an 8 hour day, higher wages and no more night work. The police allowed the RSDRP to lead the strike provided they didn't make any political demands. They were supported by fellow strikers in Batumi and Poti.

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Chkhorotsqu
Chkhorotsqu (Georgian: ჩხოროწყუ, literally meaning in Mingrelian “nine springs”) is a townlet in western Georgia, located in the region of Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti and functioning as the administrative center of the homonymous district. Its population was 5,900 as of 2007 (including over 1,500 IDPs from breakaway Abkhazia).

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Chokhatauri
Chokhatauri (Georgian: ჩოხატაური) is a town in Georgia’s Guria region, 310 km west to the nation’s capital of Tbilisi. It is an administrative center of Chokhatauri raioni (district), which comprises the town itself and its adjoining 60 villages. The area of the district is 824 km²; population – 24,090 (2002).
Several historical monuments are scattered across the district, e.g. an early medieval fortress of Bukistsikhe, and a monastic complex of Udabno.
Near the town is a health resort based on the natural mineral water Nabeglavi, which is similar to Borjomi in its chemical composition. Bakhmaro is another nearby mountain resort that is famous for its unique wooden cottages on stilts in the mist of the mountains. Nabeglavi mineral water and Bakhmaro spring water are bottled by Healthy Water Ltd. in Chokhatauri.
Villages in the Chokhatauri district include: Bukistsikhe, Chaisubani, Chokhatauri,Dablatsikhe, Didivani, Erketi, Ganakhleba, Gogolesubani, Goraberezhouli, Guturi, Khevi, Khidistavi, Kokhnari, Kvenobani,Nabeghlavi,Partskhma, Sachamiaseri, Shuaganakhleba, Shuasurebi, Vazimleti, Zemosurebi, Zoti, Zemokheti,

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Dmanisi
Dmanisi (Georgian: დმანისი) is a townlet and archaeological site in the Kvemo Kartli region of Georgia approximately 93 km southwest of the nation’s capital Tbilisi in the river valley of Mashavera. It is the earliest known hominid site outside of Africa.
The town of Dmanisi is first mentioned in the 9th century as a possession of the Arab emirate of Tbilisi, though the area had been settled since the Early Bronze Age. An Orthodox Christian cathedral – “Dmansis Sioni” – was built there in the 6th century. Located on the confluence of trading routes and cultural influences, Dmanisi was of particular importance, growing into a major commercial center of medieval Georgia. The town was conquered by the Seljuk Turks in the 1080s, but was later liberated by the Georgian kings David the Builder and Demetrios I between 1123 and 1125. The Turco-Mongol armies under Timur laid waste to the town in the 14th century. Sacked again by the Turkomans in 1486, Dmanisi never recovered and declined to a scarcely inhabited village by the 18th century.

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Dnipropetrovsk
Dnipropetrovsk (Ukrainian: Дніпропетровськ [ˌdɲiprope̝ˈtrɔu̯sʲk]) or Dnepropetrovsk (Russian: Днепропетровск) formerly Yekaterinoslav (Russian: Екатеринослав, Ukrainian: Катеринослав, translit. Katerynoslav, also Catharinoslav on old maps) is Ukraine's fourth largest city with one million inhabitants. It is located southeast of Ukraine's capital Kiev on the Dnieper River, in the south-central part of the country. Dnipropetrovsk is the administrative centre of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast (province).
Within the Dnipropetrovsk Metropolitan area the population is about 1,004,000 to 1,360,000 people.
A vital industrial centre of Ukraine, Dnipropetrovsk was one of the key centres of the nuclear, arms, and space industries of the former Soviet Union. In particular, it is home to Yuzhmash, a major space and ballistic missile design bureau and manufacturer. Because of its military industry, Dnipropetrovsk was a closed city until the 1990s.
In 1917 Yekaterinoslav was renamed Sicheslav by the Ukrainian People's Republic; this name lapsed in 1919.

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Donetsk
Donetsk (Ukrainian: Донецьк Ukrainian pronunciation: [doˈnɛt͡sʲk], translit. Donets’k; Russian: Доне́цк, translit. Donetsk; former names: Yuzovka, Staline, Stalino, see also: Cities' alternative names), is a large city in eastern Ukraine on the Kalmius river. Administratively, it is a center of Donetsk Oblast, while historically, it is the unofficial capital and largest city of the larger economic and cultural Donets Basin (Donbass) region. Donetsk is a major economic, industrial and scientific center of Ukraine with a high concentration of companies and a skilled workforce.
The city was founded in 1869 by a Welsh businessman, John Hughes, who constructed a steel plant and several coal mines in the region; the town was thus named Yuzovka (Юзовка) in recognition of his role in its founding ("Yuz" being a Russian or Ukrainian approximation of Hughes). During Soviet times, the city's steel industry was expanded. In 1924–1931, the town was renamed in Stalino (Сталино). In 1932 the city became the center of Donetsk region. Today, the city remains the center for Ukraine's coal mining and notable steel industry center.

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Dusheti
Dusheti (Georgian: დუშეთი) is a town in Georgia, situated in the Mtskheta-Mtianeti region, 54 km northeast of the nation’s capital of Tbilisi.
Dusheti is located on both banks of the small mountainous river of Dushetis-Khevi at the foothills of the Greater Caucasus crest at an elevation of 900 m above sea level. It functions as the center of the Dusheti Municipality which, beyond the town itself, includes several villages of the historical community of Pkhovi (Pshavi and Khevsureti). As of the 2002 all-Georgia census, the town had a population of about 4,600.
Dusheti first appears in Georgian written records in 1215. In the 17th century, it served as a residence of the local mountainous lords – the dukes of Aragvi – whose defiance to the Georgian crown more than once led to invasions and devastation of the town by the royal troops. After the abolition of the duchy of Aragvi in the 1740s, Dusheti passed to the crown but significantly declined. In 1801, the Russians took over and granted Dusheti a town status. Next year, it became the center of the Dushet uyezd. The town and its environs were a scene of disturbances during the Russian Revolution of 1905, the peasants’ revolt in 1918, and an armed clash during the 1924 August Uprising against the Soviet rule. Dusheti was a home to nutrition and light industry during the Soviet era, but suffered an economic decline and the population outflow in the years of post-Soviet crisis. Now most people work in service industries (banks, schools, mechanics, and storeowners) as well as subsistence farming. The town is also known for its production of khinkali, a meat-filled dumpling very popular in Georgia.

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Egypt
Egypt ⁱ/ˈiːdʒɪpt/ (Arabic: مصر, Miṣr, Egyptian Arabic: [mɑsˤɾ] ; Coptic: Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, Kīmi ; Sahidic Coptic: ⲕⲏⲙⲉ, Kēme), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: جمهوريّة مصر العربيّة (help·info), is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Covering an area of about 1,010,000 square kilometers (390,000 sq mi), Egypt is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west.
Egypt is one of the most populous countries in Africa and the Middle East. The great majority of its over 81 million people live near the banks of the Nile River, in an area of about 40,000 square kilometers (15,000 sq mi), where the only arable land is found. The large areas of the Sahara Desert are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile Delta.

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Gagra
Gagra (Abkhaz and Russian: Гагра; Georgian: გაგრა) is a town in Abkhazia, sprawling for 5 km on the northeast coast of the Black Sea, at the foot of the Caucasus Mountains. Its subtropical climate made Gagra a popular health resort in Imperial Russian and Soviet times.
It had a population of 26,636 in 1989, but this has fallen considerably due to ethnic-cleansing and mass expulsion of ethnic Georgians from Abkhazia.
Gagra is the centre of the district of the same name. It is located in the western part of Abkhazia and river Psou serves as a border with Krasnodar Kray of Russia.
According to the Georgian scholars, Gagra is derived from Gakra meaning walnut in the Svan language. According to the Soviet sports tourism master Bondaryev, the name of the city originates from the local Gagaa clan. According to V. Kvarchija, Gagra (< *ga-kʼə-ra) means ‘the holder of the coast’ in Abkhaz (Gagra was mentioned as Kakara, Kakkari on old maps).
The town was established as a Greek colony called Triglite, Τριγλίτη, inhabited by Greeks and Colchians. It came under the control of the kingdom of Pontus in the 1st century BC before being absorbed by the Roman Empire, which renamed the town as Nitica. Its geographical position led the Romans to fortify the town, which was repeatedly attacked by Goths and other invaders. After the fall of Rome, its successor, the Byzantine Empire, took control of the town. Along with the rest of Abkhazia, Gagra was incorporated into the Georgian kingdom of Imereti from the 9th century onwards. It became a major trading settlement in which Genoan and Venetian merchants were prominent, trading in the town's main exports - wood, honey, wax and slaves. The name "Gagra" appears for the first time on a map of 1308 made by the Italian Pietro Visconti, which is now in the Library of Saint Mark in Venice.

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Gagra District
Gagra District is a district of Abkhazia. It corresponds to the Georgian district by the same name. In medieval times, it was known as the southern part of Sadzen. It is located in the western part of Abkhazia, and the river Psou serves as a border with Krasnodar Kray of Russia. Its capital is Gagra, the town by the same name. The population of the Gagra town zone in 1989 was 77,079, but this number dropped dramatically following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the 1992-1993 war in Abkhazia, (including the ethnic cleansing of Georgians), to 37,002 at the time of the 2003 census. Ethnic Armenians now constitute a plurality in the district.
In December 2002, Grigori Enik was appointed Head of the State Customs Committee , he was succeeded by Valeri Bganba. On 25 May 2006, Bganba was released from office by President Bagapsh upon his own request, and succeeded by Astamur Ketsba. In turn, after the election of Alexander Ankvab, on 6 September 2011 Ketsba was dismissed upon his own request and temporarily replaced by his deputy Teimuraz Kapba. On 15 November, Grigori Enik, who had previously headed the Presidential Administration, was appointed Acting Head of Gagra District. On 28 May 2012, Enik was permanently appointed.

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Gali Municipality
Gali Municipality is an administrative unit of the Georgian Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia. The capital of the district is town Gali. The Gali Municipality has boundaries with Ochamchire Municipality of Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia and Zugdidi Municipality of Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti.

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Gardabani
Gardabani (Georgian: გარდაბანი, Azerbaijani: Qardabani ) is a town in the Georgian region of Kvemo Kartli, and the centre of the Garbabani district, located 39 km south of Georgia's capital Tbilisi.
As of 2002, its population was 19,900 people. The town is roughly 70% Azerbaijani-populated. Formerly known as Karayazi, it was renamed, after a nearby located ruined medieval fortress Qaratepe, to Gardabani in 1947 and was given the status of a city in 1969. A thermal power station located in Gardabani currently provides the capital city of Tbilisi with most of its heat.
Coordinates: 41°27′N 45°06′E / 41.45°N 45.1°E / 41.45; 45.1

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Gelati Monastery
Gelati (Georgian: გელათის მონასტერი) is a monastic complex near Kutaisi, Imereti, western Georgia. It contains the Church of the Virgin founded by the King of Georgia David the Builder in 1106, and the 13th-century churches of St George and St Nicholas.
The Gelati Monastery for a long time was one of the main cultural and intellectual centers in Georgia. It had an Academy which employed some of the most celebrated Georgian scientists, theologians and philosophers, many of whom had previously been active at various orthodox monasteries abroad or at the Mangan Academy in Constantinople. Among the scientists were such celebrated scholars as Ioane Petritsi and Arsen Ikaltoeli.
Due to the extensive work carried out by the Gelati Academy, people of the time called it "a new Hellas" and "a second Athos".
The Gelati Monastery has preserved a great number of murals and manuscripts dating back to the 12th-17th centuries. The Khakhuli triptych had also been enshrined at Gelati until being stolen in 1859.

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Gudauta
Gudauta (Abkhaz: Гәдоуҭа, Gwdowtha; Georgian: გუდაუთა, Gudauta; Russian: Гудаута, Gudauta) is a town in Abkhazia and a centre of the eponymous district. It is situated on the Black Sea, 37 km northwest to Sukhumi, the capital of Abkhazia.
Gudauta used to be home to a Soviet Air Defence Forces base, Bombora airfield, where the 171st Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment flew Su-15TMs until 1982. The 171st Fighter Aviation Regiment was then transferred to Ugolnye Kopi, Chukotia Autonomous Okrug. The 529th Fighter Aviation Regiment, flew Su-27 'Flankers' from the base in the last years of the Cold War. This regiment was under the command of the 19th Army of the Air Defence Forces. Gudauta was a center of Abkhaz separatist resistance to Georgian government forces during the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict in 1992–1993.
Bombora airfield outside Gudauta later became home to a Soviet Airborne Forces unit, the 345th Independent Guards Airborne Regiment, later redesignated the 50th military base after the Soviet collapse, and then the 10th Independent Peacekeeping Airborne Regiment. The unit was subordinated directly to the Russian General Staff (earlier it used to be under the HQ of the Russian Airborne Forces). In 1999, its equipment includes 142 AIFV/APC (among them - 62 BMD-1 and 11 BMD-2); and 11 self- propelled artillery systems 2S9 "Nona-S".

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Gudauta District
Gudauta district is a district of Abkhazia, Georgia’s breakaway republic. It corresponds to the eponymous Georgian district. Its capital is Gudauta, the town by the same name. The population of the district is 34,869 according to the 2003 census, down from 57,334 in 1989.
On 16 June 2003, President Ardzinba assented to Lev Shamba's request for dismissal and replaced him with First Deputy Minister for Education Beslan Dbar.
On 29 March 2005, newly elected President Sergei Bagapsh replaced Beslan Dbar as the Head of Gudauta's Administration by Daur Vozba. During the February 2011 assembly elections, Daur Vozba failed to be re-elected by a margin of 92 votes.Sergei Bagapsh appointed Valerii Malia as his successor on 23 February. On 17 February, during its first session, the new Gudauta District assembly elected Roman Bazba its chairman, with 22 out of 29 votes, and Fyodor Sakania its Deputy Chairman.
On 1 November 2011, Abkhazia's Prosecutor General announced that he had initiated criminal proceedings against former Administration Head Daur Vozba, for abuse of power. Vozba is alleged to have signed a decree on 11 August 2006, handing over two most valuable plots of coastal land to two individuals, which would have required authorisation by the Cabinet of Ministers.

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Gulripsh District
Gulripsh district is a district of Abkhazia, Georgia’s breakaway republic. It corresponds to the eponymous Georgian district. Its capital is Gulripsh, the town by the same name. Until the August 2008 Battle of the Kodori Valley, the north-eastern part of Gulripsh district was part of Upper Abkhazia, the corner of Abkhazia controlled by Georgia until the Battle of the Kodori Valley during the August 2008 South Ossetia War. Upper Abkhazia was home to 1,956 of the district's 19,918 inhabitants, most of whom were ethnic Svans (a subgroub of the Georgian people). Most of these fled before the battle and have not yet returned.
Of note is the Dranda Cathedral sitting over a shrine built by Justinian in 551. The medieval principality of Dal-Tsabal was centered in the district. Abkhazia's main airport, Sukhumi Dranda Airport, is also located in Gulripsh district.
On 18 December 2002, President Ardzinba released Adgur Kharazia as Administration Head and appointed him as Minister for Agriculture and Food.

