Rabati Castle, Ajaltsije, Georgia
The eastern end of this large, impressive castle includes a hotel, restaurant, tourism information centre and a couple of shops. Tickets are only needed to go up into the monumental part at the west end, with its mosque, citadel and museum. A tour is a good idea to bring things alive.
Ponds and colonnaded pavilions are set before the stone-and-brick Ahmadiyya Mosque and two-storey medrese, built in the 1750s. The mosque now sports a dazzling new gold dome. Up to the left rise the citadel and the Samtskhe-Javakheti History Museum, which spans the aeons from the 4th-millennium-BC Kura-Araxes Culture to Ottoman weaponry and 19th-century regional costumes.
Epic Georgia Culture & Adventure Route © Monika Newbound
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