Georgia: Davit Gareja Monastery Complex closed

[Granite2018]

Just wanted to give people a heads up on this. I went on a trip to the Davit Gareji monastery complex yesterday, using the Gareji Line bus service which leaves from Pushkin Park on Liberty Square at 10:45 every day. Cost: 30 Lari.

On arrival, it turned out that half the complex, the Udabno Caves and Ressurection Chapel are closed and will be closed until, at least, 19 August, according to a Georgian border guard I spoke to. On the 19th, talks between the Georgian and Azerbaijani governments will start.

Tensions flared last month when rumours about Azerbaijani border guards removing Georgian relics started circulating on social media.
More details: https://eurasianet.org/azerbaijan-georg ... y-tensions

Must admit that I'm pretty annoyed with Gareji Line for not making the partial closure clear to customers. They did mention that the caves were closed on and off due to tensions, but if a border guard can tell me straight off the bat that it's closed, they should have known that as well and stated it on their Facebook page.

Overall, it's still worth visiting, but you're going to be hanging round for ages if you go with Gareji, because the drivers still insist on staying 2.5 hours when 1.5 is easily enough, with half the place closed.