The Tbilisi Marriott Hotel.
Panorama view of Tbilisi, showing
Metekhi church, a statue of the 5th century Georgian King Vakhtang
Gorgasali, and the Mt'k'vari River.
Tbilisi ( , ) is the
capital and the largest city of
Georgia
, lying on
the banks of the Mt'k'vari (Kura)
River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form
Tp'ilisi and it was officially known as
Tiflis until 1936. The city covers an area of
726 km² (280.3 square miles) and has 1,480,000
inhabitants.
Founded in the 5th century
AD by
Vakhtang Gorgasali, the Georgian King of
Kartli (
Iberia), and made into a capital in the 6th
century, Tbilisi is a significant
industrial,
social, and
cultural center. The city is also emerging
as an important transit route for global energy and trade projects.
Located strategically at the crossroads between
Europe and
Asia and lying along
the historic
Silk Road routes, Tbilisi has
often been the point of contention between various rivaling powers
and empires.
The history of the city can be seen by its
architecture, where the Haussmannized Rustaveli Avenue and downtown
are blended with the narrower streets of the medieval Narikala
district.
The demographics of the city is diverse and historically it has
been home to peoples from different cultures, religions and
ethnicities.
Despite being overwhelmingly Orthodox Christian, Tbilisi is one
of the few places in the world (Sarajevo
and Paramaribo
being another) where a synagogue and a mosque are
located next to each other, in the ancient Bath
district
several hundred meters from the Metekhi
Church. In recent times, Tbilisi has become known for
the peaceful Rose Revolution, which
took place around Freedom
Square and nearby locations after the contested parliamentary elections of 2003 led to the
resignation of the Georgian President Eduard
Shevardnadze.
Tbilisi
has one
international airport
. Notable tourist destinations include Tbilisi Sameba
Cathedral
, Freedom
Square, Sioni Cathedral
, Metekhi, Narikala,
Parliament of Georgia,
Rustaveli
Avenue
, Tbilisi Opera and Ballet
Theatre, Anchiskhati
Basilica
, Mtatsminda
(Holy Mountain), Kashveti Church
along with the National and Historic Museums of
Georgia and numbers of art galleries. Tbilisi is the home of
famous artists. The city life was immortalized in their art by
Niko Pirosmani and
Lado Gudiashvili.
History
Early history
According to an old legend, the present-day territory of Tbilisi
was covered by forests as late as 458 AD.
One widely accepted
variant of the legend of Tbilisi's founding states that King
Vakhtang I Gorgasali of
Georgia went hunting
in the heavily wooded region with a falcon
(sometimes the falcon is either substituted by a hawk or other small birds of
prey in the legend). The King's
falcon allegedly caught/injured a
pheasant during the hunt, after which both birds
fell into a nearby
hot spring and died
(from the burns received in the hot water). King Vakhtang became so
impressed with the hot springs that he decided to cut down the
forest and build a city on the location. The name
Tbilisi
derives from the
Old Georgian word
"Tpili", meaning warm. The name
Tbili or
Tbilisi
("warm location") therefore was given to the city because of the
area's numerous
sulfuric hot springs that came out of the ground.
Building of the Tbilisi City
Council
Archaeological studies of the region have revealed that the
territory of Tbilisi was settled by humans as early as the 4th
millennium B.C. The earliest actual (recorded) accounts of
settlement of the location come from the second half of the 4th
century AD, when a fortress was built during King
Varaz-Bakur's reign. Towards the end of the 4th
century the fortress fell into the hands of the
Persians after which the location fell back
into the hands of the Kings of
Kartli
(Georgia) by the middle of the 5th century AD. King
Vakhtang I Gorgasali (reigned in the
middle and latter halves of the 5th century) who is largely
credited for founding Tbilisi was actually responsible for reviving
and building up the city and not founding it.
The present-day
location of the area which Gorgasali seems to have built up is
spread out around the Metekhi cliff and
the latter-day Abanot-Ubani
neighborhood.
Balconies in Old Tbilisi are very
distinctive in style
Role as capital
King
Dachi I Ujarmeli (beginning of the
6th century AD), who was the successor of Vakhtang I Gorgasali, moved the capital
from Mtskheta
to Tbilisi according to the will left by his
father. It must be mentioned that Tbilisi was not the
capital of a unified Georgian state at that time (therefore did not
include the territory of
Colchis) and was
only the capital of
Eastern
Georgia/
Iberia. During his
reign, King
Dachi I was also responsible for
finishing the construction of the fortress wall that lined the
city's new boundaries. Beginning from the 6th century, Tbilisi
started to grow at a steady pace due to the region's favorable and
strategic location which placed the city along important trade and
travel routes between
Europe and
Asia.