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Guria
Guria (Georgian: გურია) is a region (mkhare) in Georgia, in the western part of the country, bordered by the eastern end of the Black Sea. The region has a population of 143,357 (2002) and Ozurgeti is a regional capital.
Guria is bordered by Samegrelo to the north-west, Imereti to the north, Samtskhe-Javakheti to the east, Ajaria to the south, and the Black Sea to the west. The province has an area of 2,003 km².
Guria is traversed by the northeasterly line of equal latitude and longitude.
Guria consists of three administrative districts:
The toponym "Guria" is first attested in the c. 800 Georgian chronicle of Pseudo-Juansher.
Guria first appears c. 1352 as a fief of the house of Vardanidze-Dadiani; and after 1463 it became a sovereign principality independent of the Kingdom of Georgia under a branch of that house, known thereafter by the name of Gurieli. The principality, comprising modern Guria and much of Adjara with the city of Batumi, was subsequently reduced in size and devastated in a series of conflicts with the Ottoman Empire. A Russian protectorate was established by the treaty concluded on June 19, 1810 between the Gurieli Mamia V and the empire, and in 1829, during the regency for the last prince, the Gurieli David, the principality was annexed by Russia.

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Gurjaani
Gurjaani (Georgian: გურჯაანი) is a town in Georgia, located in the region of Kakheti and serving as the center of the Gurjaani district.
Gurjaani is situated in the Alazani Valley, 415 m above sea level, and 110 km east of the nation's capital Tbilisi. As of the 2002 census, its population was approximately 10,000. The town is one of the centers of Georgia's wine industry. Landmarks include the Church of the Dormition (Kvelatsminda; 8th-9th century), Museum of Local Lore and History, and Museum of Nato Vachnadze. The historic mud-cure resort of Akhtala is not far from Gurjaani.
Coordinates: 41°45′N 45°48′E / 41.75°N 45.8°E / 41.75; 45.8

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Gyumri
Coordinates: 40°47′22″N 43°50′51″E / 40.78944°N 43.8475°E / 40.78944; 43.8475 Gyumri (Armenian: Գյումրի) is the capital and largest city of the Shirak Province in northwest Armenia. It is located about 120 km from the capital Yerevan, and, with a population of 168,918 (2008; up from 150,917 reported at the 2001 census), is the second-largest city in Armenia.
The name of the city has been changed many times in history. It was first known as Kumayri or Gyumri, then Alexandropol (Russian: Александрополь, Armenian: Ալեքսանդրապոլ, 1840–1924), then Leninakan (Armenian: Լենինական Russian: Ленинакан, 1924–1990), then again as Gyumri.
The city is situated on a 126 km distance north to Yerevan in the central part of the Shirak Highland, at an approximate height of 1550 meters above sea level. The Akhurian River passes through the western suburbs of Gyumri. Gyumri's climate is characterised with very severe and cold winters, where the minimum temperature could fall down to −41 °C (−42 °F). On the other hand, summers in Gyumri are relatively hot with temperatures could reach up to 36 °C (97 °F). The annual precipitation averages 500 millimetres (20 in).

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Imereti
Imereti (Georgian: იმერეთი) is a province in Georgia situated along the middle and upper reaches of the Rioni river. It consists of the following Georgian administrative-territorial units:
The province's main city is Kutaisi; other urban industrial centers include Samtredia, Chiatura (manganese production centre), Tkibuli (coal mining centre), Zestaponi (known for metals production), Khoni, and Sachkhere. Traditionally, Imereti is an agricultural region, known for its mulberries and grapes.
The 800,000 Imeretians speak a Georgian dialect; they are one of the local culture-groups of the ethnically subdivided Georgian people.
In late antiquity and early Middle Ages the ancient western Georgian kingdom of Egrisi existed on the territory of Imereti. Its king declared Christianity as an official religion of Egrisi in 523 AD. In 975-1466 Imereti was part of the united Georgian Kingdom. Since its disintegration in the 15th century, Imereti was an independent kingdom.
In the 17th-18th centuries the kingdom of Imereti suffered frequent invasions by the Turks and recognized to patronage of Ottoman Empire until 1810, when it was occupied and annexed by the Russian Empire. The last King of Imereti was Solomon II (1789-1810).

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Kakheti
Kakheti (Georgian: კახეთი) is a historical province in Eastern Georgia. It is bordered by the small mountainous province of Tusheti and the Greater Caucasus mountain range to the north, Russian Federation to the Northeast, Azerbaijan to the Southeast, and the Georgian province of Kartli to the west. Kakheti is geographically divided into the Inner Kakheti to the east of Tsiv-Gombori mountain range and the Outer Kakheti to the west of it. The major river of the eastern part is Alazani, while that of the western part is the Iori.
The Georgian David Gareja monastery complex is partially located in this province and is subject to a border dispute between Georgian and Azerbaijani authorities.
Beyond the modern-day administrative subdivision into the districts, Kakheti has traditionally been subdivided into four parts: Inner Kakheti (შიგნით კახეთი, Shignit Kakheti) along the right bank of the Alazani River, Outer Kakheti (გარე კახეთი, Gare Kakheti) along the middle Iori River basin, Qiziki (ქიზიყი) between the Alazani and the Iori, and Thither Area (გაღმა მხარი, Gaghma Mkhari) on the left bank of the Alazani. It also includes the medieval region of Hereti whose name has fallen into gradual oblivion since the 15th century.

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Kars
Kars (Armenian: Կարս Kars, Azerbaijani: Qars, Kurdish: Qers) is a city in northeast Turkey and the capital of Kars Province. The population of the city is 73,826 as of 2010.
As Chorzene, the town appears in Roman historiography (Strabo) as part of ancient Armenia. For the etymological origin of the name "Kars", some sources claim it is derived from the Georgian word ყარსი ("kari"), meaning "the gate" while other sources claim it is from the Armenian word "հարս" ("hars") which means bride,popular etimology; and more correct "կառուց բերդ"("karouts berd," upbuild fortress). In recent years, the Georgian etymology, along with the Turkish one offered by M. Fahrettin Kırzıoğlu, has been dismissed as unsustainable by scholars.
Little is known of the early history of Kars beyond the fact that it had its own dynasty of Armenian rulers and was the capital of a region known as Vanand. Medieval Armenian historians referred to the city by a variety of names, including "Karuts' K'aghak'" (Kars city), "Karuts' Berd", "Amrots'n Karuts'" (both meaning Kars Fortress) and "Amurn Karuts'" (Impenetrable Kars). At some point in the ninth century (at least by 888) it became part of the territory of the Armenian Bagratunis. For a short time (from 928 to 961) Kars became the capital of their kingdom. During this period the town's cathedral, later known as the Church of the Holy Apostles, was built.

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Kaspi
Kaspi (Georgian: კასპი) is a town in central Georgia on the Mtkvari River. It is a center of Kaspi district, one of the four districts in Shida Kartli region. Founded in the early Middle Ages, the town turned into possession of the Amilakhvari noble family in the 15th century. Kaspi officially acquired a town's status in 1959 and, as of 2002, had the population of 15,200.
The Kaspi cement plant is one of Georgia's largest industrial facilities and sources of air pollution.
During the Russia-Georgia war, the cement factory, as well as the railway bridge in the city were severely damaged by the Russian raids.
Coordinates: 41°55′N 44°25′E / 41.917°N 44.417°E / 41.917; 44.417

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Kazreti
Kazreti (Georgian: კაზრეთი) is a town in Georgia, Bolnisi district, in the region of Kvemo Kartli. The principal economic activity is mining. Latitude 41.379963, Longitude 44.410007, Elevation 699 meters.
Coordinates: 41°22′39″N 44°24′47″E / 41.3775°N 44.41306°E / 41.3775; 44.41306

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Kharagauli
kharagauli (Georgian: ხარაგაული) is an administrative center of Kharagauli district in Georgia. It is situated on both banks of Chkherimela river in a narrow and deep gorge, 280-400m above the sea level.
It was founded as a railway station in 1870s, when Poti-Tbilisi permanent way was built. So kharagauli assumed an administrative, later-an economic function.
The most beautiful is its west entrance. In kandeshi rock beautiful and narrow gorge the river Chkherimena flows. The most attractive for foreigners are two big holes on the right bank of the river. Here a primitive man's upper Paleolithic era man's natural shelter is, called "the giant's hole". A bit aloof, on the left bank, there are giants statues, so the place is called "the giants" due to those beautiful holes.
Near the place, up the Chkherimela river gorge there is an old fortress ruins. It is a typical construction of the Middle Ages, mentioned sometimes as Khandi, or kharagauli fortress.
It was in Kharagauli fortress that the king Vakhtang VI got married.

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Kharkiv
Kharkiv (Ukrainian: Харків, pronounced [ˈxɑrkiw]) or Kharkov (Russian: Ха́рьков) is the second-largest city in Ukraine.
The city was founded in 1654 and was a major centre of Ukrainian culture in the Russian Empire. Kharkiv became the first city in Ukraine where the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in December 1917 and Soviet government was formed. Kharkiv became and remained the capital of the Ukrainian SSR until 1934, when the administrative capital was moved to Kiev. Currently, it is the administrative centre of the Kharkiv oblast (province), as well as the administrative centre of the surrounding Kharkivskyi Raion (district) within the oblast. The city is located in the northeast of the country. As of 2006, its population was 1,461,300.
Kharkiv is a major cultural, scientific, educational, transport and industrial centre of Ukraine, with 60 scientific institutes, 30 establishments of higher education, 6 museums, 7 theatres and 80 libraries. Its industry specializes primarily in machinery. There are hundreds of industrial companies in the city. Among them are world renown giants like the Morozov Design Bureau and the Malyshev Tank Factory, leaders in tank production since the 1930s; Khartron (aerospace and nuclear electronics); and the Turboatom turbines producer.

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Khashuri
Khashuri (Georgian: ხაშური) is a town in central Georgia. It is located on the Mtkvari River.
Khashuri is first mentioned in the 1693 document. Modern Khashuri was founded in 1872 as a modest railway halt called "Mikhaylovo" after Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich of Russia, Viceroy of the Caucasus. In 1917, it was renamed into Khashuri. Granted a city status in 1921, it was known as Stalinisi after Joseph Stalin from 1928 to 1934. It is now part of the Shida Kartli mkhare (region) and center of the Khashuri raioni (district).

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Khelvachauri
Khelvachauri (Georgian: ხელვაჩაური) is a small town in Adjara, an autonomous republic in southwest Georgia, 8 km southeast to the regional capital Batumi. The towns of Khelvachauri and Makhinjauri, and adjoining 75 villages form Khelvachauri District (raion) bordered by the Black Sea to the west and Turkey to the south. The area of the district is 410 km²; population – 90,843 (2002 est.).
The ancient Gonio fortress is a main historical site in the district. Makhinjauri is a popular climatic spa near the town. Khelvachauri's military base has been bombed by the Russian army, the 11th August 2008, at 3 am (local time)
Coordinates: 41°35′08″N 41°40′08″E / 41.58556°N 41.66889°E / 41.58556; 41.66889

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Khobi
Khobi (Georgian: ხობი) is a town in western Georgia with a population of 5,800 (2009 census). The settlement of Abasha acquired the status of a town in 1981 and currently functions as an administrative center of the Khobi District within the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region.

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Khoni
Khoni (Georgian: ხონი) is a town in the Western Georgian region (mkhare) of Imereti with the population of 11,300 (2002 Georgia census). It is situated on the left bank of the Tskhenistkali River in the north-west of Imereti, close to the border with the region of Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti and 266 km west of Georgia's capital Tbilisi. The town serves as an administrative centre of the Khoni District. Its economy is based on agriculture, particularly tea production.
Khoni has been known as a lively trading locale and a sea of the Georgian Orthodox diocese since the Middle Ages. The town itself was founded in the 6th or 9th century and the still functioning St. George's Cathedral in downtown Khoni was constructed between the 11th and 13th centuries. It acquired the status of a town in 1921. Under the Soviet Union, it was named after the Marxist revolutionary Alexander Tsulukidze in 1936, but the historical name of Khoni was restored in 1991.
Coordinates: 42°19′N 42°26′E / 42.317°N 42.433°E / 42.317; 42.433

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Khulo
Khulo (Georgian: ხულო) is a townlet (daba) in Adjara, an autonomous republic in southwest Georgia, 88 km east to the regional capital Batumi, in the upper valley of Adjaris-tsqali. The town and adjoining 77 villages form the mountainous Khulo District (Rayon). Area – 710 km²; population – 33,430 (2002).
The town, formerly known as Khula, was a merchant place located on a medieval road that linked Samtskhe-Javakheti to the Black Sea coast. During the Ottoman times, Khulo was a chief settlement of Upper Adjara governed by the Khimshiashvili clan. In 1829, it was briefly occupied by the Russian force of General Osten-Sacken who sacked the Khimshiashvili residence before withdrawal. Khulo's population, largely Islamized under the Ottomans, diminished dramatically under the Russian oppression of Islam in the 1870s. A series of floods and avalanches in the 1990s-2000s induced another wave of migration from the mountainous villages of the rayon.
In the district are medieval historical monuments - Khikhani Fortress (10th century) and the Church of Skhalta cathedral (13th century).

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Kobuleti
Kobuleti (Georgian: ქობულეთი) is a town in Georgia's southwestern region of Ajaria. It is situated on the eastern coast of the Black Sea. Kobuleti is a sea resort, visited annually by Georgians and many former Soviet Union residents. From the 17th century into the 19th, Kobuleti was a fiefdom of the Tavdgiridze family, first under the authority of the Principality of Guria, and then of the Ottoman Empire. It was known as Çürüksu during Ottoman rule.
Coordinates: 41°49′12″N 41°46′31″E / 41.82°N 41.77528°E / 41.82; 41.77528

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Kulashi
Kulashi (Georgian: კულაში) is a small town (daba) in Imereti, Georgia with the population of around 2,000 as of 2002. It is located 5 km from the town of Samtredia. It first appears in the 16th century records as a fief of the Mikeladze family. It was granted the status of daba in 1961. Kulashi had formerly been a home to one of the largest Georgian Jewish community, whose size has significantly decreased due to several waves of Jewish expatriation to Israel.

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Kutaisi
Kutaisi (Georgian: ქუთაისი; ancient names: Aea/Aia, Kutatisi, Kutaïssi) is Georgia's second largest city and the capital of the western region of Imereti. It is 221 km to the west of Tbilisi.
Kutaisi is located along both banks of the Rioni River. The city lies at an elevation of 125–300 meters (410–984 feet) above sea level. To the east and north-east, Kutaisi is bounded by the Northern Imereti Foothills, to the north by the Samgurali Range, and to the west and the south by the Colchis Plain.
Kutaisi is surrounded by deciduous forests to the northeast and the northwest. The low-lying outskirts of the city have a largely agricultural landscape. Because of the many gardens in the city centre and the high leafy trees alongside the sidewalks of its streets and boulevards, Kutaisi is painted in bright green in the spring and in yellow-red in the autumn. In the springtime, when the snow starts to melt in the nearby mountains, the storming Rioni River in the middle of the city is heard far beyond its banks.

