In the land of churches and wine

ON A recent trip, I criss-crossed Georgia and Armenia, two beautiful lands that have historically been hemmed in by successive empires in a crucible of competing interests, and with a deeply intertwined history since their precursor states in classical antiquity.

As smaller states, the national identities of Georgia and Armenia have been tied to the entrenchment of Christianity in the region. The first Christian kingdoms in the world, having embraced Christianity as their state religions in the early fourth century, they were for centuries surrounded by larger powers which embraced Zoroastrian, Pagan, and subsequently Islamic faiths.

This heritage is dotted across the landscape of both countries in the presence of various Georgian Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic churches, and manifest in cultural elements such as the distinctive medieval Armenian Khachkars – carved memorial steles marked by a cross.