Armazi

Armazi is a locale in Georgia, 4 km southwest of Mtskheta and 22 km northwest of Tbilisi [1]. A part of historical Greater Mtskheta, it is a place where the ancient city of the same name and the original capital of the early Georgian kingdom of Kartli or Iberia was located [1]. It particularly flourished in the early centuries AD and was destroyed by the Arab invasion in the 730s [1]. From 1943 to 1948 large-scale excavation was undertaken under Andria Apakidze of the Georgian Academy of Sciences, resumed in 1985 and continuing [1]. The three major cultural layers have been identified: the earliest dates back to the 4th-3rd century BC (Armazi I), the middle one is from the 3rd-1st century BC (Armazi II), and the relatively newer structure belongs to the 1st-6th century AD (Armazi III) [1]. Archaeological evidences testify that the ancient Armazi was far more extensive than it is today [1]. Armazi's strategic situation was dictated by its ready access to the Daryal Pass, the main road over the Greater Caucasus [1].