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Kvaisa
Coordinates: 42°31′22.04″N 43°38′22.04″E / 42.5227889°N 43.6394556°E / 42.5227889; 43.6394556
Kvaisi or Kvaisa (Georgian: კვაისა, Ossetic: Къуайса, Russian: Квайса) is an urban-type settlement (promoted to the city by the South Ossetian government in 2007) in the Dzau district of South Ossetia, Georgia. According to the official subdivision of Georgia it is in the Oni district of the Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti region of Georgia.
First city major - Chermen Gagiev (Russian: Чермен Гагиев). Now city major - Inal Zaharovich Ostaev (Russian: Инал Захарович Остаев).
Settlement is located on the river Dzhedzhora (which is a tributary of Rioni river) on the slopes if Racha mountain ridge, 60 km north-west of Tskhinvali and 20 km from Oni.
Lead and zinc deposits are located near the city and in the Soviet times an ore mining and processing enterprise and hydroelectric power station worked in the region.
Kvaisa twin city is Tomilino (since 2007).
The town suffered significantly in the 7–8 September 2009 earthquake and around 80 local families remained homeless in late September.

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Kvemo Kartli
Kvemo Kartli (Lower Kartli, Georgian: ქვემო ქართლი) is a historic province and current administrative region in southeastern Georgia. The city of Rustavi is a regional capital. The population is mixed between Azeris (45%) and Georgians (44%).The current governor is Davit Kirkitadze.
Result of population census 2002 in Georgia (in Georgian language)

Coordinates: 41°31′N 44°31′E / 41.517°N 44.517°E / 41.517; 44.517

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Lagodekhi
Lagodekhi (Georgian: ლაგოდეხი) is a small town and district in the Kakheti region of eastern Georgia. There is a border crossing there leading to Azerbaijan's Balakan Province.
Lagodekhi Nature Reserve, established in 1911, is situated in this area.
Coordinates: 41°49′N 46°17′E / 41.817°N 46.283°E / 41.817; 46.283

wn.com/Lagodekhi
Lanchkhuti
Lanchkhuti (Georgian: ლანჩხუთი) is a city in western Georgian region of Guria. It has a population of about 8000.
Lanchkhuti received city status in 1961. Under the USSR, it was the centre of the Georgian SSR Lanchkhuti area and today continues to serve as the capital of the district of the same name within the Guria region.
Lanchkhuti is an industrial town with a tea processing factory, cannery, meat and dairy factory and a brick and tile factory. The town is served by a railway station on the Samtredia - Batumi line.
Coordinates: 42°5′40″N 42°2′30″E / 42.09444°N 42.04167°E / 42.09444; 42.04167

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Lentekhi

Lentekhi (Georgian: ლენტეხი) is a small town and Lentekhi District's (Raion) capital in Georgia's western region of Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti, 323 km northwest to the nation's capital Tbilisi. Situated on the southern slope of the Central Caucasus, the district is a site of alpinism.
Lentekhi ethnographically belongs to a historic Georgian province of Lower, or Kvemo Svaneti. Cultural heritage of the area includes several monuments, particularly St George's Church of Jgëræg (the 10th century), the Archangel Church of Thargizel (the 9-10th centuries), Tekal Church (the 10-11th centuries), Lentekhi Castle of the Dadiani, and the famous Svanetian towers in the village Leksuri.
There is a river that goes through the town and the its inhabitants survive largely off of farming and lumber, though in recent years government restrictions have slowed this latter industry. Like in much of Georgia, tourism is seen as the future source of income as the weather in lower Svaneti is not as severe and Lentekhi is one of the larger towns before arriving in Mestia. Nevertheless, as in much of Svaneti, there has been a tendency for the younger generation to migrate to the larger cities or to find work overseas for economic reasons.

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Lentekhi District
Lentekhi is a district of Georgia, in the region of Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti. Its main town is Lentekhi.
Population: 8,991 (2002 census)
Area: 1,344 km²
Coordinates: 42°45′N 42°45′E / 42.75°N 42.75°E / 42.75; 42.75

wn.com/Lentekhi_District
Lviv
Lviv (Ukrainian: Львів L’viv, IPA: [lʲwiu̯] ( listen); Polish: Lwów, pronounced [lvuf]; Russian: Львов, L'vov; German: Lemberg and Yiddish Lemberg, לעמבערג; Latin: Leopolis; see also other names) is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically had also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center; as Poles and Jews comprised a demographic majority of the city for a period leading up to the outbreak of World War II, the Holocaust, and Polish population transfers (1944–1946) that followed. The historical heart of Lviv with its old buildings and cobblestone roads has survived World War II and ensuing Soviet presence largely unscathed. The city has many industries and institutions of higher education such as the Lviv University and the Lviv Polytechnic. Lviv is also a home to many world-class cultural institutions, including a philharmonic orchestra and the famous Lviv Theatre of Opera and Ballet. The historic city centre is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Lviv celebrated its 750th anniversary with a son et lumière in the city centre in September 2006.

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Lyon
Coordinates: 45°45′35″N 4°50′32″E / 45.7597°N 4.8422°E / 45.7597; 4.8422
Lyon (French pronunciation: [ljɔ̃] ( listen), locally: [lijɔ̃]; Occitan: Lion [liˈu]; Arpitan: Liyon [ʎjɔ̃]; English: /liːˈɒn/), traditionally spelt Lyons in English, is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located approximately 470 km (292 mi) from Paris, 320 km (199 mi) from Marseille, 420 km (261 mi) from Strasbourg, 160 km (99 mi) from Geneva, 280 km (174 mi) from Turin. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais.
The city of Lyon has 483,181 inhabitants. Together with its suburbs and satellite towns, Lyon forms the largest conurbation in France outside Paris with a population estimated to be 1,422,331; its overall metropolitan area was estimated to have a population of 2,118,132. Its urban region represents half of the Rhône-Alpes region population with 2.9 million inhabitants. Lyon is the capital of this region, as well as the capital of the smaller Rhône département.

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Makhinjauri
Makhinjauri (Georgian: მახინჯაური) is a small town (daba) in Adjara, Georgia, with the population of 3,400 according to the 2002 census. It is located on the Black Sea coast in the Khelvachauri district, 5 km north of Batumi, the capital of Adjara, and functions as a seaside resort. The Makhinjauri railway station is the one serving Batumi.
Located within the range of 15 m to 1,300 m above sea level, Makhinjauri possesses humid subtropical climate, with warmer winters and cooler summers compared to Batumi. Makhinjauri functions as a seaside climatic spa and is part of the group of resorts on Georgia's southwestern Black Sea coast located around Batumi.
The toponym "Makhinjauri" (also transliterated as Makhindjauri and Makhindzhauri) is derived from the Georgian word makhinji, meaning "ugly" or "mutilated". A legend holds that the area was a scene of a crackdown on Christians by the Ottoman soldiers in which several people were mutilated.
Owing to its subtropical climate and sulphur springs, the then-village Makhinjauri was developed into a resort under the Imperial Russian rule around 1904. One of the mansions built at that time and then owned by the Siberian gold magnate Alexander Sibiryakov is now in use as the rest-house Narinji. In 1906, during the revolutionary upheaval in the Caucasus, Makhinjauri was the scene of a resounding murder of the British-American diplomat William Horwood Stuart.

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Manglisi
Manglisi (Georgian: მანგლისი) is a daba (small town) in the Tetri Tsqaro municipality, Kvemo Kartli region of Georgia. As of the 2002 census, it had the population of 2,752. With a recorded history going back to the 4th century, Manglisi was one of the earliest centers of Christianity in Georgia and is a home to the medieval cathedral of the Mother of God. It also functions as a mountain spa and health resort.
Manglisi is located on the southern slopes of the Trialeti Range, on the Tbilisi-Tsalka highway, 56 kilometres (35 mi) west of Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, in the Algeti river valley. It is located at about 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) above sea level and enjoys a subtropical climate, with warm summers (average temperature in July, 19°C) and mild winters (average temperature in January, −2°C). Annual precipitation is 700 mm. Manglisi also functions as a mountain resort.
The etymology of Manglisi may be related to the Old Georgian mangali, "sickle", ultimately derived from the Syrian maggəlā. The modern Georgian scholar Ketevan Kutateladze has conjectured that, the name of the locality, in the sense of "a crescent", may be a reflection of the Moon cult, an effect of which persisted in the system of religious beliefs of Georgians into the era of Christianity.

wn.com/Manglisi
Marneuli
Coordinates: 41°27′49″N 44°48′39″E / 41.46361°N 44.81083°E / 41.46361; 44.81083
Marneuli (Georgian: მარნეული) is a small city in the Kvemo Kartli region of southern Georgia and administrative center of Marneuli District that borders neighboring Azerbaijan and Armenia.
According to information of the Department of Statistics of Georgia the population of the city was 20,100 in 2006. The city is predominantly populated by Georgian Azerbaijanis (83,1%).
Before 1947 the town was known as Borchali. Between 1947 and 1952 the town was known as Sarvan, a name still used in some contexts. Marneuli town gained the official status of 'city' (gorod) in 1964.
Today Marneuli is the site of a Georgian military air base. That base was bombed on August 8th, 2008 during the War in South Ossetia (2008), reportedly leaving 4 dead (all ethnic Georgians) and 5 wounded.
There is one university branch (Tbilisi State University) and one university opened in 2008 (Heydar Aliyev Georgia-Azerbaijan Humanitarian University) in Marneuli. .

wn.com/Marneuli
Martvili
Martvili (Georgian: მარტვილი) is a small town in Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti province of Western Georgia. Its monastery was Samegrelo's clerical centre in the Middle Ages. Under Soviet rule, from 1936 to 1990, it was named Gegechkori after the Old Bolshevik Sasha Gegechkori.
Coordinates: 42°25′N 42°22′E / 42.417°N 42.367°E / 42.417; 42.367

wn.com/Martvili
Mestia
Mestia (Georgian: მესტია) is a highland small town (daba) in northwest Georgia, at an elevation of 1,500 meters in the Caucasus Mountains.
According to the current administrative subdivision of Georgia, Mestia is located in the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region (mkhare), some 128 km northeast of the regional capital of Zugdidi. Mestia and the adjoining 132 villages form Mestia District (raioni). Its area is 3,044 km²; population – 14,248 (2,600 in the town itself; 2002 Georgia census). The population is mostly Svans, a cultural and linguistic subgroup of the Georgians. In Mestia is Queen Tamar Airport since 2010 and the airport is operated by the state-owned company United Airports Georgia.
Historically and ethnographically, Mestia has always been regarded a chief community of Zemo, or Upper Svaneti province. It was formerly known as Seti (სეთი). Despite its small size, the townlet was an important centre of Georgian culture for centuries and contains a number of medieval monuments - churches and forts - included in a list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. In 1968, it was granted a status of a townlet (Georgian: daba).

wn.com/Mestia
Mestia District
Mestia is a district of Georgia, in the region of Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti. Its main town is Mestia.
Population: 14,248 (2002 census)
Area: 3,045 km²
Coordinates: 43°00′N 42°45′E / 43°N 42.75°E / 43; 42.75

wn.com/Mestia_District
Mtskheta
Mtskheta (Georgian: მცხეთა), one of the oldest cities of the country of Georgia (in Kartli province of Eastern Georgia), is located approximately 20 kilometers north of Tbilisi at the confluence of the Aragvi and Kura rivers. The city (population 19,423 as of January 1, 2008) is now the administrative centre of the Mtskheta-Mtianeti region. Due to its historical significance and numerous ancient monuments, the "Historical Monuments of Mtskheta" became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994.
Remains of towns at this location have been dated to earlier than the year 1000 BC, and Mtskheta was capital of the early Georgian Kingdom of Iberia during the 3rd century BC – 5th century AD. It was a site of early Christian activity, and the location where Christianity was proclaimed the state religion of Kartli in 337. Mtskheta still remains the headquarters of the Georgian Orthodox Church.
King Dachi I Ujarmeli (beginning of the 6th century AD), who was the successor of Vakhtang I Gorgasali, moved the capital from Mtskheta to the more easily defensible Tbilisi according to the will left by his father. However, Mtskheta continued to serve as the coronation and burial place for most kings of Georgia until the end of the kingdom in the 19th century.

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Myussera
Myussera (Abkhaz: Мысра, Mysra; Georgian: მიუსერა, Miusera; Russian: Мюссера, Myussera) is an urban settlement located in the Gudauta district of Abkhazia, a disputed region on the Black Sea coast.
Coordinates: 43°10′N 40°29′E / 43.167°N 40.483°E / 43.167; 40.483

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Naruja
Naruja(Georgian: ნარუჯა) is a village in western Georgian region of Guria.
Coordinates: 41°54′N 41°57′E / 41.9°N 41.95°E / 41.9; 41.95

wn.com/Naruja
New Athos
New Athos (Abkhaz: Афон Ҿыц, Afon Ch'yts; Georgian: ახალი ათონი, Akhali Atoni; Russian: Новый Афон, Novy Afon) is a town in the Gudauta raion of Abkhazia, situated some 22 km from Sukhumi by the shores of the Black Sea. The town was previously known under the names Nikopol, Acheisos, Anakopia, Nikopia, Nikofia, Nikopsis, Absara, Psyrtskha. New Athos Cave is one of the tourist attractions of Abkhazia.
A large ancient Greek port town of Anacopia was recorded there in the 3rd century. Its ruins are still visible. In the 5th century, Georgians built a fortress on the top of the Iverian Mountain. Anacopia was the capital of the Abkhazian princedom in the orbit of the Byzantine Empire and then of the Abkhazian Kingdom after the archon Leon II declared himself a king in the late 8th century. Later, the capital was moved to Kutaisi.
Anacopia was ceded to Byzantine Empire by Demetre in 1033 but was retaken by Georgians in 1072 among the other territories Georgia gained as a result of the Empire's defeat at Manzikert at the hands of Seljuks.

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Newport
Newport (Welsh: Casnewydd) is a city and unitary authority in south east Wales. It is located on the River Usk close to its confluence with the Severn estuary, about 12 miles (19 km) east of Cardiff. It is the third largest city in Wales, with a population of 141,300 (2007 estimate).
Newport has been a port since medieval times, when a castle was built by the Normans. The town outgrew the earlier Roman town of Caerleon, immediately upstream, and gained its first charter in 1314. It grew significantly in the 19th century, when its port became the focus of coal exports from the eastern valleys of South Wales. Until the rise of Cardiff from the 1850s, Newport was Wales' largest coal-exporting port. It was the site of the last large-scale armed insurrection in Britain, the Newport Rising of 1839 led by the Chartists.
During the 20th century, the docks declined in importance, but Newport remained an important manufacturing and engineering centre. It was granted city status in 2002. It is the home of the University of Wales, Newport, and the Newport Gwent Dragons rugby union regional team, and hosted the Ryder Cup in 2010.

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Ninotsminda
Ninotsminda (Georgian: ნინოწმინდა, Armenian: Նինոծմինդա, Turkish: Altunkale) is a town and a rayon located in Georgia's southern district of Samtskhe-Javakheti. The rayon has a population of 34,305 according to 2002 Census. The Armenians number 32,856, Georgians 476 and Russians 943. It is near the border with Armenia.
During the Ottoman rule, this was a sanjak of Çıldır Eyaleti, called Altunkale, which means "Golden Castle" in Turkish.
Before 1991, the town of Ninotsminda was called Bogdanovka (Russian: Богдановка) - a name going back to the history of the Doukhobor settlement in the region in the 1840s. After the conquest of Kars in 1878, some Doukhobors from Bogdanovka moved to the newly created Kars Oblast. Twenty years later, some of them (or their descendants) emigrated from Kars Oblast to Canada, where they established a short-lived village named Bogdanovka in Langham district of Saskatchewan. Another group of emigrants, coming straight from Georgian Bogdanovka, established another Bogdanovka near Pelly, Saskatchewan.