Official Residence and Principal
Workplace of the President of Georgia
Foreign domination
Tbilisi's favorable and strategic location did not necessarily bode
well for its existence as
Eastern
Georgia's/
Iberia's capital.
Located
strategically in the heart of the Caucasus
between Europe and Asia,
Tbilisi became an object of rivalry between the region's various
powers such as Persia
, The
Byzantine Empire, Arabia, and the Seljuk
Turks. The
cultural development
of the city was therefore heavily dependent on who ruled the city
at various times. Even though Tbilisi (and Eastern Georgia in
general) was able to maintain a certain degree of autonomy from its
conquerors, the foreign domination of the city began in the latter
half of the 6th century and lasted well into the 10th century
AD.
From 570-580 A.D., the Persians took over Tbilisi and ruled it for
about a decade. In the year 627 A.D.,
Tbilisi was sacked by the
Byzantine/
Khazar
armies and later, in 736-738, Arab armies entered the town under
Marwan II Ibn-Muhammad. After this point,
the
Arabs established an
emirate centered in Tbilisi.
It must be noted that
the Arab domination brought a certain order to the region and
introduced a more formal/modernized judicial system into Georgia. In 764, Tbilisi, still under
Arab control was once again sacked by the
Khazars. In 853 AD, the armies of Arab leader
Bugha Al-Turki (Bugha the Turk)
invaded Tbilisi in order to establish a
Caliphate. The Arab domination of Tbilisi
continued until about 1050 AD. In 1068, the city was once again
sacked, only this time by the Seljuk Turks under
Sultan Alp Arslan.
Metekhi Church.
Narikala seen in Distance.
Building in the Old Part of
Tbilisi
Tbilisi as the capital of a unified Georgian state
In 1122,
after heavy fighting with the Seljuks
that involved at least 60,000 Georgians and up to 300,000 Turks, the troops of the King of Georgia David the Builder
entered Tbilisi. After the battles for Tbilisi concluded,
David moved his residence from Kutaisi
(Western Georgia) to Tbilisi, making it the capital
of a unified Georgian State. From 12-13th centuries, Tbilisi
became a dominant regional power with a thriving economy (with
well-developed trade and skilled labour) and a well-established
social system/structure. By the end of the 12th century, the
population of Tbilisi had reached 80,000.
The city also became
an important literary and a cultural center not only for Georgia but for the larger civilized world as well. During
Queen Tamar's reign,
Shota Rustaveli worked in Tbilisi while
writing his legendary epic poem,
The Knight in the Panther's
Skin. This period is often referred to as "Georgia's
Golden Age" or the Georgian
Renaissance
.
View of Tbilisi.
Mongol domination and the following period of instability
Tbilisi's "Golden Age" did not last for more than a century. In
1226 Tbilisi was captured by the refugee
Khwarezmian Empire Khwarezmian Shah
Mingburnu and its defences severely
devastated and prone to Mongol armies.
In 1236 A.D., after
suffering crushing defeats to the Mongols,
Georgia came under Mongol domination. The
nation itself maintained a form of semi-independence and did not
lose its statehood, but Tbilisi was strongly influenced by the
Mongols for the next century both politically and culturally. In
the 1320s, the Mongols were forcefully expelled from Georgia and
Tbilisi became the capital of an independent Georgian state once
again. An outbreak of the
plague struck
the city in 1366.
From the late 14th until the end of the 18th century, Tbilisi came
under the rule of various foreign invaders once again and on
several occasions was completely burnt to the ground. In 1386,
Tbilisi was
invaded by
the armies of
Tamerlane (Timur).
In 1444,
the city was invaded and destroyed by Jahan
Shah (the Shah of the town of Tabriz
in Persia).
From 1477 to 1478 the city was held by the
Ak
Koyunlu tribesmen of
Uzun Hassan.
In 1522
A.D., Tbilisi came under Persian
control but was later freed in 1524 by King David X of Georgia. During this period, many parts of Tbilisi
were reconstructed and rebuilt. From the 17-18th centuries, Tbilisi
once again became the object of rivalry only this time between the
Ottoman Turks and Persia.
