Joint field surveys with an emphasis on transboundary cooperation, Tuesday 7 April 2009

The Joint field surveys are one of the activities of our Kura project. The purpose is to exchange experience and cooperate on sampling and compare results of chemical analysis of main pollutants.

Four sampling events are planned to be done, each completed in one day.

After the sampling the same samples are analysed in laboratories in each of the three countries and results compared.

The first sampling event took place Tuesday 7 April 2009.

As biological monitoring is a hot issue that has been discussed intensively I tried to demonstrate sampling of macroinvertebrates at two stations.

The pictures are from the Imiri station at the Khrami where the four groups (two Georgian, Azeri and Armenian) meet to exchange samples, collect controlling samples from Khrami and depart to their countries.

Davit Gareja, Sunday 5 April 2009

David Gareja is a rock-hewn Georgian Orthodox monastery complex located in the Kakheti region of Eastern Georgia, on the half-desert slopes of Mount Gareja, some 60-70 km southeast of Georgia's capital Tbilisi. The complex includes hundreds of cells, churches, chapels, refectories and living quarters hollowed out of the rock face.

Part of the complex is also located in the Agstafa rayon of Azerbaijan and thus has become subject to a border dispute between Georgian and Azerbaijani authorities.

The complex was founded in the 6th century by David (St. David Garejeli), one of the thirteen Assyrian monks who arrived in the country at the same time.

Despite the harsh environment, the monastery remained an important centre of religious and cultural activity for many centuries; at certain periods the monasteries owned extensive agricultural lands and many villages.

Sighnaghi, Saturday and Sunday 4 – 5 April 2009

Sighnaghi is a town in Georgia's easternmost region of Kakheti and the administrative center of the Sighnaghi District. Sighnaghi has recently undergone a fundamental reconstruction program and has become an important centre of Georgia's tourist industry.

We had a nice trip through changed landscapes with lot of lowering fruit trees.

At the elevation of about 790 m above seal level, the town overlooks the Alazani Valley and faces the Greater Caucasus Mountains.

Sighnaghi has established as a Town at the end of the 18th century. However the archeological finds have proved that the area had played an important role in the history of the country since the ancient times, during the Paleolithic, Neolithic and Bronze ages.

The town has a well preserved defensive wall around a big area. The wall was build of the settlements in the valley, so people could seek shelter when invaders came.