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Ochkhamuri
Ochkhamuri (Georgian: ოჩხამური) is a small town (daba) in Adjara, Georgia, with the population of around 5,000 as of 2002.
Ochkhamuri is located on the banks of the homonymous river, at 12 m above sea level. It is part of the Kobuleti Municipality and is situated on the administrative boundary of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara with the rest of Georgia, specifically with the region of Guria.
The Soviet collectivization campaign of the 1902s and 1930s made this otherwise non-notable village a part of a larger subtropical agricultural area. A tea kolkhoz farm created at Ochkhamuri triggered an influx of migrants which significantly increased the settlement's population. In 1954, the village was given the status of an urban-type settlement (Georgian: daba). As of the Georgian census of 2002, Ochkhamuri had the population of 5,026.

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Ozurgeti
Ozurgeti (Georgian: ოზურგეთი) is a town and the regional administrative centre of Western Georgian province of Guria, former Macharadze or Makharadze (named in honor of Filipp Makaradze). Population of Ozurgeti: 21,009. The major part of a town is located between Natanebi and Bjuji rivers.
The Soviet Neoclassical-style Ozurgeti Dramatic Theatre, the Ozurgeti History Museum, a park containing the city's newly-reconstructed church, and one of the few remaining busts of Stalin in Georgia surround a square in the city's southwest. There is also a plaza overlooked by a statue of a mermaid in the market district.
A minor planet 2139 Makharadze discovered in 1970 by Soviet astronomer Tamara Mikhailovna Smirnova is named after Makharadze city (twin city of Genichesk) in honor of the friendship of Georgian and Ukrainian peoples.

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Plovdiv
Plovdiv (Bulgarian: Пловдив) is the second-largest city in Bulgaria after the capital Sofia with a population of 338,153 inhabitants as of February, 2011. It is administrative center of Plovdiv Province and the municipalities of City of Plovdiv, Maritsa municipality and Rodopi municipality, which municipal body has a population of 403,153 inhabitants as of February, 2011. It is an important economic, transport, cultural and educational center, as well as the second-largest city in the historical international region of Thrace after Istanbul. It is the tenth-largest city in the Balkans after Istanbul, Athens, Bucharest, Sofia, Thessaloniki, Zagreb, Skopje and Tirana.
Plovdiv's history spans 6,000 years, with traces of a Neolithic settlement dating to roughly 4000 BC and some rank it as Europe's oldest city. Plovdiv is known in the West for most of its history by the Greek name Philippopolis, which was created in 340 BC. Plovdiv was originally a Thracian city before later becoming a Greek and a major Roman one. In the Middle Ages, it retained its strategic regional importance, changing hands between the Byzantine and Bulgarian Empires. It came under Ottoman rule in the 14th century. In 4 January, 1878, Plovdiv was liberated from Ottoman rule by the Russian army and was within the borders of Bulgaria until July, the same year, when it became the capital of an autonomous Ottoman region of Eastern Rumelia. In 1885, it and Eastern Rumelia itself became part of Bulgaria.

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Poti
Coordinates: 42°08′31″N 41°40′35″E / 42.14194°N 41.67639°E / 42.14194; 41.67639
Poti (Georgian: ფოთი; Mingrelian: ფუთი; Laz: ფაში/Fashi; formerly known to the Turks as Faş) is a port city in Georgia, located on the eastern Black Sea coast in the region of Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti in the west of the country. Built near the site of the ancient Greek colony of Phasis and deriving its name from the same, the city has become a major port city and industrial center since the early 20th century. It is also home to a main naval base and the headquarters of the Georgian navy. The Poti port area is planned to become a free economic zone within the framework of a Georgian-United Arab Emirates project inaugurated in April 2008.
Poti is situated 312 kilometres (194 mi) west of Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, in a marshy delta created by the major river of western Georgia, the Rioni, at its entrance into the Black Sea. The city lies at an altitude of two meters above sea level. A portion of Poti's environs recovered from the marshes now accommodate citrus plantation. The city is surrounded by the Kolkheti National Park. It is flanked by the small river Kaparchina to the south-east and Lake Paliastomi to the south-west. Some 5 kilometres (3 mi) to the south is the village Maltaqva, a local beach resort. The city's climate is humid subtropical with mild and warm winters and hot summers. The average annual temperature is 14.1 °C; 2 °C in January, and 22.9 °C in July. Rainfall is abundant and reaches 1,960 mm per annum.^{[citation needed]}

wn.com/Poti
Poznań
Poznań [ˈpɔznaɲ] ( listen) (Latin: Posnania; German: Posen; Yiddish: פוזנא or פּױזן Poyzn) is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be the first capital of the kingdom of Poland.
Poznań is now Poland's fifth largest city. It is the historical capital of the Wielkopolska ("Greater Poland") region, and is currently the administrative capital of the province called Greater Poland Voivodeship.
Poznań is an important centre of trade, industry, and education, and hosts regular international trade fairs. It was the host city for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in December 2008, a key stage in the creation of a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. Poznań was a candidate city for European Capital of Culture in 2016. Poznań is currently bidding to host the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics. The local football team has been responsible for the spread of the eponymous goal celebration to Manchester City and to a lesser extent throughout the United Kingdom. Poznań is one of the host cities for UEFA Euro 2012.

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Rasht
Rasht (Gilaki: Rèsht, Persian: رشت‎, also Romanized as Resht and Rast, and often spelt Recht in French and older German manuscripts) is a city in and the capital of Gilan Province, Iran. At the 2012 census, its population was 1,010,193.
Rasht is the largest city on Iran's Caspian Sea coast. It is a major trade center between Caucasia, Russia and Iran using the port of Bandar-e Anzali. Rasht is also a major tourist center with the resort of Masouleh in the adjacent mountains and the beaches of Caspian as some of the major attractions.
Historically, Rasht was a major transport and business centre which connected Iran to Russia and Europe, and was therefore entitled the "Gate of Europe". The city has a history that goes back to the 13th century but its modern history dates back to the Safavid era during which Rasht was a major centre of the silk trade with numerous textile workshops. The name Rasht comes most plausibly from the verb reshtan, weaving. Rasht has, along with regions around Tabriz and Teheran, one of the earliest industry plants during the last quarter of the 19th century, prominently in fields such as fishing, caviar production, the Caspian sea oil pipeline construction and textiles. During the 20th century, until the mid-70s, Gilan and the Rasht region was the third-ranking industrial city in Iran by number of workers and per capita productivity. It lost its cultural and industrial status to a large extent after the 1970s.

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Russia
Russia ⁱ/ˈrʌʃə/ or /ˈrʊʃə/ (Russian: Россия, tr. Rossiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijə] ( listen)), also officially known as the Russian Federation (Russian: Российская Федерация, tr. Rossiyskaya Federatsiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijskəjə fʲɪdʲɪˈratsɨjə] ( listen)), is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (both via Kaliningrad Oblast), Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It also has maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, and the US state of Alaska by the Bering Strait. At 17,075,400 square kilometres (6,592,800 sq mi), Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than one eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area. Russia is also the eighth most populous nation with 143 million people. It extends across the whole of northern Asia and 40% of Europe, spanning nine time zones and incorporating a wide range of environments and landforms. Russia has the world's largest reserves of mineral and energy resources and is the largest producer of oil and natural gas globally. Russia has the world's largest forest reserves and its lakes contain approximately one-quarter of the world's fresh water.

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Russian Empire
The Russian Empire (Pre-reform Russian orthography: Россійская Имперія, Modern Russian: Российская Империя, translit: Rossiyskaya Imperiya) was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the short-lived Russian Republic, which was succeeded by the Soviet Union. It was one of the largest empires in world history, surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires: at one point in 1866, it stretched from eastern Europe across Asia and into North America.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the Russian Empire extended from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Black Sea on the south, from the Baltic Sea on the west to the Pacific Ocean and into North America on the east. With 125.6 million subjects registered by the 1897 census, it had the third largest population of the world at the time, after Qing China and the British Empire. Like all empires, it represented a large disparity in economic, ethnic and religious positions. Its government, ruled by the Emperor, was the last absolute monarchy in Europe at the time of its demise.

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Rustavi
Rustavi (Georgian: რუსთავი) is a city in the southeast of Georgia, in the province of Kvemo Kartli, situated 25 km (15.53 mi) southeast of the capital Tbilisi. It stands on the Mtkvari River at 41°32′N 45°00′E / 41.533°N 45°E / 41.533; 45. It has a population of 116,384 (2002 census) and is dominated by the Rustavi Metallurgical Plant.
The history of Rustavi has two phases: an early history from ancient times until the city was destroyed in the 13th century, and modern history from the Soviet era to the present.
Rustavi is one of the ancient towns of Georgia. The foundation of Rustavi is dated from time immemorial. Leonti Mroveli connects this process with the name of the glorious ancestor of Georgian people. As Leonti writes in his works "The description of the Kingdom of Georgia" Rustavi was called as Bostan-Kalaki. It was situated on the river Mtkvari (Kura) and founded by the wife of Kartlos. She built a castle to the east of the mountain Iagluji.
The historian Leonti Mroveli, who described the lives of the first Georgian kings, mentions the town Rustavi among those castles, which protested the troops of Alexander the Great.

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Sachkhere
Sachkhere (Georgian: საჩხერე) is a town at the northern edge of the Imereti Province in Western Georgia.
Farming is a major contributor to the economy of Sachkhere. Alva LLC estimates that there are 4,000 small and medium sized farms and ranches in the region, supported by a program of technical assistance sponsored by USAID and administered by the Farmer-to-Farmer program of CNFA.
Coordinates: 42°20′43″N 43°25′10″E / 42.34528°N 43.41944°E / 42.34528; 43.41944

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Sagarejo
Sagarejo (Georgian: საგარეჯო) is a town in Kakheti, Georgia. It is situated 58 kilometres (36 mi) east of Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, and has the population of 12,600 (2002 census). It serves as an administrative center of the Sagarejo district.
The town is traditionally considered a chief settlement of the Gare-Kakheti area (Outer Kakheti). The settlement is first mentioned in written records in the 11th century under the name of Tvali, literally meaning "an eye". Later, it came to be known as Sagarejo, i.e., "of Gareja", indicating that the area was owned by the David Gareja monastery. It acquired the town’s status in 1962.
The fortified ruins of the ancient Ninotsminda Cathedral are located near Sagarejo.
Coordinates: 41°44′N 45°20′E / 41.733°N 45.333°E / 41.733; 45.333

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Samsun
Samsun is a city of about half a million people on the north coast of Turkey. It is the provincial capital of Samsun Province and a major Black Sea port.
The present name of the city may come from its former Greek name of Amisos by a shortening of Eis Amisos (meaning to Amisos) + ounta (Greek suffix for place names) to Sampsunda (Σαμψούντα) and then Samsun (pronounced [sɑmsun]).
The early Greek historian Hecataeus wrote that Amisos was formerly called Enete, the place mentioned in Homer's Iliad.
During the Ottoman Empire the present name was written in Ottoman Turkish: صامسون
Paleolithic artifacts found in the Tekkeköy Caves can be seen in Samsun Archaeology Museum.
The earliest layer excavated of the höyük of Dündartepe revealed a Chalcolithic settlement. Early Bronze Age and Hittite settlements were also found there and at Tekkeköy.
Samsun (then known as Amisos, alternative spelling Amisus) was settled between the years of 760 - 750 BC by people from Miletus, who established a flourishing trade relationship with the ancient peoples of Anatolia. Samsun's ideal combination of fertile ground and shallow waters attracted numerous traders.

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Samtredia
Samtredia (Georgian: სამტრედია) is a town in Imereti, Georgia, lying in a lowland between the rivers Rioni and Tskhenis-Tsqali, 244 km west of Tbilisi, and 27 km west of Kutaisi, the nation’s capital and the second largest city respectively. Georgia’s most important roads and railways converge there, making Samtredia the country’s vital transport hub. The Kopitnari Airport is also located in 10 km from Samtredia. The town's population is 29,694 as of the 2002 all-Georgia census. The climate is humid subtropical, with mild and warm winters and hot summers.
Samtredia evolved as a town from a crucial railway junction in the 1870s and acquired a town status in 1921. Under the Soviet rule, it was industrialized for the production of food and wood. Due to its strategic location, Samtredia played a prominent role in the civil unrest early in the 1990s. In a high-profile incident, from July 26 to 31 1990, the Samtredia junction was blocked by anti-Soviet opposition groups which forced, in this way, the Soviet Georgian leadership to adopt a liberal election code. The junction was again blocked, this time by the new government of Zviad Gamsakhurdia, in March-April 1991 in an attempt to exert pressure on the central Soviet authorities. This blockade, however, inflicted a heavy damage to the economy of Georgia and the neighboring Republic of Armenia which was largely dependent on Georgia’s railways. Later in 1993, Samtredia became one of the major battlegrounds in the Georgian Civil War in which the forces loyal to the ousted President Gamsakhurdia confronted the post-coup government troops, and briefly controlled the town from October 17 to October 23, 1993, putting all communications to Tbilisi under threat. Although Samtredia has been stable ever since, the post-Soviet crisis resulted in a significant economic decline the effects of which have not completely been reversed.

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Senaki
Senaki (Georgian: სენაკი) is a town in Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region, western Georgia. It is located at around 42°16′8″N 42°4′45″E / 42.26889°N 42.07917°E / 42.26889; 42.07917Coordinates: 42°16′8″N 42°4′45″E / 42.26889°N 42.07917°E / 42.26889; 42.07917.
From 1935 to 1976 it was called Tskhakaya in honor of the Georgian Bolshevik revolutionary leader Mikhail Tskhakaya.
The Second Brigade of the Georgian Army is stationed near Senaki. Senaki was the center of the Georgia military mutiny of 1998. The town was also the site of a battle during the 2008 South Ossetia war.
One of the important landmarks of the town is the State Theater built in Baroque Revival style.

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Shida Kartli
Shida Kartli (Georgian: შიდა ქართლი) is a region (Mkhare) in Georgia. It consists of the following districts: Gori, Kaspi, Kareli, Java, Khashuri.
The northern part of the region, namely Java, and northern territories of Kareli and Gori, (total area of 1,393 km²) is controlled by the authorities of the self-proclaimed republic of South Ossetia since 1992.