King Erekle II of Georgia tried on several occasions, successfully, to free
Tbilisi from Persian rule but in the end Tbilisi was burnt to the
ground in 1795 by Shah Agha-Mohammad
Khan. At this point, sensing that Georgia could
not hold up against Persia alone,
Erekle sought the help of Russia
.
Tbilisi under Russian control
The coat of arms of Tiflis under
Russian rule.
In 1801,
after the Georgian kingdom of Kartl-Kakheti joined the Russian
Empire
, Tbilisi became the center of the Tbilisi
Governorate (Gubernia). From the beginning of the 19th
century Tbilisi started to grow economically and politically. New
buildings mainly of
European style were
erected throughout the town.
New roads and railroads were built to
connect Tbilisi to other important cities in Russia and other
parts of the Transcaucasus (locally)
such as Batumi
, Poti
, Baku
, and
Yerevan
. By the 1850s Tbilisi once again emerged as
a major trade and a cultural center. The likes of
Ilia Chavchavadze,
Akaki Tsereteli,
Iakob Gogebashvili,
Aleksandr Griboyedov and many other
statesmen, poets, and artists all found their home in Tbilisi.
The city was visited on numerous occasions by and was the object of
affection of
Alexander Pushkin,
Leo Tolstoy,
Mikhail Lermontov, the
Romanov Family and others.
The Romanov Family
established their residence (in Transcaucasia) on Golovin Street
(Present-day Rustaveli Avenue).
Throughout the century, the political, economic and cultural role
of Tbilisi with its ethnic, confessional and cultural diversity
(
Armenians,
Georgians and
Russians
comprised 38.1, 26.3 and 24.8 percent of the population
respectively in 1897) was significant not only for Georgia but for
the whole Caucasus. Hence, Tbilisi took on a different look. It
acquired different architectural monuments and the attributes of an
international city, as well as its own urban folklore and language,
and the specific
Tbilisuri (literally, belonging to
Tbilisi) culture.
Independence: 1918–1921
After the
Russian Revolution of
1917, the city served as a location of the Transcaucasus interim government which
established, in the spring of 1918, the short-lived independent
Transcaucasian Federation
with the capital in Tbilisi. It was here, in the
former Caucasus Vice royal Palace, where the independence of three
Transcaucasian nations – Georgia, Armenia
and Azerbaijan
– was declared on May 26 to 28 1918.
Since
then, Tbilisi functioned as the capital of the Democratic
Republic of Georgia
until 25 February 1921. From 1918 to 1919 the
city was also consecutively home to a German
and British
military headquarters.
Under the
national government, Tbilisi turned into the first Caucasian
University City after the Tbilisi State University was
founded in 1918, a long-time dream of the Georgians banned by the
Imperial
Russian
authorities for several decades. On 25
February 1921, the
Bolshevist
Russian 11th
Red Army invaded Tbilisi
after bitter fighting at the outskirts of the city and declared
Soviet rule.
Under the Communist Government
In 1921,
the Democratic Republic of
Georgia was occupied by the Soviet
Bolshevik forces from Russia, and until
1991 Tbilisi functioned first as the capital city of the Transcaucasian SFSR (which included
Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia), and later as the capital of the Georgian Soviet Socialist
Republic. During the Soviet rule, Tbilisi's population
grew significantly, the city became more industrialized and came to be an important
political, social, and cultural center of the Soviet Union
. In 1980 the city housed the first
state-sanctioned
rock
festival in the USSR.
Tbilisi witnessed mass anti-Russian demonstrations during 1956 in
the
March 9
Massacre, in protest against the anti-Stalin policies of
Khrushchev.
Peaceful protests occurred in
1978, and in 1989 the
April 9
tragedy was a peaceful protest that turned violent.
