Katskhi pillar

The Katskhi pillar is a herbal limestone monolith placed on the village of Katskhi in western Georgian area of Imereti, near the metropolis of Chiatura. It is approximately 40 metres high, and overlooks the small river valley of Katskhura, a right affluent of the Q'virila. The rock, with seen church ruins on a top floor measuring c. 150 m2, has been venerated by way of locals as the Pillar of Life and a image of the True Cross, and has emerge as surrounded by using legends.

It remained unclimbed with the aid of researchers and unsurveyed until 1944 and became greater systematically studied from 1999 to 2009. These studies decided the ruins were of an early medieval hermitage courting from the 9th or 10th century. The Katskhi pillar complex currently includes a church committed to Maximus the Confessor, a crypt, 3 hermit cells, a wine cellar, and a curtain wall on the choppy top surface of the column. At the bottom of the pillar are the newly constructed church of Simeon Stylites and ruins of an antique wall and belfry.