The triple east walls
Built in the 4th, 5th and 6th centuries.
Jaba1977 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Jaba1977 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Aleksey Muhranoff — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Gaga.vaa — CC BY-SA 4.0 · შალვა მინდაძე 11 — CC BY-SA 4.0
Nokalakevi holds the ruins of Archaeopolis, from the 4th to the 8th century the capital of Egrisi, the western Georgian kingdom the Byzantines called Lazica. In a loop of the Tekhuri river on the edge of the Colchian plain in Samegrelo, the city covered some 20 hectares: a lower town, a garrison quarter on the slope and a hilltop citadel. Georgian chronicles call it Tsikhegoji, the fortress of Kuji, after a ruler said to have founded it; its earliest layers date from the 8th century BC. In the Lazic War between Byzantium and Sasanian Persia, also fought at Petra north of Batumi, the Persian general Mihr-Mihroe besieged it in 551 and attacked again in 552, failing both times. An Arab army under Marwan ibn Muhammad sacked it in the 730s, and it dwindled to a village. Above the river cliffs one wall sufficed, but the open east side has three parallel walls, built in the 4th, 5th and 6th centuries. Inside are remains of royal palaces, underfloor-heated baths and a vaulted tunnel for reaching the river under siege. The Church of the Forty Martyrs began as a 6th-century basilica, later domed; its murals date from the 16th to 18th centuries. The site lies 15 to 17 km by road from Senaki, towards Martvili, and minibuses run from Senaki; Kutaisi is 43 km east as the crow flies. Martvili Monastery and Martvili Canyon, 16 and 19 km away in a straight line, make an easy day with it. The site museum was reported closed for renovation in spring 2026.
Built in the 4th, 5th and 6th centuries.
Domed, with 16th- to 18th-century murals.
A vaulted passage down to the Tekhuri.
Nokalakevi village on the Tekhuri river, Senaki municipality, Samegrelo
The Swiss scholar Frédéric Dubois de Montpéreux argued so after visiting in 1833–34. A German-Georgian dig in the winter of 1930–31 showed the ruins were Archaeopolis but left the Aia question open, and most scholars still place Aia at Kutaisi.
Yes: a few minutes' drive from the site, natural sulphur springs run into the Tekhuri; guides put the water at 70–80 °C at the source, and people bathe in summer where it meets the cold river. There are no changing rooms or toilets and the river runs fast, rising after rain, so wear water shoes, keep away from the source itself and test each pool by hand before stepping in.