After the break-up of the Soviet Union
Since the
break-up of the
Soviet Union, Tbilisi has experienced periods of significant
instability and turmoil. After a brief Civil War which the city
endured for two weeks from December 1991 to January 1992 (when
pro-
Gamsakhurdia and Opposition
forces clashed with each other), Tbilisi became the scene of
frequent armed confrontations between various
mafia clans and illegal business
entrepreneurs. Even during the
Shevardnadze Era (1993-2003), crime and
corruption became rampant at most levels of society. Many segments
of society became impoverished because of unemployment caused by
the crumbling
economy. Average citizens of
Tbilisi started to become increasingly disillusioned with the
existing quality of life in the city (and in the nation in
general). Mass protests took place in November 2003 after falsified
parliamentary elections
forced more than 100,000 people into the streets and concluded with
the
Rose Revolution. Since 2003,
Tbilisi has experienced considerably more stability with decreasing
crime rates, an improved economy and a real estate boom.
The
Tbilisi area received multiple Russian air attacks during the 2008 South Ossetia war.
Politics and Administration
The status of Tbilisi, as the nation’s capital, is defined by the
Article 10 in the
Constitution of Georgia
(1995) and the
Law on Georgia’s Capital – Tbilisi
(February 20, 1998).
Tbilisi is governed by the
Tbilisi
Assembly (Sakrebulo) and the
Tbilisi City Hall (Meria). The City
Assembly gets elected once every four years. The mayor gets elected
by the City Assembly. The current
Mayor
of Tbilisi is
Giorgi
Ugulava and the Chairman of the Tbilisi City Assembly is Zaal
Begashvili.
Administratively, the city is divided into
raions (
districts), which have
their own units of central and local government with jurisdiction
over a limited scope of affairs. This subdivision was established
under Soviet rule in the 1930s, following the general
subdivision of the Soviet
Union. Since Georgia regained independence, the raion system
was modified and reshuffled. According to the latest revision,
Tbilisi raions include:
Most of the raions are named after respective historical
neighborhoods of the city. The citizens of Tbilisi widely recognize
a system of the smaller non-formal historical neighborhoods. Such
neighborhoods are several, however, constituting a kind of
hierarchy, because most of them have lost their distinctive
topographic limits. The natural first level of subdivision of the
city is into the Right Bank and the Left Bank of the Mt'k'vari. The
names of the oldest neighborhoods go back to the early Middle Ages
and sometimes pose a great linguistic interest. The newest
whole-built developments bear chiefly residential marketing
names.
In pre-Revolution Tiflis, the Georgian quarter was confined to the
southeastern part of the city; Baedeker describes the layout
succinctly:
In the north part of the town, on the left bank of the
Kurá and to the south of the railway station, stretches the clean
German Quarter, formerly occupied by German immigrants from
Wurtemberg (1818).
To the south is the Gruzinian or Georgian Quarter
(Avlabár).
On the right bank of the Kurá is the Russian Quarter,
the seat of the officials and of the larger business
firms.
This is adjoined on the south by the Armenian and
Persian Bazaars.
Avlabar is considered "the integral component of the so-called 'old
Tbilisi'" and is currently the object of planning and cultural
heritage preservation.
Mayors of Tbilisi
Geography
Location
View over Tbilisi
Tbilisi is located in the
South
Caucasus at 41° 43' North Latitude and 44° 47' East Longitude.
The city is situated in
East Georgia on
both banks of the
Mt'k'vari River. The
elevation of the city ranges from 380-770 meters above sea level
(1246–1968 ft) and possesses the shape of an amphitheatre
surrounded by mountains on three sides. To the north, Tbilisi is
bounded by the
Saguramo Range, to the
east and south-east by the
Iori Plain, to
the south and west by various endings (sub-ranges) of the
Trialeti Range.
The relief of Tbilisi is quite complex. The part of the city which
lies on the left bank of the Mt'k'vari (
Kura) River extends for more than 30 km (19
miles) from the
Avchala District to River
Lochini.
Tbilisi Coordinates
part of the city which lies on the right side of the Mt'k'vari
River on the other hand is built along the foothills of the
Trialeti Range, the slopes of which
in many cases descend all the way to the edges of the river
Mt'k'vari. The mountains, therefore, are a significant barrier to
urban development on the right bank of the Mt'k'vari River. This
type of a geographic environment creates pockets of very densely
developed areas while other parts of the city are left undeveloped
due to the complex topographic relief.
North of the city is a large reservoir (commonly known as the
Tbilisi Sea) fed by irrigation canals.
Climate
The climate of Tbilisi can be classified as
humid subtropical. The city's climate is
influenced both by dry (Central Asian/Siberian) air masses from the
east and humid subtropical (Atlantic/Black Sea) air masses from the
west. Tbilisi experiences relatively cold winters and hot summers.
