Mtskheta

Mtskheta and Kartli have been at the heart of Georgia and its history from ancient times. Mtskheta was settled in the middle Bronze Age, around 3000 BC. Legend has it that it was founded by Mskhetos, Noah’s great-great-great-grandson. The state of Kartli was created in the 4th century BC by one of Alexander the Great’s generals. It formed part of Iberia, or Iveria, the Greeks’ name for eastern Georgia. The area’s political situations changed as often as the country’s did, as waves of invaders and their cultures made their mark on Georgia’s heartland. Mtskheta is where the Georgian King Mirian III was converted to Christianity by Saint Nino of Cappadocia in the 4th century AD.