About Georgia

Georgia is the ancient country with more than 25 century history. The capital city Tbilisi (where the conference takes place) is capital from 6th century. In Georgia you can find a lot of historical monuments. The Georgians themselves tell the following story about how they came to possess the land they deem the most beautiful in the world. When God was distributing portions of the world to all the peoples of the Earth, the Georgians were having a party and doing some serious drinking. As a result they arrived late and were told by God that all the land had already been distributed. When they replied that they were late only because they had been lifting their glasses in praise of Him, God was pleased and gave the Georgians that part of Earth he had been reserving for himself.

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Oldest Human

Georgia is the homeland of the oldest human who ventured out of Africa and traveled to Europe. In 1999 and 2001 in Dmanisi, Georgia, was found fossil hominid skulls and jaws.

The town of Dmanisi is first mentioned in the 9th century as a possession of the Arab emirate of Tbilisi, though the area had been settled since the Early Bronze Age.

An Orthodox Christian cathedral – “Dmansis Sioni” – was built here in the 6th century. Located on the confluence of trading routes and cultural influences, Dmanisi was of particular importance, growing into a major commercial center of medieval Georgia. The town was conquered by the Seljuk Turks in the 1080s, but was later liberated by the Georgian kings David the Builder and Demetrios I between 1123 and 1125. The Turco-Mongol armies under Timur laid waste to the town in the 14th century. Sacked again by the Turkomans in 1486, Dmanisi never recovered and declined to a scarcely inhabited village by the 18th century.

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The Alphabet

There are only 14 different alphabet in use in modern world and one of them is Georgian.

The Georgian alphabet is the script currently used to write the Georgian language and other Kartvelian languages (such as Mingrelian), and occasionally other languages of the Caucasus (such as Ossetic and Abkhaz in the 1940s).

The modern Georgian alphabet has thirty-three letters. Originally it had more, but some letters have become obsolete.

The Georgian script makes no distinction between upper and lower case.

Georgian historical tradition attributes the invention of the Georgian alphabet to Parnavaz I of Iberia in the 3rd century BC.

There are other interpretations. One of the more contentious is that the similar alphabet called as asomtavruli was invented in 412 BC by Georgian priests of the cult of Matra (Persian Mithra), and reformed in 284 BC by king Parnavaz I of Iberia.

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The Golden Fleece

Ancient Greek legends told of a fabulously wealthy land where Jason and the Argonauts stole the Golden Fleece from King Aetes with the help of his daughter Medea. It was a distant land that was reached by the Black Sea and down the River Phasis. The actual site of this legendary kingdom has never been found but the Greeks must have been greatly impressed by the Colchis region of Georgia, through which the River Phasis (currently the Rioni River) runs, for such stories to have been born. Read More...