Because
the city is bounded on most sides by mountain ranges, the close
proximity to large bodies of water (Black and Caspian Seas) and the
fact that the Greater Caucasus Mountain Range (further to the
north) blocks the intrusion of cold air masses from Russia, Tbilisi has
a relatively mild micro-climate compared to other cities that
possess a similar continental climate along the same
latitudes.
The average annual temperature in Tbilisi is . January is the
coldest month with an average temperature of . July is the hottest
month with an average temperature of . The absolute minimum
recorded temperature is and the absolute maximum is . Average
annual precipitation is 568 mm (22.4 inches). May is the
wettest month (90 mm) while January is the driest
(20 mm). Snow may fall on average for 15–25 days per year. The
surrounding mountains often trap the clouds within and around the
city mainly during the Spring and Autumn months, resulting in
prolonged rainy and/or cloudy weather. Northwesterly winds dominate
in most parts of Tbilisi throughout the year. Southeasterly winds
are common as well.
People and culture
Demographics
Ethnic groups
Carpet gallery.
Tbilisi is a
multicultural city. The
city is home to more than 100 different
ethnic groups. Around 80% of the population is
ethnically Georgian, with significant populations of other ethnic
groups which include
Russians,
Armenians, and
Azeris. Along
with the above mentioned groups, Tbilisi is also home to various
other ethnic groups including
Ossetians,
Abkhazians,
Ukrainians,
Greeks,
Jews,
Estonians,
Germans,
Kurds,
Assyrians, and others.
Sameba (Trinity) Cathedral.
Religion
More than 85% of the residents of Tbilisi practice various forms of
Christianity (the most predominant of
which is the
Georgian Orthodox
Church). The
Russian
Orthodox Church as well as the
Armenian Apostolic Church have
significant following within the city as well.
Catholics,
Lutherans,
Baptists, and other
Christian denominations also make up the city's
Christian minority. A large minority of
the population (around 8%) practises
Islam
(mainly
Sunni Islam).
Judaism is also common, but to a lesser
extent (about 2% of Tbilisi's population practices
Judaism). Tbilisi has been historically known for
religious tolerance. This is
especially evident in the city's Old Town, where a
Mosque,
Synagogue, and
Eastern and Oriental Orthodox
Churches can all be found within less than from each
other.
Sports
Misha Meskhi Stadium.
Boris Paichadze National
Stadium.
Inside view, after reconstruction.
Tbilisi has a fairly rich sports history. Like many other towns of
the
Near East with strong Asian cultural
influences, Tbilisi historically had a special area of town that
was designated for sports competitions. The present-day districts
of
Saburtalo and
Didube were the most common areas where such
competitions were held. Up until the beginning of the 19th century,
sports such as horse-riding (
polo in
particular),
wrestling,
boxing, and
marksmanship
were the most popular city sports. As Tbilisi started to develop
socially and economically and integrate more with the West, new
sports from Europe were introduced.
The Soviet period
brought an increased popularization of sports that were common in
Europe and to a certain extent, the United States
. At the same time, Tbilisi developed the
necessary sports infrastructure for various professional sports. By
1978, the city had around 250 large and small sports facilities,
including among others, four indoor and six outdoor Olympic sized
pools, 185
basketball courts and halls,
192
volleyball facilities, 82
handball arenas, 19
tennis courts, 31
football fields, and five stadiums.
At
present, the largest stadium in Tbilisi is the Boris
Paichadze Stadium
(55,000 seats) and the second largest is the
Mikheil
Meskhi Stadium
(24,680 seats). The Sports
Palace
which usually hosts basketball games with high attendance and tennis
tournaments can seat up to approximately 11,000
people.Vere Basketball
Hall is a smaller
indoor sports
arena with a 2,500
seating
capacity.
The most popular sports in Tbilisi today are
football,
rugby
union,
basketball, and
wrestling. Also popular sports include tennis,
swimming and water polo. There are several professional football
and rugby teams as well as wrestling clubs.
NBA players
Zaza Pachulia and
Nikoloz Tskitishvili are Tbilisi
natives. Outside of professional sports, the city has a number of
inter-collegiate and amateur sports teams and clubs.
