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Grakliani Hill

Archaeology

No images available

Duration
1-2 hours
Best time
April-November
Access
About 60 km (1 h) west of Tbilisi, just off the Tbilisi-Gori highway (est.)
Quick tip
An open excavation with no fixed ticket; the inter...

About Grakliani Hill

An archaeological site on a hill above the Tbilisi-Gori highway near Kaspi, excavated by Tbilisi State University since 2007. The layers run from the Stone Age to the early centuries AD, with temple altars; a stone inscription found in 2015 has been claimed as a very early local script, but its reading is still debated.

Travel Tips

An open excavation with no fixed ticket; the interest is much greater with an archaeology-literate guide. Little shade.

View All Grakliani Hill Tours
The Vardzia cave monastery cut into a cliff face
Moderate

Georgia Archaeology Tour — 5 Days, Private: Cave Cities & Dmanisi

Short trip (2–5 days)
History & culture

A private tour for travellers interested in Georgia's deep past, with time at each site. In Tbilisi you see the Georgian National Museum's archaeology collection and the gold of the Treasury. Then you head west through Mtskheta's churches to the rock-cut town of Uplistsikhe and on to Akhaltsikhe for two nights, visiting the Vardzia cave monastery with a site guide, Khertvisi fortress and Rabati Castle. The last day goes south to Dmanisi, where hominin fossils about 1.8 million years old were found, with an extended guided tour of the site. You finish at Bolnisi Sioni, one of Georgia's oldest churches, and a wine cellar in the Kvemo Kartli hills, the region where archaeologists found 8,000-year-old wine residue. Dmanisi and the National Museum are closed on Mondays, and part of Vardzia has been closed since May 2026, so we plan around both.

Private · 5 days
$670/person · 4 travellers