James Duncan

Vardzia is a 11th centry complex of caves set into a remote cliff. It was originally made up of 3000 rooms, and housed anywhere from 700 monks to tens of thousands of civilians in times of war. In the 12th century a serious earthquake collapsed the cliff, and thus it is now open to the air with only 650 rooms remaining. Reverse decimation... It is at the top of a long long climb, and itself has 8 floors. The climb up was very exhausting, and the high heat led to really quite excessive sweating/panting/heart attacks. We stopped halfway up to tie some paper to the wish tree, and paused an a small working chapel set into the rock. The chapel was almost a bowl shape, and the walls were thick with smoke from the lit candles of hundreds of years. I touched the wall (it's Eastern Europe style, no guard rails for most of it, no visitors centre, nothing to stop you walking in the ruins or touching walls) and my finger sank into the soot. 900 years of history can be imposing. We went through a dining chamber with recessed seats and a hole in the middle for the fire and pot. We then walked up to a much larger chapel, with arched walls and original C12 frescoes. The caves are now used by monks, so the chapel is very much actively used and has many icons. The monks also produce icons, and I purchased a handmade woodcut icon of Jesus for 15l as a piece of art. This plus correctly exiting the chapel looking back led to the highlight of the visit I think. We were taken through a locked door to visit a spring the monks use for water and consider holy, then invited to drink and make a wish. It was a touching gesture, and we then walked through the security/dropping boiling oil holes to reach the top and paused for photos and metaphorical tea and medals as we were about 500 meters up from the valley floor. We then descended to the valley floor, pausing briefly so I could get ice water and throw it on Nati (and drink the remainder). The caves were an interesting environment, and have been preserved nicely. I was however told that it was inexplicable that the frescoes had lasted so long, something which seems quite epic fail as a claim considering the existence of prehistoric cave paintings. A nice place to visit though.