Coordinates: 42°11′N 44°00′E / 42.183°N 44°E / 42.183; 44

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Shorapani
Shorapani (Georgian: შორაპანი) is a small Georgian town, situated in the Zestaponi District, part of the region of Imereti. Founded in the 3rd century BC, it served as a residence of the eristavi (dukes) of Argveti (also known as the Duchy of Shorapani) in the Antiquity and the early Middle Ages.
Near the town are the ruins of a fortress, mentioned as Sarapana by Strabo and Sarapanis by Procopius as a strong position on the road that led from Colchis to Iberia.
Coordinates: 42°06′N 43°07′E / 42.1°N 43.117°E / 42.1; 43.117

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Shuakhevi
Shuakhevi is a small town in Georgia's autonomous region of Ajaria, 67 km east to the regional capital Batumi. Situated on the right bank of the Adjaristsqali River, it is an administrative center of Shuakhevi District, which comprises the town itself and 68 adjoining mountainous villages. The area of the district is 588 km²; population – 21,850 (est. 2002).
Near the town are the ruins of a medieval fortress.
Coordinates: 41°38′N 42°11′E / 41.633°N 42.183°E / 41.633; 42.183

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Sighnaghi
Sighnaghi (Signagi) (Georgian: სიღნაღი) is a town in Georgia's easternmost region of Kakheti and the administrative center of the Sighnaghi District. It is one of the country's smallest towns with a population of 2,146 as of the 2002 census. Sighnaghi's economy is dominated by production of wine,traditional carpets and Georgian traditional food Mcvadi. The town and its environs are also known for their landscapes and historical monuments. Sighnaghi has recently undergone a fundamental reconstruction program and has become an important center of Georgia's tourist industry.
The territory of the modern-day town has been settled since the Paleolithic period and was known as Hereti in the Middle Ages, and as Kiziqi after the 15th century. Sighnaghi (literally, "harbor" in Turkish) as a settlement is first recorded in the early 18th century. In 1762, King Heraclius II of Georgia sponsored the construction of the town and erected a fortress to defend the area from marauding attacks by Dagestan tribesmen. As of the 1770 census, Sighnaghi was settled by 100 families, chiefly craftsmen and merchants. When Georgia was annexed by Imperial Russia in 1801, Sighnaghi was officially granted town status and became a centre of Signakh uyezd (Russian: Сигнахский уезд) within Tiflis Governorate in 1802. The town quickly rose in its size and population and became an agricultural centre under the Soviet Union. The severe economic crisis in post-Soviet Georgia heavily affected the town, but a major reconstruction project recently launched by the Government of Georgia and co-funded by several international organizations intends to address an increasing tourist interest and modernize infrastructure.

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Soviet Union
The Soviet Union (Russian: Советский Союз, tr. Sovetsky Soyuz), officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR; Russian: Сою́з Сове́тских Социалисти́ческих Респу́блик, tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik; IPA: [sɐˈjus sɐˈvʲetskʲɪx sətsɨəlʲɪˈstʲitɕɪskʲɪx rʲɪsˈpublʲɪk] ( listen); abbreviated СССР, SSSR), was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991.
The Soviet Union was a single-party state ruled by the Communist Party from its foundation until 1990. A union of 15 subnational Soviet republics, the Soviet state was structured under a highly centralized government and economy.
The Russian Revolution of 1917 caused the downfall of the Russian Empire. Following the Russian Revolution, there was a struggle for power between the Bolshevik party, led by Vladimir Lenin, and the anti-communist White movement. In December 1922, the Bolsheviks won the civil war, and the Soviet Union was formed with the merger of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.

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Stepantsminda
Stepantsminda (Georgian: სტეფანწმინდა; formerly Kazbegi, ყაზბეგი), is a small town in the Mtskheta-Mtianeti region of north-eastern Georgia. Historically and ethnographically, the town is part of the Khevi province. It is the center of the Kazbegi Municipality.
Stepantsminda was named after a Georgian Orthodox monk named Stephan, who constructed a hermitage at this location on what later became the Georgian Military Road.
The town is located along the banks of the Thergi River, 157 kilometers (98 mi) to the north of Tbilisi at an elevation of 1,740 meters (5,710 feet) above sea level. Stepantsminda’s climate is moderately humid with relatively dry, cold winters and long and cool summers. The average annual temperature is 4.9 degrees Celsius. January is the coldest month with an average temperature of -5.2 degrees Celsius while July is the warmest month with an average temperature of 14.4 degrees Celsius. The absolute minimum recorded temperature is -34 degrees Celsius and the absolute maximum is 32 degrees Celsius. Stepantsminda’s average annual precipitation is 790 mm. (31.1 inches). The town is dominated by large mountains on all sides. The most notable mountain of the region, Mount Kazbek, lies immediately to the west of town. The second most prominent peak, Mt. Shani, rises to an elevation of 4,451 meters (14,600 feet) above sea level, 9 kilometers to the east of Stepantsminda. The town is located 10 kilometers to the south of the famous Darial Gorge.

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Sukhumi District
Sukhumi district is a district of Abkhazia, Georgia’s breakaway republic. It corresponds to the eponymous Georgian district. Its capital is Sukhumi, the town by the same name, which is also the capital of entire Abkhazia. The population of the district is 11,747 according to the 2003 census. The city of Sukhumi is a separate administrative entity with more than 40,000 inhabitants.
According to 2003 census, the population of the district included:
The district's main settlements are:

On 2 April 2003, President Ardzinba dismissed Lev Avidzba and appointed State Security Service Chairman Zurab Agumava as acting District Head.
On 21 February 2007, before the local elections, President Bagapsh temporarily prolonged Vladimir Avidzba tenure as Head of the District Administration. After Avidzba was re-elected, he was permanently re-appointed on 21 March.

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Surami
Surami (Georgian: სურამი) is a small town (daba) in Georgia’s Shida Kartli region with the population of 9,800 (2002 Georgia Census). It is a popular mountain climatic resort and a home to a medieval fortress.
Surami is located on the southern slopes of the Likhi Range (alternatively known as the Surami Range) which divides Georgia into its eastern and western parts, 4 km from the town Khashuri, to which Surami is connected through a railway spur.
The first human settlement on Surami’s territory dates back to the early Bronze Age. It is probably the Surium of Classical authors, specifically Pliny the Elder (AD 23-79), who place it in the eastern part of Colchis, towards Iberia.
Strategically located at the entrance into the Borjomi Gorge and guarding the road from eastern to western Georgia, Surami became a heavily fortified town in the 12th century. From the 1170s to the latter part of the 14th century, the fortress of Surami was a hereditary fief of the dynasty of the eristavs ("governors") of Kartli (central Georgia), who assumed the surname of Surameli (სურამელი; literally, "[lord] of Surami").

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Tbilisi
Tbilisi (Georgian: თბილისი [tʰb̥ilisi] ( listen)) is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi (ტფილისი) and it was officially known as Tpilisi (in Georgian) or Tiflis (in Russian) until 1936. The city covers an area of 726 km² (280 sq mi) and has 1,480,000 inhabitants.
Founded in the 5th century by Vakhtang Gorgasali, the monarch of Georgia's precursor Kingdom of Iberia, Tbilisi has served, with various intervals, as Georgia's capital for nearly 1500 years and represents a significant industrial, social, and cultural center of the country. Located near the southeastern edge of Europe, Tbilisi's proximity to lucrative east-west trade routes often made the city a point of contention between various rival empires throughout history and the city's location to this day ensures its position as an important transit route for global energy and trade projects. Tbilisi's varied history is reflected in its architecture, which is a mix of medieval, classical, and Soviet structures.

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Telavi
Telavi (Georgian: თელავი) is the main city and administrative center of Georgia's eastern province of Kakheti. Its population consists of some 21,800 inhabitants (as of the year 2002).^{[citation needed]} The city is located on foot-hills of Tsiv-Gombori Range at 500-800 meters above the sea level.
First archaeological findings from Telavi date back to Bronze Age. One of the earliest surviving accounts of Telavi is from the 2nd century AD, by Greek geographer Claudius Ptolemaeus, who mentions the name Teleda (a reference to Telavi). Telavi began to transform into a fairly important and large political and administrative center in the 8th century AD. Interesting information on Telavi is provided in the records by an Arab geographer Al-Muqaddasi of the 10th century, who mentions Telavi along with such important cities of that time's Caucasus as Tbilisi, Shamkhor, Ganja, Shemakha and Shirvan. Speaking about the population of Telavi, Al-Muqaddasi points out that for the most part is consisted of Christians.

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Terjola
Terjola (Georgian: თერჯოლა) is a town in Imereti, Georgia, serving as an administrative center of the homonymous district.
Terjola is situated in the Imereti Lowland in western Georgia, on the right bank of the Chkhara river. It lies on the Tbilisi-Zestaponi highway, 190 km northwest of Tbilisi and 14 km northwest of Zestaponi. Its population is 5,700.
Terjola is first mentioned in the 17th-century sources. It acquired the status of a town in 1983.
There are a series of historical and cultural landmarks in the environs of Terjola such as the Skande fortress, the ruins of the Gogni fort and church, and the Chkhalti church complex with its numerous antiquities now displayed in the museums of Georgia.

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Tianjin
Tianjin (help·info) (Chinese: 天津; pinyin: Tiānjīn; Mandarin pronunciation: [tʰjɛ́ntɕín]; Tianjinese: /tʰiɛn˨˩tɕin˨˩/~[tʰjɛ̃̀ɦɪ̀ŋ]; Postal map spelling: Tientsin) is a metropolis in northern China and one of the five national central cities of the People's Republic of China. It is governed as a direct-controlled municipality, one of four such designations, and is, thus, under direct administration of the central government. Tianjin borders Hebei Province and Beijing Municipality, bounded to the east by the Bohai Gulf portion of the Yellow Sea.
As a dual-core city, Tianjin is divided into the old city and the Binhai New Area. Binhai New Area is a new growth pole in China, and it maintains an annual growth rate of nearly 30% of the GDP. As of the end of 2010, 285 Fortune Global 500 companies have established branch offices in Binhai. It is a base of China's advanced industry, financial reform, and innovation.
In terms of urban population, it is the sixth-largest city of the People's Republic of China, and its urban land area (Binhai New Area is not included) ranks fifth in the nation after Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan and Guangzhou. Tianjin's urban area is located along the Hai River, which connects to the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers via the Grand Canal in Tianjin. Tianjin was once home to foreign concessions in the late Qing Dynasty and early Kuomintang (KMT) era. The municipality incorporates the coastal region of Tanggu, home to the Binhai New Area and the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (TEDA).

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Tkvarcheli
Tkvarcheli (Abkhaz: Тҟəарчал, Tqwarchal; Georgian: ტყვარჩელი, Tqvarcheli; Russian: Ткуарчал or Ткварчели, Tkuarchal or Tkvarcheli) is a town in Abkhazia. It is situated on the river Ghalidzga (Aaldzga) and the railroad connects it with Ochamchira.
Tkvarcheli was given town-status on 9 April 1942 as the coal-mining (that had started in its vicinity in 1935) grew in importance during the World War II as the major coal mines of Donbass were temporarily lost to the Germans.
During the War in Abkhazia (1992-3), Tkvarcheli withheld, through Russian humanitarian and military aid, an uneasy siege by the Georgian forces. Since 1995 it is the centre of the newly formed Tkvarcheli district. On 27 September 2008, President Sergei Bagapsh awarded it the honorary title of Hero City.
The coal-mining has been the town's main industry ever since although now the Soviet mines are closed and coal is quarried only by the Abkhaz-Turkish Tamsaş company using the open pit method. Tamsaş's tax payments account for 75% of the Tkvarcheli district's budget, however the company was criticised for neglecting environmental requirements. Construction of a new cement plant is planned now, its output to be used for the Olympic construction projects in Sochi. Georgia regards all this investment as illegal, in clear violation of the 1996 CIS restrictions and has arrested several vessels, loaded with coal from Tkvarcheli, in its territorial waters, a measure that has reportedly brought Tamsaş to the verge of bankruptcy.

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Tsageri
Tsageri (Georgian: ცაგერი) is a town in Georgia, located in Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti region in the west of the country and serving as an administrative center of the homonymous district.
Tsageri is located at 475 m above sea level, on the right bank of the Tskhenis-Tsqali, an affluent of the Rioni river. As of the 2002 census, the town had a population of approximately 1,900, mostly Georgians.
In medieval Georgia, Tsageri was an episcopal see, with a cathedral described by the early 18th-century geographer Vakhushti as "the cupola church of Tsageri, superbly built." The original three-nave basilica design was significantly altered by the cathedral's late 19th-century restorers; the original wall paintings, including the portraits of Queen Tamar and her son George IV, were also lost in the process.
Under the Russian Empire and early Soviet government, Tsageri functioned as an administrative center of the Lechkhumi uyezd. It acquired the status of a town in 1968.
There is the residence of the Georgian Orthodox bishop of Tsageri and Lentekhi in Tsageri. A local museum exhibits several thousands of archaeological artifacts unearthed in Lower Svaneti and Lechkhumi.

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Tsalenjikha
Tsalenjikha (Georgian: წალენჯიხა, also transliterated as Tsalendjikha and Tzalenjikha) is a town in Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region of western Georgia with the population of c. 8,900 (2002). It is located on the Chanis-Tsqali River. Historically, Tsalenjikha functioned as one of the residences of the Dadiani princes of Mingrelia and a bishopric seat with a medieval cathedral of the Savior.
"Tsalenjikha" is a composite toponym, meaning in Mingrelain either "the fortress of Chan" (I. Kipchidze, S. Janashia) or "the lower fortress" (A. Chikobava).
Tsalenjikha is the birthplace of the famous Georgian poet, Terenti Graneli.
Coordinates: 42°34′12″N 42°2′59″E / 42.57°N 42.04972°E / 42.57; 42.04972

wn.com/Tsalenjikha
Tsalka
Tsalka (Georgian: წალკა, Armenian: Ծալկա, Azerbaijani: Barmaqsız, Greek: Τσάλκα, Russian: Цалка), is a town in southern Georgia's Kvemo Kartli region.
The district had a population of 22,000. According to the 2002 census 55% of its population is Armenian, 22% Greek, 12% Georgian, and 9.5% Azerbaijanis. Some of these Greeks are Turkophone, known as Urums, who in the past used to be the majority in the town - their numbers considerably lessened by emigration (repatriation).
Several thousands of ethnic Georgians who had suffered from landslides in Svaneti and Adjara were settled in Tsalka in 1997-2006. The town and its district has experienced occasionally violent ethnic division in the recent decade.
Coordinates: 41°35′N 44°05′E / 41.583°N 44.083°E / 41.583; 44.083

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Tskhinvali
Tskhinvali (also spelled Cchinvali or Cxinvali; Georgian: ცხინვალი [t͡sxinvali]; Ossetic: Цхинвал or Чъреба listen (help·info), Tskhinval or Ch'reba; Russian: Цхинвал(и)), is the capital of South Ossetia, a disputed region which has been recognised as an independent Republic by Russia and another four UN members, and is regarded by Georgia and all other UN member states de jure as a region within Georgian sovereign territory.
It is located on the Great Liakhvi River approximately 100 km (62 mi) northwest of the Georgian capital Tbilisi.
The name of Tskhinvali is derived from the Georgian Krtskhinvali (Georgian: ქრცხინვალი), literally meaning "the land of hornbeams", which is the historical name of the city. From 1934 to 1961, the city was named Staliniri (Georgian: სტალინირი), after Joseph Stalin. Modern Ossetians call the city Tskhinval (leaving off the final "i", which is a nominative case ending in Georgian); the other Ossetian (unofficial) name of the city is Chreba.
The area around the present-day Tskhinvali was first populated back in the Bronze Age. The unearthed settlements and archaeological artifacts from that time are unique in that they reflect influences from both Iberian (east Georgia) and Colchian (west Georgia) cultures with possible Sarmatian elements.

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Tsnori
Tsnori (Georgian: წნორი) is a town (since 1965) in Georgia’s Kakheti region. It is located in the Alazani Valley near the town Sighnaghi and has the population of 6,066 (2002 Georgia Census).
Archaeological digs at Tsnori have revealed clusters of kurgans which contain the most elaborate burial mounds among the Early Bronze Age kurgan cultures of South Caucasia.
Coordinates: 41°37′N 45°58′E / 41.617°N 45.967°E / 41.617; 45.967

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Ureki
Ureki (Georgian: ურეკი) is a town and a seaside climatic resort in the Ozurgeti District of Georgia’s Guria region, on the Black Sea coast, situated 10 km from Batumi and approximately 300 km from the nation’s capital Tbilisi. Located 4 meters above the sea level, it has the population of 1,422 (2005 all-Georgia Census).
It received a status of a town in 1953.

