David Gareja monastery complex

David Gareja monastery complex is a rock-hewn Georgian Orthodox monastery complex located in the Kakheti location of Eastern Georgia, at the half-desolate tract slopes of Mount Gareja, a few 60–70 km southeast of Georgia's capital Tbilisi. The complex consists of loads of cells, churches, chapels, refectories and dwelling quarters hollowed out of the rock face. Part of the complex is positioned inside the Agstafa rayon of Azerbaijan and has come to be challenge to a border dispute between Georgia and Azerbaijan. The vicinity is also home to covered animal species and proof of a number of the oldest human habitations in the location. The complicated was founded in the sixth century through David St. David Garejeli, one of the 13 Assyrian priests who arrived within the

u . S . At the identical time. His disciples Dodo and Luciane accelerated the authentic lavra and founded other monasteries known as Dodo's Rka and Natlismtsemeli The monastery noticed in addition development below the guidance of the 9th-century Georgian saint Ilarion. The convent changed into especially patronized by way of the Georgian royal and noble households. The twelfth-century Georgian king Demetre I, the writer of the famous Georgian hymn Thou Art a Vineyard, even selected David Gareja as an area of his confinement after he abdicated the throne.