Published 2017
Gori means hill and Gori’s earliest fortifications were built on one: the Caucasian Iberians were besieged here in 65 bc by the Romans under Pompey the Great. King David the Builder established a city in 1123 in this strategic position on the main east–west route across Georgia; from the Middle Ages it was an important military stronghold. That didn’t stop Gori being attacked through the centuries by Persians, Ottomans and Ossetians. The fortress was restored in 1774 under King Erekle II, then damaged badly in the 1920 earthquake. Most recently Gori was bombed and taken for 11 days in August 2008 by the Russians in the brief 2008 South Ossetian War. (It is very close to the border of the Samachablo or Tskhinvali region known as South Ossetia.)
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