Turkey's Forgotten Georgian Kingdom

Katie Nadworny, Emma Harper

Source: BBC

July 15, 2017

    

A lost kingdom

A rugged, remote area where unforgiving rocky crags give way to green oases, north-east Turkey is home to magnificent Georgian monasteries from the medieval principality of Tao-Klarjeti, a former feudal state ruled by the Bagrationi royal family. Tao-Klarjeti was once a part of the United Kingdom of Georgia that thrived during the 12th and 13th Centuries. However, repeated incursions by the Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur in the late 14th Century led to the demise of the kingdom, and in the mid-16th Century, Tao-Klarjeti came under Ottoman rule, which lead to it becoming a part of modern-day Turkey.

During the kingdom’s golden age, Tao-Klarjeti was the centre of monastic life governed by the Georgian Orthodox Church. Today, striking remnants of the principality’s spiritual influence remain tucked in tiny Turkish villages among the visually arresting Kaçkar Mountains near the Turkey-Georgia border.

  

... Read the rest at BBC.

Katie Nadworny, Emma Harper

7/24/2017

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