Khunani

This place lies in the Gareja country of eastern Georgia, in the Kakheti region, on the half-desert slopes of Mount Gareja at the edge of the Iori Plateau. Rock faces here were hollowed out into hundreds of cells, churches, chapels and refectories, the dwellings of monks who settled in the caves.

The complex was founded in the sixth century by David of Gareji, one of thirteen Assyrian monks who arrived in the country together. His disciples Dodo and Luciane enlarged the original lavra and founded two more monasteries, and in the ninth century Hilarion the Iberian guided further growth. Georgian royal and noble families patronized the monasteries, which at certain periods owned extensive farmland and many villages. In the twelfth century King Demetre I chose the complex as his place of confinement after abdicating the throne.