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Vani
Vani (Georgian: ვანი) is a town in Imereti region of western Georgia, at the Sulori river (a tributary of the Rioni river), 41 km southwest from the regional capital Kutaisi. The town with the population of 4,600 (2002 est.) is an administrative center of the Municipality of Vani comprising also 43 neighbouring villages (total area – 557 km²; population – 34,000, 2002 est.).
Systematic archaeological studies (N.Khoshtaria, O.Lordkipanidze) carried out in the Vani environs since 1947 revealed the remnants of a rich city of the ancient power of Colchis. The name of this ancient settlement is still unknown but four distinct stages of uninterrupted occupation have been identified. The first phase is dated to the 8th-7th centuries BC. In this period Vani is presumed to have been a major cultic centre. The second phase - end of the 7th and beginning of the 6th to the first half of the 4th century BC - is represented by cultural layers, remains of wooden structures, sacrificial altars cut in the rocky ground, and rich burials. It is assumed that on this stage Vani was the centre of a political-administrative unit of the kingdom of Colchis. The third phase covers the second half of the 4th - first half of the 3rd century BC. It is represented largely by rich burials, remains of stone structures. To the fourth phase (the 3rd-mid-1st cent. BC) belong defensive walls, the so-called small gate, sanctuaries and cultic buildings (temples, altars sacrificial platforms), and the remains of a foundry for casting bronze statues. It is assumed that in the 3rd-1st centuries BC. Vani was a templar city. According to the archaeological data, the city was destroyed in the mid-1st century BC. Subsequently, Vani declined to a village and was officially granted a status of a town only in 1981.

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Zestaponi
Zestafoni or Zestaponi (Georgian: ზესტაფონი) is the capital of Zestaponi District in Western Georgia, which is part of Imereti province. It is an important industrial center, with a large ferro-alloy plant processing manganese ore from nearby Chiatura. Zestafoni is in the Kolkheti lowlands, a semi-tropical region with relatively cold winters averaging -4°C in January and hot summers averaging 24°C in August. The surrounding countryside is a wine-growing region.
Zestafoni lies two kilometers south of the small but ancient fortress town of Shorapani, founded by Pharnavaz I of Iberia in the 3rd century BC.^{[citation needed]} The town of Zestafoni is first mentioned in historical records in the 1560s. In the 1820s a Cossack army was posted in the town, which was then called "Kvirila" after the river that runs through it. In the 1920s the name was changed again to "Jugeli", after a famous revolutionary. Only later did the city regain its historical name.
The town of Zestafoni and the smaller neighboring town of Shorapani are industrial centers. The Zestafoni ferro-alloy plant processes raw manganese ore shipped by rail down the Kvirila valley from Chiatura, supplying 6% of world demand. The largest ferroalloy plant in the country, in 1998 it produced 35,000 tonnes of silicomanganese and 11,000 tonnes of medium-carbon manganese alloy. This was well below its previous peak production of 110,000 tonnes of manganese-based alloys. The British steel trading company Stemcor acquired the ferro-alloy plant in February 2006.

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Zhinvali
Zhinvali (Georgian: ჟინვალი) is a town in Georgia, Dusheti municipality (Mtiuleti region), on river Aragvi. It has one of the largest hydroelectric power stations in Georgia.
Coordinates: 42°07′N 44°46′E / 42.117°N 44.767°E / 42.117; 44.767

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Znaur
Znaur (Ossetic: Знауыр, Znawyr) or Kornisi (Georgian: ყორნისი, q'ornisi) is an urban village, and the district centre of the Znaur region of South Ossetia, partially recognized republic in the South Caucasus, formerly the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast within the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic.
In Znaur, the woodworking and food industries are developed, and the following infrastructure facilities are present and operating: a library, hospital, pharmacy, preschool and school education.
Coordinates: 42°11′39″N 43°46′18″E / 42.1941666767°N 43.7716666767°E / 42.1941666767; 43.7716666767

wn.com/Znaur
Zugdidi
Zugdidi (Georgian: ზუგდიდი; Mingrelian: ზუგიდი, literally "big hill") is a city in the Western Georgian historical province of Samegrelo (Mingrelia). It is situated in the north-west of that province. The city is located 318 kilometres west of Tbilisi, 30 km. from Black sea coast and 30 km. from Egrisi range. 100–110 metres above sea level. As of 2007, it had a population of 75,900. The city is a capital of the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region which combines Samegrelo (Mingrelia) and Svaneti.
The name "Zugdidi" means "big/great hill" in Laz-Mingrelian (Colchian) language. Architectural sights of this city are Queen's palace and Niko's palace (now the Dadiani Palace museums. both of XIXth cent.), Blachernae St. Virgin (1825-30 y.) and Mantskhvar-kari (X-XIVth cent.) Churches. There are also an old Botanical Garden (Queen's Garden) and the city boulevard.
Historically Zugdidi was a capital of principality of Mingrelia (Odishi) until 1867, when the principality was abolished by the Russian Empire. In 1993 there was an administration of first President of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia.

wn.com/Zugdidi

Bagrat IV of Georgia
Bagrat IV (Georgian: ბაგრატ IV) (1018 – November 24, 1072), of the Bagrationi dynasty, was the King of Georgia from 1027 to 1072. During his long and eventful reign, Bagrat sought to repress the great nobility and to secure Georgia's sovereignty from the Byzantine and Seljuqid empires. In a series of intermingled conflicts, Bagrat succeeded in defeating his most powerful vassals and rivals of the Liparitid family, bringing several feudal enclaves under his control, and reducing the kings of Lorri and Kakheti, as well as the emir of Tbilisi to vassalage. Like many medieval Caucasian rulers, he bore several Byzantine titles, particularly those of nobelissimos, curopalates, and sebastos.
He was the son of the king George I (r. 1014-1027) by his first wife Mariam of Vaspurakan. At the age of three, Bagrat was surrendered by his father as a hostage to the Byzantine emperor Basil II (r. 976-1025) as a price for George’s defeat in the 1022 war with the Byzantines. The young child Bagrat spent the next three years in the imperial capital of Constantinople and was released in 1025. He was still in the Byzantine possessions when Basil died and was succeeded by his brother Constantine VIII (r. 1025-8). Constantine ordered the retrieval of the young prince, but the imperial courier was unable to overtake Bagrat – he was already in the Georgian kingdom.

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Bayezid II
Bayezid II or Sultân Bayezid-î Velî (December 3, 1447 – May 26, 1512) (Ottoman Turkish: بايزيد ثانى Bāyezīd-i sānī, Turkish:II. Bayezid or II. Beyazıt) was the oldest son and successor of Mehmed II, ruling as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1481 to 1512. During his reign, Bayezid II consolidated the Ottoman Empire and thwarted a Safavid rebellion soon before abdicating his throne to his son, Selim I.
Bayezid II was born in Dimetoka Palace (now Didymoteicho) in Thrace as the son of Mehmed II (1432–81) and Valide Sultan Mükrime Hatun, the daughter of Süleyman Bey, the sixth ruler of Dulkadirids, who died in 1492. According to Turkish folk tales, she was a French princess. Bayezid II married Ayşe Hatun, a convert of Greek ethnicity, who was the mother of Selim I.
Bayezid II's overriding concern was the quarrel with his brother Cem, who claimed the throne and sought military backing from the Mamluks in Egypt. Having been defeated by his brother's armies, Cem sought protection from the Knights of St. John in Rhodes. Eventually, the Knights handed Cem over to Pope Innocent VIII (1484–1492). The Pope thought of using Cem as a tool to drive the Turks out of Europe, but, as the Papal Crusade failed to come to fruition, Cem was left to languish and die in a Neapolitan prison.

wn.com/Bayezid_II
Colchis
In ancient geography, Colchis or Kolkhis (Georgian and Laz: კოლხეთი, ḳolkheti or "ḳolkha"; Ancient Greek: Κολχίς, Kolkhís) was an ancient Georgian state kingdom and region in Western Georgia, which played an important role in the ethnic and cultural formation of the Georgian nation.
The Kingdom of Colchis contributed significantly to the development of medieval Georgian statehood after its unification with the eastern Georgian Kingdom of Iberia. The term Colchians is used as the collective term for early Georgian tribes which populated the eastern coast of the Black Sea.
In Greek mythology, Colchis was the home of Aeëtes and Medea and the destination of the Argonauts; Colchis is also thought to be the possible homeland of the Amazons. Its geography is mostly assigned to what is now the western part of Georgia and encompasses the present-day Georgian provinces of Samegrelo, Imereti, Guria, Adjara, Abkhazeti, Svaneti, Racha; the modern Turkey’s Rize, Trabzon and Artvin provinces (Lazistan, Tao-Klarjeti); and the modern Russia’s Sochi and Tuapse districts. The Colchians were probably established on the Black Sea coast by the Middle Bronze Age.

wn.com/Colchis
David Kakabadze
Davit' Kakabadze (Georgian: დავით კაკაბაძე) (August 8, 1889 – May 10, 1952) was a Georgian avant-garde painter, graphic artist and scenic designer. A multi-talent, he was also an art scholar and innovator in the field of cinematography as well as an amateur photographer. Kakabadze’s works are notable for combining innovative interpretation of European "Leftist" art with Georgian national traditions, on which he was an expert.
Kakabadze was born into a poor peasant family in the village of Kukhi near the town of Khoni. Sponsored by local philanthropists, he studied natural sciences at St. Petersburg University from which he graduated in 1916. At the same time, he attended painting classes at the studio of Dmitroyev-Kavkazsky and did a research in old Georgian arts. After a brief period of working as a painter and educator in Tbilisi, he went to Paris where he lived from 1919 to 1927. He partook in the Société des Artistes Indépendants exhibitions and joint exhibitions with the Georgian artists Lado Gudiashvili and Shalva Kikodze. The cycle of landscapes reproducing the nature of Kakabadze’s native province of Imereti is some of the most interesting of his early works. During his stay in Paris, Kakabadze was attracted by "subjectless painting," and worked on problems of pictorial technique, occasionally using metal, mirror glass, stained glass and other such materials in place of paints. He soon went over to an even more "Leftist" position, and paid generous tribute to cubism. He lectured on various aspects of visual arts in Paris and, developing his interest in kinetic form, in 1923 he constructed a film camera that produced the illusion of relief and thus became one of the pioneers of three-dimensional cinema. By the mid- 1920s he had rejected his cubist-influenced style in favor of more abstract sculpture and painting.

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Dodo Chichinadze
Dodo Chichinadze (December 28, 1924 – November 3, 2009) was a Georgian film and theater actress. She appeared in a number of Georgian and Soviet era films, including The Suspended Song, Bashi Achuki, The Cricket, and Davit Guramishvili.
Chichinadze appeared as a lead actress at the Kote Marjanishvili Drama Theatre in Tbilisi for approximately 10 years. The Tbilisi city government honored Chichinadze with a star bearing her name outside the Rustaveli Theatre in 2009.
Dodo Chichinadze died on November 3, 2009, aged 84, from undisclosed causes.

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George I of Georgia
Giorgi I (Georgian: გიორგი I) (998 or 1002 – August 16, 1027), of the House of Bagrationi, was the king of Georgia from 1014 until his death in 1027. He spent most of his seven-year-long reign waging a bloody and fruitless territorial war with the Byzantine Empire.
Giorgi was born in 998 or, according to a later version of the Georgian chronicles, in 1002, to King Bagrat III. Upon his father’s death on May 7, 1014, he inherited the kingdoms of Abkhazia, Kartli and Kakheti united into a single state of Georgia. As his predecessor, Giorgi continued to be titled as King of the Abkhazians (Ap'xaz) and Georgians (K'art'velians). Contemporary sources, however, frequently omitted one of the two components of this title when abbreviating it.
The new sovereign’s young age was immediately exploited by the great nobles, who had been suppressed under the heavy hand of Bagrat. Around the same year, the easternmost provinces of Kakheti and Hereti, not easily acquired by Bagrat, staged a revolt and reinstated their own government under Kvirike III (1010/1014–1029), who also incorporated a portion of the neighbouring Arran (Ran), allowing him to claim the title of King of the Kakhetians and Ranians. Giorgi was unable to prevent the move and sought an alliance with this kingdom, rather than attempting to reincorporate it into the Georgian state, thus leaving a long-standing claim to Kakheti and Hereti to his successors.

wn.com/George_I_of_Georgia
George II of Georgia
George II (Georgian: გიორგი II, Giorgi II) (c. 1054–1112), of the Bagrationi Dynasty, was a king of Georgia from 1072 to 1089. He was a son and successor of Bagrat IV and his wife Borena of Alania. Unable to deal effectively with the constant Seljuk Turkish attacks and overwhelmed by internal problems in his kingdom, George was forced to abdicate in favor of his energetic son, David IV, to whom he remained a nominal co-ruler until his death in 1112. He also held the high Byzantine titles of curopalates (c. 1060) and caesar (c. 1081).
George’s childhood coincided with the civil war between his father, Bagrat IV (r. 1027–1072), and the rebellious Georgian feudal lord Liparit, who succeeded in temporary driving Bagrat into the Byzantine Empire, crowned George as king at the Ruisi Cathedral between 1050 and 1053, under the regency of Bagrat's sister Gurandukht. In fact, Liparit became the master of nearly half of the Georgian kingdom and the most powerful dynast in the country. By 1060, Bagrat IV had been able to secure the throne and made George his heir apparent to whom the Byzantine emperor attached the title of curopalates. In 1070, Prince George, at the head of a combined Georgian-Alan army, inflicted a decisive defeat on the Shaddadid emir of Arran, Fadl II, and ravaged his possessions at Ganja.

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Iakob Nikoladze
Iakob Nikoladze (1876-1951) was a Georgian sculptor and artist. He is perhaps best known as the designer of the previous state flag of Georgia.
The Georgian National Museum, Iakob Nikoladze House Museum is dedicated to his works and was established after his death in his home-studio in his native town of Kutaisi. The museum houses sculptures, sketches, photo and documentary materials.