Tbilisi's signature football team,
Dinamo
Tbilisi, has not won a major European championship since 1981,
when it won the European
Cup Winners'
Cup and became the easternmost team in Europe to achieve the
feat. The basketball club Dinamo Tbilisi won the
Euroleague in
1962 but also never
repeated any such feat.
Media
The large
majority of Georgia’s media companies (including television, newspaper
and radio) are headquartered in Tbilisi. The city is home to
the popular
Rustavi 2 television channel
which gained considerable fame after its coverage of the
Rose Revolution. In addition to
Rustavi
2, the remaining three out of the four major public television
channels of Georgia (including
Imedi
TV Mze and the
Public Broadcasting Channel)
are based in the city as well. Tbilisi’s television market has
experienced notable changes since the second half of 2005 when
Rustavi 2 successfully bought out the
Mze TV
Company and
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation became a shareholder of
Imedi Media Holding at the beginning of 2006. By taking over the
Imedi Media Holding Group, News Corporation entered the
Post-Soviet media market for the first time in
the company's history.
Tbilisi has a number of newspaper publishing houses. Some of the
most noteworthy newspapers include the daily
24 Saati ("24
Hours"),
Rezonansi ("Resonance"),
Alia, the
English-language daily
The Messenger, weekly
FINANCIAL, Georgia Today, and the English-language weekly
The Georgian Times. Out of the city’s radio stations Imedi
Radio (105.9
FM), Fortuna, and Radio 105 are some
of the more influential competitors with large national
audiences.
Education
The city is home to many of Georgia's prominent colleges and
universities:
Architecture
Fountain in Tbilisi.
The
architecture in the city is a mixture of local (Georgian), with
strong influences of Byzantine,
European/Russian (neo-classical), and Middle Eastern architectural styles. The oldest parts
of town, including the Abanot-Ubani, Avlabari, and to a certain
extent the Sololaki districts clearly have a traditional Georgian
architectural look with
Middle
Eastern influences.
The areas of Tbilisi which were built up
mainly in the 19th century (Rustaveli Avenue, Vera district, etc.)
have a contrasting European/Russian (neoclassical) look.The turn
of the 20th century was marked with an architectural revival,
notably, with an
art nouveau style. With
the establishment of the communist government the style was decreed
as bourgeois and largely neglected.
Architecture of the later 20th century
can mainly be identified with the type of building style that was
common during the Soviet Era
throughout the Soviet
Union.
This
included building large, concrete apartment blocks as well as
social, cultural, and office facilities, like for example the
Tbilisi
Roads Ministry Building
. Since the break-up of the Soviet Union,
Tbilisi has been the site of uncontrolled/unsanctioned building
projects. Since 2004, the city government has taken new initiatives
to curb uncontrolled construction projects with mixed success. In
the near future, Tbilisi will have three
skyscraper complexes. The
Axis Towers, Redix Chavchavadze 64, and the new
Ajara Hotel/Business
Complex, which is currently under construction will be the
tallest buildings/
skyscrapers in the
Caucasus.
Tbilisi Metro
Isani Metro Station
The
Tbilisi Metro services the city
with
rapid transit subway services. It
is the fourth metro system in the former Soviet Union. Construction
began in 1952, and was finished in 1966. The system operates two
lines, the
Akhmeteli-Varketili
Line and the
Saburtalo Line. It
has 22 stations. and 186 metro cars. Most stations, like other
post-Soviet metro stations, are vividly decorated. Trains run from
6:00 A.M. to 1:00 A.M. Due to the uneven ground, the rail lines run
above ground level in some areas. Two of the stations are above
ground.
The Tbilisi Metro underwent a campaign of modernization. Stations
were reconstructed, and trains and facilities were modernized. In
2005, President
Mikheil
Saakashvili charged Director General Zurab Kikalishvili with
bringing the station up to European standards by 2007. In 2006, the
city's budget allocated 16 million
Lari for the project. A third line is being
planned, which will encompass the
Vake
District. The three lines will form a triangle, and intersect in
the city center.
Main sights
Tbilisi has a number of important landmarks and sightseeing
locations. The
parliament and the
government (
State Chancellery) buildings of Georgia,
as well as the
Supreme Court of Georgia,
are all located in Tbilisi.
