Tbilisi

Tbilisi is the capital city of Georgia.

Georgia is a country between big mountains and the Black Sea. A river called the Mtkvari flows through Tbilisi. More than a million people live there.

Tbilisi is the capital and biggest city of Georgia, a country at the eastern end of the Black Sea, below the Caucasus mountains. It stretches along the Mtkvari River, which flows partly through a steep gorge in the middle of the city.

The name Tbilisi comes from the Georgian word tbili, which means "warm", because of the hot springs under the city. At the 2024 census, 1,331,485 people lived in the self-governing city of Tbilisi, most of them in its urban districts.

Tbilisi, capital of Georgia, lies on the Mtkvari (Kura) River where it cuts between the Trialeti and Kartli ranges, a position that gave it control of the route between western and eastern Transcaucasia. Georgia's national tourism administration ties the name to the Georgian word tbili, "warm", after the natural hot springs beneath the city.

The National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat) counted 1,331,485 people in the self-governing city of Tbilisi in the 2024 census: 1,273,015 in urban settlements and 58,470 in rural ones within the city's boundaries. Britannica gives 1,108,717 for 2014 and an estimate of 1,114,600 for 2017.

Tbilisi has bathhouses with round brick domes.

They look like giant mushrooms poking out of the ground! Inside, people bathe in warm water from springs. An old fortress stands on a ridge above the old town.

Beside the river, the old town has narrow, winding streets, with the ruins of an old fortress on the ridge above. In the Abanotubani district, whose name means "bath district", bathhouses with brick domes rising from the ground are filled with warm water from sulfur springs.

The old town also has the Sioni Cathedral, first built in the 400s and rebuilt many times, the 500s Anchiskhati Church and the Metekhi Palace of the Georgian kings. Newer parts of the city lie below Mount Mtatsminda, which you can ride up on a funicular, a train pulled up a steep slope by a cable.

Britannica describes the old town, with its narrow, winding streets beside the river, as dominated by the ruins of the old fortress and a huge symbolic figure of Georgia on the ridge above. It holds the Sioni Cathedral, dating from the 5th century and often reconstructed, the Metekhi Palace of the Georgian kings and the 6th-century Anchiskhati Church.

Georgia's national tourism administration notes that most active sulfur baths are in Abanotubani (abano, "bath"; ubani, "district"), one of the oldest parts of the city, where brick domes rising from the ground let the heat escape; some bathhouses are plain brick, others richly tiled. Newer districts spread beneath Mount Mtatsminda, served by a funicular railway.

Many people in Tbilisi work in offices, schools and factories.

Some factories build trains. Others make food and drinks. Visitors come to soak in the warm sulfur baths.

Tbilisi is Georgia's main center of learning and culture, with a university, other colleges and more than 100 research institutes. It is also a major industrial city: its factories have built electric locomotives and machine tools, and others make cloth, shoes, furniture, food and drinks, including wine.

The sulfur baths of Abanotubani are both a local tradition and a big attraction for visitors. Some bathhouses are simple brick rooms; others are decorated with tiles.

Britannica describes Tbilisi as a major cultural and educational center, with a university, several other institutions of higher education and more than 100 research establishments, and as a principal industrial center of the region. Its engineering industries have produced electric locomotives, machine tools, agricultural machinery and electrical equipment and repaired rolling stock; other industries make textiles, leather goods and footwear, furniture, beer, wine and spirits, and foodstuffs.

The Abanotubani bath district, described by Georgia's tourism administration as one of the oldest parts of the city and a major tourist location, is where most of the active sulfur baths are found.