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Joseph Orbeli
Joseph Orbeli (Armenian: Հովսեփ Աբգարի Օրբելի, Hovsep Abgari Orbeli; Russian: Иосиф Абгарович Орбели, Iosif Abgarovich Orbeli; March 20 (O.S. March 8), 1887 – February 2, 1961) was a renowned Soviet orientalist and academician of Armenian descent who specialized in medieval history of Southern Caucasus and administered the State Hermitage Museum in Leningrad from 1934 to 1951. He was also the founder and first President of the Armenian Academy of Sciences (1943-47).
Born into a medieval noble family in Kutaisi, Russian Georgia in 1887, Joseph Orbeli completed his secondary education at a classical gymnasium in Tiflis. In 1904, he was accepted to St. Petersburg University. He studied history and philology (with a particular emphasis in Latin and Greek) and graduated from the university in 1911. During his student years, Orbeli accompanied his professor, Nicholas Marr, to Russian Armenia, where he took part in excavations of the ruins of the medieval Armenian capital of Ani. Marr pushed his pupil to fully immerse himself in the fields of archaeology, literature, lithography and linguistics; otherwise, Marr reasoned, he would find himself unprepared in his research and his studies.

wn.com/Joseph_Orbeli
Katie Melua
Ketevan "Katie" Melua /ˈmɛluːə/ (Georgian: ქეთევან "ქეთი" მელუა listen (help·info); born 16 September 1984) is a Georgian-born British singer, songwriter and musician. She moved to Northern Ireland at the age of eight and then to England at fourteen. Melua is signed to the small Dramatico record label, under the management of composer Mike Batt, and made her musical debut in 2003. In 2006, she was the United Kingdom's best-selling female artist and Europe's highest selling European female artist.
In November 2003, at the age of nineteen, Melua released her first album, Call off the Search, which reached the top of the United Kingdom album charts and sold 1.8 million copies in its first five months of release. Her second album, Piece by Piece, was released in September 2005 and to date^[update] has gone platinum four times. Melua released her third studio album Pictures in October 2007.
According to the Sunday Times Rich List 2008, Melua has a fortune of £18 million, making her the seventh richest British musician under thirty. It was reported in 2009 that she may have lost millions as a result of the global economic downturn. As of May 2011 the singer could have a £12m fortune and she came second in the under 30 rich list.

wn.com/Katie_Melua
Lasha Zhvania
Lasha Zhvania (Georgian: ლაშა ჟვანია) (born October 14, 1973 in Tbilisi, Georgia) is a Georgian politician, Currently serves as General Manager of the International Humanitarian Foundation of Patriarch of Georgia His Holiness Ilia II [1], the Minister for Economic Development from November 2008 till August 2009 and an ex-Parliament of Georgia. A lawyer by education specializing in international law, he has served in the posts of Consul in Israel, Deputy-Minister of Finance, Deputy-Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the State of Israel and the Republic of Cyprus, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Parliament of Georgia.
Lasha Zhvania was born and raised in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR. He was educated at Tbilisi school No 1 (1979–1990), Faculty of International Law and International Relations of the Tbilisi State University (1990–1995), PHD study on International Humanitarian and Refugee Law at the Department for International Law of the Tbilisi State University (1995–1998). Apart from numerous high-profile government positions Zhvania has been actively involved in various educational Programmes attending the CPDS - Courses for Political and Diplomatic Studies in UK's Leeds University, in 1995, and Refugee and IDP International Law Programme at Birmingham University in UK, in 1998.

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Maia Chiburdanidze
Maia Chiburdanidze (Georgian: მაია ჩიბურდანიძე; born January 17, 1961) is a Georgian chess grandmaster, and the seventh (and then youngest) Women's World Chess Champion. She is the only chess player in history who has won nine Chess Olympiads.
Chiburdanidze's FIDE Elo rating as of January 2011^[update] is 2502, making her the 14th highest rated female player in the world.
Maia Chiburdanidze was born in Kutaisi, Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, USSR and started playing chess around the age of eight. She became the USSR girls' champion in 1976 and a year later she won the women's title. In 1977 she was awarded the title of International Women's Grandmaster.
She won outright on her debut at the Braşov women's international tournament of 1974 when she was only 13 years old and went on to win another tournament in Tbilisi in 1975 before entering the women's world championship cycle of 1976/77.
Her style of play is solid, but aggressive and well grounded in classical principles; it was influenced by Eduard Gufeld, a top Soviet trainer, who was her coach early in her career.

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Meir Pichhadze
Meir Pichhadze (August 16, 1955, Kutaisi, Georgia - February 4, 2010, Tel Aviv, Israel) was an Israeli artist and painter.
Pichhadze began studying art as a child with the sculptor Razu Ramishvili. He moved with his family to Israel in 1973. There his work revealed influences of the primitivist stylings of Georgian painter Niko Pirosmanashvili.
In 1983, Pichhadze began studying at the Kalisher College of Art. His first exhibition was at the school's newly opened gallery. He was known for his unusual style, most notably for painting on a black canvas instead of the traditional white canvas.
Pichhadze died after a six-month battle with cancer.

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Niko Nikoladze
Niko Nikoladze (Georgian: ნიკო ნიკოლაძე) (27 September 1843, – 5 June 1928) was a notable Georgian publicist, pro-Western enlightener, and public figure primarily known for his contributions to the development of Georgian liberal journalism and his involvement in various economic and social projects of that time.
He was born in the village of Didi Jikhaishi, Imereti, western Georgia (then part of Imperial Russia) into petite noble family of Nikoladze. After the graduation from Kutaisi Gymnasium (1860), he enrolled into Faculty of Law, St Petersburg University in 1861. In the same year he was excluded from the University for taking part in student protests. After leaving St. Petersburg he went to study in Western Europe in 1864 and became the first Georgian to receive a doctorate (in law) from a European university, namely in Zurich (1868). Like many other Georgian intellectuals of that time, he followed the evolution of Russian liberals to different versions of socialism, establishing his own contacts with the Western leftist thinkers. Nikoladze was the first Georgian figure within this trend to gain position of influence in all-Russian liberalist movements. During his stay in Zurich, through Paul Lafargue he met Karl Marx, who asked Nikoladze to become the representative of the International in Transcaucasia. Nikoladze declined the offer because at that time his views were closer with the Russian revolutionary democrats, Nikolai Chernyshevsky and Nikolay Dobrolyubov, whom he had met in St. Petersburg. While in Europe, he briefly collaborated with Aleksandr Herzen in his influential newspaper, Kolokol (The Bell), in 1865, but Nikoladze soon broke with Herzen when the latter send a reconciliatory open letter to the tsar.

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Revaz Dzodzuashvili
Revaz Mikhaylovich Dzodzuashvili (Russian: Реваз Михайлович Дзодзуашвили, Georgian: რევაზ ძოძუაშვილი) is a Soviet football manager and a former player.
He earned 49 caps for the USSR national football team, and participated in the 1970 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 1972. He also earned a bronze medal in football at the 1972 Summer Olympics.
After retiring from playing he became a football manager, including a stint as head coach of the Latvia national football team. He was a manager of FC Shakhter at the start of 2008 season, but his contract was terminated soon.

wn.com/Revaz_Dzodzuashvili
Selim I
Selim I, Yavuz Sultân Selim Khan, Hâdim-ül Haramain-ish Sharifain (Servant of the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina) (Ottoman Turkish: سليم اوّل, Modern Turkish: I.Selim), nicknamed Yavuz "the Stern" or "the Steadfast", but often rendered in English as "the Grim" (October 10, 1465/1466/1470 – September 22, 1520), was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520. His reign is notable for the enormous expansion of the Empire, particularly his conquest between 1516-1517 of the entire Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt, which included all of Sham, Hejaz, and Egypt itself. With the heart of the Arab World now under their control, the Ottomans became the dominant power in the region, and in the Islamic world. Upon conquering Egypt, Selim took the title of Caliph of Islam, being the first Ottoman sultan to do so. He was also granted the title of "Khâdim ül Haramain ish Sharifain" (Servant of the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina), by the Sharif of Mecca in 1517.
Selim's reign represented a sudden change in the expansion policy of the empire, which was working mostly against the West and the Beyliks before his reign. On the eve of his death in 1520, the Ottoman Empire spanned almost 1 billion acres (trebling during Selim's reign).

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Solomon I of Imereti
Solomon I (Georgian: სოლომონ I) (1735 – April 23, 1784), of the Bagrationi Dynasty, was King of Imereti (western Georgia) from 1752 to 1766 and again from 1768 until his death in 1784.

wn.com/Solomon_I_of_Imereti
Tengiz Sulakvelidze
Tengiz Grigorjević Sulakvelidze (Georgian: თენგიზ სულაქველიძე) (born 23 July 1956 in Kutaisi) is a former Georgian footballer.
Sulakvelidze made his debut for USSR on 26 March 1980 in a friendly against Bulgaria. He went on to play in the 1982 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 1988. He scored a goal in the UEFA Euro 1988 qualifier against Iceland.

wn.com/Tengiz_Sulakvelidze
Veriko Anjaparidze
Veriko (Vera Ivlianovna) Anjaparidze (Georgian: ვერიკო ანჯაფარიძე, 6 October [O.S. 23 September] 1897, Kutaisi - 1987, Tbilisi) was a Georgian stage and cinema actress.
Since 1920, Veriko Anjaparidze was an actress at the Shota Rustaveli State Theater in Tbilisi, and since 1927 she moved to the Kote Mardjanishvili Theater, also in Tbilisi. Later, she became the art director of the theater.
Veriko Anjaparidze was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1943, 1946, and 1952. In 1950, she was awarded the title of the People's Artist of the USSR.
She was the wife of the film director Mikheil Chiaureli and the mother of the actress Sofiko Chiaureli. She is buried in Mtatsminda Pantheon.

wn.com/Veriko_Anjaparidze
Victor Dolidze
Viktor Isidorovich Dolidze (ვიქტორ ისიდორეს ძე დოლიძე (1890–1933) - Soviet Georgian composer.
Victor Dolidze was born 18 (30) July, 1890 in the city of Kutaisi Province Ozurgeti in a poor peasant family.
He studied at Tiflis commercial school. In 1910 mandolin contest he won first prize.
After graduation went to the Kiev Commercial Institute, and concurrently began to work in a music school for violin and composition. In 1917 he graduated from college and returned to Georgia, what has devoted himself to music.
Viktor Dolidze is author of several operas, including the first Georgian comic opera (Opera-Buffo) Keto and Kote (with his own libretto based on the comedy Khanuma by Avksenty Tsagareli, 1919). In the literature, this work is often regarded as a musical comedy.
Viktor Dolidze died May 24, 1933 in Tiflis.

wn.com/Victor_Dolidze
Zakaria Paliashvili
Zakaria Paliashvili (Georgian: ზაქარია ფალიაშვილი; 16 August [O.S. 4 August] 1871 in Kutaisi — 6 October 1933 in Tbilisi) was a composer from the nation of Georgia. He is regarded as a founder of Georgian classical music.
As a young boy, he sang in a choir and learned to play the organ in the St. Mary Catholic Church of Kutaisi. His first tutor was his brother Ivan, who later became a conductor. Paliashvili moved to Tbilisi in 1887 as a chorister in the St. Mary Assumption Catholic Church of Tbilisi, eventually entering the music school there, studying French horn and composition. During 1900-1903, he studied composition under Sergei Taneyev at the Moscow Conservatory. Upon returning to his native land, Paliashvili began to play a strong role in developing national music in Georgia. He collected Georgian folk songs, co-founded the Georgian Philharmonic Society, and became head of the Tbilisi Conservatory.
Paliashvili composed works for symphony orchestra (e.g., Georgian Suite on Folk Themes), but is probably best known for his vocal music, which includes choruses and songs. His major works in this regard are the operas Abesalom da Eteri (Absalom and Eteri) (premiered 1919, although a version of Act III was performed in 1913; based on a folk tale "Eteriani"), Daisi (Twilight) (1923), and Latavra (1927).

wn.com/Zakaria_Paliashvili
Zurab Sakandelidze
Zurab Aleksandrovich Sakandelidze (Georgian: ზურაბ საკანდელიძე;Russian: Зураб Александрович Саканделидзе; born August 9, 1945 in Kutaisi – January 25, 2004 in Tbilisi) was a Georgian basketball player who won gold with the Soviet basketball team in Basketball at the 1972 Summer Olympics. He trained at Dynamo club in Tbilisi.

wn.com/Zurab_Sakandelidze

Kutaisi Open Air __June 11.2011__ By DGGEO

DgGeo _ www.facebook.com - Kutaisi Open Air Djs: LEVANI | COBERT | GIO SHENGELIA | ZAPA | ...

published: 15 Jun 2011

author: Dancegenerationgeo

My favourite Kutaisi

Photos of city...

published: 21 May 2008

author: Shorenochka

kutaisi

New Kutaisi 2009, Imereti, Georgia...

published: 06 Jan 2009

author: samshoblo

Revaz Lagidze - anthem to Kutaisi

Revaz Lagidze - "Himni kutaiss" David Gamrekeli - Baritone...

published: 24 Jul 2009

author: theclassicalmusic

Torpedo kutaisi Tsunami on Stadium :))

:)) torpedo - zestafonis tamashis dros... torpedom gaimarjva 1-0 am shexvedrashi 19.04.201...

published: 04 Aug 2011

author: tdmondo

FC DINAMO TBILISI 3:2 FC TORPEDO KUTAISI

FC DINAMO TBILISI 3:2 FC TORPEDO KUTAISI...

published: 18 Aug 2012

author: khvedeliani

ქუთაისი, Kutaisi, Кутаиси

...

published: 12 Jun 2010

author: Sulkhan Takidze

Military Parade in Kutaisi, Georgia - Independence Day - May 26th, 2012

Music - Jonas Kroon - Entrance Video - TV PIK...

published: 02 Jun 2012

author: TheTbiliCity

kutaisi promo

kutaisi...

published: 16 Feb 2012

author: kutaisiCityHall

New Parliament of Georgia - The Building | Kutaisi

Georgia has been experiencing big changes in the recent years. Perhaps the most important ...

published: 12 Jun 2011

author: sandro90210

Kutaisi Imereti

4 songs and photos of Kutaisi and Imereti...

published: 01 Jun 2008

author: mamali1234

Torpedo Kutaisi - Dinamo Tbilisi 2-2 (Georgian Premier League 2012) Matchday 13 04/11/2012

...

published: 04 Nov 2012

author: GeorgianSportTV

Georgia Opens Parliament Building In Kutaisi

www.facebook.com Georgia's president has officially opened the country's new parliament as...

published: 26 May 2012

author: DuniyaKiKhabrain

Aktobe - Torpedo Kutaisi FULLMATCH

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published: 16 Jul 2012

author: GeorgianSportTV

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Kutaisi
ქუთაისი

Flag

Seal

Kutaisi
ქუთაისი

Location of Kutaisi in Georgia

Coordinates: 42°15′0″N 42°42′0″E / 42.25°N 42.7°ECoordinates: 42°15′0″N 42°42′0″E / 42.25°N 42.7°E

Government

• Mayor

Gia Tevdoradze

Area

• Total

82 km² (32 sq mi)

Population (2002)

• Total

192,500

Time zone

Georgian Time (UTC+4)

Website

kutaisi.gov.ge

Kutaisi (Georgian: ქუთაისი; ancient names: Aea/Aia, Kutatisi, Kutaïssi) is Georgia's second largest city and the capital of the western region of Imereti. It is 221 km to the west of Tbilisi.

Geography [link]

Kutaisi is located along both banks of the Rioni River. The city lies at an elevation of 125–300 meters (410–984 feet) above sea level. To the east and north-east, Kutaisi is bounded by the Northern Imereti Foothills, to the north by the Samgurali Range, and to the west and the south by the Colchis Plain.

Landscape [link]

Kutaisi is surrounded by deciduous forests to the northeast and the northwest. The low-lying outskirts of the city have a largely agricultural landscape. Because of the many gardens in the city centre and the high leafy trees alongside the sidewalks of its streets and boulevards, Kutaisi is painted in bright green in the spring and in yellow-red in the autumn. In the springtime, when the snow starts to melt in the nearby mountains, the storming Rioni River in the middle of the city is heard far beyond its banks.

