Georgia’s David Gareji cave complex among world’s most beautiful places

Georgia's unique David Gareji monastery cave complex has been selected by the National Geographic magazine among its "most wild and beautiful" places from across the world.

Earlier this week the famous travel magazine published on it's website a photo gallery of 17 places, ranging from Venezuela's Mount Roraima to Denmark's Faroe Islands and the Nile Valley in Egypt, as the most captivating places to visit.

Nestled in among these gems of international travel is the 6th Century AD David Gareji cave complex, situated at Georgia's south-eastern border with Azerbaijan.

David Gareji is a complex of 19 medieval cave monasteries. Considered masterpieces of Georgian art, the caves once housed nearly 5,000 monk cells."

One cave is still functioning as a monastery, and monks can sometimes be heard chanting in the eerie silence of the deserted steppe," said National Geographic.

David Gareji served as a centre of monastery activities and grew to incorporate an increasing number of cave monasteries in the area over centuries.

In the 12th Century Georgia's famous King David the Builder made David Gareji state property and supported its development but the unique place also suffered damage through invasions over the next two centuries.

Today the cave complex serves as one of Georgia's premier cultural tourism destinations along with the Vardzia cave city in the country's south and mountainous villages of the Caucasus range.