The city also has important cultural landmarks such as the Tbilisi State Conservatoire,
Tbilisi Opera and
Ballet Theatre, Shota Rustaveli State
Academic Theatre, Marjanishvili State
Academic Theatre, the Sameba Cathedral
, the Vorontsov's Palace
(also known as the Children's Palace today), many state museums,
the National
Public Library of the Parliament of Georgia, the National Bank of Georgia and other
important institutions. During the Soviet times,
Tbilisi continuously ranked in the top 4 cities in the Soviet Union for the number of museums.
Out of
the city's historic landmarks, the most notable locations are the
Narikala
fortress
(4th century-17th century AD), Anchiskhati
Church
(6th century, built up in the 16th century),
Sioni
Cathedral (8th century, later rebuilt), Church of
Metekhi
(13th century), etc.
Miscellaneous
Pronunciation
English speakers often mispronounce it like , or "tib-LEE-see". The
correct pronunciation is , or "tbee-lee-see", with no vowel between
the T and B, but both pronounced nonetheless.
Freedom Square
Education
Tbilisi is home to several major institutions of higher education:
The biggest Georgian university is
Tbilisi State University which was
established on 8 February 1918. TSU is the oldest university in the
whole Caucasus region. Over 35,000 students are enrolled and the
total number of faculty and staff (collaborators) is approximately
5,000. Tbilisi is also home to the largest medical university in
Caucasus region -
Tbilisi State Medical
University, which was founded as Tbilisi Medical Institute in
1918 and became the Faculty of Medicine within the Tbilisi State
University (TSU) in 1930. Tbilisi State Medical Institute has been
renamed to Medical University in 1992. Since that University
operates as an independent educational institution. TSMU became one
of the high-ranking state-supported institutions of higher
education in the whole Caucasus region. Currently there are almost
5000 undergraduate and 203 postgraduate students at the University
of whom 10% come from foreign countries. Georgia's main and largest
technical university named -
Georgian Technical University
is also located in Tbilisi.Georgian Technical University was
founded in 1922 as a polytechnic faculty of the Tbilisi State
University. The first lecture in the walls of this establishment
was read by the world famous Georgian mathematician Professor
Andria Razmadze.It achieved University status by 1990. The two most
popular privet higher educational institution in Georgia
Caucasus University and
Free University of Tbilisi are
also located in Tbilisi. Caucasus University was established in
2004 as an expansion of the Caucasus School of Business (CSB)
(established in 1998) by a consortium consisting of Tbilisi State
University and Georgian Technical University in partnership with
Georgia State University (Atlanta, USA). Free University of Tbilisi
was established in 2007 through the merger of two higher education
schools - European School of Management (ESM-Tbilisi) and Tbilisi
Institute of Asia and Africa (TIAA). Today Free University
comprises three schools - Business School (ESM), Institute of Asia
and Africa and Law School delivering academic programs at
undergraduate, graduate and doctorate levels. In addition, Free
University conducts a wide array of short-term courses, runs
several research centers and summer school programs.
Higher Educational Institutions in Tbilisi:
International relations
Twin towns - Sister cities
Tbilisi is
twinned with:
Brother cities
Tbilisi has a brother city:
Partnerships
See also
Further reading
Photo Gallery
File:Men with pottery in front of two stores, T'bilisi,
Georgia.jpgFile:Tbilisi XIXc 2.jpgFile:Tbilisi sea.jpg|Lake Called
"Tbilisi Sea"File:KuraTbilisi.jpg| River MtkvariFile:Lisi
Lake.JPG|Lake "Lisi"File:Kashveti.jpg|Kashueti Church on the
Rustaveli AvenueFile:Rustaveli Theatre Facade,
Tbilisi.JPG|Rustaveli Theatre FacadeFile:Abano_Chreli.jpg|Bath in
the Old Part of TbilisiFile:Ambasador_Hotel.jpg|Hotel
AmbasadoriFile:Sharden_STR.jpg|Charden
StreetFile:Old_Hotel.jpgFile:Marjanishvili_Theatre.jpg|Marjanishvili
TheatreFile:Old_Tbilisi_house12.jpg|"Abanotubani"
DistrictFile:Queen_Darejan's_Palace.jpg|Part of the Queen Darejan's
PalaceFile:Old_Tbilisi_Houses.jpg|Old Part of
TbilisiFile:Opera_Tbilisi.jpg| Opera
TheatreFile:Small_and_Old.jpg|Small House in the Old Part of
Tbilisi
References
External links
(ძველი თბილისი)
Top topics
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search
