Qualla: Tbilisi https://qualla.com/tbilisi en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:05 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/z/r/v/tbilisi-wk/so-called-yellow-minib.jpg Qualla: Tbilisi https://qualla.com/tbilisi Tbilisi: Introduction https://qualla.com/tbilisi/ Photo credit Mostafameraji, CC BY-SA 4.0. Tbilisi spills down the walls of a gorge carved by the Mtkvari River, its buildings climbing slopes so steep that houses stack on top of each other. Legend says the city was founded in the 5th century when King Vakhtang Gorgasali discovered hot sulfur springs while hunting; the name Tbilisi derives from the Georgian word for warm. The city has been conquered over fifty times - by Persians, Arabs, Mongols, Turks, Russians - each occupation destroying and rebuilding, each departure leaving traces. Tbilisi holds 1.1 million people, the capital of a country whose wine culture may be the world's oldest, whose alphabet is unique, whose position between empires has made survival its defining achievement.

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Image: Mostafameraji | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/z/r/v/tbilisi-wk/szrv-tbilisi-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Tbilisi: The Old Town https://qualla.com/tbilisi/ Photo credit Gobrona, Public domain. Tbilisi's old town, Kala, clings to hillsides below Narikala Fortress, its narrow streets and wooden balconies surviving Soviet-era neglect and post-Soviet renovation. The architecture is distinctive: the carved wooden balconies that overhang streets, the courtyards hidden behind...

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Image: Gobrona | Public domain

]]> Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/z/r/v/tbilisi-wk/szrv-tbilisi-the-old-town.mp3 0:06 2 full Tbilisi: The Sulfur Baths https://qualla.com/tbilisi/ Photo credit Mostafameraji, CC BY-SA 4.0. The sulfur baths of Abanotubani - the bath district - have operated since the city's founding, their domed buildings clustered in a neighborhood that Alexander Dumas and Pushkin both praised. The hot springs that attracted King Vakhtang still flow, their sulfurous water believed ...

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Image: Mostafameraji | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/z/r/v/tbilisi-wk/szrv-tbilisi-the-sulfur-baths.mp3 0:06 3 full Tbilisi: The Wine https://qualla.com/tbilisi/ Photo credit neiljs, CC BY 2.0. Georgia may be where wine was invented - archaeological evidence suggests winemaking here 8,000 years ago, earlier than anywhere else. The traditional qvevri method, fermenting wine in clay vessels buried underground, is UNESCO-recognized intangible heritage. The grape varieties ...

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Image: neiljs | CC BY 2.0

]]> Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/z/r/v/tbilisi-wk/szrv-tbilisi-the-wine.mp3 0:06 4 full Tbilisi: The Alphabet https://qualla.com/tbilisi/ Photo credit Phyrexian, CC BY-SA 4.0. Georgian is written in its own alphabet, one of only fourteen scripts currently in use that developed independently. The curved, elegant letters that cover signs and buildings are unique to Georgia, unchanged in their basic form for over 1,500 years. The alphabet's distinctivenes...

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Image: Phyrexian | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/z/r/v/tbilisi-wk/szrv-tbilisi-the-alphabet.mp3 0:06 5 full Tbilisi: The Feast https://qualla.com/tbilisi/ Photo credit Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0. The supra - the Georgian feast - is institution as much as meal. The tamada, or toastmaster, leads elaborate sequences of toasts that can continue for hours; the khinkali dumplings and khachapuri cheese bread provide sustenance; the wine flows in quantities that other cultures wo...

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Image: Vyacheslav Argenberg | CC BY 4.0

]]> Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/z/r/v/tbilisi-wk/szrv-tbilisi-the-feast.mp3 0:06 6 full