Samshvilde: A City on the Edge

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Samshvilde (pronounced: sam-SHVIL-deh) is an ancient city in Georgia built at a spectacular location. Here, the river Chivchavi joins the Khrami River, cutting deep gorges and, in the space between them, forming a long promontory that narrows gradually to a point at the eastern end. This is a very dramatic location: a huge knife-blade of basalt, with rivers coursing down either side at the bottom of precipitous cliffs.

The city was first settled in the third and fourth millennia bc, and became an important trading centre from the 5th to the 13th centuries ad.Nevertheless, like the land of Georgia, many different peoples fought bitterly over ownership of Samshvilde: Arabs, Armenians and Turks all sought to control it before the Turkmen ruler Jahan Shah captured and devastated it in 1440, massacring many of its inhabitants.The city never fully recovered.Attempts were made to revive the city, but after a brief flourishing in the mid-eighteenth century, it was finally abandoned.

Medieval Samshvilde had three sectors. Tradesmen, craftsmen and labourers seem to have occupied the western end of it. Wealthier citizens lived in elegant palaces in the middle sector. At the easternmost end stood palaces for Georgia’s royal family. Massive stone walls separated the sectors. Mighty walls protected the city from the west, while sheer cliffs guarded the north and south. These defenses made Samshvilde almost impossible to capture by military force. When it was captured, historians writing at the time inevitably explained it as the result of “deceit,” or “trickery” rather than force.

How could a city survive a siege if its enemies cut off the water? Water supply was one of the most pressing problems for designers of medieval fortresses. An enemy army’s first task was generally to cut off a city’s water and food supplies. Samshvilde’s water system is therefore one of its most interesting features. The builders laid an extensive underground piping system that took advantage of a natural slope in the land to supply the entire city with water from the Iraga River, west of Samshvilde. Two massive cisterns, or water-storage tanks, near the point of the promontory, stored water for times of drought and siege.

Military strength, however, is only a part of the story; Samshvilde’s ruins also afford us fascinating glimpses into the everyday lives of its citizens.

The “Royal Bath” stands in the citadel, close to the defensive wall, but it is not medieval. David Berikashvili dates it to the 16th-17th centuries. Unlike many medieval castles, Samshvilde was not simply abandoned at the close of the Middle Ages. It remained in use for a couple of centuries after. Berikashvili defines the bath house tentatively as a Turkish hammam, a descendant of the Roman bath, comprising a series of rooms in which the bather experienced different temperatures, cleaning procedures, and massages. The domed roofs of these hammams, which can be seen in the nearby capital city of Tbilisi, were designed to provide light through glazed openings while still preserving privacy. By now, archaeologists have recovered much of the remaining walls, revealing arched recesses in the walls, possibly doorways or areas for bathers to sit.

Samshvilde contains the ruins of five palaces, two of which were built in the inner citadel area from mortared stone. At least one of these was a two-story structure, probably intended for the king and his family.

Through the entire history of Samshvilde, at least seven churches were built. The most impressive of these is Samshvilde Sioni Cathedral, placed some distance east of the main citadel complex. An inscription dates its building to 756-777, but tradition suggests it was ruined by an earthquake in the tenth century; whatever destroyed it, it was never rebuilt. Near the Sioni Cathedral is the Samshvilde Basilica. The basilica is famous for its three naves, which in the West we could call a nave flanked by aisles. It was built shortly after the cathedral had been destroyed, and has now been fully restored.

Another church, the Dormition Church, close to the outer wall but within the central portion of the site, houses a curious menhir. This was erected in the Bronze Age, and the builders of the church constructed it deliberately around the menhir. It is tempting to see this as a deliberate message that Christianity could contain and explain the older pagan world. The Dormition Church is surrounded by a cemetery, which contains one of the most fascinating artifacts on the site: a horse-shaped grave marker, on which are inscribed images of the deceased person and his most prized possessions, including hunting dogs, a rifle, and some cartridge cases. Obviously, the grave marker is not medieval.

Samshvilde’s dramatic location and intriguing history have made it one of the most rewarding settings that I have yet encountered for a McCracken novel. The unanswered questions behind many of the structures leave plenty of scope for adventure. Rest assured, there will be plenty for McCracken to discover there!

Footnote: A brand-new study by Dr. Berikashvili has used LiDAR technology to look at what is below the surface at Samshvilde. According to Dr. Berikashvili, the fortifications at Samshvilde were far more extensive than previously believed. The LiDAR has revealed that fortifications extended much further than just the citadel, and that there was a fortified gate. In addition, the water circulation system seems to have been far greater than previously supposed. These are exciting developments, with plenty of scope for still more adventures!

Further Reading

Berikashvili, David. “A Short Report on Archaeological Excavations Conducted in Samshvilde in 2020.” Collection of Short Reports of Archaeological Excavations Conducted in 2020. National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation of Georgia: 2021, 42.

Berikashvili, David. “Samshvilde: Multidisciplinary Approaches to a Historical City of Central Transcaucasia.” Landscape Archaeology in Southern Caucasia: Finding Common Ground in Diverse Environments. Ed William Anderson, Kristen Hopper, and Abby Robinson. Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, 2018. 105–18. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1rmjg9.11.

Berikashvili, David, Sean Field and Ian Kuijt. “Understanding Fortress-Cities: High-Resolution LiDAR Mapping of Samshvilde, South Caucasus, Republic of Georgia.” Archaeological Prospection 33 (2026): 647-657.

Maglapheridze, Vasil, creator and presenter. History of Georgia: The Caucasian Route of the Silk Road. Georgian Public Broadcaster, 2021–22. YouTube, www.youtube.com/@GeorgianPublicBroadcaster.

Rovella, Natalia, et al. “Metallurgical Technology of Coins from Samshvilde Fortress (South Georgia, Caucasus).” 2023 IMEKO TC-4 International Conference on Metrology for Archaeology and Cultural Heritage. Rome, Italy: 19–21 Oct. 2023. 1101–05. https://doi.org/10.21014/TC4-ARC-2023.204.

Samshvilde Archaeological Expedition. Summer School in Archaeology and Bioarchaeology: Summer of 2019—Information for Applicants. University of Georgia, Tbilisi, 2019.

All images courtesy of WIkimedia Commons, except where noted on image.