The best monuments of Georgian architecture. Dmanis and Manglis Sioni.

In historical sources, Dmanisi was first mentioned in the IX century, when the city was in the possession of the Arabs and it was ruled by an emir. In the XI century, the Seljuks took possession of the city. In 1123, David IV Agmashenebeli (the builder) liberated Dmanisi and made it a royal city, which caused its special importance in the XII-XIII centuries. There were caravan routes to the Near East, there was a mint. In the XIV-XV centuries. Dmanisi was subjected to numerous enemy raids (Tamerlane, Yakub Khan ...), which led to the devastation and ruin of the city. He often found himself under the rule of conquerors (Ottomans, Iranians).

The city was surrounded by a high fortress wall, built of basalt stone and reinforced with buttresses, in the south-western side of the fence were the city gates. The city streets, 2.5 meters wide, were lined with stone tiles. Inside the fortress there was a three-nave basilica - the Dmanis Sioni (VI century), to which a gate with rich carved decorations was attached during the reign of George IV Lash. Inside the fortress there was also a church and a bell tower of the late feudal period. A wide tunnel leading to the river was discovered on the territory of the settlement, as well as workshops (creameries, potteries), baths, a torzhishche, wine storehouses (marani), a mosque with a minaret and a madrasah. The residential houses of the wealthy Dmanis were lined with green slabs.

The surroundings of Dmanisi have been inhabited since ancient times. Here in 1992, archaeologists discovered human remains (lower jaw, teeth). German paleoanthropologists have established that these remains are 1800,000 years old. Thus, these are the most ancient remains on the territory of Eurasia. Scientists created mock-ups of "dmanopithecus" - men and women - and named them with ancient Georgian names: Zezva and Mzia. These models are kept in Tbilisi, in the State Museum of Georgia.