Climate [link]

The climate in Kutaisi is humid subtropical with a well-defined on-shore/monsoonal flow (characteristic of the Colchis Plain) during the Autumn and Winter months. The summers are generally hot and relatively dry while the winters are wet and cool. Average annual temperature in the city is 14.5 degrees Celsius. January is the coldest month with an average temperature of 5.3 degrees Celsius while July is the hottest month with an average temperature of 23.2 degrees Celsius. The absolute minimum recorded temperature is −17 degrees Celsius and the absolute maximum is 44 degrees Celsius. Average annual precipitation is around 1,530 mm (60.24 in). Rain may fall in every season of the year. The city often experiences heavy, wet snowfall (snowfall of 30 cm/12 inches or more per single snowstorm is not uncommon) in the winter, but the snow cover usually does not last for more than a week. Kutaisi experiences powerful easterly winds in the summer which descend from the nearby mountains.

Climate data for Kutaisi
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Average high °C (°F)	9 (49)	11 (51)	13 (56)	18 (65)	24 (75)	26 (79)	28 (82)	28 (83)	26 (78)	22 (72)	18 (64)	12 (54)	19.6 (67.3)
Average low °C (°F)	4 (39)	4 (39)	6 (42)	9 (49)	14 (57)	17 (62)	19 (66)	19 (66)	16 (61)	13 (55)	11 (51)	7 (44)	11.4 (52.6)
Precipitation mm (inches)	145 (5.7)	104 (4.1)	86 (3.4)	84 (3.3)	84 (3.3)	112 (4.4)	99 (3.9)	91 (3.6)	122 (4.8)	102 (4)	81 (3.2)	183 (7.2)	1,293 (50.9)
Source: Weatherbase ^[1]

History [link]

Kutaisi in 1870

Kutaisi in 1885

Kutaisi was the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Colchis. Archeological evidence indicates that the city functioned as the capital of the kingdom of Colchis as early as the second millennium BC. It is widely believed by historians that when Apollonius Rhodius was writing about Jason and the Argonauts and their legendary journey to Colchis, Kutaisi/Aia was the final destination of the Argonauts and the residence of King Aeëtes. From 978 to 1122 CE Kutaisi was the capital of the united Kingdom of Georgia, and from the 15th century until 1810 it was the capital of the Imeretian Kingdom. In 1508, the city was captured by Selim I, who was the son of the Sultan of the Ottomans at that time, Bayezid II.

During the seventeenth century, Imeretian kings made many appeals to Russia to help them in their struggle for independence from the Ottomans. All these appeals were ignored as Russia did not want to spoil relations with Turkey. Only in a reign of Ekaterina II in 1768 troops of general Gottlieb Heinrich Totleben were sent to join forces of King Heraclius II of Georgia who hoped to reconquer the Ottoman-held southern Georgian lands in conjunction with Russia. Totleben helped King Solomon I of Imereti recover his capital Kutaisi on August 6, 1770.

Finally Russian-Turkish wars ended with annexation in 1810 of the Imeretian Kingdom by Russian Empire. The city was the capital of the Gubernia of Kutaisi, which included much of west Georgia. In March 1879, the city was the site of a blood libel trial that attracted attention all over Russia; the ten accused Jews were acquitted.^[2]

Kutaisi was a major industrial center before Georgia's independence in 1991. Independence was followed economic collapse of the country and as a result, many inhabitants of Kutaisi have had to leave and work abroad. Small-scale trade prevails among the rest of the population.

The city had a massive Soviet war memorial for the Georgians killed in World War II. On December 18, 2009, a private demolition company working for the Georgian government demolished the monument to make way for a parliament building, despite massive protest from Russia and Georgian opposition politicians. Safety regulations were violated, resulting in flying chunks of concrete hitting civilian population centers. A woman and her daughter were killed in the courtyard of their home, and four other people were critically wounded.^[3]

Culture [link]

File:Kutaisi Cathedral.jpg

Kutaisi Catholic Cathedral of Immaculate Conception

Kutaisi has an ancient cultural tradition. Here is a list of the cultural centers in Kutaisi.

The 11th-century Bagrati Cathedral a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Gelati Monastery/Academy, a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Theatres, cinema and entertaining center [link]

1. Kutaisi Lado Meskhishvili State Academic Theatre
2. Kutaisi Meliton Balanchivadze State Opera House
3. Kutaisi Iakob Gogebashvili State Puppet Theatre
4. Cinema and Entertaining Center “Suliko”
5. Hermann-Wedekind-Jugendtheater

Professional unions and public organizations [link]

1. Georgian Writers’ Union
2. Georgian Painters’ Union
3. Folk Palace

Media [link]

Local newspapers: “Kutaisi”, “Imeretis Moabe”, “PS” [1], “Akhali Gazeti”, "Kutaisuri Versia", "Chveneburebi" (Journal); Scientific Journal “Gantiadi”.

TV: "Rioni"; Radio: "Dzveli Kalaki" (old City)

Also all the republican newspapers, journals and television stations have their representatives in Kutaisi.

Sport [link]

Kutaisi has a great tradition in sports, with many famous sport clubs. FC Torpedo Kutaisi has participated on the highest level of the Soviet Union football league. After Georgia achieved independence, it won many domestic and international titles. RC AIA Kutaisi won the Soviet Championship several times in rugby, and after independence, national championships and cups. Kutaisi also had an influential basketball club BC Kutaisi 2010.

Main sights [link]

The landmark of the city is the ruined Bagrati Cathedral, built by Bagrat III, king of Georgia, in the early 11th century. The Bagrati Cathedral, and the Gelati Monastery a few km east of the city, are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. One of the famous churches in Georgia is Motsameta Church. It is named after two saints, brothers David and Constantine. They were the Dukes of Margveti, and were martyred by Arab invaders in the 8th century. Besides the churches, there are many interesting places in Kutaisi, such as: Sataplia Cave, where one can observe footprints of Dinosaurs; Geguti Palace, which was one of the residences of Georgian monarchs; "Okros Chardakhi" – Georgian Kings’ Palace; and the Pantheon, where many notable citizens are buried.

In December 2009, the demolition (using explosives) of a major war memorial in the city killed two people due to insufficient security around the demolition site. Russia also criticised the decision to remove the war memorial.^[4]

Economy [link]

This section requires expansion.

On April 2, 2009, the Georgian economy minister, Lasha Zhvania, announced that an Egypt-based home appliances producer company, Fresh Electric, intends to create a free industrial zone in Kutaisi.^[5]

Transport [link]

Kopitnari Airport (IATA: KUT, ICAO: UGKO) is an airport located 14 km (8.70 mi) west of Kutaisi. It is one of three international airports currently in operation in Georgia.

Local celebrations [link]

Kutaisi is the most important holiday in Qutaisi. It celebrates on 2 May. On this day the population of Kutaisi crowds into the central park, with their children and celebrate together. Some people make masks and there are many kinds of performances, so it is a lot of fun. Also little children sell chamomiles. It is an old tradition, in the past ladies collected money for poor people, so today children also collect money for them.

On this day one can see traditional Georgian dances and you can hear folk music. Also it is an old tradition to go in the forest, which is near Kutaisi. Families have a barbecue, play games and have a great time together. On this day people wear traditional clothes, choxa so you can imagine that you are in past times. Also there is a new tradition of writing lyrics which have been written by writers from Qutaisi and then airplanes throw them from the sky.

Kutaisoba is a most important holiday celebrated in mukhrans wood. There is a competition in different kinds of combative art, also semblance to sport.

Usually regions of imereti performing traditions representative for them and folksongs, tablecloth. Everyone felicites each other kutaisoba, sprind and may.^{[clarification needed]} in this holiday observe rules blessing chokha. At the end of the blessing they sing "mravaljamieri". Participants are elated to hear this song.

Notable native sons and daughters [link]

Aeëtes - King of Kingdom of Colchis
Bagrat III - King of united Kingdom of Georgia in 975-1014
George I - King of united Kingdom of Georgia in 1014-1027
Bagrat IV - King of united Kingdom of Georgia in 1027-1072
George II - King of united Kingdom of Georgia in 1072-1089
David IV - King of united Kingdom of Georgia in 1089-1125
Veriko Anjaparidze - Georgian actress
Ak'ak'i Vasadze - Georgian actor
Teimuraz Apkhazava - World and European champion in Wrestling
Revaz Gabriadze - cinematographer, writer, director, production designer
Niko Nikoladze (1843–1928) - Georgian public figure
Meliton Balanchivadze (1862–1937) - Georgian composer
Zakaria Paliashvili (1871–1933) - Georgian composer
Iakob Nikoladze (1876–1951) - Georgian sculptor, designer of the previous state flag of Georgia.
Władysław Raczkiewicz (1885–1947) - first president of the Polish government-in-exile, 1939–1947
Joseph Orbeli (1887–1961) - orientalist
David Kakabadze (1889–1952) - Georgian painter
Victor Dolidze (1890–1933) - Georgian composer
Otar Korkiya (1923–2005) - Georgian basketball player, European Champions' Cup champion and Olympic silver medalist
Dodo Chichinadze (1924–2009) - Georgian actress
Revaz Dzodzuashvili (b. 1945) - Georgian football player, winner of the Bronze Medal of the World Cup 1966
Zurab Sakandelidze (b. 1945) - Georgian basketball player, Olympic champion
Mikheil Korkiya (b. 1948) - Georgian basketball player, Olympic champion
Meir Pichhadze (1955–2010) - Israeli painter, Kutaisi native
Tengiz Sulakvelidze (b. 1956) -Georgian football player, played in 1982 FIFA World Cup
Maia Chiburdanidze (b. 1961) - the seventh Women's World Chess Champion
Nikoloz Nemsitsveridze (b. 1963) - 3 times Russian Rugby Champion with his team AIA Kutaisi
Besik Khamashuridze (b. 1977) - Georgian rugby player, won 53 caps, RC Aia Kutaisi player-coach
David Khakhaleishvili (b.1971) - Olympic champion in Wrestling
Katie Melua (b. 1984) - singer

International relations [link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Twin towns and sister cities [link]

Kutaisi is twinned with:

Columbia, United States
Ganja, Azerbaijan
Newport, United Kingdom
Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
Nikaia, Greece
Poznań, Poland
Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Ashkelon, Israel
Rasht, Iran
Samsun, Turkey
Kars, Turkey
Gyumri, Armenia
Tianjin, People's Republic of China
Xinhua, People's Republic of China
Lyon, France
Bayonne, France
Donetsk, Ukraine
Kharkiv, Ukraine
Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine
Lviv, Ukraine

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kutaisi

References [link]

^ "Weatherbase: Historical Weather for Kutaisi, Georgia". Weatherbase. 2011. http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather.php3?s=59373&refer=wikipedia. Retrieved on November 24, 2011.
^ Effie Ambler, Russian Journalism and Politics: The Career of Aleksei S. Suvorin, 1861-1881 (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1972: ISBN 0-8143-1461-9), p. 172.
^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/19/AR2009121901006.html
^ Woman, her daughter killed during war memorial demolition in Kutaisi Dez, 19, 2009 09:41 - Itar-Tass (Russia)
^ Egypt-based Company Plans Free Industrial Zone in Kutaisi. Civil Georgia. April 2, 2009

External links [link]

v t e Cities and towns in Georgia

Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia	Sokhumi · Akhali Atoni · Gagra · Gali · Gudauta · Ochamchire · Tkvarcheli · Bichvinta · Gantiadi · Gulripshi · Leselidze · Miusera.

Autonomous Republic of Adjara	Batumi · Kobuleti · Makhinjauri · Chakvi · Ochkhamuri · Keda · Khelvachauri · Shuakhevi · Khulo

Guria	Ozurgeti · Lanchkhuti · Chokhatauri · Kveda Nasakirali · Laituri · Naruja · Ureki

Imereti	Kutaisi · Chiatura · Baghdati · Khoni · Sachkhere · Samtredia · Terjola · Tkibuli · Tsqaltubo · Vani · Zestaponi · Kharagauli · Kulashi · Shorapani

Kakheti	Telavi · Akhmeta · Dedoplistskaro · Gurjaani · Lagodekhi · Sagarejo · Sighnaghi · Qvareli · Tsnori · Mirzaani

Mtskheta-Mtianeti	Mtskheta · Dusheti · Akhalgori · Sioni · Stepantsminda · Tianeti · Zhinvali

Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti	Zugdidi · Abasha · Anaklia · Jvari · Khobi · Martvili · Poti · Senaki · Tsalenjikha · Chkhorotsqu · Mestia

Samtskhe-Javakheti	Akhaltsikhe · Akhalkalaki · Borjomi · Ninotsminda · Vale · Abastumani · Adigeni · Akhaldaba · Aspindza · Bakuriani · Bakurianis Andeziti · Tsagveri

Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti	Ambrolauri · Oni · Tsageri · Kharistvala · Kvaisa · Lentekhi ·

Kvemo Kartli	Rustavi · Bolnisi · Gardabani · Dmanisi · Tetritskaro · Marneuli · Tsalka · Bediani · Kazreti · Manglisi · Shaumiani · Tamarisi · Trialeti

Shida Kartli	Gori · Kaspi · Kareli · Tskhinvali · Khashuri · Agara · Java · Surami · Znaur

Cities with local Government	Tbilisi · Batumi · Kutaisi · Rustavi · Poti

Capital City	Tbilisi

v t e Districts of Georgia

Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia	Gagra · Gali · Gudauta · Gulripsh · Ochamchire · Sukhumi

Autonomous Republic of Adjara	Batumi · Keda · Kobuleti · Shuakhevi · Khelvachauri · Khulo

Guria	Lanchkhuti · Ozurgeti · Chokhatauri

Imereti	Kutaisi · Baghdati · Vani · Zestaponi · Terjola · Samtredia · Sachkhere · Tqibuli · Tsqaltubo · Chiatura · Kharagauli · Khoni

Kakheti	Akhmeta · Gurjaani · Dedoplis Tsqaro · Telavi · Lagodekhi · Sagarejo · Sighnaghi · Qvareli

Mtskheta-Mtianeti	Akhalgori · Dusheti · Tianeti · Mtskheta · Kazbegi

Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti	Ambrolauri · Lentekhi · Oni · Tsageri

Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti	Poti · Abasha · Zugdidi · Martvili · Mestia · Senaki · Chkhorotsku · Tsalenjikha · Khobi · Zemo Abkhazia

Samtskhe-Javakheti	Adigeni · Aspindza · Akhalkalaki · Akhaltsikhe · Borjomi · Ninotsminda

Kvemo Kartli	Rustavi · Bolnisi · Gardabani · Dmanisi · Tetritskaro · Marneuli · Tsalka

Shida Kartli	Tskhinvali · Gori · Kaspi · Kareli · Khashuri · Java

v t e Historic capitals of Georgia

Mtskheta · Tbilisi · Kutaisi

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Contents

Geography [link]

Landscape [link]

Climate [link]

History [link]

Culture [link]

Museums, Archive, Library, Gallery, Art Salon [link]

Theatres, cinema and entertaining center [link]

Professional unions and public organizations [link]

Media [link]

Sport [link]

Main sights [link]

Economy [link]

Transport [link]

Local celebrations [link]

Notable native sons and daughters [link]

International relations [link]

Twin towns and sister cities [link]

See also [link]

References [link]

External links [link]

http://wn.com/Kutaisi

Related pages:

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http://cs.wn.com/Kutaisi

http://id.wn.com/Kutaisi

http://es.wn.com/Kutaisi

http://ru.wn.com/Кутаиси

http://nl.wn.com/Koetaisi

http://pl.wn.com/Kutaisi

http://fr.wn.com/Koutaïssi

http://de.wn.com/Kutaissi

http://pt.wn.com/Kutaisi